Amid rumours that the company is focusing on IPOs, Discord has appointed former Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard, Humam Sakhnini, as CEO. Discord co-founder Jason Citron will step down from the CEO role 13 years later.
Discord spans gaming and social media spaces. Despite its first emergence as a platform for online multiplayer gamers to communicate, it has become a prominent social media platform in itself, growing to over 200 million monthly active users.
The company’s choice to appoint a new CEO from within the gaming industry shows that it looks more in the future with gaming than social networking. Discord said in a press release that the company has “refocused on the game’s roots” to explore opportunities for advertising and microtransaction monetization.
But advertising and microtransactions are not exactly music for gamers’ ears. Sakhnini’s appointment, along with its imminent IPO, could make fans wary that the company could move in a more corporate and profit-hungry direction. Sakhnini was also CEO of King, owned by Activision Blizzard. This is a mobile game developer who manufactures games such as Candy Crush, which thrives on Ads and Micro-Transactions.
Citron will continue to be involved with Discord as an advisor to the CEO and a member of the board of directors.
Citron looks forward to taking a break after running the rapidly growing startup for 13 years. He told Venture Beat he wanted to play Final Fantasy VII, Blue Prince and Bardour’s Gate III.
Source link
