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Discord is starting to reveal their ability to pull streamer communities off of Twitch. This is most likely a bulkhead acquisition to anticipate the growth of

Discord is starting to reveal their ability to pull streamer communities off of Twitch. This is most likely a bulkhead acquisition to anticipate the growth of Discord and to try and keep those same streamers in the fold. Twitch gets the massive community reach of Curse, plus they also get all the current momentum Curse has to be a Discord competitor. It's a fantastic acquisition, if a little defensive.

tgb 10y ago
I'm not familiar with it, so how is discord a competitor to twitch? It looks like a newer TeamSpeak to me.
- Macha 10y ago
  Are streamers hosting their chats on Discord as opposed to Twitch's chat system, which tends to break down after a certain level of activity? Only thing I can think of.
  - mc42 10y ago
    Full Disclosure: I really like Discord, and use Twitch daily. Discord has more easily manageable chat roles, eg: Moderator, Helper, Regular, Supporter, etc. Twitch chat is nothing more than simple IRC, and relies almost entirely on bots for the more complicated stuff. Discord also has voice chat built in, whereas Twitch has none for their chatters. Discord also has a better documented API and libraries in a lot of languages. Overall, Discord (despite using an electron app...) is simply a better chatting product.
    - jamie_ca 10y ago
      "despite being an electron app", I'm way happier using Discord than I am using either Hipchat or Skype. Discord is a really well-put-together app, has text and voice chat that do their jobs, and get out of the way. The only complaint I have is that there's little to no support for searching history, but for an app focusing on live "community" chats, that seems a reasonable compromise.
      - rev087 10y ago
        I'm on the same boat, the only complaint being the lack of history search. And I like Discord so much that I switched our office from Hipchat to Discord, despite it being exclusively marketed towards gamers. We have been completely happy with the switch, in special the ability to hop into voice chat with remote coworkers with one mouse click.
        b1naryth1ef 10y ago
        (Discord Dev here) Awesome to hear Discords a good fit for workplace environments too, we've heard a couple success stories around remote teams swapping. Search is a huge priority for us, but its also something we wanna spend time getting right. e.g. soon!
        jamra 10y ago
        This is a long shot, but if you could sign a HIPPA waver, I could convince the bureaucrats at my workplace to jump in.
        quxbar 10y ago
        Ditto to this!
        b1naryth1ef 10y ago
        Drop me a line (andrei @ discordapp.com) and I'll at least take a look.
        scrollaway 10y ago
        Remote startup checking in here - we're in the gaming industry and Discord has been a perfect fit for us. We love it. Our top "wanted" features right now are video chat/screenshare, so that we can drop Hangouts entirely, and search. We wish we could pay you guys. Seriously.
        boundlessdreamz 10y ago
        I haven't used Discord but if it's better than Slack you are sitting on a huge opportunity. I know your focus is gamers but the market Slack is targeting is huge. Their mobile app is garbage (at least on android). Always 'reconnecting'. Doesn't keep the recent chats offline and has to always fetch it from server. Missing/delayed notifications. Desktop app on OS X is better but it too has 'connection issues'. It looks like we will be able to use Discord when you add search. Seriously, tell the management to think about it being an alternative to Slack. We are a paying Slack customer and while they are better than hipchat/IRC, it is far from perfect.
    - mbesto 10y ago
      Discord is also arguably a better implementation for team chat than Slack. Being able to jump in a room and have audio session out of the box alone is huge advantage compared to Slack.
      - meowface 10y ago
        Discord is by far the best communication app I've used. For chat and for voice.
      - gduplessy 10y ago
        I'm pretty sure that's a feature in slack, used it just yesterday actually
    - kuschku 10y ago
      > Discord also has a better documented API and libraries in a lot of languages. Overall, Discord (despite using an electron app...) is simply a better chatting product. Better documented APIs and libraries than IRC? That’s not just quite a stretch, it’s literally a lie. There’s IRC libs in every language you can imagine, usually dozens per language, with many perfectly documented ones, for every possible purpose. And about all of them work for Twitch chat.
      - makomk 10y ago
        IRC libraries are often gnarly and quirky at the best of times, and Twitch isn't all that close to standard IRC and never has been (plus, they've changed their proprietary extensions in non-backwards-compatible ways from time to time).
  - neaumusic 10y ago
    Twitch has been trying to hire front end devs and they're failing at hosting anything more than a video stream. They should have acquired discord, but instead the two failing companies curse and twitch are teaming up
    - oldmanjay 10y ago
      Can you expand upon the "failing" nature of these companies? On first sniff, I'm catching the same scent that rises from the last several decades of people proclaiming Microsoft is on the way out.
      - jamra 10y ago
        Twitch won the war of becoming the go to video game streaming app, but didn't do so by being a great innovator. It just got there first and now is a monopoly due to it having all the audience. Discord is clearly a passionate endeavor made by gamers. They may have a way of really changing the video game streaming business if they would be willing.
        Senji 10y ago
        Requiring flash for streaming in this day and age is unforgivable.
      - neaumusic 10y ago
        TDLR The site is riddled with glitches and they've done the bare minimum with their pipeline. They literally cannot fix their chat system, but somehow their video streaming works? That's like the first thing you learn how to make using JavaScript.. I feel like they have so little to offer, it's only a matter of time before gamer, tech-savvy, word of mouth, linking type of people use another platform where browsing for channels is easy, there are featured streams, aggregate streams, non-gaming streams, forums, profiles, private messages, and all the normal stuff you see on a website nowadays. Hacker news is yet another example of a bad front-end. Amazon and facebook are bloated, and soundcloud is in the same boat too, they literally just cannot realize what users want, and at this point the higher-ups will only focus on squeezing revenue out while the app is still relevant. Lost all startup mentality before they actually made something great. Sure it's viral but so is the "blue or yellow dress" and tons of other bs
- SandersAK 10y ago
  Think of Discord as like TeamSpeak and Slack combined. Streamers use Discord as a place to house their viewers and community when they're not streaming. Having a TwitchChat outside of TwitchChat is actually pretty powerful for streamers and a potentially crucial part of their setup. Twitch needed to invest in something like that.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
I am amazed Discord itself has not been acquired yet. It looks like it was effectively designed to be acquired. They have no functional business, and have to be in the market. I've commented before I expected someone like Twitch to pick them up. Maybe Twitch didn't like the price?
- SandersAK 10y ago
  I actually disagree that Discord doesn't have a functional business. They have massive growth and many many top teams, streamer personalities etc use their services. If Discord becomes a critical component to the content creators of the whole gaming ecosystem, there's going to be plenty of revenue opportunities.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    As I just said, and you confirmed: Discord doesn't have a functional business. Discord currently makes no money. "Opportunites" are just that, opportunities. A lottery ticket is an opportunity, but it is not a business. Discord promises it will always be free with "no gotchas". It specifically notes no "slot limitations" as an example of that, which indicates premium tiers are unlikely. They promise to never charge for core functionality. Presumably they may be able to do some sponsored promotion of some sort, but banner ads are probably out. The revenue plan they mention is here: "In the future there will be optional cosmetics like themes, sticker packs, and sound packs available for purchase." And I have not ever seen an emoji pack for a chat service as an appealing sales item that's going to fund a startup. I'm super skeptical of this, and it's why I don't use it. But, it'd make a solid acquisition for a company like Twitch that has a shoddy/simple chat function and needs something better in the gaming space.
    - quaunaut 10y ago
      You should check out LINE. Same business model, absolutely huge.
    - SandersAK 10y ago
      I guess I don't know what you mean by functional business. For me they have built an incredibly valuable asset that has grown enormously and will probably continue to do so. Amazon is another company with opportunities to make profit, but they traditionally haven't done much of that, eschewing that for just growing value. In the years when Amazon was not turning profit, would you consider it a non-functional business?

tgb 10y ago

I'm not familiar with it, so how is discord a competitor to twitch? It looks like a newer TeamSpeak to me.

Macha 10y ago
Are streamers hosting their chats on Discord as opposed to Twitch's chat system, which tends to break down after a certain level of activity? Only thing I can think of.
- mc42 10y ago
  Full Disclosure: I really like Discord, and use Twitch daily. Discord has more easily manageable chat roles, eg: Moderator, Helper, Regular, Supporter, etc. Twitch chat is nothing more than simple IRC, and relies almost entirely on bots for the more complicated stuff. Discord also has voice chat built in, whereas Twitch has none for their chatters. Discord also has a better documented API and libraries in a lot of languages. Overall, Discord (despite using an electron app...) is simply a better chatting product.
  - jamie_ca 10y ago
    "despite being an electron app", I'm way happier using Discord than I am using either Hipchat or Skype. Discord is a really well-put-together app, has text and voice chat that do their jobs, and get out of the way. The only complaint I have is that there's little to no support for searching history, but for an app focusing on live "community" chats, that seems a reasonable compromise.
    - rev087 10y ago
      I'm on the same boat, the only complaint being the lack of history search. And I like Discord so much that I switched our office from Hipchat to Discord, despite it being exclusively marketed towards gamers. We have been completely happy with the switch, in special the ability to hop into voice chat with remote coworkers with one mouse click.
      - b1naryth1ef 10y ago
        (Discord Dev here) Awesome to hear Discords a good fit for workplace environments too, we've heard a couple success stories around remote teams swapping. Search is a huge priority for us, but its also something we wanna spend time getting right. e.g. soon!
        jamra 10y ago
        This is a long shot, but if you could sign a HIPPA waver, I could convince the bureaucrats at my workplace to jump in.
        quxbar 10y ago
        Ditto to this!
        b1naryth1ef 10y ago
        Drop me a line (andrei @ discordapp.com) and I'll at least take a look.
        scrollaway 10y ago
        Remote startup checking in here - we're in the gaming industry and Discord has been a perfect fit for us. We love it. Our top "wanted" features right now are video chat/screenshare, so that we can drop Hangouts entirely, and search. We wish we could pay you guys. Seriously.
        boundlessdreamz 10y ago
        I haven't used Discord but if it's better than Slack you are sitting on a huge opportunity. I know your focus is gamers but the market Slack is targeting is huge. Their mobile app is garbage (at least on android). Always 'reconnecting'. Doesn't keep the recent chats offline and has to always fetch it from server. Missing/delayed notifications. Desktop app on OS X is better but it too has 'connection issues'. It looks like we will be able to use Discord when you add search. Seriously, tell the management to think about it being an alternative to Slack. We are a paying Slack customer and while they are better than hipchat/IRC, it is far from perfect.
  - mbesto 10y ago
    Discord is also arguably a better implementation for team chat than Slack. Being able to jump in a room and have audio session out of the box alone is huge advantage compared to Slack.
    - meowface 10y ago
      Discord is by far the best communication app I've used. For chat and for voice.
    - gduplessy 10y ago
      I'm pretty sure that's a feature in slack, used it just yesterday actually
  - kuschku 10y ago
    > Discord also has a better documented API and libraries in a lot of languages. Overall, Discord (despite using an electron app...) is simply a better chatting product. Better documented APIs and libraries than IRC? That’s not just quite a stretch, it’s literally a lie. There’s IRC libs in every language you can imagine, usually dozens per language, with many perfectly documented ones, for every possible purpose. And about all of them work for Twitch chat.
    - makomk 10y ago
      IRC libraries are often gnarly and quirky at the best of times, and Twitch isn't all that close to standard IRC and never has been (plus, they've changed their proprietary extensions in non-backwards-compatible ways from time to time).
- neaumusic 10y ago
  Twitch has been trying to hire front end devs and they're failing at hosting anything more than a video stream. They should have acquired discord, but instead the two failing companies curse and twitch are teaming up
  - oldmanjay 10y ago
    Can you expand upon the "failing" nature of these companies? On first sniff, I'm catching the same scent that rises from the last several decades of people proclaiming Microsoft is on the way out.
    - jamra 10y ago
      Twitch won the war of becoming the go to video game streaming app, but didn't do so by being a great innovator. It just got there first and now is a monopoly due to it having all the audience. Discord is clearly a passionate endeavor made by gamers. They may have a way of really changing the video game streaming business if they would be willing.
      - Senji 10y ago
        Requiring flash for streaming in this day and age is unforgivable.
    - neaumusic 10y ago
      TDLR The site is riddled with glitches and they've done the bare minimum with their pipeline. They literally cannot fix their chat system, but somehow their video streaming works? That's like the first thing you learn how to make using JavaScript.. I feel like they have so little to offer, it's only a matter of time before gamer, tech-savvy, word of mouth, linking type of people use another platform where browsing for channels is easy, there are featured streams, aggregate streams, non-gaming streams, forums, profiles, private messages, and all the normal stuff you see on a website nowadays. Hacker news is yet another example of a bad front-end. Amazon and facebook are bloated, and soundcloud is in the same boat too, they literally just cannot realize what users want, and at this point the higher-ups will only focus on squeezing revenue out while the app is still relevant. Lost all startup mentality before they actually made something great. Sure it's viral but so is the "blue or yellow dress" and tons of other bs
SandersAK 10y ago
Think of Discord as like TeamSpeak and Slack combined. Streamers use Discord as a place to house their viewers and community when they're not streaming. Having a TwitchChat outside of TwitchChat is actually pretty powerful for streamers and a potentially crucial part of their setup. Twitch needed to invest in something like that.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

I am amazed Discord itself has not been acquired yet. It looks like it was effectively designed to be acquired. They have no functional business, and have to be in the market. I've commented before I expected someone like Twitch to pick them up. Maybe Twitch didn't like the price?

SandersAK 10y ago
I actually disagree that Discord doesn't have a functional business. They have massive growth and many many top teams, streamer personalities etc use their services. If Discord becomes a critical component to the content creators of the whole gaming ecosystem, there's going to be plenty of revenue opportunities.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  As I just said, and you confirmed: Discord doesn't have a functional business. Discord currently makes no money. "Opportunites" are just that, opportunities. A lottery ticket is an opportunity, but it is not a business. Discord promises it will always be free with "no gotchas". It specifically notes no "slot limitations" as an example of that, which indicates premium tiers are unlikely. They promise to never charge for core functionality. Presumably they may be able to do some sponsored promotion of some sort, but banner ads are probably out. The revenue plan they mention is here: "In the future there will be optional cosmetics like themes, sticker packs, and sound packs available for purchase." And I have not ever seen an emoji pack for a chat service as an appealing sales item that's going to fund a startup. I'm super skeptical of this, and it's why I don't use it. But, it'd make a solid acquisition for a company like Twitch that has a shoddy/simple chat function and needs something better in the gaming space.
  - quaunaut 10y ago
    You should check out LINE. Same business model, absolutely huge.
  - SandersAK 10y ago
    I guess I don't know what you mean by functional business. For me they have built an incredibly valuable asset that has grown enormously and will probably continue to do so. Amazon is another company with opportunities to make profit, but they traditionally haven't done much of that, eschewing that for just growing value. In the years when Amazon was not turning profit, would you consider it a non-functional business?