Discord plans to introduce sponsored ads this week

According to WSJ, Discord plans to introduce the “Sponsored Quests” program this week, after which paid promotions will become a permanent part of the platform and will be displayed in the bottom left corner of users’ screens.

To earn rewards, users will need to stream themselves completing a task from the advertisement while at least one friend is watching.

Discord plans to hire over a dozen employees for advertising sales positions, despite its previous statement of not relying on ads like other social platforms.

Users will be able to disable ads in their settings.

Previously, Discord relied on its Nitro subscription for revenue, offering users privileges such as the ability to upload large files for $2.99 to $9.99 per month.

Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive and technical advisor, told WSJ that introducing ads could deter users.

According to WSJ, Discord’s revenue reached $600 million annually, quadrupling compared to 2020.

However, in January, the company laid off 17% of its workforce, citing rapid expansion. These were the largest layoffs in Discord’s history, following a 4% staff reduction last summer.

CEO Jason Citron said in an internal memo that the layoffs were aimed at “sharpening our focus” and improving our way of working together to bring more agility to our organization.

“This decision was not made lightly, but we are confident in its necessity to better serve our users, our business, and our mission in the long term,” he wrote.

“We have to face some unpleasant truths. We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020. As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in our operations.”