Discord co-founder steps down, new CEO appointed as IPO preparations ramp up

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Discord will enter the next phase of its journey under new leadership. Co-founder and CEO Jason Citron shared the news with employees in a recent memo, which was also made public on the company's blog.

Discord was conceived by Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, who wanted to create something akin to a virtual living room where friends could chat with each other about games they like. In fact, Final Fantasy XI was a big inspiration for the chat service which is now used by hundreds of millions of people each month.

The service went live in May of 2015. Its focus is still on gamers, but others have also adopted Discord for things like workplace chat and to discuss various hobbies or interests.

Humam Sakhnini has been brought in to succeed Citron. Sakhnini arrives with more than 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, which includes a stint at Activision Blizzard where he served as chief strategy officer overseeing franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. He also led King as president from 2019 through early 2022.

Sakhnini will officially take over on April 28, but he won't be tossed into the deep end without a life preserver. Citron will stick around to help with the onboarding process and serve in an advisory capacity. He will also retain his position on the board of directors, we are told.

In March 2024, Discord revealed it had over 200 million monthly active users and was planning an IPO in the not-too-distant future. That still has not happened, and it is interesting that it won't be coming to fruition under Citron's watch.

Citron said building Discord has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life, adding that he is deeply grateful for the many friendships, challenges, and achievements along the way. Looking ahead at what will be needed from Discord's CEO over the coming years, Citron said it's time for him to "hire himself out of a job."

Image credit: Ella Don, Alexander Shatov

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Discord co-founder steps down, new CEO appointed as IPO preparations ramp up

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

As long as they keep my conversations with my friends private and don't force moderation on my own communities, I'm happy. It's far better than social media in that way.

 

[NumberNine]

I watched Discord morph from a lean, easy to use browser-based teamspeak alternative requiring no hosting, to this bloated, microtranaction riddled cash cow. For anyone wise to the phases of for-profit software maturity, this is the exit point. Good luck selling yourself as a social network, Discord.

 

[Axeia]

Discord "By gamers, for gamers" wasn't something like that initially on their site?
Now it's more like "By developers that like money, for whoever pays for nitro features"

Discord hasn't really added much I'd call meaningful since videocalls. But oh boy do they try to keep giving free nitro trials whilst trying to put the most trivial things behind the nitro paywall.

It seems like the typical platform where monetization has overtaken all other priorities. I imagine what the majority of what the user base want is for a leaner client that keeps doing what it did whilst being less annoying about nitro. Meanwhile the developers want to turn it into something that replace all other forms of communication including forums.
No doubt that with who's at the wheel now there'll be more of a push for monetization. I expect ads sometime soon.

Oh well, Revolt seems interesting as pretty much the same thing as Discord (UI looks like a direct knockoff) but with a focus on things gamers might actually want (like a calendar to plan raids) and what Discord paywalled (nitro perks) available for free. OpenSource too so a lot less likely to go down the dark path.

Funny how the popular chat app on PC always seems to go through a cycle of something that's popular becoming worse and worse until people massively swap. I predict Discords big exodus isn't far away once they become publicly traded.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I watched Discord morph from a lean, easy to use browser-based teamspeak alternative requiring no hosting, to this bloated, microtranaction riddled cash cow. For anyone wise to the phases of for-profit software maturity, this is the exit point. Good luck selling yourself as a social network, Discord.

-Yep. Wasn't ever a big fan of discords format but wow it's been enshitified already and going public means this is only the enshitified **** crusted tip of the enshitification shitberg

 

[mbrowne5061]

This whole transition reads like a plot out of Silicon Valley. Back when they brought in the outside CEO who decided to "build the box".