Discord's 200M User Growth Strategies

Key Concepts

Discord, marketing strategies, super nodes, community building, Twitch streamers, hype Squad, product evolution, voice chat, text chat, Nitro, business model, game store, AI agents, paid Discord communities, creator monetization, spam, Discord Bots, API, mid journey, Clyde, AI moderator, creator monetization platform.

Marketing Strategies of Discord Early On

• Targeted Approach: Discord focused on specific use cases, targeting MMO guilds and games like Overwatch, League of Legends, DOTA, and WoW.
• Manual Outreach: The team manually engaged with users on Reddit and forums, asking for feedback and promoting the app.
• Tailored Solutions: Discord built tailored solutions for specific problems, such as priority speakers in voice chat for Eve Online commanders.
• Example: Final Fantasy was one of the first games Discord was built for, due to the founders playing it.
• Philosophy: Build general-purpose functionalities that can be marketed in a targeted way.

Identifying and Targeting "Super Nodes"

• Super Node Definition: The "ring leader" in a group, the person who organizes events and invites people.
• Importance: Convincing the super node is crucial for community product adoption.
• Super Node Needs: Super nodes need tools to do what they're already doing elsewhere.
• Identification Methods:
  • Connections, forums, subreddits, gaming conventions (PAX), streamers.
  • Evolving strategies as the company scales (100k users vs. 10M vs. 200M).
• Twitch Streamer Strategy: Using Twitch and YouTube streamers as awareness drivers.
  • Exposing new users to creating a server to passively capture super nodes.
  • Users join a streamer's server and then easily create their own.

Hype Squad and Grassroots Marketing

• Hype Squad Program: Finding people to apply on the website to become part of hype Squad.
• Incentives: Budget and swag to host land parties or events at universities.
• Goal: Create grassroots belief and goodwill among high school and college gamers.
• Events: Discord team attended conventions (PAX East, PAX West, TwitchCon, ComicCon) and invited local hype Squad members.
• Feedback Loop: Created an exclusive club where members organize events and connect with the brand.

Product Evolution: From TeamSpeak Competitor to Community Hub

• Initial Focus: Simpler TeamSpeak alternative with easy setup.
• Core Features: Text and voice chat were always components.
• Voice Tech Origin: Voice tech came from a previous mobile game (Face Forever).
• Stan's Idea: Combining voice chat with text chat and a guild forum concept (Guildwork).
• Key Differentiator: One-click setup with a link system, making it easy to join voice chat.
• Example: Joining a Counter-Strike match and quickly sharing a Discord link.

Organic Community Growth and Feature Development

• Community-Driven Features: Many Discord features were inspired by organic user behavior.
• Example: Go Live (Screen Sharing):
  • Users were hacking together screen sharing using Twitch and Skype.
  • Discord built a better solution with low latency and high performance.
  • Focus on friends watching friends play games, like sitting on a couch together.
  • Second version called "Go Live" saw increased usage as people streamed to each other.
• Invite Competitions: Originated from community moderators, later supported by Discord.

Go Live (Screen Sharing) Technical Details

• Engineering Challenge: Making streaming high-quality and low-latency.
• Performance: Streaming in source resolution on low-end PCs without dropping frame rate.
• Infrastructure Cost: Go Live was the most expensive infrastructure project.
• Nitro Integration: High-resolution streaming was offered as a Nitro feature to offset costs.

Nitro: The Premium Membership

• Purpose: Support Discord and allow users to stand out.
• Features: Emoji from other servers, profile customization, decorations, high-quality streaming.
• Value Proposition: Tied to hanging out with friends on Discord.
• Server Boosting: Allows users to collectively "bling out" their server.
• Original Nitro Purpose: Initially, Nitro was just a "buy button" to support Discord.

Abandoned Game Store Business Model

• Original Plan: Sell games like Steam, taking a cut of distribution.
• Reasoning: Discord had a large group of gamers.
• Problem: Not a 10x improvement over Steam.
• User Preference: Users preferred to keep their game library on Steam.
• Epic Games Store Competition: Epic offered free games or exclusives.
• Subscription Bundle: Discord launched a game store with a Nitro bundle of free games.
• Pivot: Discord shut down the game store and focused on Nitro features.

Adapting to Unpredictable Trends

• Unpredictable Trends: Discord grew due to unforeseen trends (e.g., Pokémon Go, crypto, AI).
• Pokémon Go Example: Discord was used to organize raids.
• Strategy: Build generic primitives that can be used for new behaviors.
• Example: "Nearby" Feature: Allowed users to add friends nearby, useful for Pokémon Go.
• Midjourney Example:
  • Midjourney used Discord's existing bot and slash command functionality.
  • Discord worked with Midjourney to support its massive server (over 1 million members).

Discord Bots and API

• Robust API: Discord had a robust API from early on, though initially unadvertised.
• Community Development: Users created Discord developer servers and libraries.
• Bot Ecosystem: Discord realized the community could build more functionality than they could.
• Bot City Team: Discord later solidified documentation and supported library developers.
• Unique Bots:
  • Music bots for listening to music in voice channels.
  • Chatbots that would talk to each other.

AI Agents and Moderation

• Clyde: A built-in AI bot for multiplayer chat, developed in collaboration with OpenAI.
• Clyde's Failure: Became stale and cringe, detracting from human connection.
• AI Moderator Prototype: An AI that could flag rule violations in conversations.
• Challenges: High cost and insufficient performance.
• Narrow Use Cases: AI is better suited for specific, repeatable tasks.
• Example: Discord Support Tickets: An AI was able to find solutions that human agents couldn't.

Paid Discord Communities

• Creator Monetization Platform: Native Discord feature for paid communities.
• Features: Multiple tiers, trials, storefront page.
• Limited Success: The feature didn't scale well within Discord's gaming focus.
• Missing Tooling: Lacked the dashboarding and tooling of dedicated creator platforms.
• Off-Platform Audience: Creators primarily acquired their audience off-platform.
• Crypto Communities: Crypto communities were a headache due to spam.

Synthesis/Conclusion

Discord's success stemmed from a combination of targeted marketing, community-driven development, and adaptability to unforeseen trends. By focusing on solving specific problems for gamers and building general-purpose tools, Discord created a platform that fostered organic growth and innovation. While some business models, like the game store, were ultimately abandoned, the focus on enhancing the user experience through features like Nitro and Go Live proved to be a sustainable path to monetization. The platform's willingness to embrace community-driven features and adapt to emerging trends, such as AI, has positioned it as a dynamic and evolving space for online interaction.