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Changes are taking place within Discord — On April 28, Humam Sahnini, known as the former vice president of Activision Blizzard and King, will take over as CEO.
After nearly a decade at the helm of Discord, co-founder Jason Citron will step down from day-to-day management. However, he will still remain in the company as an advisor and board member.
«As we enter our next phase, I’ve been reflecting on how I can best contribute to Discord’s long-term success. The job of a CEO is constantly evolving, and over the years I have continuously ‘hired myself out of a job’», — Jason Citron wrote.
Citron founded Discord in 2015 together with Stanislav Vishnevsky. The platform started as an alternative to buggy voice chat in games and eventually grew into an Internet hub with more than 200 million monthly active users. It has long gone beyond the gaming community and attracted the attention of completely different users.
The most interesting thing about the new CEO is Humam Sahnini, who has management experience in large-scale gaming companies. As he says, he is waiting for an official appointment to expand the business. His words coincide with Discord’s ambitions, especially amid rumors of an IPO
So far, Discord has not officially gone public. But the emergence of a player like Sahnini looks like a preparation for a big step. Citron commented on this as follows: «We’re still at the beginning of gaming’s impact on entertainment and culture, and Discord is perfectly positioned to play a central role in that future». Therefore, fears are growing — who knows what kind of money can come into the company and what their owners will want?
Discord has always avoided aggressive monetization, relying on the trust and comfort of users. Currently, you can buy different backgrounds or a Nitro subscription within the platform, but you can live without them. However, the new stage may change approaches. IPOs are potentially great opportunities, but also challenges. And it is Sahnini who will apparently be responsible for the balance between business and users. But how it will be is a matter of time.
The community is already dissatisfied with the fact that a former Blizzard exec is at the helm. Because gamers know what it means diabolical microtransactions in Diablo and how they negatively affected the franchise (but not sales). At the same time, similar policies can be found in World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Call of Duty.
For users, the change of management to such a player potentially means the appearance of advertising on Discord, more in-app purchases, or new paid features. So far, these are just assumptions/rumors, so we have to wait for actual statements from the platform. But the possibility of the service rolling back to such changes is quite likely. Who knows, maybe later it will appear transferring files over 10 MB for an additional fee.
Source: TechStory