Discord is a recent hot trend among US young adults. The messaging app is best in pair with hot gaming platforms such as Steam with the famous Fall Guys game title. According to The Wall Street Journal, they are taking steps to negotiate and the deal could be closed next month. This is Microsoft’s third attempt in buying a community app after they failed to acquire Pinterest and TikTok.
Discord is a recent hot trend among US young adults. The messaging app is best in pair with hot gaming platforms such as Steam with the famous Fall Guys game title. According to The Wall Street Journal, they are taking steps to negotiate and the deal could be closed next month. This is Microsoft’s third attempt in buying a community app after they failed to acquire Pinterest and TikTok.
This makes perfect sense since Microsoft owns Xbox, a PlayStation brand. They could be planning to expand their community and upgrade their user experience. Discords will give Microsoft its 140 million active users that include thousands of YouTubers, creators, and gamers, as well as its trendy brand name.
Microsoft is also possibly trying to catch up with its competitors. Facebook acquired Instagram and Whatsapp, to control the world’s online communication, and Google acquired YouTube to see it grow to be the largest video platform in the world. Amazon bought Twitch and dominated streaming, while Apple rules with Appstore. Microsoft is clearly more than eager to keep up with its peers in the race for the community champion place.
“Creation, creation, creation — the next 10 years is going to be as much about creation as it is about consumption and about the community around it, so it’s not creating alone,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
Nadella’s actions speak louder than words, during his first year at Microsoft, he totally focused on acquiring creative communities. He bought Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft with their millions of passionate fans. Nadella also paid $26.2 billion for Linkedin and $7.5 billion for GitHub.
Microsoft is also up to a few minor challenges if they are to acquire Discord, too. Like any other social media platform, Discord had to fight hard against nefarious online activities. They created a task force to combat hate speech last year, aside from its racial equality efforts. Discord doesn’t let content amplify like Facebook or Twitter. Still, the fight against toxic users, bots, and hackers is always ongoing.
Even if Microsoft and Discord finally reach an agreement, there will still be a whole lot of paperwork to be signed.
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