After more than 40 years of operation, DTVE is closing its doors and our website will no longer be updated daily. Thank you for all of your support.
Roku boosted by ad business and streaming player demand
Roku exceeded its third quarter revenue and profit outlook, driven by continued strength in its advertising business and better-than-expected demand for its streaming players.
Total net revenue was up 39% year-on-year to US$173.4 million, platform revenue was up 74% year-on-year to US$100.1 million, while gross profit was up 58% year-on-year to US$79.0 million.
Adjusted EBITDA of US$2.0 million and a net loss of US$9.5 million were also ahead of Roku’s outlook, with the company noting that “operating trends remain strong”.
The company ended Q3 with 23.8 million active accounts, up 43% year-on-year, with more than half of new accounts coming from licensed sources, primarily Roku TVs. User engagement also increased during the quarter with users streaming 6.2 billion hours, up 63% year-on-year.
Platform revenue represented 58% of total revenue compared 46% a year ago, with more than two-thirds coming from advertising services such as video ads, audience development and brand sponsorship on the Roku user interface.
Streaming player revenue increased 9% year-over-year, driven by 15% unit growth, offset in part by a 5% decrease in average sales price. Demand for Roku’s low-priced players remained robust.
“Based on our strong Q3 results and slightly higher expectations for Q4 revenue, we are again raising our full-year 2018 outlook,” said the company in its letter to shareholders.
“We now see full-year revenue growth of 42% year-over-year at the midpoint, up from 40% year-over-year provided last quarter and from 31% year-over-year when we provided our outlook at the beginning of 2018.
“We are also raising our full-year gross profit outlook growth to 63% year-over-year, up from 61% previously and from 43% year-over-year when we provided our outlook at the beginning of 2018.”