By abandoning its long-standing ad-free policy, Discord hopes to boost gaming revenue

Discord is one of the few networks that has rejected conventional online advertising actions since its start in 2015. CEO Jason Citron stated in 2021 that the company should have concentrated on making items that people would want to purchase rather than promoting too much advertising, as done by its peers. Those seem to be gone days.

Discord is reportedly going to start running in-app advertisements next week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The decision abandons the platform’s long-standing policy of not accepting sponsored promotions or adverts. The change is a part of the business’s strategy to increase revenue from gaming and Nitro subscriptions. But the promotions don’t sound all that invasive as they are presented.

Discord plans to launch “Sponsored Quests,” which are sponsored marketing. In collaboration with video game developers, the platform will display these. Sponsored Quests will reward users for their in-game or in-platform achievements when they play with other Discord users and friends. After finishing, those viewers may go on related “quests” in order to win prizes. The approach reminds me of the May Fourth of July Discord promotion from the previous year, wherein Fortnite players who earned cosmetics with a Star Wars theme shared their screen with at least one voice user while playing the game.

Even though the campaign looked unimportant, the announcement did not receive a positive response at first. Investor and technology advisor Meghana Dhar is concerned that implementing the new advertising strategy may drive away some Discord users. According to Dhar, the company’s rapid change in direction from its commitment to provide an ad-free service to one that makes use of sponsored advertising may have an adverse impact on consumer trust and push them to look for other options.

According to Discord, users have greater control over promotions than most other platforms because they can disable them in Settings. It’s unclear if Nitro subscribers alone have access to this benefit.

Discord intends to add 12 sales team members to support the new advertising strategy, according to sources close to the firm. Although the news follows the company’s earlier this year layoff of 17% of its workforce, it may still seem like fantastic news for individuals hoping to get into the gaming and social media sectors.