New Experiment in Interactive Advertising and Digital Store

Global community platform Discord officially launched new virtual reward system "Orbs" on July 14. After 7 weeks of beta testing since late May -- based on active user participation and store consumption data -- decided on full rollout. Orbs differentiates from existing point accumulation systems: users do not simply watch ads but must directly perform "Quests" related to advertisements, games, and products. After actively experiencing advertisements, users receive Orbs as virtual currency rewards -- which can be used in the Discord Shop to purchase various digital items including 3-day Nitro credits, Orbs-themed profile badges, and avatar decorations. This system is an experimental strategy Discord introduced to simultaneously solve large-scale advertiser attraction and new revenue source securing as it prepares for IPO. The interactive advertising model rationale: traditional banner ad-click advertising on Discord has had low engagement due to the platform native audience being tech-savvy and ad-resistant; quest-based advertising requires active engagement (trying the advertised product/game for a defined period) before earning the reward -- this generates genuine product experience rather than accidental clicks; the data value of "user who completed a 30-minute gaming quest" versus "user who accidentally clicked a banner" is dramatically different for advertisers. The broader revenue diversification strategy: Discord has struggled to monetize its massive user base; Nitro subscriptions (premium features) have been the primary revenue source; Orbs creates an advertising revenue layer that monetizes free users without requiring direct payment from them.