"It's not a bad thing to build a strong business and to monetize a product."
Discord members are biting their nails. As reports swirl that the social media company is planning an initial public offering this year and increasingly leans on advertising revenue, there's fear that Discord will become engulfed in the enshittification that has already scarred so many online communities. Co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy claims he's worried about that, too.
In an interview with Engadget published today, Vishnevskiy claimed that Discord employees regularly discuss concerns about Discord going astray and angering users.
"I understand the anxiety and concern," Vishnevskiy said. "I think the things that people are afraid of are what separate a great, long-term focused company from just any other company."
But there are reasons for long-time Discord users to worry about the platform changing for the worse in the coming years. The most obvious one is Discord's foray into ads, something the company has avoided since launching in 2015. Discord started showing ads in March 2024 via its desktop and console apps. Since then, it has introduced video ads to its mobile app and launched Orbs, which Discord users can earn by clicking on ads in Discord and trade for in-game rewards. Discord also recently said that it plans to start selling ads to more companies.
