Discord, the Social Chat app that is popular with the Videoga Community, has met investment bankers in recent weeks to discuss the preparations for a first public offer as soon as this year, said two people who are familiar with the conversations.
An IPO from a well -known technology company could offer a much needed shock for private companies that weigh public offers. Market volatility caused by an uncertain economy, together with strong ratings for private companies, has led to a slow start for the IPO market this year.
Discord was last appreciated by private investors in 2021 at around $ 15 billion.
The people who have asked for anonymity because the conversations are confidential warned that the conversations were still exploratory and that IPO plans remained subject to change.
A Discord spokesperson said on Wednesday: “We understand that there is a lot of interest about Discord's future plans, but we do not comment on rumors or speculation. Our focus remains on delivering the best possible experience for our users and building a strong, sustainable company. “
Other companies are preparing to become public, despite the growing turbulence in the financial markets. CoreWeave, a supplier of Cloud Computing Services for Artificial Intelligence, has requested an IPO this week. Corweave said in his submission that last year it had a turnover of around $ 1.9 billion and a net loss of $ 863 million.
Discord was founded by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, two technical workers who originally met to build a video game studio. After they had released their first title, the two became the idea for Discord after they realized that they had trouble communicating with each other online while playing a game. In May 2015 they released the first version of Discord on desktop computers and smartphones.
Gamers embraced the platform, with which people can chat in the app for free text, speech and video calls. Discord also saw a tree in use during the early days of the pandemic. The company held acquisition interviews with Microsoft in 2021 for a reported $ 10 billion, although no deal has been released.
More than 200 million people use discord every month, with 93 percent of them using the app to play games.
The company earns money via a “freemium” model in which people can use the apps for free and pay subscription costs for improved functions, such as adapted emojis and voice and video chat of higher quality. Discord does not relate to traditional advertisements to generate income.
In recent years, Discord has tried to expand his attraction and to embrace influencers, musicians and other figures who have made their own discordchat rooms for their fans to collect and form online communities.
Discord also starts to expand his company. The company debuted an online store in 2023, where users can pay to improve their profiles and add custom images to their digital avatars.
