Discord adds ads

Free · Apr 2, 2024

Discord starts down the road of ads this week

Discord's first real foray into ads seems minimally intrusive.

arstechnica.com

Discord had long been strongly opposed to ads, but starting this week, it's giving video game makers the ability to advertise to its users. The introduction of so-called Sponsored Quests marks a notable change from the startup's previous business model, but, at least for now, it seems much less intrusive than the ads shoved into other social media platforms, especially since Discord users can choose not to engage with them.

Discord first announced Sponsored Quests on March 7, with Peter Sellis, Discord's SVP of product, writing in a blog post that users would start seeing them in the "coming weeks." Sponsored Quests offer PC gamers in-game rewards for getting friends to watch a stream of them playing through Discord. Discord senior product communications manager Swaleha Carlson confirmed to Ars Technica that Sponsored Quests launch this week.

Khamon · Apr 2, 2024

can't leave well enough alone, have nice things, must make more monies MOREMONIEZELEVENTYONES111

GoblinCampFollower · Apr 2, 2024

It's a great day for their struggling competitors. Social media is hard to monetize, since users resist it bitterly. I get why companies feel tempted to squeeze their users for all their worth, but they should know better than to squeeze too hard. It always backfires eventually.

Noodles · Apr 2, 2024

Stop trying to be more than "Fancy mIRC" damnit.

Bartholomew Gallacher · Apr 2, 2024

Well Discord rejected $12 bn from M$ in 2021, so yes - they've got to make money on their own. And highly likely used quite some questionable ways so far to do so.