Discord is about to lay off 170 people from the company.
As reported by The Verge, an internal letter from CEO Jason Citron explains that this is not a case of the company being unprofitable. Rather, the company grew too quickly for its own good, and are taking on too many projects at the same time.
We’ll quote the part of Jason’s letter which lays this argument out:
“Our company has changed and grown significantly over the past few years. We should all be really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together to serve the millions of people who turn to Discord every day to spend time with their friends.
At the same time, we have to face some hard truths. We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020. As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated.
Today, we are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization. This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce.”
Jason’s letter also explains that they have set up a support system for their outgoing employees, which means five months salary and benefits, three months of outplacement services, and yes, vesting of equity.
It’s certainly a surprising move. As Jason pointed out, the general belief in the public that Discord is successful enough to be profitable is correct. But in many cases, profits aren’t enough to take care of all of a company’s problems.
While most users and gamers don’t think of Discord as a Twitter or Facebook alternative, it is definitely in the same space, competing in the market of taking and keeping the attention of fans. Discord is also integrated onto PlayStation and Xbox systems, having succeeded in making themselves an indispensable part of many gamers’ and non-gamers’ lives.
Discord has had a good reputation among gamers overall, so this news is certainly one of those things that adds chinks to their armor. But Jason seems committed to taking care of their outgoing employees, and we have yet to have reason not to trust their good faith on this matter. Gameranx does wish the best for Discord’s outgoing employees. And, we hope they can find jobs in the video game industry in the near future.
