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Discord is planning to roll out its new sponsored advertising this week, it’s claimed.
The platform revealed plans last month to launch ‘Sponsored Quests’, which allow users to earn in-game items by completing quests while friends watch on Discord.
A new WSJ report claims the program will roll out within the week, after which the paid promotions will become a permanent part of the platform, appearing in the bottom left of users’ screens.
To earn rewards, users must stream themselves completing an in-game task from the advertiser while at least one friend is watching.
According to WSJ, Discord is looking to hire more than a dozen people for ad-sales positions, after previously stating it would not depend on ads like other social platforms.
Discord claims users will be able to turn off the ads in their settings.
Traditionally, Discord has relied on its Nitro subscription service for revenue, which offers users perks such as the ability to upload large files, for between $2.99 and $9.99 a month.
Discord ads will appear in the bottom left of the screen.Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive and tech adviser, told WSJ that Discord’s decision to adopt ads could alienate users.
Discord “has famously promoted itself as committed to being ad-free, so this step-change could impact user trust and potentially have them looking for alternative platforms,” she said.
According to WSJ sources, Discord’s revenue has reached $600 million on an annualized basis, quadrupling from what it made in 2020.
However, in January, the company laid off 17% of its workforce, claiming it had grown its workforce too quickly. The cuts were Discord’s largest ever, after it laid off 4 percent of staff last summer.
CEO Jason Citron said in an internal memo that the cuts were being made to “sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization.”
“This is a decision we did not take lightly, but it is one that we have conviction in to better serve our users, our business and our mission over the long term,” he wrote.
“We have to face some hard 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 how we operated.”
