Discord Announces Layoffs

gamerant.com:

In an unexpected announcement, social platform Discord has announced that it will be laying off roughly 17 percent of its current staff to counteract inefficient growth. With other technology giants like Twitch laying off even more employees, audiences are growing increasingly concerned about the future of many online platforms.

Serving as one of the top social communication services, Discord allows users to send text and audio messages, form servers for dedicated communities, and hold voice and video calls for business and personal use. The platform became popular among content creators and fans of online multiplayer video games, with Discord's biggest growth arising during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, much of that growth is due to be scaled back with a massive round of layoffs at Discord.

As reported by The Verge, CEO Jason Citron has announced that Discord will be losing 17 percent of its staff, with 170 people across multiple departments getting laid off. Discord has always been a free-to-use platform, though it does offer Discord Nitro — a paid version of the service that provides extra benefits. However, Discord has yet to produce a profitable business model, and this lack of profitability was noted in Citron's layoff announcement. Citron pinpointed the expedited growth of Discord since 2020 as a cause of the workforce losing sustainability and efficiency, thus the company has made the decision to trim back staffing and rework its functionality. While the platform has tried to draw in users by offering Xbox streaming via Discord and other useful features, the company has yet to turn enough profit to support itself.

Last year was tumultuous for many in the technology and video game industries, and 2024 appears to be