Discord has begun preparing to go public, but it’s not certain

Executives at Discord, a platform popular in the gaming community, have met with investment bankers in recent weeks to discuss preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) planned for later this year, the New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Image source: Alexander Shatov / unsplash.com

A well-known tech company going public could prompt smaller players to do the same. The U.S. economy is uncertain, the market is volatile, and private companies are getting high valuations — all of which have contributed to a slow start to IPOs this year. Discord was last valued by private investors in 2021, when they put the price at $15 billion. The platform’s management is conducting talks that are exploratory in nature, and the company’s IPO plans could still change, the anonymous sources said.

«We understand there is a lot of interest in Discord’s future plans, but we don’t comment on rumors or speculation. It remains important to us to provide our users with the best possible service and build a strong, sustainable business,” a Discord spokesperson said. The company was founded by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, who initially planned to open a game development studio. The idea for Discord came to them after the release of their first game, when they realized that they were having difficulty communicating online. The first version of Discord for desktop computers and smartphones was released in May 2015. The gaming community embraced the platform, which allows free in-app communication via text messages, voice, and video calls. Discord boomed in the early days of the pandemic. In 2021, the platform was in talks with Microsoft about an acquisition — allegedly for $10 billion, but the deal did not go through.

Discord is used by 200 million people every month, 93% of whom are gamers. The company makes money using the freemium model: basic features are available for free, and you need to subscribe to upgraded features — for additional emojis, better audio and video communication. There is no traditional advertising on Discord. In recent years, the platform has tried to become more attractive: it has launched official celebrity chats. In 2023, Discord also launched an online store where you can upgrade your profile for a fee and add custom graphics to your digital avatar.