Amid rumors that the company is eyeing an IPO, Discord appointed former Activision Blizzard Vice Chairman Humam Sakhnini as CEO. Discord co-founder Jason Citron will leave his CEO role after 13 years at the company.
Discord straddles the gaming and social media spaces — despite its initial emergence as a platform for online multiplayer gamers to communicate, it has become a prominent social media platform in its own right, growing to over 200 million monthly active users.
The company’s choice to appoint a new CEO from within the gaming industry signals that it sees its future more so in gaming than in social networking. Discord noted in its press release that the company has “refocused on its gaming roots” to explore monetization opportunities in advertising and micro-transactions.
But advertising and micro-transactions aren’t exactly music to gamers’ ears. The appointment of Sakhnini, along with its impending IPO, may make fans wary that the company may move in a more corporate, profit-hungry direction. Sakhnini was also CEO of the Activision Blizzard-owned King, a mobile gaming developer that makes games like Candy Crush, which thrive on ads and micro-transactions.
Citron will remain involved with Discord as an advisor to the CEO and a member of the board of directors, but he told Venture Beat that he looks forward to taking a break after 13 years of running a rapidly growing startup and wants to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Blue Prince, and Baldur’s Gate III.
Citron’s relationship with TechCrunch dates back some time. He made it to the finals stage of our famous annual Startup Battlefield competition inside Disrupt in 2013, where he pitched a multiplayer online battle arena game for the iPad that later struggled to make money. Two years later, he launched Discord.
