Case Study - Discord

We usually end each chapter with one case study. However, Discord’s over the last two years is worthy of documenting. Discord is a VoIP and instant-messaging social platform that enables users to talk over voice, video, and text. It is a pioneering Social Technology for a new form of internal/external social networking. 

Discord was established in 2015 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy and initially targeted the gaming community. It swiftly gained popularity by addressing the need for a lightweight, voice-focused chat app, offering features like low latency, high-quality audio, and the capacity to create and join servers.  Its user base has since expanded beyond gaming to serve communities, including artists, entrepreneurs, and musicians.

Central to Discord’s success are its community focus, ease of use, and wide range of features, with its vibrant global community acting as a growth driver. By 2021, the platform had 300 million users, with daily engagement reaching four hours for some. People send almost a billion messages per day on Discord, contributing to the company’s estimated worth of $15 billion.

The rise of remote work, the rapid growth of the gaming industry, and the burgeoning NFT and crypto markets are key factors behind Discord’s continued growth. As a central hub for NFT and crypto projects, Discord has solidified its place as an integral communications platform in these communities. 

Discord is the appropriate capstone case study in our discussion of ExO attributes because it is ideally positioned to lead the business world into the metaverse. Further, because it’s popular with younger generations, it will likely be paradigmatic as a collaboration tool for years to come. With its commitment to Community and simplicity, and its feature-rich offerings, Discord is poised for sustained growth and influence, especially in the Web3 community.