The Issue

Microsoft is reportedly discussing plans to buy Discord for $10 billion, and many of Discord’s users are worried that Microsoft will ruin the platform.

"A lot of current Discord users seem to be concerned that the quality of Discord would decrease after a takeover by Microsoft," Miklos Zoltan, CEO of Privacy Affairs, explained. "While it’s uncertain at this point what plans Microsoft has for Discord, these fears are not entirely unfounded."

 

Skype’s Demise

Back in 2011, Microsoft purchased Skype and instead of improving it, they turned it into a buggy piece of software with no regard for how it was performing. At the time, Skype was a very popular video chatting platform – video calls could be made to anyone on the planet as long as they had a Skype account. Unfortunately, with Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, things went downhill rapidly.

Many users were drawn to Skype because of its outstanding video quality; however, Microsoft ignored this and began updating the app with a complete redesign. This included new emojis and a Snapchat-like feature known as vanishing messages.

This redesign was an effort to make Skype more modern and resemble other popular apps at the time, but those changes ruined the experience for Skype users – they wanted a reliable video conferencing platform and not something that imitates what other apps can already do.

Feature updates to the Skype platform soon became minimal, and users moved to other services like Telegram, Signal, and even Discord – the platform that Microsoft wants to buy ten years after the Skype failure. Some people may have wanted to move to MSN, but Microsoft also killed off that communication platform.

Discord’s users are worried that it could see the same fate that Skype and MSN saw if Microsoft purchases it.

 

Discord’s Potential Buyers

It has also been reported that Discord has talked with multiple potential buyers, including Amazon and Epic Games; however, it may be that Discord will just go public instead of selling itself to a large company. Nonetheless, Discord initially reached out to Microsoft – not the other way around – so a purchase is still an open door.

Gorbachik, who gained over 15 years of experience working in the Unified Communications as a Service industry, states the purchase could impact Discord’s current user base – pricing for Discord Nitro could change, Microsoft could lock certain features behind the Xbox network, or free features could be affected.

"The Discord audience is pretty young and they value free service with a variety of control over it. Microsoft tends to provide less control over its services, which can be a conflict of interest," Gorbachik explained.

 

Three Big Falls

Some sources claim that Discord will not be profitable for Microsoft due to three primary reasons. First off, video chat – this is simply live streaming to a handful of people and can prove to be very expensive.

Secondly, voice chat – some Discord users will sit on a voice channel for hours talking with their friends, some even with their cameras on or sharing their screen in video chat. While it may not seem like very many resources are used, the volume of voice chats going through Discord at once could be harmful to the future of Discord if Microsoft acquires it – in fact, Discord recently updated their platform to prevent garbage sound quality for voice chats with multiple users in them.

Lastly, while the attachment size is limited even for Discord Nitro users, the number of attachments sent every second requires a lot of storage to handle – in fact, old messages and attachments are never deleted from the platform. This means that the server storage is constantly increasing.

 

Your Call

With over 100 million monthly active users, the fall of Discord in Microsoft’s hands will be disastrous. Please take a moment to sign this petition to prevent Microsoft from buying Discord and save it from its impending death.