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Discord have belatedly confirmed that they're working with Persona, an identity detection firm backed by a fund directed by Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, as part of Discord's new global age verification system rollout. The collaboration is described as an "experiment" involving people in the UK specifically, whereby Persona will store user information on their servers for up to seven days.
I hate Discord with the intensity of a supernova falling into a black hole. I hate its ungainly profusion of tabs and voice channels. I regret its cybersecurity breaches. I resent that the PRs use it for every virtual press event. I’m furious that I have to download 12 updates whenever I remember to turn it on. I despise the feisty and cloying loading screen trivia and service messages. Show me the “empathy banana” again, you weird little gopher beetle. I’ll put you in the microwave.
I also dislike that Discord now assumes I’m “teen-by-default” and restricts my access appropriately unless I go through some kind of age verification process, though I can understand the rationale, given some of the awful things that have happened via Discord. Already in play across the UK and Australia, this new “age-assured” approach is now being rolled out worldwide to create “a safer and more inclusive experience for users over the age of 13”. Rather unnervingly, Discord’s new age verification system includes an “inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age.”
UK Discord users have raised concerns about the company's new age verification processes, claiming that while it had originally promised that "video selfies submitted for facial age estimation will never leave a user's device", a change in service provider allegedly now suggests otherwise.
Every gamer that we know uses Discord to some degree. Whether it’s coordinating offensive plays in Madden, trash-talking in NBA 2K26, or just hanging out with your online friends, the platform is the go-to hub for many gaming communities. However, recent reports from Bloomberg suggest significant changes are on the horizon. Discord has confidentially filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), a move that could take the company public and reshape its operations.
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For the average gamer who might not follow business news, let’s look at this simply. An IPO is essentially a private company deciding to sell shares of itself to the public for the first time. It’s opening up ownership to the public, and of course, big investors. However, a public company has to report its financial results every quarter, answer to shareholders, and prioritize growth and profitability. It’s like the exact opposite of EA going private.
This allows investors to cash out, and the company raises more money. But why make this move now? Well, Discord has raised boatloads of cash, over $500 million in one round back in 2022 alone, and it was valued at $15 billion in 2021. That number is likely much higher now. Despite that, it hasn’t turned a consistent profit in the last few years. Going public gives it the capital to expand, and with investors wanting returns, an IPO is the next logical step other than selling the whole company.
Eurogamer spoke to George Osborn, creator of the Video Games Industry Memo, and here’s what he had to say about it:
“I think the most obvious impact is that the company is going to have to find ways to monetize more aggressively. The question will be how can it achieve that without aggravating its user base too much. Discord is completely reliant on those hundreds of thousands of users, and it’s going to have to strike a different balance than other social networks and media platforms that have gone public before.”
Osborn further raises a great point that Discord’s value does not correlate to what people are paying for. Discord Nitro is a decent cash cow, but it doesn’t exactly translate to incredible year-on-year growth, the type that investors expect. He suspects that Discord might feature more advertising, Discord-exclusive cosmetics for specific games, or maybe even more games (Discord already has quite a few built into the app).
Again, Discord is something that almost every gamer uses, and that’s quite the compelling target demographic for shareholders and advertisers. On a positive note, user safety might improve as those types of issues become more serious when concerning public companies. Discord isn’t exactly a safe haven for children, and I don’t think I need to elaborate on that too much. At the end of the day, time will tell what this means for Discord, but there will likely be massive changes in the coming year.