Discord tripled its revenue during the pandemic without showing ads

Free-to-use voice, video and text chat platform Discord nearly tripled its revenue in 2020 although the platform is ad-free. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Discord generated $45 million in revenue in 2019 which grew by 188.9% to $130 million in 2020 as people turned to social platforms more not to lose contact with family and friends during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. 

The company announced that while the platform had 81.5 million visits during April 2020, this figure rose to 707.9 million within a month. Meanwhile, the platform reported 140 million monthly active users in December 2020. 

“We really believe we can build products that make Discord more fun and that people will pay for them. It keeps our incentives aligned,” CEO Jason Citron (pictured) said, discussing creating a business that isn’t reliant on advertising.

He also added that Nitro subscriptions available on the platform are “almost like giving your friends a group hug or taking them out to lunch.”

Also Read: Discord launches mobile screen sharing on iOS and Android for streaming and viewing parties

In November 2020, sources close to the company said that Discord’s valuation would reach up to $7 billion with a new funding round. A month later, the company confirmed raising $100 million at $7 billion valuation.