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Is Discord competing with Slack? Is Discord competing with Skype? What about Facebook Messenger? Most of my friend group uses Discord exclusively, after tryi

Is Discord competing with Slack? Is Discord competing with Skype? What about Facebook Messenger? Most of my friend group uses Discord exclusively, after trying all the aforementioned options. We don't feel tied to Facebook whatsoever.

techdragon 5y ago
Discord definitely competes with Slack. But it’s in mindshare not customers. Slack targets businesses and the server owner pays, Discord seems allergic to the notion of a more “serious” product and it’s revenue comes from individuals paying a subscription for a bundle of extras that individuals can use in multiple servers across the entirety of Discord. Discord is competing with Skype indirectly, users communicating via voice chat in a private Discord server may have previously used Skype and represent a loss of users for Skype, but at the same time Discord and Skype are targeting their customers differently enough that I don’t see them as “fishing in the same stream” to use an analogy. Facebook Messenger is competing with Discord because it’s always there, if you have Facebook you have Facebook Messenger, “why use something else?” … Facebook are trying to be good enough to keep users active in their apps instead of any one else’s. Discord are trying to be better at group chat use cases but I don’t see the same focus on direct message style chat between individuals in Discord as I see when watching people use Facebook Messenger.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > if you have Facebook you have Facebook Messenger, “why use something else?” If you have a Microsoft account you have OneDrive, if you have a Gmail account then you have a YouTube channel, if you have an Apple ID then you have iMessage. This is not a new (nor novel, nor frankly illegal) tactic by big tech, and I honestly doubt the FTC gives a shit. Our current government benefits greatly from the centralization of these services, so disrupting that would be against private (and to a degree, public) interest.
kwere 5y ago
Facebook has a very big walled garden that will be protected and monetized. Go and ask to all your hoa members or old classmates for example to move to discord
- techdragon 5y ago
  Exactly, Facebook has built a huge garden, and to extend the walled garden metaphor… the garden is now so big it crossed the line beyond which, we as a society, agree that you aren’t allowed to put up certain kinds of walls. If that sounds like a bad analogy, imagine how the government would treat a single private company that owned more than 70% of the private land in the country. “It’s our gland we should be able to do what we want…” has to break down at a certain point, the alternative is a slow relentless slide into crypto-capitalist (crypto like cryptozoology not cryptocurrency) dystopian oppression.

techdragon 5y ago

Discord definitely competes with Slack. But it’s in mindshare not customers. Slack targets businesses and the server owner pays, Discord seems allergic to the notion of a more “serious” product and it’s revenue comes from individuals paying a subscription for a bundle of extras that individuals can use in multiple servers across the entirety of Discord. Discord is competing with Skype indirectly, users communicating via voice chat in a private Discord server may have previously used Skype and represent a loss of users for Skype, but at the same time Discord and Skype are targeting their customers differently enough that I don’t see them as “fishing in the same stream” to use an analogy. Facebook Messenger is competing with Discord because it’s always there, if you have Facebook you have Facebook Messenger, “why use something else?” … Facebook are trying to be good enough to keep users active in their apps instead of any one else’s. Discord are trying to be better at group chat use cases but I don’t see the same focus on direct message style chat between individuals in Discord as I see when watching people use Facebook Messenger.

smoldesu 5y ago
> if you have Facebook you have Facebook Messenger, “why use something else?” If you have a Microsoft account you have OneDrive, if you have a Gmail account then you have a YouTube channel, if you have an Apple ID then you have iMessage. This is not a new (nor novel, nor frankly illegal) tactic by big tech, and I honestly doubt the FTC gives a shit. Our current government benefits greatly from the centralization of these services, so disrupting that would be against private (and to a degree, public) interest.

kwere 5y ago

Facebook has a very big walled garden that will be protected and monetized. Go and ask to all your hoa members or old classmates for example to move to discord

techdragon 5y ago
Exactly, Facebook has built a huge garden, and to extend the walled garden metaphor… the garden is now so big it crossed the line beyond which, we as a society, agree that you aren’t allowed to put up certain kinds of walls. If that sounds like a bad analogy, imagine how the government would treat a single private company that owned more than 70% of the private land in the country. “It’s our gland we should be able to do what we want…” has to break down at a certain point, the alternative is a slow relentless slide into crypto-capitalist (crypto like cryptozoology not cryptocurrency) dystopian oppression.