Free messaging and voice chat app Discord announced they would be implementing ads into their service last week. These ads will be offered to users through “sponsored quests,” which can be completed by streaming gameplay to friends on Discord, similar to Twitch’s drops system of gaining rewards. While this may seem like a rather inconsequential feature, it does mark a change in Discord’s monetization strategy.
For years, Discord marketed itself as a free and ad-free service, a place for unobtrusive communication with friends. By incorporating ads, Discord betrays its users who began using the app because of its ad-free nature. As if to rub salt on the wound, these ads are personalized based on the user’s gaming activity on Discord, causing the marketing to feel even more invasive.
Unfortunately, this practice is not limited to Discord. Many other companies have begun introducing ads to their services despite being advertised as ad-free in the past. Earlier this year, Amazon began rolling ads on their streaming service, Prime Video. Prime Video comes free for any Amazon Prime subscribers, and up until recently was also ad-free. Putting ads on a platform that is essentially a bonus for most people is not really a problem. The predatory aspect of this comes from when and how they did it.
By offering ad-free streaming to customers for years, suddenly pulling the rug out from under them with little warning is an inherently slimy business practice. Now, people will feel worse about watching ads since they are no longer used to them. Back when everyone watched cable instead of streaming TV, ads were just a normal part of the programming. Ads on streaming, especially when introduced suddenly like with Prime Video, are much more annoying now that people are accustomed to binging uninterrupted.
Prime Video subscribers can now pay $2.99 monthly to watch ad free, which is not a whole lot, but it hurts much more to pay for something that was once free. Similarly, most other streaming services now include ad-supported tiers. These are fine options to watch TV on a budget, but the same problem arises. Many of these tiers replaced the cheapest option in streaming, meaning subscribers would once again be forced to pay extra for the same experience.
It is unclear whether this recent uptick in incorporating ads to free platforms is due to a lack of profitability or if the companies are just being greedy, but it doesn’t change the fact that it feels awful for consumers. “Free with ads” is fine to have as an option, but it can also lead to a betrayal of trust with users.