We wrote recently about how Snapchat doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a social media network, with its answer flip-flopping depending on whether it wants to sell more video ads and make more money, or wants to mollify regulators worried about the spread of troublesome content on its platform. Discord is in a similar boat, financially: Like Snapchat, it got its start as a messaging app, but now is looking to make more cash, and is trying to figure out an enticing way to monetize the 200 million MAUs who use its platform primarily for sending DMs to their friends.

Discord, which was eyeballing a big push into the creator space before abruptly pulling out with a round of layoffs in 2023, reportedly makes around $600 million a year. The majority of that money comes from subscriptions to Nitro, the $9.99/month premium version of Discord where users can do...