Today, I’m talking to Jason Citron, the co-founder and CEO of Discord, the gaming-focused voice and chat app. You might think Discord is just something Slack for gamers, but over time, it has become much more important than that. For a growing mix of mostly young, very online users steeped in gaming culture, fandom, and other niche communities, Discord is fast becoming the hub to their entire online lives. A lot of what we think of as internet culture is happening on Discord.
In many ways Discord represents a significant shift away from what we now consider traditional social platforms. As you’ll hear Jason describe it, Discord is a place where you talk and hangout with your friends over shared common interests, whether that’s video games, the AI bot Midjourney, or maybe your favorite anime series. It is a very different kind of interface for the internet, but that comes with serious challenges, especially around child safety and moderation.
Links:
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23898955
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Understanding the chaos at Tesla
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius explains why EVs are still the future — but Apple's next-gen CarPlay isn't
Why the TikTok ban won't solve the US's online privacy problems
Disney just fought off a shareholder revolt — but the clock’s still ticking
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wants you to embrace AI and remote work
The rise and fall of Vice Media
Why Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is the internet’s unlikely defender
Why Nintendo sued a Switch emulator out of existence
Mailchimp CEO Rania Succar on culture, acquisitions, and how big 'small business' really is
Can you patent a pizza?
Federation is the future of social media, says Bluesky CEO Jay Graber
How Europe’s Digital Markets Act is reshaping Big Tech
Figma CEO Dylan Field is optimistic about the future and AI
Why Google Search feels like it’s gotten worse
How to save culture from the algorithms, with Filterworld author Kyle Chayka
Why people are falling in love with AI chatbots
Guest host Hank Green makes Nilay Patel explain why websites have a future
AI deepfakes are cheap, easy, and coming for the 2024 election
Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini on how anime took over the world
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
The Vergecast
Why’d You Push That Button?
Ctrl-Walt-Delete
Re/code Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher
Re/Code Decode