Discord, the popular online communication platform, has announced that it will be shutting down Gas, the anonymous compliments-based social media app that it acquired nine months ago. On November 7, Gas will officially cease to exist, as confirmed by a Discord spokesperson.
Key Takeaway
Discord has decided to shut down Gas, the anonymous compliments app it purchased earlier this year, with the intention of acquiring engineering talent. Gas gained significant popularity among teenagers due to its positive approach to social media. Its closure on November 7 marks the end of an app that focused on empowering confidence and spreading kindness.
Acquisition for Talent, Not Sustained Growth
In an internal memo obtained by The Information, Discord CEO Jason Citron revealed that the primary motivation behind the acquisition of Gas was to tap into its engineering talent. While Gas experienced rapid growth, especially among teenagers, Citron stated that the plan was to keep the app running until its growth had slowed down.
A Positive Impact on Teenagers
Launched in August 2022, Gas gained popularity among teenagers for its mission to provide a positive social media network. With its focus on anonymous compliments, Gas quickly amassed one million daily active users within two months. It even surpassed popular apps like TikTok in the Apple App Store rankings.
Gas recorded a total of 7 million global downloads, with the highest number of downloads occurring in November 2022 at 3.1 million. However, the app’s growth began to decline in subsequent months, and in October 2023, it was downloaded only 2,900 times. Notably, Gas was only available on iOS devices in the United States and Canada.
Empowering Confidence and Kindness
Gas was specifically designed for high school students, offering users the opportunity to answer polls about their classmates. These polls aimed to boost confidence and self-esteem by generating compliments tailored to individuals. The chosen recipient of the poll would receive an anonymous message containing the compliment. The app’s focus on positivity set it apart from typical social media platforms.
Gas was created by Nikita Bier, also the founder of TBH, an anonymous social app catering to high schoolers. In 2017, Facebook acquired TBH from Bier but ultimately shut it down the following year due to low usage.
Possibility of a New Venture
Intriguingly, Bier recently hinted at a new app on the horizon, tweeting, “Next week there will be a new King of the App Store.” While the specifics of the app remain undisclosed, given Bier’s previous ventures, it is plausible that it may be another anonymous social app.
