Discord explores virtual rewards for its ad product as it prepares for a potential IPO

Discord announced on Wednesday that it’s experimenting with a new virtual reward system aimed at encouraging more users to engage with its interactive ads. This new feature, called “Orbs,” comes on the heels of the company preparing for a potential IPO. 

Users can earn Orbs by completing “Quests,” Discord’s ad format where advertisers incentivize users to watch product videos or play games by rewarding them with virtual items. The addition of Orbs gives users the chance to redeem exclusive digital items from Discord’s Shop, including Nitro credits, profile badges, avatar decorations, profile effects, and items from main collections.

It’s clear that the goal of Orbs is to encourage more interaction with Quests as Discord seeks to demonstrate to partners that it can offer a scalable ad business. The company has reportedly discussed a possible IPO with investment bankers, per The New York Times.

Last month, Peter Sellis, Discord’s senior vice president of product, highlighted the success of Quests. He reported that, over the past year, more than 70 Quests achieved a 10% acceptance rate with millions of rewards earned, according to the company’s internal data.

Quests are located in the bottom left corner of the app on PC. Plans are in place to expand Quests to mobile devices in June.

The Orbs experiment may also entice users who don’t have a subscription to try Nitro, as they can spend Orbs on credits instead of using a payment method. For instance, users need 1,400 Orbs to get three free days of Nitro, which typically costs $10 per month.

Orbs is being rolled out to a small group of users and will soon expand globally.

This story was updated to clarify that Quests are not available on gaming consoles.