Gaming chat platform Discord in early talks with banks about public listing
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Discord does exactly one thing not entirely shittily. It puts all those features in one place. It gets beat out in any one feature, but you can run an entire community within a Discord for free. You shouldn't because it's terrible at most of that and mediocre at the rest, but it's free and just good enough if you bludgeon it into shape with tools and bots and stuff.
you can run an entire community within a Discord for free
Wonder how long this will last. Bet they are burning angel investors money up to now, going public is the first step towards having to become profitable.
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depending on which client you use, the ui can be very discord-like (this is cinny):
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cinnyapp/cinny-site/main/assets/preview2-light.pngAlso matrix has calls (at least element does), though not sure about screen share. And since when was discord e2e?
I ll admit matrix was for a long time really slow but matrix 2.0 largely solves this and other usability issues. Calls and screen share are still not standardized but its all being worked on. With matrix, its not just about building one app, its about building a decentralized ecosystem all connected by the matrix protocol
You can integrate it with Jitsi (also self hosted) and call, screenshare and whatever else you want there.
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depending on which client you use, the ui can be very discord-like (this is cinny):
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cinnyapp/cinny-site/main/assets/preview2-light.pngAlso matrix has calls (at least element does), though not sure about screen share. And since when was discord e2e?
I ll admit matrix was for a long time really slow but matrix 2.0 largely solves this and other usability issues. Calls and screen share are still not standardized but its all being worked on. With matrix, its not just about building one app, its about building a decentralized ecosystem all connected by the matrix protocol
They need to add voice rooms like discord/TS/mumble, where they are there in the sidebar and can be joined/left instantly.
Real-time game streaming like discord has is important also to get disord users to switch over.
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And the ui of those are terrible and will never have non technical people adopt them. Also discord has end to end encrypted video calls and screen share which neither of those two have
As we all know, UI is a fundamental part of any piece of software's architecture and cannot be changed without a ground-up rewrite.
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I would be tempted to say that it will now turn to shit, but in Discord's case it was pretty shit already.
But it might get even worse...somehow
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Matrix and XMPP are decentralized, much better than Revolt for that purpose.
Matrix does not support custom emojis, which are the killer feature of Discord.
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Matrix (element?) can do everything Discord does.
Not custom emojis.
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But it might get even worse...somehow
Ads in chats?
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It will still have the social platform inertia that keeps many people on Twitter despite wanting to leave. If enough of the other people you want to talk to are there, what good is leaving?
In the case of communities, it's even worse: you can possibly operate multiple platforms as an individual, but a community splitting its conversations across two platforms is now two communities. The best you can hope for is that most of the active members on the old (also) join the new and eventually bring their activity with them, but that relies on a lot of individual decisions.
Oh I fully get you, and it is a problem, but at least enough of the people I know consider discord's behaviour problematic already that it would be possible to get things rolling with migrating smaller communities and friends
The big communities though? Yeah no. There's a reason Facebook is still used, it's used a lot for organizing things
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https://archive.is/2025.03.06-011758/https://www.ft.com/content/4ab9efe7-36bc-44ff-b2cd-06eb2c38203a
::: spoiler Tap for article
Gaming chat platform Discord in early talks with banks about public listing
US group has sought to broaden its appeal to a mass audience
Video game developer Jason Citron founded Discord in 2015
Kimberly White/Getty Images/TechCrunchDiscord is in early talks with banks about a public listing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of a possible revival in the sluggish US IPO market.
Founded in 2015 by video game developer Jason Citron, Discord offers multi-person voice, video and text-based spaces to its 200mn global monthly active users.
The San Francisco gaming chat platform was considering listing as early as 2021, according to people familiar with the matter. However, many technology companies and investors have put their IPO plans on hold due to political and market uncertainty.
That is expected to change this year as interest rates have fallen and US President Donald Trump has laid out a more tech-friendly regulatory agenda.
Discord was last valued at about $15bn in a 2021 fundraising, according to PitchBook. The company’s revived IPO plans remain subject to change, one of the people said.
“We understand there is a lot of interest around Discord’s future plans, but we do not comment on rumours or speculation,” the company said in a statement shared with the Financial Times. “Our focus remains on delivering the best possible experience for our users and building a strong, sustainable business.”
CoreWeave, an artificial intelligence cloud computing provider, filed for a New York IPO this month that would raise about $4bn and value the group at more than $35bn, which could make it the largest tech flotation of the year.
A series of valuable start-ups, including fintech groups Stripe and Chime and data platform Databricks that had been forced to stay private far longer than planned are expected to reignite plans to list their shares.
Discord initially found popularity among gamers, as well as retail trading and cryptocurrency communities, but has since sought to broaden its appeal to a mass audience.
The company has largely shunned advertising, in contrast to larger rivals such as Meta, X and Reddit, in favour of offering its users premium features for a fee.
In 2021, it attracted interest from multiple Big Tech groups, rebuffing a $12bn takeover bid from Microsoft. The recent IPO plans were first reported by The New York Times.
:::I only use discord for stuff that doesn't provide an alternative. It's terrible for finding info and questions that have already been asked. Hopefully this will bring back actual forums, discord is not the place for support.
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Ads in chats?
Probably....
Oh my god that would be shit
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Anyone that need to clear their history
https://discorch.org/Browse and archive your messages, and easily request deletions — all while respecting Discord's guidelines
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Time to introduce my friends to the glory of TeamSpeak!
It shut down, didnt it?
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It shut down, didnt it?
It's been a number of years since I used it while playing Eve Online, but say it isn't so! I'm going to check now.
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It's been a number of years since I used it while playing Eve Online, but say it isn't so! I'm going to check now.
I know they had a terrible redesign last year and then it went all terribly down hill
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Time to introduce my friends to the glory of TeamSpeak!
mumble works very well and is foss as well.
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I know they had a terrible redesign last year and then it went all terribly down hill
Not very promising. What a shame.
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mumble works very well and is foss as well.
Ah, haven't used that in a long while. I'll add that to the list to peddle to my mates as well. Thank you!
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This only exelerates the enshittification that already started
accelerates
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I only use discord for stuff that doesn't provide an alternative. It's terrible for finding info and questions that have already been asked. Hopefully this will bring back actual forums, discord is not the place for support.
I hate discord so much
