Tag: gamers

Discord – Bringing People Together Around Games

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Discord.

People love to stay in touch whether it’s by talking to friends and family through video calls, messaging through apps, or touching base working remotely. Gamers are no different. That’s why online gaming and chatting go together like Han and Chewy.

Gamers have always faced two problems, how to talk to one another and how to organize people to get an online game going. Discord is one such app that was created by the gamers for gamers to solve such problems. But outside of the gamer’s realm, what is discord all about?

Discord – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Discord
Developer	Discord Inc.
Headquarters	San Francisco, CA
Industry	Social Media, Gaming
Founded	May 13, 2015
Founders	Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy
CEO	Jason Citron
Area Served	Worldwide
Website	www.discord.com

About Discord And How it Works?
Discord – Target Market Size
Discord – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Discord – Founder and History
Discord – Vision and Mission
Discord – Business Model
Discord – Revenue Growth
Discord – Funding and Investors
Discord – Acquisitions
Discord – Partnership
Discord – Competitors
Discord – Challenges Faced
Discord – Future Plans

About Discord And How it Works?

Discord is an easy-to-use free communication app, similar to apps like Skype or Slack but aimed mainly at gamers with a lot more features. Discord lets friends chat with each other at one to one or as a group via a server.

It provides user-friendly text, voice, screen-sharing, and video chat services through public or private servers that can be set up pretty quickly and easily. No doubt Discord started as a gamers’ chat app and became quite famous for it. But its users started finding non-gaming ways of using this platform which inspired Discord to make a few changes.

Discord specializes in text, image, video, and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in web browsers. One of the most critical differentiators that makes Discord the go-to app for video gamers is its open-bot-friendly ecosystem.

COVID forced everybody to social distance and communicate via chat platforms. So, because of its users and the pandemic Discord thought about growing beyond its only for-gamers image, and now it wants to be seen as a general-purpose chat app for everyone with even non-gaming needs and wants, to go mainstream all over the world, just like Zoom. Discord is for anyone who could use a place to talk with their friends and communities.

Discord – Target Market Size

Founded in 2015, Discord successfully identified who the early adopters of their platform would be, the gamers.

Leading Countries for Monthly Traffic to discord.com in July 2022

However, in recent years, as the company continues its expansion, the target market size has also been growing hand in hand with the same. The vicinity of their platform’s services is gradually starting to attract more users outside of the gaming community.

From large corporate meetings to job recruitments, from live karaoke nights to virtual wedding parties, the possibilities are pretty endless. That’s why they have changed the branding and introduced the new tagline which specifically says, “Your Place to Talk and Hang Out”.

In short, Discord is projecting itself because of the way forward for platforms where you’ll chat with friends, learn something online, or simply share ideas albeit you are not into gaming. They have successfully gained a sustainable advantage above their competition within the gaming sector and now the company appears to have shifted its focus to target users from various industries.

Discord – Name, Logo, and Tagline

Discord Logo

Whether you’re a part of a faculty club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or simply a couple of friends that want to spend time together, Discord makes it easy to speak a day and hang around more often.

About Discord’s logo, the most popular theory is that the discord logo is a game controller, with a face. But according to its Twitter account, it’s a friendly bot named Clyde.

Discord’s tagline says, “Your Place to Talk and Hang Out”. Whether you’re a part of a faculty club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or simply a couple of friends that want to spend time together, Discord makes it easy to speak a day and hang around more often. Discord is not just for people with gaming requirements, but for everyone to communicate.

Discord – Founder and History

Founded in May 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, Discord continues to be the most preferred app for gamers for communicating while gaming.

The idea of Discord came into Jason Citron’s mind when he noticed how difficult it was for his team to work out tactics in games like Final Fantasy XIV and League of Legends using available voice-over IP (VoIP) software. He founded OpenFeint, a social mobile gaming platform that got sold in 2011 for $104 million.

Founders of Discord - Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy — Founders of Discord – Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy

He founded a game development studio, Hammer & Chisel in 2012. Their first product was Fates Forever, released in 2014, which Citron anticipated being the primary MOBA game on mobile platforms, but it didn’t become commercially successful. He then noticed the glitches and issues faced by gamers all over the world while gaming which was communication. He also found that some VoIP options required players to type in IP addresses just to connect, while others were resource-heavy and had known security problems. This led the developers to develop a chat service that was much friendlier to use and based on more modern technologies.

Discord addressed all of the issues of its predecessors. It was free to use. It had a remarkable product design. It had a desktop client, but it also had an internet app. Users could invite friends with a link and start conversing through the browser without downloading anything.

Discord was publicly released in May 2015 under the URL discordapp.com. consistent with Citron, the sole area that they pushed Discord into was for the Reddit communities, finding that a lot of subreddit forums were replacing IRC servers with Discord ones. Discord became a known name among Esports and LAN tournament gamers, and other Twitch streamers.

Discord – Vision and Mission

“Discord wants you to build genuine relationships with your friends and communities close to home or around the world. Original, reliable, playful, and relatable. These are the values that connect our users and our employees at Discord.”

Discord’s mission is closely associated with its vision. Its mission is to bring people together around games. That’s why most of the app’s features consider meeting the requirements of gamers. For Discord, diversity and inclusiveness are critical a part of how it intends to succeed in its mission.

“It’s where your world talks. Discord is a voice, video and text communication service used by over a hundred million people to hang out and talk with their friends and communities.”

Discord – Business Model

Discord is against advertisements and the selling of user data. It has been relying on funding money till recently and has no intentions to make users pay to use the application in the future.

Discord’s basic service is free. But there’s also a premium version called Nitro that comes with added features—custom emojis, higher-quality video for sharing gaming screens, and higher file-upload limits—starting from $2.99 monthly.

Explaining the rationale behind the decision, Citron said,

“I didn’t want to sell ads because I felt like selling ads would require us to spend a tremendous amount of energy investing in building ad technology that doesn’t make the end user experience better. It actually subtracts from the end user experience. So, we would be spending a ton of energy taking value away from our users so that we could make money. And I wanted to build a business where the incentives of our team and our user base were directly aligned. And that is why, at that moment, I said let’s not do the easy thing and slap ads on this. Let’s double down on Discord Nitro, which is all about making it more fun to talk and hang out, and see if we can build a real business around that.”

Discord – Revenue Growth

In Q2 2022, Discord reported $28.72 million in revenues, an increase of over $5 million compared to Q2 2021.
Almost all of Discord’s revenue comes from its Nitro, its premium enhancement bundle.
Discord has over 150 million active monthly users and over 300 million registered accounts.
In 2021, it was valued at $7 billion, doubling its value in under a year. In 2022 it was valued at $15 billion.

In-App Purchase Revenues of Discord Mobile App Worldwide

Discord – Funding and Investors

Discord has raised a total of $995.4M in funding over 16 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on March 12, 2022, from a Secondary Market round. Discord is funded by 31 investors. Arcane Group and Flat Capital are the most recent investors.

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Mar 12, 2022	Secondary Market	–	–
Mar 3, 2022	Secondary Market	–	–
Sep 15, 2021	Series H	$500M	Dragoneer Investment Group
Dec 17, 2020	Series H	$100M	Greenoaks Capital
Sep 29, 2020	Secondary Market	–	–
Jun 30, 2020	Series G	$100M	Index Ventures
Dec 21, 2018	Series F	$150M	Greemoaks Capital
Apr 19, 2018	Series E	$50M	–
Jan 1, 2017	Series D	$50M	Index Ventures
Jan 26, 2016	Series C	$20M	Greylock, Spark Capital
Feb 10, 2015	Series B	–	9+ Program, Benchmark, Tencent
Nov 21, 2013	Series A	$8.2M	Benchmark
Jul 11, 2012	Seed Round	$1.1M	–

Discord – Acquisitions

Discord acquired Blitz App on Nov 6, 2018. The gaming chat app giant acquires augmented reality startup Ubiquity6 in 2021. The latter was experiencing problems in finding audiences for its products, as per reports.

Acquiree Name	Date	Amount	About Acquiree
Blitz App	Nov 6, 2018	–	Your gaming coach for League of Legends, Valorant, CSGO, Fortnite, and more— powered by AI and built with professional players.
Ubiquity6	June 2021	–	An augmented reality startup founded in 2017 aimed to bring augmented reality experience to mobile users.

Discord – Partnership

After the initial growth spurt, Jason’s team had to come up with a strategy to reach out to a larger target audience for which they partnered with video game streamers such as Twitch. This partnership did result in more visibility, allowing more gamers to adopt as well as invite others to join the discord users’ community.

Discord – Competitors

The top 10 competitors of Discord are:

TeamSpeak
Troop Messenger
HeySpace
Slack
Mumble
Flock
Overtone
Hangouts chat
Microsoft Teams
Steam Chat

Discord – Challenges Faced

But obviously, Discord also faces several challenges. The principal among them is that it allows users anonymity that creates an “anything goes” environment. Anybody from anywhere can technically create “servers,” which are chat groups. This could also lead to younger users being exposed to adult content or bullying. For his part, Citron defended Discord by saying it kicks out users who are younger than 13 if they’re found, but verifying ages on the service is almost impossible.

“For teenagers, you know, obviously, it’s still important that parents are aware of apps that their kids are using, and sort of who they’re talking to on the internet,” says Citron.

During Q2 2022, over 27.7 million Discord accounts were deleted due to spam activity, and approx. 532,000 accounts were banned due to child safety concerns. Similarly, 106,00 accounts received a ban due to exploitative and unsolicited content approximately. Additionally, the platform permanently deleted nearly 27,500 accounts following reports of regulated or illegal activities.

Number of Banned Discord Accounts in Q2 2022

“The truth is that yes, I am [frustrated],” says Citron about the abuse. “We built Discord to be a way for people to be together with their friends and, as a parent, it’s important to me for that to be safe for everyone. Ensuring Discord is an inclusive and welcoming place for our users is our highest priority.”

Discord – Future Plans

Discord leveraged heavily on the essential human need for communicating. The strength of Discord lies in its ability to cater to the growing needs of huge web-based communities.

Discord continues to refresh and refine its services by creating perks like a guided bot, meme bots, bots that could fetch player stats, and many more which makes discord a fun platform for users to interact via. All of this could happen only because of the founding team’s in-depth knowledge of the gamer’s mindset and insight into industry trends.

It’s pushing to show the platform as a communication tool not only for gamers but for everyone from study groups to sneakerheads to gardening enthusiasts. At the top of June, Discord’s rebrand was complete. Its new tagline was “Your place to speak,” which cleared the misunderstanding of many folks that the app is simply for gamers.

In the coming years, according to Citron, Discord has many works to do including improving moderation tools and making sure the communities on its platform operate the way the company hopes is not being just confined to a group of people with gaming interests.

Conclusion

Discord is a popular communication platform that allows users to create and join virtual “servers” to chat and collaborate with others. It offers features such as text and voice chat, file sharing, and integration with other apps and services. It is widely used by gamers but has also gained popularity among other communities such as artists and educators. Overall, Discord is a versatile and user-friendly tool for online communication and collaboration.

FAQs

What kind of company is Discord Inc.?

Who founded Discord?

Discord was founded in May 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy.

How does Discord make money?

Discord is against advertisements and the selling of user data. Its basic service is free. But there’s also a premium version called Nitro that comes with added features.

What is Discord used for?

Discord is used for voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and sharing files in private chats. It continues to be the most preferred app for gamers for communicating while gaming.

What is Discord’s initial release date?

Discord was initially released on May 13, 2015.

February 28, 2023

Interesting Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Sony
As one of the largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company and the largest video game publisher in the world, it should come as no surprise that Sony has started with selling rice cookers. But fully failed on the market. There are nuggets of information that you perhaps haven’t heard of. Here’s a short collection of the 6 most interesting facts about Sony.

Interesting Facts About Sony
15 Facts About Sony

The Story behind Sony

Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka are the one who made Sony.

Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka in 1946. Initially, the company was called TTK or Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. But later the name “Sony” was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word “sonus“, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was “sonny“, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a young boy. While on the contrary, “sonny boys” is a loan word used in 1950s Japan to call smart and presentable young men.

There was a student because of whom Sony became what it is today. But do you know how it started to focus its efforts to make its audio reception and quality better? All the credit can be given to an opera student at the Tokyo Academy of Art. This student complained to the founders about the bad quality of its first batch of sound recorders. The founders were impressed with him and happy about the critique. They eventually hired the boy to make an improvement in the product.

Sony Walkman revolutionized the Music world

Sony Walkman

The idea of Walkman was never something that any executive at Sony was keen for. This was a product that revolutionized music world. It changed the way we hear music. This was the reason it went on ‘to be sold’ for 31 years. The Walkman was sold as “Soundabout” in the US, “Stowaway” in the United Kingdom, and “Freestyle” in Australia.

The reason behind this was that overseas sales companies thought the name as Japanese-English. Sony America initially suggested the name “Sony Disco Jogger”.

Sony is not just a company that makes for the living rooms but has also produced electronics for those who are behind bars. This issue is known as the prison-issue Walkman SRF-39FP. FP stands for Federal Prison.

It comes with a transparent body. A see-through case prevents the inmates from hiding any contraband inside. But despite their inability to store devices. These small boxes were capable to pick up radio signals through the walls along with a battery backup of 40 hours.

The company started producing pocket radios in the late 1950s and claimed it was the world’s smallest radio. However, the problem which the company faced was the radios were too big to fit in shirt pockets. To get around this obstacle, custom-made shirts with larger pockets were ordered for its salesmen, to make the radios look pocket-fit.

Sony Failed Products

Sony is a popular brand that provides electronics & consumer goods, but they made some significant disasters. Know about failed products of Sony.

StartupTalkyRia Puneyani

The Story of Sony PlayStation

Sony PlayStation

Nintendo actually signed an agreement with Sony to manufacture an add-on device that could play CDs (Compact Disks) for their Nintendo console. But there were some complications between Nintendo and Sony over software licensing for the newly developed add-on device. So, the partnership fell off all of a sudden.

Then, Sony went ahead and worked on the new console on its own. It was 1994 when Sony released the first PlayStation console. And, the rest is history.

Sony Bizarre Creations

Sony Chorocco

One of the bizarre creations that Sony could never make it to the market was Chorroco, a mini plastic VW campervan that sat on the vinyl record and played music through its speaker as it drove around it.

In 1998, Sony made a fool of itself by releasing a camcorder with night vision. What was so special about this? The camera could be used to see through the clothes. Anyone who wore dark clothes would be exposed. It used Infra-Red light. The company however recalled the product despite selling over 70,000 pieces.

Sony is famous for Innovations

Sony was famous for its inventions. They always looked towards developing newer things. Sony was the developer of compact disks and floppy disks in association with other companies. Sony had some impacts on the development of flask drives.

27 Unknown & Interesting Facts About Luxury Brand Gucci

Gucci is a famous Italian designer brand owned by Kering Group. Here are Gucci’s history facts & unknown fun facts about the luxury brand Gucci.

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Sony’s Staff Uniforms in the 70s and 80s

Issey Miyake is one of the famous fashion designers of Japan known for his technology-driven clothing designs.

Let me tell you one of the fun facts about Sony. Sony had implemented a dress code during the late ’70s and early ’80s. Issey Miyake, a fashion designer in Japan, designed the uniform for all the staff of Sony.

Interestingly, the iconic black turtlenecks worn by Steve Jobs were also designed by Issey Miyake. And, getting inspired by the idea of Sony uniform, Steve Jobs actually tried to implement a new dress code for his Apple employees as well. But nobody liked the idea of a uniform at Apple.

Conclusion

It would be hard to find anyone that doesn’t know about Sony or has not even heard of it. If you have read the post above, then you will know that Sony has gone through a lot of breakthroughs and setbacks.

Despite being surrounded by naysayers, Sony is making highly innovative technologies and products available to us on a consistent basis. We hope they will continue to do so.

FAQs

What is unique about Sony?

Sony is an electronics manufacturer who has gone above what many other electronic companies value, as such Sony has brought us many great inventions which have benefited mankind. Sony continues to innovate and be a world-class leader in reliable electronics, with that elegant and ergonomic Sony style.

What is Sony famous for?

Sony designs and sells electronic equipment, consumer electronics products, home entertainment products, mobile communication devices and imaging products and services.

How did Sony get its name?

Sony, which became the official name for the company in January 1958, was derived from the Latin word “sonus” (sound) and was conceived to be an international and not a Japanese term.

Which country made Sony?

Sony is a Japanese company.

Why did Sony fail?

The high price tag is undoubtedly a major flaw in Sony’s phones. They have poor battery life and charging speed. Low specs even for flagships. Poor sound quality and damn signal plus weird design.

Who founded Sony?

Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka in 1946.

What was first product of Sony?

The TR-55 was the first product to be labeled with the brand name as Sony.
May 14, 2022
Gaming Content Creators – A Viable Profession in the Digital era
This article has been contributed by Mr. Shivam Rao, Co-Founder & COO of Trinity Gaming.

The general consensus in the bygone days around gaming was usually associated with someone who is lazy. Fast forward to the present, it is now a billion-dollar industry making it one of the most powerful sectors to be associated with. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple all have plans to enter the gaming industry with the purpose to allow players to stream games without the need for a computer or a video game console. (source: investopedia.com)

One cannot overlook the potential the gaming industry has, and with that, we have seen the rise of gaming content creators. These content creators work to further enhance the produced content with a purpose or a goal. They play, engage, share their experiences, review them, and have the power to create a narrative around them. Esports is regarded as the best form of entertainment with virtual reality adding yet another layer to it. The gaming industry also enjoys the benefits of penetrating the demographics. It has an interesting mix, attracting generations from earlier and later in life.

This has resulted in the demand for this special class of creators who are collaborating with brands to connect with the new audience. Brands are marketing through gamers, knowing this can enable more meaningful connections. This has proved to be a good medium for them to advertise, and interestingly out of all the influencers in the market, gamers are known to have the best audience engagement in terms of viewership and audience-creator relationships.

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The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in India. It is a very competitive market to capture but these successful startups have been ruling the industry.

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In the case of gaming content creators, the most common way to generate revenue is through super chats, YouTube membership, and brand endorsements, and so on. And once the loyal followers are built, brands are looking for collaborations to target the new followers. Dominated by the younger generation, it promises a great scope for the youths who share a deep interest in esports and wish to pursue a career in something they enjoy. It is for anyone who loves esports/virtual gaming and can smartly blend humor to it. These talents are getting the recognition they deserve and management companies similar to ours, are stepping in to nurture them, guide them, build a network and connect them with the best brands to associate with.

Since its inception, Trinity Gaming has created a unique ecosystem for the gaming content creators like Dynamo, Jonathan, Alpha Clasher, Shreeman Legend, Antaryami along with others who have been working with India’s top brands and have successfully established themselves. The new segment has also witnessed the growing popularity of women creators like Annie, Mystic Ignite, Unicorn IB, Pooja Bisht who are now donning the space.

Building a career as a gaming content creator might seem a simple way to earn and an easy road map to fame, but that isn’t the case always. One has to be really persistent and needs to develop a certain set of skills. Some of the key factors that a creator must develop to ace in this industry are:
1. Maintaining Originality
2. Developing a signature style
3. Communicating and engaging with the audience while ensuring no one is offended
4. Ideating content that fulfills the purpose – Entertainment
5. Must be an esports fanatic
Anyone who desires to be a gaming creator needs to develop and experiment with these skills. It is a new-age profession that is for anyone and everyone.

With the gaming industry becoming more complex, there has been a rise of the gaming community that respects each other and thrives together. The community brings inclusivity in diversity. Creators, as an integral part of the gaming community, have a huge spectrum to explore and ideate great content which will only support them to grow.

Also Read: Fantasy Games in India: Everything you need to know

With the ease of accessibility to the internet, the current generation spends more time, consuming content digitally. The rise of digitalization, changes in perspective, technological advancement, and the mounting interest of people are some of the prime factors that have supported the industry and behold a strong future. This is the right time to identify the power of esports and establish to rightly fit into this popular sector.
October 18, 2021
Play Station is Hiring Gamers to Play games but Here’s the catch
This might sound like a dream come true to you, but yes Play Station is hiring gamers to play games, who are fluent in specific languages and live near Liverpool. The applicants must be fluent in either Portuguese, Russian, or Arabic. Besides, to be a great gamer you should also be fluent in these particular languages. Play station is looking for a Localisation Tester, who will test the audio and text in the game are correct.

The description of the job is as follows

Localization testing:
- Test software to ensure all localized assets are correct from linguistic, consistency and display points of view.
Localized assets review:
- Proof-read and correct translations before they are implemented into the games, ensuring that quality, accuracy and consistency is maintained.
Translation work:
- Occasionally provide translations for games, the packaging text for console and peripherals.
Other duties:
- Assist other teams with general testing duties when required
- Assist with project and process related tasks
Dream11 Success Story – India’s Best Fantasy Gaming App

Fantasy sport is what most young sports lovers today are crazy about. Withfantasy sport, sports lovers need not just enjoy a game by being a spectator,but can also create an imaginary team (of real players) of his own choice andearn rewards when his imaginary team performs well. All thanks to the…

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Skills, knowledge and experience:
- Fluency in English and one or more languages
- Passionate games player
- Good knowledge of computer games across multiple platforms
- Working knowledge of MS Office package
- Basic understanding of the development cycle and constraint
“As a Localisation Tester, you will be making sure the audio and text in a video game are correct. You will need to have native level knowledge for the required language (grammar, spelling, and punctuation) and good attention to detail to find and provide corrections for errors. Occasionally, you will translate text for a video game or marketing” the job description reads. The hours of work are likely to be 37.5 per week, working from 9 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday.

Top 10 Online Fantasy Gaming Startups in India: Dream11, MPL,Cricplay

Time and again, an app comes into play that floods up the market share. OnlineFantasy Sports Gaming has become more common in the last 2 decades andshockingly it has secured top gear in India. Because, by creating your ownimaginary team, if you could earn some real money, then, why not? One gami…

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What is Game Localization?

If you’re in the US, are your points of reference the same as a gamer in China?

Clearly no, Video game localisation includes everything necessary to prepare your app or game for sale in a new region. Most frequently, game developers translated games into German, European French, Japanese, Russian, Korean, European Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Simplified Chinese, and Polish.

Top 10 Languages for Game Localisation

Game localisation includes
- Changing idioms to reflect cultural understanding
- Replacing slang with regional equivalents
- Changing dates and other formats to locally used ones
- Localising cultural or historical references which would otherwise make no sense
This is a dream of every gamer to play games all day long and get paid for it. If you are fluent in Portuguese and live near Liverpool you might try your luck. As of now, the salary has not been specified, the gaming giant is expected to receive a lot of applications from gamers around the world.

Game testing and localization isn’t a new job in the world of gaming. Since games are played worldwide and people may prefer to play the game in their native language, localization is key to the appeal of a game in some markets. We haven’t seen too many games localized for Indian languages.
August 27, 2020