How Pika Got 500k Discord members in 4 months?
Hi everyone, I just started this AI series: https://www.youtube.com/@TechCindy
Today we’ll about Pika, one of the most popular text-to-video AI tools, and how it achieved 500k+ discord members within just 4 months.
Discord channels
First, let’s talk about their Discord server. Even since the precedence of Midjourney, Discord has become a perfect starting point for many consumer products on AI.
Pika launched theirs at the beginning of the project. As of today (Feb 12, 2024), it has 700k+ members, of which 40k+ are online. This ratio is reasonable; no apparent traits of bots or something.
Let’s see the channels.
- Official showcases: Well, we know for the current AI products when they still depend heavily on text prompts, this would make sense and educate the community on how to write some good ones.
- Support channels: They started a separate billing support channel, which is smart because if users are paying, I guess they have higher priorities.
- Feedback
- Generation channels
- Daily themes
What I’m most impressed with is that almost all questions are handled within 10 minutes. Even super early in the morning, they still responded within half an hour. Pika’s team is one of the most hardworking I’ve seen.
Community events
Another cool thing is that their Discord runs daily themes and challenges. For example, making the girl smile:
Or having the cat breakdance. This is a hard one!
Activities for the New Year.
Winners not only get a special Discord role as a sign of achievement but may also get watermarks off when it was still free, or product discounts. This strategy identifies core users and motivates them effectively.
Oh, and Valentine’s Day. What does it even do? Okay, answer some personal questions. And hit generate.
Wow, I got this video. Also, it’s added to my library in the web app.
What’s more…
- Influencer marketing: mostly on YouTube.
- Content marketing: tutorials and showcases.
- Media exposure: The Information, Forbes, etc.
- Offline events: Hackathons in the Bay Area.
Takeaways
- Start early on marketing. Just getting the name out there can reduce a ton of user acquisition costs. Influencers will talk about the brand without getting paid so it’s free promotion.
- Even when tech is not 100% perfect, it’s always good to have a large active user base for idea validation, feedback gathering, and behavioral data for future ML training.
