Applovin Corp (APP) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome, everyone, to the AppLovin Earnings Call for the Fourth Quarter and Year ended December 31, 2023. I'm David Hsiao, Head of Investor Relations. Joining me today to discuss our results are Adam Foroughi, our Co-Founder, CEO and Chairperson; and Matt Stumpf, our CFO.

歡迎大家參加 AppLovin 截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的第四季和年度財報電話會議。我是投資者關係主管 David Hsiao。今天與我一起討論我們的結果的是我們的共同創辦人、執行長兼董事長 Adam Foroughi；和我們的財務長馬特·斯坦普夫（Matt Stumpf）。

Please note, our SEC filings to date as well as our shareholder letter and press release discussing our fourth quarter and annual performance are available at investors.applovin.com.

請注意，我們迄今為止向 SEC 提交的文件以及討論我們第四季度和年度業績的股東信函和新聞稿均可在 Investors.applovin.com 上獲取。

During today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements regarding our products and services, market expectations, the future financial performance of the company and other future events. These statements are based on our current assumptions and beliefs, and we assume no obligation to update them, except as required by law. Our actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. We encourage you to review the risk factors in our most recently filed Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2023.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將就我們的產品和服務、市場預期、公司未來的財務表現以及其他未來事件做出前瞻性陳述。這些聲明是基於我們目前的假設和信念，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的義務，除非法律要求。我們的實際結果可能與預測結果有重大差異。我們鼓勵您查看我們最近提交的截至 2023 年 9 月 30 日的財政季度的 10-Q 表格中的風險因素。

We will also be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for or superior to our GAAP results. Please be sure to review the reconciliations of our GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in our earnings release and shareholder letter available on our Investor Relations site. This conference call is being recorded, and a replay will be available at our IR website.

我們也將討論非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非公認會計原則衡量指標無意取代或優於我們的公認會計原則結果。請務必在我們的投資者關係網站上查看我們的收益報告和股東信函中的 GAAP 與非 GAAP 財務指標的調整表。本次電話會議正在錄製中，重播將在我們的 IR 網站上提供。

Now I'll turn it over to Adam and Matt for some opening remarks, then we'll have the moderator take us through Q&A.

現在我將把它交給 Adam 和 Matt 進行一些開場白，然後我們將由主持人帶領我們進行問答。

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining. We're thrilled to report another outstanding quarter in Q4. We surpassed the high end of our guidance and established a consistent pattern of exceptional performance throughout 2023. Reflecting on the last year, it's remarkable to consider how much we have grown and evolved in just one year. After a challenging 2022, characterized by stagnant growth, we refocus on growing our existing business and investing in new initiatives. I am immensely proud of our team's dedication and hard work, which has resulted in our software platform revenue growing by 76% in 2023. Despite a challenged economic landscape and mobile gaming sector, we have continued to grow. This is a clear testament to the strength and potential of the updates we have made to our AI advertising engine, AXON.

歡迎大家，感謝您的加入。我們很高興地報告第四季又一個出色的季度。我們超越了指導的上限，並在 2023 年建立了一致的卓越績效模式。回顧過去的一年，我們在短短一年內成長和發展的程度令人矚目。在經歷了充滿挑戰、成長停滯的 2022 年後，我們重新專注於發展現有業務並投資新舉措。我為我們團隊的奉獻精神和辛勤工作感到無比自豪，這使得我們的軟體平台收入在 2023 年增長了 76%。儘管經濟狀況和行動遊戲產業面臨挑戰，但我們仍在持續成長。這清楚地證明了我們對人工智慧廣告引擎 AXON 進行的更新的強度和潛力。

When we embarked on our public journey in 2021, software platform revenue was nearly $700 million and now only two years later, we have reached close to $2 billion. We also forecast that we would have significant margins on incremental revenue for our software business. I'm proud to state that in Q4 2023, our incremental revenue had an approximate 80% flow-through to adjusted EBITDA, culminating in record cash flows. This growth trajectory underscores our robust financial health and positions us favorably for diverse opportunities to enhance shareholder value like ongoing share repurchases.

當我們在 2021 年踏上上市之旅時，軟體平台收入接近 7 億美元，而現在僅僅兩年後，我們就達到了接近 20 億美元。我們也預測，我們的軟體業務增量收入將獲得可觀的利潤。我很自豪地說，2023 年第四季度，我們的增量收入約有 80% 流入調整後 EBITDA，最終實現創紀錄的現金流。這種成長軌跡凸顯了我們穩健的財務狀況，並使我們有利於獲得各種機會來提高股東價值，例如持續的股票回購。

Now looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, we continue to remain bullish about the potential of our core AI technologies, which stand amongst the most advanced across all markets. Our focus on leveraging these technologies [for world] in the CTV space and array in the carrier OEM market is just the beginning. We are poised to explore and expand into new applications of our AI technologies in the coming quarters and years, which has the potential to significantly broaden our TAM and opportunities.

現在展望 2024 年及以後，我們繼續看好我們的核心人工智慧技術的潛力，這些技術是所有市場中最先進的技術之一。我們專注於在 CTV 領域和運營商 OEM 市場的陣列中[為全世界]利用這些技術只是一個開始。我們準備在未來幾季和幾年內探索和擴展人工智慧技術的新應用，這有可能顯著擴大我們的 TAM 和機會。

Now I'll turn it over to Matt who will deliver his first financial summary as our CFO. We are incredibly fortunate to have him in this role. Thank you once again for your unwavering support on this journey.

現在我將把它交給馬特，他將作為我們的財務長發表他的第一份財務摘要。我們非常幸運能讓他擔任這個角色。再次感謝您對這趟旅程的堅定支持。

Thanks, Adam, and good afternoon. I'm pleased to step into my first earnings release as CFO with such amazing financial results. So first, I'd like to thank the team for having executed so well this quarter and making my job easy.

謝謝，亞當，下午好。我很高興以如此驚人的財務業績首次作為財務長發布財報。首先，我要感謝團隊本季執行得如此出色，讓我的工作變得輕鬆。

In the fourth quarter, we exceeded the high end of our guidance for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, achieving $953 million in total revenue and $476 million in adjusted EBITDA. That's an impressive 50% adjusted EBITDA margin. We also exceeded our analyst expectations this quarter by beating the consensus averages for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA was nearly 10% higher than expectations. Our revenue grew by 36% from the same period last year and 10% from last quarter. Optimization efforts within our Apps business in the first half of the year resulted in a slight decline in revenue, but it led to improved EBITDA margin. We still grew revenue every quarter this year due to the tremendous performance of our software platform and continued strength and growth in the advertising market. Our apps portfolio continues to perform well with 5% growth from last quarter while maintaining a consistent 15% adjusted EBITDA margin. Our software platform had another excellent quarter. We achieved a revenue of $576 million and adjusted EBITDA of $420 million. That's a 73% margin. This represents nearly an 80% flow-through from revenue given our relatively fixed cost base and continued cost discipline.

第四季度，我們的營收和調整後 EBITDA 均超過了指導上限，實現總收入 9.53 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 4.76 億美元。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 50%，令人印象深刻。本季我們的營收和調整後 EBITDA 均超出了市場普遍平均水平，超出了分析師的預期。調整後 EBITDA 比預期高出近 10%。我們的營收比去年同期成長了 36%，比上季成長了 10%。上半年我們的應用程式業務優化工作導致營收略有下降，但導致 EBITDA 利潤率提高。由於我們軟體平台的出色表現以及廣告市場的持續實力和成長，我們今年每季的營收仍然成長。我們的應用程式組合持續表現良好，較上季成長 5%，同時保持 15% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。我們的軟體平台又經歷了一個出色的季度。我們實現營收 5.76 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 4.2 億美元。這是 73% 的利潤率。鑑於我們相對固定的成本基礎和持續的成本控制，這意味著近 80% 的收入來自收入。

All of our businesses were able to grow their revenue this quarter without discovery of the primary driver of our success. Our growth stemmed from a combination of market factors and our execution, including a strong holiday season, growth in the mobile advertising market, a market shift to real-time bidding, early contributions from our array business, enhancement of our technologies like AXON, expansion of our advertiser base and growth in advertiser budgets. The combination of these factors are contributing to improved efficiency, leading to compounding growth for our company and our partners in the industry.

我們所有的業務都能夠在本季度實現收入成長，但沒有發現我們成功的主要驅動力。我們的成長源自於市場因素和我們的執行力的結合，包括強勁的假期、行動廣告市場的成長、市場向即時競價的轉變、我們陣列業務的早期貢獻、AXON 等技術的增強、擴張我們的廣告商基礎和廣告商預算的成長。這些因素的結合有助於提高效率，從而為我們公司和行業合作夥伴帶來複合成長。

Turning briefly to our annual results. Revenue for the year was $3.3 billion. That's an increase of 17% from last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.5 billion. That's an incredible 41% increase from last year at an adjusted EBITDA margin of 46%. Over the last five years, we've been able to achieve remarkable growth in our software platform business. We grew from $136 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2019 to nearly $1.3 billion this year. During that time, we had roughly 60% to 70% adjusted EBITDA margin. Free cash flow for the year was $1 billion, representing an impressive 69% flow-through from adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion. Going forward, we hope to retain roughly 70% flow through on an annual basis with quarterly fluctuations due to working capital and tax payments.

簡單談談我們的年度業績。該年度收入為 33 億美元。比去年增加了 17%。調整後 EBITDA 為 15 億美元。調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 46%，較去年增長了 41%，令人難以置信。在過去的五年裡，我們的軟體平台業務取得了顯著的成長。我們的調整後 EBITDA 從 2019 年的 1.36 億美元增加到今年的近 13 億美元。在此期間，我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率約為 60% 至 70%。全年自由現金流為 10 億美元，佔 15 億美元調整後 EBITDA 的 69%。展望未來，我們希望保持每年約 70% 的流量，但由於營運資金和納稅而出現季度波動。

During the year, we extended the maturity of our term loan to 2030, at the same time reducing our interest rate to continue to manage our ongoing costs. In addition to our debt management activities this year, we also repurchased and withheld a combined 54.3 million shares in 2023. After considering share compensation, this represents a nearly 10% reduction in our total shares outstanding. Through the combination of free cash flow generation and share management, we hope to continue to generate significant long-term value for our existing and our new shareholders. Our Board has also approved an increase in our share repurchase authorization by $1.25 billion. We plan to use this to continue to manage our outstanding shares.

年內，我們將定期貸款期限延長至 2030 年，同時降低利率以繼續管理持續成本。除了今年的債務管理活動外，我們還在 2023 年回購並扣留了總計 5,430 萬股股票。考慮到股票補償後，這意味著我們的流通股總數減少了近 10%。透過自由現金流產生和股權管理的結合，我們希望繼續為現有和新股東創造顯著的長期價值。我們的董事會也批准將我們的股票回購授權增加 12.5 億美元。我們計劃用它來繼續管理我們的流通股。

Turning to our first quarter 2024 guidance. We hope to deliver between $955 million and $975 million in revenue in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be within the range of $475 million and $495 million. That represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of between 50% and 51%. We believe these results are achievable given the various growth factors I highlighted earlier while taking into account the first quarter is a seasonally low period for the industry.

轉向我們的 2024 年第一季指引。我們希望第一季實現 9.55 億至 9.75 億美元的營收。調整後的 EBITDA 預計在 4.75 億美元至 4.95 億美元之間。這意味著調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率在 50% 到 51% 之間。考慮到我之前強調的各種成長因素，同時考慮到第一季是該行業的季節性低谷期，我們相信這些結果是可以實現的。

In conclusion, we're very happy with our financial performance this quarter. And for all of 2023 as a result of a strengthening market, combined with our team's execution. We look forward to continued growth over the coming year as we continue to expand our business into new verticals in industries such as non-gaming and CTV.

總之，我們對本季的財務表現非常滿意。 2023 年全年，由於市場走強，再加上我們團隊的執行力。隨著我們繼續將業務擴展到非遊戲和 CTV 等行業的新垂直領域，我們期待來年的持續成長。

Now with that, I'll hand it over to our moderator to take us through Q&A.

現在，我將把它交給我們的主持人來帶領我們進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) And first question is going to come from Omar Dessouky with BofA.

（操作員說明）第一個問題將由美國銀行的 Omar Dessouky 提出。

Let's see, on the one hand, you're not giving calendar year '24 guidance. But on the other hand, you did talk about in your letter that you're working towards expanding your software platform reach in 2024. So I was wondering if you could unpack those two things for us, especially the software platform reach part.

讓我們看看，一方面，您沒有提供 24 年的指導。但另一方面，您在信中確實談到，您正在努力在2024 年擴大軟體平台的覆蓋範圍。所以我想知道您是否可以為我們解開這兩件事，特別是軟體平台的覆蓋範圍部分。

I'll start with the business side and then Matt will jump into the financials. But ultimately, we launched AXON 2, the upgrade of our AI platform in Q2 last year. From that point to Q4, the software business grew almost 50%. And obviously, you know the impact on margins. We've talked about a huge flow-through in dollars, the incremental dollars of growth there coming in at 80% roughly in the quarter.

我將從業務方面開始，然後馬特將進入財務方面。但最終，我們在去年第二季推出了 AXON 2，這是我們人工智慧平台的升級版。從那時起到第四季度，軟體業務成長了近 50%。顯然，您知道這對利潤率的影響。我們已經談到了巨大的美元流動，本季增量美元成長約為 80%。

This is an early-stage technology. It's only been live for a little over half a year. It's growing exceptionally quickly, it's very high margin. We think the applications of this core technology are much broader than what we do today. And the team is continuously improving the technology, too. So we're very excited about where it can go.

這是一項早期技術。它上線才半年多一點。它的成長速度非常快，利潤率非常高。我們認為這項核心技術的應用比我們今天所做的要廣泛得多。該團隊也在不斷改進技術。所以我們對它的發展方向感到非常興奮。

Ultimately, when you've got a business that's growing that quickly on a technology that's, that new, at the margins we operate at, it's very hard to understand going forward exactly where we're going to land, but we've never been more excited about the growth prospects we've got in front of us.

最終，當你的業務在一項新的技術上快速成長時，我們的營運利潤率很低，很難準確地理解我們將走向何方，但我們從來沒有達到這樣的水平。對我們面前的成長前景更加興奮。

And just to echo what Adam said, Omar, given the difficulty in kind of forecasting and understanding the impact of launching a new technology like we did with AXON 2.0, it's very difficult for us to forecast what the impact or the financial impact of that is. So for that reason, we don't provide longer-term guidance.

奧馬爾，正如 Adam 所說，考慮到像我們對 AXON 2.0 那樣推出新技術的影響很難進行預測和理解，我們很難預測其影響或財務影響是什麼。因此，出於這個原因，我們不提供長期指導。

And then just a quick follow-up, if I could. So Facebook called out Chinese advertisers, both e-commerce and video game publishers as one of the reasons their advertising outperformed in Q4. I didn't see it in your shareholder letter, and I was wondering if that's something you guys have seen at all or perhaps expecting in the first quarter?

如果可以的話，然後快速跟進。因此，Facebook 點名中國廣告商，包括電子商務和電玩發行商，作為他們的廣告在第四季度表現出色的原因之一。我在你們的股東信中沒有看到這一點，我想知道你們是否在第一季看過或期待過這種情況？

No, we don't have any specific concentration or change of mix, and we invest lower in terms of Chinese partners to rest of the world that I think they do. But this is something we called out during COVID. China lockdown was a huge area of inefficiency in the market. So we've seen the market really hit a trough last year or two years ago, and then start recovering late last year. A lot of that was because Chinese developers were back in office for a year coming back online, getting efficient again. And we've signaled that we thought eventually that's going to help bring efficiency back to the market because while we don't invest heavily on the revenue side, there is a lot of content that's created out of China that comes out west and does benefit advertising-related businesses. And so that was a good trend that we've seen continue to expand.

不，我們沒有任何具體的集中或組合變化，而且我們對中國合作夥伴對世界其他地區的投資比我想像的要低。但這是我們在新冠疫情期間呼籲的。中國的封鎖是市場效率低落的一個重要領域。因此，我們看到市場在去年或兩年前確實觸及了低谷，然後在去年年底開始復甦。這很大程度是因為中國開發商重新上任一年後重新上線，再次提高了效率。我們已經表示，我們認為最終這將有助於提高市場效率，因為雖然我們沒有在收入方面投入大量資金，但有很多中國創作的內容出來後確實讓西方受益。廣告相關業務。因此，這是我們看到繼續擴大的良好趨勢。

Our next question will come from Tim Nollen with Macquarie.

我們的下一個問題將來自麥格理的蒂姆·諾倫。

I wanted to ask about some of these big changes coming in the mobile ad landscape this year, namely the DMA, which comes into effect, I guess, in a couple of weeks time, 3 weeks time. And also the deprecation of the Google Android ID and then also the iOS 17.4 kind of -- a lot of things in there to wonder about how it might impact the mobile ad markets here. I wonder if you could comment on those, please.

我想問今年行動廣告領域即將發生的一些重大變化，即 DMA，我猜它會在幾週、三週後生效。還有 Google Android ID 和 iOS 17.4 之類的棄用——其中有很多事情讓人想知道它可能會如何影響這裡的行動廣告市場。我想知道你是否可以對此發表評論。

Yes. Look, I think we've said this before when it comes to privacy, Tim, is you don't know dates on a lot of these releases. So when you're talking about Google like, who knows when the actual rollout will be, cookies were a lot later than expected and still in a very small percentage rollout. So we don't know when these changes will come. We don't know the exact impact of the changes. What we do know is that, one, the way we've operated traditionally we're very entrepreneurial, we're very nimble, and we've been able to adapt very well whenever there have been these changes.

是的。聽著，我想我們之前在談到隱私時已經說過了，蒂姆，你不知道很多這樣的發布的日期。因此，當您談論 Google 之類的時候，誰知道實際的推出時間是什麼時候，cookie 比預期晚了很多，而且仍然只佔很小的比例。所以我們不知道這些改變什麼時候會發生。我們不知道這些變化的確切影響。我們所知道的是，第一，我們傳統的運作方式非常具有創業精神，我們非常靈活，每當發生這些變化時，我們都能很好地適應。

And number two, we run a much more of a contextual behavioral model than a lot of properties on the Open Web. And so because we don't interface as much when it comes to really sensitive user data with the consumer, we're in a much better starting point than a lot of other businesses, too. So those two things always give us confidence that no matter what the change is, we're going to be able to navigate.

第二，我們運行的更多的是上下文行為模型，而不是開放網路上的許多屬性。因此，由於我們在涉及真正敏感的用戶資料時不會與消費者進行太多交互，因此我們也比許多其他企業處於一個更好的起點。因此，這兩件事總是讓我們充滿信心，無論發生什麼變化，我們都能夠應對。

Okay. Could I ask a follow-up on the DMA which would be, do you think allowing much lower app store fees in Europe, at least would be a positive for app development, which might then lead to more ad spending going down the road? Or do you have any opinion on the Apple response to be adding this extra $0.50 charge?

好的。我能否問一下 DMA 的後續問題，您是否認為允許歐洲降低應用程式商店費用至少會對應用程式開發有利，這可能會導致未來更多的廣告支出？或者您對 Apple 增加 0.50 美元額外費用的回應有何看法？

The way Apple responded makes it not really a great business decision to go off store because one thing people want to talk about is there is organic value to being on store. So if you take the 30% fee and figure 10 to 15 points of value from organic rank, then you're down to 15 points of cost savings and the expense to the developer that they -- all the different layers of expense amounted to roughly 20 points. So there's no economic reason to go off store today. We think over time, though, there's enough global pressure and there's going to be enough movement from the courts over time that are going to continue to scrutinize this in different jurisdictions where eventually we think there could be benefits economically to the content developers.

蘋果的回應方式使得下架並不是一個偉大的商業決定，因為人們想要談論的一件事是，在商店中存在有機價值。因此，如果您收取 30% 的費用，並從有機排名中獲得 10 到 15 個點的價值，那麼您將節省 15 個點的成本，以及開發人員的費用——所有不同層次的費用大致相當於20分。因此，今天沒有經濟原因讓我們下架。不過，我們認為，隨著時間的推移，全球壓力會越來越大，法院也會採取足夠的行動，在不同的司法管轄區繼續對此進行審查，最終我們認為內容開發商可能會在經濟上受益。

And if that happens, we've always said that's going to greatly benefit the advertising solutions. If you just think about the dollars on our platform, majority are transacted to drive IP today, and the dollar is taxed down to $0.70. If that one day went to 85-15, you could go take that and say, every developer now makes 20% more? And how much of that are they going to be willing to put in a marketing? A large part of it, which would be greatly beneficial to a platform like ours.

如果發生這種情況，我們總是說這將大大有利於廣告解決方案。如果您只考慮我們平台上的美元，今天大部分交易都是為了驅動智慧財產權，而美元的稅已降至 0.70 美元。如果有一天達到 85-15，你可以說，現在每位開發人員的收入都增加了 20%？他們願意在行銷上投入多少？其中很大一部分，這對我們這樣的平台來說是非常有利的。

Moving on to Jason Bazinet with Citi.

接下來是花旗銀行的 Jason Bazinet。

This is maybe a long-winded question, but I can't help but look at your stock and the multiple seems so low to me given the attractiveness of your business and the growth and the free cash flow conversion. And I saw the $1.2 billion authorization on buybacks. But I don't think you bought back any stock in the quarter, and yet your guidance is good. You knew it's going to be above the street.

這可能是一個冗長的問題，但我忍不住看看你的股票，考慮到你的業務的吸引力以及成長和自由現金流轉換，對我來說倍數似乎很低。我看到了 12 億美元的回購授權。但我認為您在本季度沒有回購任何股票，但您的指導還是不錯的。你知道它會在街道上方。

So my first question is, can you just comment on sort of the tactical pause in the fourth quarter on buybacks? And then my second one related is do you think your multiple is low because of the two divergent businesses that you have between the software platform and first-party games? And does that still make sense to hold these two businesses together given that one is phenomenally attractive and one is just good.

所以我的第一個問題是，您能否評論一下第四季度回購方面的戰術暫停？然後我的第二個相關問題是，您是否認為您的本益比較低是因為軟體平台和第一方遊戲之間有兩個不同的業務？鑑於其中一項業務極具吸引力，而另一項業務也很不錯，那麼將這兩項業務合併在一起是否仍然有意義。

Yes. I'll take the buyback piece first. So Jason, just from a strategic view, our approach to doing buybacks is to do directed larger repurchases rather than buy back in the open market. That's how we feel like we can have the most impact and the opportunity didn't present itself in Q4 to do a large buyback from an existing shareholder. So to the extent that, that does present itself in the future, that's the approach that we're going to take.

是的。我先拿回購的那塊。 Jason，僅從策略角度來看，我們進行回購的方法是進行定向更大規模的回購，而不是在公開市場上回購。這就是我們認為我們可以產生最大影響的方式，並且第四季度並沒有機會從現有股東那裡進行大規模回購。因此，在某種程度上，這確實會在未來出現，這就是我們將採取的方法。

Yes. And we just did authorize the big buyback. We're going to be committed to it going forward. We do think as a company like ours where we're generating this much cash flow, we should be able to continue to facilitate buybacks and return value to shareholders in that manner.

是的。我們剛剛批准了大規模回購。未來我們將致力於此。我們確實認為，作為像我們這樣產生如此多現金流的公司，我們應該能夠繼續以這種方式促進回購並向股東回報價值。

When it comes to the question of where we trade, why we trade at a certain multiple we trade at? Well we can't answer that, we're not traders, and it's very hard to unpack. Does mobile gaming discount, the overall company valuation? We don't frankly believe so because the core software business is growing so quickly, and we break out financials. So it's pretty easy to just say, let's just look at the software segment. There's -- we think the harder part when it comes to our business is that we were in a no-growth period in '22. We've had to come off of that and really focus on execution, which is what we ask of our teams. And now we put together four subsequent quarters of stellar performance. And as you look at that software segment, there's not a lot of software businesses with 70% plus EBITDA margin, growing at the rate that is, I mean, rule of [140, 150] or whatever. And so it's just an astounding number, and then we convert a very high percentage of that EBITDA to cash flow as well.

當談到我們在哪裡進行交易的問題時，為什麼我們要以特定的倍數進行交易？好吧，我們無法回答這個問題，我們不是交易員，而且很難解開這個問題。手機遊戲是否打折，公司整體估值如何？坦白說，我們並不這麼認為，因為核心軟體業務成長如此之快，而且我們還細分了財務數據。所以很容易說，讓我們看看軟體部分。我們認為，就我們的業務而言，最困難的部分是我們在 22 年處於無增長期。我們必須擺脫這種困境，並真正專注於執行，這就是我們對團隊的要求。現在我們匯總了隨後四個季度的出色表現。當你觀察軟體領域時，你會發現沒有很多軟體企業的 EBITDA 利潤率超過 70%，並且以 [140, 150] 規則或其他速度成長。所以這是一個令人震驚的數字，然後我們也將 EBITDA 的很大一部分轉化為現金流。

So we think because the technologies are new. It will take a while for investors to understand what we already see, which is not only is this very powerful technology in our core market, we've been able to grow much greater than the market is growing because this technology is efficient and in conjunction with that, our partners are growing much faster, too.

所以我們認為因為這些技術就是新技術。投資者需要一段時間才能了解我們已經看到的情況，這不僅是我們核心市場中非常強大的技術，而且我們的成長速度遠遠超過了市場的成長速度，因為這項技術高效且結合在一起隨之而來的是，我們的合作夥伴也成長得更快。

And you see some of these games that are in the market today at the top of the top grossing, they depend on our marketing channel and they're growing because our solutions become more efficient. That's in our core market. And now we see applications of that technology in multiple adjacent markets. And we think we're going to be able to go apply it, not only to what we've talked about some other applications too that we'll talk about in the upcoming quarters. And that's what gets us really excited. So we're for sure committed to buybacks because we see value and we're able to unpack the value much more easily today than investors are, and we hope to be able to articulate that narrative in the coming quarters to investors.

您將看到當今市場上的一些遊戲收入最高，它們依賴我們的行銷管道，並且由於我們的解決方案變得更加高效而不斷增長。那是我們的核心市場。現在我們看到該技術在多個相鄰市場的應用。我們認為我們將能夠將其應用到我們已經討論過的其他應用程式中，我們將在接下來的幾個季度中討論這些應用程式。這就是讓我們真正興奮的原因。因此，我們肯定會致力於回購，因為我們看到了價值，並且我們今天能夠比投資者更容易釋放價值，並且我們希望能夠在未來幾個季度向投資者闡明這一說法。

We will now hear from Ralph Schackart, I apologize, with William Blair.

抱歉，我們現在將聽取拉爾夫·沙卡特和威廉·布萊爾的演講。

First one, I know you've talked historically about AXON 2 extended and beyond just sort of the gaming vertical. But maybe sort of give us an update on the progress. You're starting to get contributions outside of the gaming vertical. And then I have a follow-up.

首先，我知道您曾經談論過 AXON 2 擴充版，並且不僅限於遊戲垂直領域。但也許可以向我們提供最新進展。您開始獲得遊戲垂直領域以外的貢獻。然後我有一個後續行動。

Non-gaming is growing fast than gaming, it's smaller. So obviously, there's more room to grow. It's going to be a commitment of ours to broaden out the platform. We've talked about broadening out to non-gaming, that's a component. We've talked about Connected TV, that was an application that's in progress right now, expanding our reach to the television device.

非遊戲領域的成長速度比遊戲領域快，但規模較小。顯然，還有更多的成長空間。擴大平台將是我們的承諾。我們已經討論過擴展到非遊戲領域，這是一個組成部分。我們已經討論過聯網電視，這是一個目前正在開發中的應用程序，它將我們的業務範圍擴展到電視設備。

We talked about delivering marketing solutions to carriers and OEMs powered by AXON 2, that's in progress as well. We're starting to see, as Matt touched on in his script, some benefit from both those initiatives. And we think there are not only those applications but more beyond that, that we'll talk about in the coming quarters as well. And so we're very excited about not only what our solution can do within our core category, but the expansion opportunities that presents us.

我們討論了向營運商和 OEM 提供由 AXON 2 支援的行銷解決方案，這也在進行中。正如馬特在他的劇本中提到的那樣，我們開始看到這兩項舉措都帶來了一些好處。我們認為不僅有這些應用程序，還有更多的應用程序，我們也將在未來幾個季度討論。因此，我們不僅對我們的解決方案在核心類別中的作用感到非常興奮，而且對為我們帶來的擴展機會感到非常興奮。

Maybe you could sort of provide some context of what's really outperforming versus expectations. I'm sure there's an element of conservatism on wanting to guide. But just sort of frame for investors, why is AXON 2 doing better perhaps than you expected?

也許您可以提供一些真正超出預期的背景資訊。我確信在想要指導方面存在著保守主義的因素。但對於投資者來說，為什麼 AXON 2 的表現可能比您預期的還要好？

Look, I mean, what people don't understand about our platform, and I guess we don't tend to articulate to is the MAX business sits on top of over 1 billion daily active users, 1 billion users playing games. So if you think about in the U.S., roughly 170 million daily active users. So you're talking about the majority of American adults are playing games daily in mobile apps, and we're able to service them.

聽著，我的意思是，人們對我們的平台不了解，而且我想我們也不願意清楚表達的是，MAX 業務建立在超過 10 億的日常活躍用戶和 10 億的遊戲用戶之上。因此，如果您考慮美國，大約有 1.7 億日活躍用戶。所以你說的是大多數美國成年人每天都在行動應用程式中玩遊戲，我們能夠為他們提供服務。

Historically, in this channel, the modernization has been very low per 1,000 impressions compared to what the social networks and the search engines and the video apps have gotten to. And those companies had very sophisticated technology and a lot of data. We've been able to get to a point now where our technology has become much more efficient. So we're just monetizing this audience more effectively.

從歷史上看，與社交網路、搜尋引擎和視訊應用程式相比，該管道的每 1,000 次展示的現代化程度非常低。這些公司擁有非常先進的技術和大量數據。現在我們的技術已經變得更有效率。所以我們只是更有效地利用這些受眾來貨幣化。

What gets us really excited is we're a couple of quarters in. We're really starting from a low monetization point. The whole market is monetizing these users playing games at a low point. When you have that much reach, 170 million daily actives in the states, these aren't people that are just playing mobile games. There's just no way. It's a very, very widespread audience, predominantly adult that are doing other things.

讓我們真正興奮的是我們已經完成了幾個季度。我們確實是從一個較低的盈利點開始的。整個市場正在透過這些低點玩遊戲的用戶來貨幣化。當你擁有如此大的影響力時，即各州每天有 1.7 億活躍用戶，這些人就不再只是玩手機遊戲了。就是沒有辦法。這是一個非常非常廣泛的受眾，主要是做其他事情的成年人。

And as these technologies get to a point of predicting more broader application of advertising to this audience, not only will it get more efficient, it will expand out the reach for a company like ours to other verticals, and it will create more efficiency for the publisher, we should grow everything. And so that's what gets us really excited is it all comes down to efficiently monetizing a huge audience that we have access to.

隨著這些技術能夠預測廣告將更廣泛地應用於這些受眾，它不僅會變得更加高效，還會將像我們這樣的公司的影響力擴展到其他垂直領域，並且將為廣告創造更高的效率。出版商，我們應該種植一切。這就是讓我們真正興奮的地方，因為這一切都歸結為有效地利用我們擁有的大量受眾來貨幣化。

Maybe if I could just sneak one more in. We get the question all the time in simple terms, if you could explain what's the main difference from AXON 2 versus AXON 1. Maybe just for simplicity sake, for investors sort of frame what's the biggest change or observation you see on your end?

也許我可以再偷偷地再插一句。我們總是用簡單的術語來回答這個問題，如果你能解釋一下AXON 2 與AXON 1 的主要區別是什麼。也許只是為了簡單起見，對於投資者來說，最大的差異是什麼？您最終看到的變化或觀察？

Yes, it's just better. I mean just the technology is built to scale better, it's more efficient, more effective. These are predictive technologies at the end of the day. And I'm drawing the analogy to Chat GPT. And the only reason I do that is because we can all type in a box and get a result. And we all know that Chat GPT 3 to 3.5 to 4, 4 was better than 3.5, it was better than 3, right? But we could have seen that.

是的，只是更好了。我的意思是，技術的建構是為了更好地擴展、更有效率、更有效。歸根究底，這些都是預測技術。我將其與 Chat GPT 進行類比。我這樣做的唯一原因是因為我們都可以在一個框中輸入並得到結果。而且我們都知道Chat GPT 3比3.5比4，4比3.5好，比3好，對吧？但我們本來可以看到這一點。

Well, what we can't see in a black box algorithm is a type in and a result. But what we can see is that what we're trying to predict is show an advertisement to a consumer for some advertiser and drive value to the advertiser. And there's a whole bunch of predictions along the way, and AXON 2 makes them better than the prior version. And that creates a lot of efficiency gain, both for our business and that of our partners.

嗯，我們在黑盒演算法中看不到的是輸入和結果。但我們可以看到的是，我們試圖預測的是向某些廣告商的消費者展示廣告，並為廣告商帶來價值。一路上有一大堆預測，AXON 2 使它們比之前的版本更好。這為我們的業務和合作夥伴的業務帶來了很大的效率提升。

Cannonball's Vasily Karasyov has the next question.

Cannonball 的 Vasily Karasyov 有下一個問題。

I have two. First one, can you talk in a little more detail about different trends for domestic and international markets that you see and revenue or maybe metrics. Is there any difference? Do you see different penetration and customer response?

我有兩個。首先，您能否更詳細地談談您所看到的國內和國際市場的不同趨勢以及收入或指標。有什麼區別嗎？您是否看到不同的滲透率和客戶反應？

And then the second one is, given what you said about extending software platform, how sustainable or the EBITDA margins in this segment that we saw in Q4?

第二個問題是，考慮到您所說的擴展軟體平台，我們在第四季度看到的這一領域的 EBITDA 利潤率有多可持續？

So on the first, we don't see a whole lot of difference domestic to international. There's consumption that drives our value and there's efficiency of the algorithms and partners that are advertising on us that drive the value. And so other than like one-off holidays in international locations that would alter the revenue percentages. If you assume the period of engagement is consistent, then the revenue mix would also be consistent.

因此，首先，我們沒有看到國內與國際之間有很大的差異。消費推動了我們的價值，演算法的效率和為我們做廣告的合作夥伴推動了價值。因此，除了會改變收入百分比的國際地點的一次性假期之外。如果您假設參與期限是一致的，那麼收入組合也將是一致的。

And the other core thing to always remember about our business is, all of our advertising is 100% performance-based. So an advertiser that wants a specific performance of yield and the U.S. is willing to get the same yield in Turkey or in the U.K. or in Germany or in Japan. And so when they advertise with us, they are predominantly global advertisers. So we don't tend to see much variance there.

關於我們的業務，另一個需要永遠記住的核心事情是，我們所有的廣告都是 100% 基於效果的。因此，想要獲得與美國特定收益表現的廣告商願意在土耳其、英國、德國或日本獲得相同的收益。因此，當他們與我們一起做廣告時，他們主要是全球廣告商。所以我們不會在那裡看到太大的差異。

And on your second question, Vasily, in terms of just margin. We haven't seen any significant difference. I mean, as Adam mentioned previously, it's relatively small at this point, the non-gaming component of the business. But as we push into these other new verticals and industries, we don't see any material difference between the margin profiles of the existing mobile gaming business or non-gaming.

關於你的第二個問題，瓦西里，就利潤而言。我們沒有看到任何顯著差異。我的意思是，正如亞當之前提到的，目前業務的非遊戲部分相對較小。但當我們進軍其他新的垂直領域和產業時，我們沒有看到現有行動遊戲業務或非遊戲業務的利潤狀況之間存在任何實質差異。

Yes. We've let you all know that when you see roughly 80% flow-through, we don't really expect that to be different as that software business continues to grow. The flow-through should be a really high conversion to EBITDA.

是的。我們已經讓大家知道，當您看到大約 80% 的流量時，我們並不認為隨著軟體業務的持續成長，情況會有所不同。流動資金對 EBITDA 的轉換率應該很高。

So Q4 is indicative of what we should expect next year? Every quarter?

那麼第四季預示著我們明年應該期待什麼？每個季度？

On the incremental revenue growth, yes.

關於增量收入成長，是的。

Yes. I mean if you look at just our guidance, Vasily, we're guiding to a similar position, right, in the 50% to 51% overall EBITDA margin.

是的。我的意思是，如果你只看我們的指導，瓦西里，我們的指導是類似的位置，對吧，整體 EBITDA 利潤率為 50% 到 51%。

And Matt Cost with Morgan Stanley.

還有摩根士丹利的馬特‧科斯特。

Two, if I could. So from a real-time bidding perspective, it looks like I might have frozen. Can you still hear me?

兩個，如果可以的話。所以從即時競價的角度來看，我可能已經凍結了。你還能聽到我說話嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. Good. Well, then we'll keep going. From a real-time bidding perspective, how much of the market has shifted towards real-time bidding at this point? And then can you talk about the financial impact that, that will have when that process is complete and how investors should think that through? And then I have a second.

好的。好的。好吧，那我們就繼續吧。從即時競價的角度來看，目前有多少市場已經轉向即時競價？然後您能談談過程完成後將會產生的財務影響以及投資者應該如何思考這一點嗎？然後我還有第二次。

Yes. So the first one, the Google announcements on their move to go predominantly real-time bidding in mobile mediated auctions came out, I think it was some point in October. And they had a commitment to do by January. But throughout Q4, the vast majority of the market was traded in a programmatic real-time manner. And the impact of that is twofold for a business like ours.

是的。所以第一個，Google宣布他們將在行動介導的拍賣中主要採用即時競價，我認為這是十月份的某個時刻。他們承諾在一月之前完成。但在整個第四季度，絕大多數市場都是以程式化即時方式進行交易。對我們這樣的企業來說，這種影響是雙重的。

One is we've operated the MAX platform not charging anything to advertising companies when they're not real-time bidding, but charging a take rate of 5% when they are real time bidding. And we've disclosed that number before. That's just a consistent fee that we charge to bid on our platform. Now with the majority of the market moving that way, that's a good economic development for the MAX platform, and that obviously benefits our software segment.

一是我們經營的MAX平台在非即時競價時不向廣告公司收取任何費用，但在即時競價時收取5%的佣金。我們之前已經披露過這個數字。這只是我們在平台上競標時收取的固定費用。現在，隨著大多數市場朝著這個方向發展，這對 MAX 平台來說是一個良好的經濟發展，這顯然有利於我們的軟體部門。

On the second point of the impact, what real-time bidding does is clear an auction faster. There's less consumption. So there's just less infrastructural load in order to process a real-time auction versus a waterfall auction, and there's a quicker ad delivery. And by delivering an advertisement more quickly, the publisher benefits because they can show more advertisements to their consumer whenever they want to, instead of waiting for an advertisement to actually clear, it clears faster and more show.

在第二點影響上，即時競價的作用是更快完成拍賣。消費就少了。因此，與瀑布式拍賣相比，處理即時拍賣的基礎設施負載更少，廣告投放速度更快。透過更快地投放廣告，發布者可以受益，因為他們可以隨時向消費者展示更多廣告，而不是等待廣告實際清除，而是清除得更快、顯示更多。

By doing that, it creates a world where the publisher starts yielding more in an efficient manner which can then drive up their ad revenue per user. And then the whole formula that we operate on is the publisher makes more, they reinvest more in the user acquisition, their business grows, and we enable that growth, and our business grows with it. So we're only seeing positive from this transition.

透過這樣做，它創造了一個世界，發布商開始以有效的方式獲得更多收益，從而提高每個用戶的廣告收入。然後我們運作的整個公式是發行商賺取更多，他們在用戶獲取上進行更多再投資，他們的業務增長，我們實現這種增長，我們的業務隨之增長。因此，我們只從這轉變中看到正面的一面。

And then the second question was just on the competitive environment. Obviously, one of different competitors is going through a major restructuring. I guess, are you seeing any shift positive or negative in the competitive landscape year-to-date?

第二個問題是關於競爭環境。顯然，不同的競爭對手之一正在經歷重大重組。我想，今年迄今為止，您是否看到競爭格局發生了積極或消極的變化？

Look, since we went public, we've been a very strong independent leader in the sector. I don't think anything has changed there. We've been focused on executing ourselves. And as our technology has gotten more efficient. Obviously, we're driving more value to advertisers. But we've said this for, I think, multiple quarters now, none of us operate in a zero-sum game. So when we're able to drive more value to these advertisers who are buying on a performance basis, they don't go, we have a fixed budget and we're going to pull from here. They go, okay, we have a budget over here. We have budget over here. But AppLovin is now 5x better than they were. So let's expand the budget with them, too.

看，自從我們上市以來，我們一直是該行業非常強大的獨立領導者。我認為那裡沒有任何改變。我們一直專注於執行自己。隨著我們的技術變得更有效率。顯然，我們正在為廣告商帶來更多價值。但我想，我們已經這麼說了好幾個季度了，我們都沒有參與零和遊戲。因此，當我們能夠為這些基於效果進行購買的廣告商帶來更多價值時，他們就不會離開，我們有固定的預算，我們將從這裡開始。他們說，好吧，我們這裡有預算。我們這裡有預算。但 AppLovin 現在比以前好 5 倍。因此，讓我們也與他們一起擴大預算。

And they're able to reinvest more dollars into the user acquisition, which helps their businesses grow. And that's what makes the space quite appealing is that none of it is zero sum, whether on the publisher or the advertiser side. And so we've been able to focus heads down on our own execution. Our team has built really cutting-edge technology that works better than any other -- I think any of the advertisers or our peers have seen in the sector, but that benefits everyone in the sector. And so we're excited that, that is just a reality of the industry we're in.

他們能夠將更多的資金再投資到用戶獲取上，這有助於他們的業務成長。這就是這個領域非常有吸引力的地方，因為無論是對出版商還是廣告商來說，這一切都不是零和的。因此，我們能夠專注於我們自己的執行。我們的團隊已經建立了真正尖端的技術，比任何其他技術都更好——我認為任何廣告商或我們的同行都已經在這個領域看到了，但這使該領域的每個人都受益。所以我們很興奮，這就是我們所處行業的現實。

David Karnovsky with JPMorgan has the next question.

摩根大通的戴維卡諾夫斯基提出了下一個問題。

Adam, maybe relative to your prior shareholder letters, you seem to be describing a mobile market, which is broadly inflecting for the better. So I wanted to see if you could walk through some of the drivers of that, what you're seeing.

Adam，也許相對於您之前的股東信，您似乎描述的是一個行動市場，該市場總體上正在朝著好的方向發展。所以我想看看你是否可以了解你所看到的一些驅動因素。

And then for Matt, wanted to confirm, you said 70% free cash flow conversion expected from here. I think the prior range was 50% to 60%. So maybe what's driving the better flow-through?

然後，Matt 想確認一下，您所說的自由現金流預計將實現 70% 的轉換。我認為之前的範圍是50%到60%。那麼，也許是什麼推動了更好的流通呢？

And then just housekeeping on the Q1 guide, any color in terms of expected apps growth there even on a directional basis? Should you gain sequentially? Or would we see sort of a seasonal decrease?

然後只是第一季指南中的內務處理，即使是在定向基礎上，預期應用程式成長方面有什麼顏色嗎？你應該依序獲得嗎？或者我們會看到季節性下降嗎？

I'll have Matt cover two and three. On the first one, on the mobile market, we put out a blog. I think it was around Thanksgiving. So it was a good one, highlighting just CPM growth in the industry, comparing '23 to '22 holiday period. And what we saw in Q4 was that just coming off of weak comps in '22 when every part of the economy was fearful and this sector was particularly fearful we saw brands and performance advertisers more willing to invest in marketing dollars.

我會讓馬特報道第二和第三。第一個是關於行動市場，我們發布了一個部落格。我想那是在感恩節前後。所以這是一個很好的例子，透過比較「23」和「22」假期期間，突顯了業界每千次展示費用的成長。我們在第四季度看到的是，剛擺脫 22 年疲軟的競爭，當時經濟的各個部分都令人擔憂，這個行業尤其令人擔憂，我們看到品牌和效果廣告商更願意投資行銷資金。

Now what we don't know about that is are the AI-driven advancements in the marketing technologies that you've seen implied by our numbers and our performance and technology and what Facebook has done and what Google have done over the last year driven that acceleration? Or is it just the economy recovering? And we think it's a function of both. And we actually think because we're not brand advertising at all. Ours is entirely due to the technology efficiency, you're seeing this market start recovering. It's coming off from weak comps. So getting back to growth is easier than it was in the past. But the marketing technology is evolving from here and continuing to improve is going to be a really good catalyst for a return to growth for this mobile market.

現在我們不知道的是人工智慧驅動的行銷技術進步，你已經看到我們的數字、我們的效能和技術以及 Facebook 和 Google 在過去一年中所做的事情所暗示的推動了這一點加速度？還是只是經濟復甦？我們認為這是兩者的共同作用。我們實際上在思考，因為我們根本不是品牌廣告。我們的完全歸功於技術效率，您會看到這個市場開始復甦。它來自於較弱的競爭。因此，恢復成長比過去更容易。但行銷技術正在不斷發展，並且持續改進將成為行動市場恢復成長的真正良好催化劑。

In terms of free cash flow, David, so we didn't guide to 70% going forward on a long-term basis. On a quarterly basis, we will have fluctuations depending upon just working capital and then also the timing of tax payments. But we are seeing better free cash flow conversion from EBITDA than we were expecting, which is a positive impact that we're seeing from all the technology improvements that we've done.

大衛，就自由現金流而言，我們沒有將長期目標定為 70%。按季度計算，我們的波動取決於營運資金以及納稅時間。但我們看到 EBITDA 的自由現金流轉換比我們預期的要好，這是我們從我們所做的所有技術改進中看到的正面影響。

And then in terms of the Q1 guide, your last question, Obviously, we don't provide segment guidance, so I won't comment on apps versus software, but we are happy to be able to guide into Q1 with slight growth considering the fact that it is a seasonally low period for the advertising market.

然後就第一季指南而言，您的最後一個問題，顯然，我們不提供細分指導，因此我不會評論應用程式與軟體，但考慮到我們很高興能夠以小幅增長的方式進入第一季度事實上，這是廣告市場的季節性低谷時期。

Well, Adam and Matt, we will take our last question from Chris Kuntarich with UBS.

好吧，亞當和馬特，我們將回答瑞銀集團克里斯昆塔里奇的最後一個問題。

I think we're a bit further on into the CTV testing at this point. Can you just give us some feedback from advertisers on how that adoption is going?

我認為我們現在已經進入了 CTV 測試的更進一步階段。您能否向我們提供一些廣告商關於採用情況的回饋？

Look, the CTV testing and the rollout is early stage. And we've got a really large software platform business now with net revenue near $2 billion. So for it to become very substantial for these advertisers as the ways out, they're all intrigued by it because traditionally, and I don't know if you do channel checks, you won't find another place where these advertisers can buy on a performance basis, the way we can enable it on Connected TV today.

看，CTV 測試和推出還處於早期階段。我們現在擁有一個非常龐大的軟體平台業務，淨收入接近 20 億美元。因此，對於這些廣告商來說，作為出路，它變得非常重要，他們都對此很感興趣，因為傳統上，我不知道你是否進行管道檢查，你不會找到這些廣告商可以購買的其他地方性能基礎，我們今天可以在聯網電視上實現它的方式。

So I'd say it's first inning, everyone is excited by prospect of being able to go recruit a consumer on a new device that they just had never had the access to before in the way that we can enable it but it's early and in our business as big as we are and as fast growing as that business is for any new initiative to make a material impact, we're talking multiple years.

所以我想說，這是第一局，每個人都對能夠在新設備上招募消費者的前景感到興奮，而他們以前從未以我們可以啟用它的方式訪問過它，但現在還為時過早，而且還處於我們的早期階段。我們的業務規模如此之大，成長速度之快，任何新舉措要想產生重大影響，我們都需要多年的時間。

And maybe just going back to the non-gaming business, I think it's been positioned in the past, there was a bit of a lag between the adoption of AXON 2 from gaming and non-gaming and just the scaling of budgets here within the non-gaming business once those advertisers adopt AXON 2.

也許回到非遊戲業務，我認為它在過去的定位，遊戲和非遊戲領域對 AXON 2 的採用以及非遊戲領域內預算的擴展之間存在一些滯後。 - 一旦這些廣告商採用AXON 2 後的遊戲業務。

Can you just talk about, kind of, if that slowness to scale budgets within that non-gaming business if you guys are starting to see that normalize and start to kind of revert to what you're seeing in your gaming business?

如果你們開始看到這種情況正常化並開始恢復到你在遊戲業務中看到的情況，你能否談談非遊戲業務中預算規模的緩慢擴大？

Yes, it's a good question. Non-gaming we'll probably never get to as quick as mobile gaming. The mobile gaming marketer sees an opportunity and jumps on it. It's just that it tends to be a more commoditized space, and it's a tougher space for content providers to plan, whereas non-gaming enterprises tend to have a brand and they have fixed budgets and they normally plan their budgets in every quarters and years out. And so because of that, it won't ever be a quick to move market, that said, we talked about it growing faster than the gaming segment.

是的，這是一個好問題。我們可能永遠不會像行動遊戲那樣快速發展非遊戲領域。行動遊戲行銷人員看到了機會並抓住了它。只是它往往是一個更商品化的空間，對內容提供者來說是一個更難規劃的空間，而非遊戲企業往往有一個品牌，他們有固定的預算，他們通常每個季度和每年都會規劃預算。因此，正因為如此，它永遠不會是一個快速發展的市場，也就是說，我們談到它的成長速度比遊戲領域更快。

We do know the technology application works across any category that we've seen so far. So as we get a fintech advertiser live, or a rentals company or an e-commerce company, we're seeing success across the board. So it's an area we're investing in. We're increasing our head count there. Now we always operate efficiently and lean. So that doesn't mean a lot of cost, but we are investing in bringing in the right people to really expand these non-gaming verticals because we see a ton of opportunity there.

我們確實知道該技術應用適用於迄今為止我們所看到的任何類別。因此，當我們聘請金融科技廣告商、租賃公司或電子商務公司時，我們就會看到全面的成功。所以這是我們正在投資的一個領域。我們正在增加那裡的員工人數。現在我們始終有效率且精實地運作。因此，這並不意味著需要大量成本，但我們正在投資引進合適的人才來真正擴展這些非遊戲垂直領域，因為我們在那裡看到了大量的機會。

Okay. And maybe just one housekeeping, if I can squeeze it in. I think you had called out the Software segment outperformance in 4Q, you listed off a handful of factors. I think it started with a strong market and wrapped up with growth in advertiser budgets. Should we be directionally or kind of if we were to stack rank these various impacts? Is that kind of from most impactful to least impactful? Or anything to read into there?

好的。如果我能把它塞進去的話，也許只是一項內務處理。我認為您已經指出了軟體部門在第四季度的出色表現，您列出了一些因素。我認為它始於強勁的市場，並以廣告商預算的成長而告終。如果我們要對這些不同的影響進行排名，我們應該有方向性還是某種程度？這是從影響最大到影響最小的排序嗎？或是有什麼值得讀的嗎？

No, they're not rank ordered, my list of factors. Yes, it's just a combination.

不，它們不是按順序排列的，這是我的因素清單。是的，這只是一個組合。

And I'd say, just given the growth rate we're on, and you've seen for multiple quarters now, the bigger part of our growth is driving more efficient value to advertisers, unlocking more budget and expanding the advertiser total than it is the market. The market isn't growing anywhere near as fast as what we are.

我想說的是，考慮到我們目前的成長率，以及您現在已經看到的多個季度，我們成長的很大一部分是為廣告商帶來更有效的價值，釋放更多預算並擴大廣告商總數是市場。市場的成長速度遠不及我們的速度。

Well, this does conclude our question-and-answer session for the quarter. We thank you all for joining us today. Have a good afternoon. We'll see you next time.

好吧，我們本季的問答環節到此結束。我們感謝大家今天加入我們。祝你下午好。我們下次見。

Thanks, everyone.

感謝大家。

Thanks.

謝謝。