Applovin Corp (APP) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

內容摘要

AppLovin 報告 2023 年第四季財務業績強勁,超乎預期並全年持續成長。在人工智慧廣告引擎 AXON 的成功推動下,該公司的軟體平台收入在 2023 年成長了 76%。

AppLovin 計劃擴展到 CTV 領域和營運商 OEM 市場的新應用。該公司財務長對強勁的業績表示感謝,營收年增 36%,環比成長 10%。

AppLovin 的目標是保持每年 70% 的流量,並為 2024 年第一季提供了指導。他們對適應隱私變化的能力充滿信心,並看到非遊戲領域的成長潛力。

該公司計劃繼續透過股票回購向股東回報價值。 AppLovin 相信他們的核心軟體業務正在快速成長,並看到了擴展到其他垂直領域的潛力。他們改進了技術,以更有效地從 10 億每日活躍用戶中獲利。

該公司仍然是該行業的強大領導者,並預計行動市場將繼續成長。他們看到更好的自由現金流轉換,並指導第一季小幅成長。

連網電視的採用尚處於早期階段,AppLovin 正在投資擴大非遊戲垂直領域。他們的成長主要是透過為廣告商提供更多價值和釋放更多預算來推動的。

完整原文

使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主

  • David Hsiao - Head of IR

    David Hsiao - Head of IR

  • 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 2023 年 12 月 31 日第四季及年度財報電話會議。今天與我一起討論我們的成果的有我們的共同創辦人、執行長兼董事長 Adam Foroughi;以及我們的財務長 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,我們迄今為止提交給美國證券交易委員會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可在 investor.applovin.com 上查閱。

  • 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、公司未來財務表現和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,我們不承擔更新它們的義務,除非法律要求。我們的實際結果可能與預測的結果有重大差異。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 10-Q 表中的風險因素。

  • 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。這些非公認會計準則指標並非旨在取代或優於我們的公認會計準則結果。請務必查看我們投資者關係網站上的收益報告和股東信中 GAAP 與非 GAAP 財務指標的對帳表。本次電話會議正在錄音,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.

    現在我將把時間交給亞當和馬特來致一些開場白,然後主持人將帶領我們進行問答。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,感謝大家的加入。我們很高興地報告第四季又一個出色的表現。我們超越了預期的最高點,並在 2023 年建立了持續卓越的業績模式。在經歷了充滿挑戰且成長停滯的 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和努力感到無比自豪,這使得我們的軟體平台收入在 2023 年增長了 76%。這清楚地證明了我們對 AI 廣告引擎 AXON 所做更新的實力和潛力。

  • 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,我們已經達到接近20億美元。我們也預測,我們的軟體業務的增量收入將獲得可觀的利潤。我很自豪地說,在 2023 年第四季度,我們的增量收入約有 80% 流向調整後的 EBITDA,最終實現了創紀錄的現金流。這一成長軌跡凸顯了我們強勁的財務狀況,並使我們有機會透過持續的股票回購等多種方式提升股東價值。

  • 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.

    展望 2024 年及以後,我們將繼續對我們的核心 AI 技術的潛力保持樂觀,這些技術在所有市場中都處於最先進的地位。我們專注於在 CTV 領域和營運商 OEM 市場中充分利用這些技術(面向全球),這只是一個開始。我們準備在未來幾季和幾年探索和擴展我們的人工智慧技術的新應用,這有可能顯著拓寬我們的 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.

    現在我將把時間交給馬特,他將以我們的財務長的身份提交他的第一份財務摘要。我們非常榮幸能由他擔任這一職位。再次感謝您在這趟旅程中給予的堅定支持。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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。我很高興以財務長的身份發布第一份收益報告,並取得如此驚人的財務業績。因此,首先,我要感謝團隊本季的出色表現,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 均超出了預期上限,實現總收入 9.53 億美元,調整後 EBITDA 4.76 億美元。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率達到令人印象深刻的 50%。本季度,我們的營收和調整後 EBITDA 均超過了分析師的預期。調整後的 EBITDA 比預期高出近 10%。我們的營收比去年同期成長了36%,比上一季成長了10%。上半年我們應用程式業務的優化工作導致收入略有下降,但卻提高了 EBITDA 利潤率。由於我們軟體平台的出色表現以及廣告市場的持續強勁和成長,我們今年每季的營收仍然實現成長。 我們的應用程式組合持續表現良好,較上一季成長 5%,同時保持 15% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。我們的軟體平台又度過了一個出色的季度。我們實現了 5.76 億美元的收入,調整後 EBITDA 為 4.2 億美元。利潤率為 73%。考慮到我們相對固定的成本基礎和持續的成本控制,這代表著近 80% 的收入流轉。

  • 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.

    我們所有業務的收入在本季度均實現了成長,但並未發現成功的主要驅動力。我們的成長源自於多種市場因素和我們的執行力,包括強勁的假期季、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、廣告商基礎的擴大以及廣告商預算的成長。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.

    簡單介紹一下我們的年度業績。當年收入為 33 億美元。比去年增加了 17%。調整後的 EBITDA 為 15 億美元。這比去年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率 46% 成長了驚人的 41%。在過去五年裡,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 億美元成長到今年的近 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,佔調整後 EBITDA 15 億美元流出的 69%,這數字令人印象深刻。展望未來,我們希望每年保持約 70% 的流量,但由於營運資金和納稅,每個季度都會有波動。

  • 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我們的持續成本。除了今年的債務管理活動外,我們還在 2023 年回購並扣留了共 5,430 萬股股票。透過自由現金流創造和股權管理相結合,我們希望繼續為現有股東和新股東創造重大的長期價值。我們的董事會也批准將股票回購授權增加 12.5 億美元。我們計劃利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.

    談到我們的 2024 年第一季指引。我們希望第一季的營收達到 9.55 億美元至 9.75 億美元之間。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% 至 51% 之間。我們相信,考慮到我之前強調的各種成長因素,同時考慮到第一季是產業季節性低迷期,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。並且由於市場的走強,加上我們團隊的執行,2023 年全年都將如此。我們期待在來年繼續實現成長,並繼續將業務拓展到非博彩和 CTV 等行業的新垂直領域。

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

    現在,我將把時間交給主持人,帶領我們進行問答。

  • Operator

    Operator

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

    (操作員指示) 第一個問題來自美國銀行的奧馬爾·德蘇基 (Omar Dessouky)。

  • Omar Dessouky - Research Analyst

    Omar Dessouky - Research Analyst

  • 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 日曆年的指導。但另一方面,您確實在信中談到您正在努力在 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釋一下這兩個問題,特別是軟體平台覆蓋範圍部分。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    我先從業務方面開始,然後馬特會講到財務方面。但最終,我們在去年第二季推出了 AXON 2,這是我們 AI 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,您知道這對利潤的影響。我們討論過美元巨額流入,本季美元增量成長約達到 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。而且該團隊也不斷改進技術。因此,我們對它的前景感到非常興奮。

  • 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,當你的企業依靠新技術快速成長時,在我們營運的利潤率上,很難確切知道未來我們將會走向何方,但我們從未像現在這樣對擺在我們面前的成長前景感到興奮。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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,我重複亞當所說的話,鑑於預測和理解推出一項新技術(例如 AXON 2.0)的影響的難度,我們很難預測它的影響或財務影響。因此,我們不提供長期指導。

  • Omar Dessouky - Research Analyst

    Omar Dessouky - Research Analyst

  • 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,我再快速跟進。因此,Facebook 指出中國廣告商(包括電子商務和電玩發行商)是其廣告在第四季表現出色的原因之一。我沒有在您的股東信中看到它,我想知道這是您在第一季是否看到或預計會出現的情況?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,我們沒有任何特定的集中度或組合變化,而且我認為,我們在中國合作夥伴對世界其他地區的投資較低。但這是我們在疫情期間呼籲的。中國的封鎖是市場效率低落的一大原因。因此,我們看到市場在去年或兩年前確實跌入低谷,然後在去年年底開始復甦。這在很大程度上是因為中國開發人員重返辦公室一年了,重新上線並再次提高了效率。我們已經表示,我們認為這最終將有助於恢復市場效率,因為雖然我們沒有在收入方面投入大量資金,但有許多在中國創作的內容流傳到西方,確實使與廣告相關的業務受益。這是一個好的趨勢,我們看到它正在不斷擴大。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Our next question will come from Tim Nollen with Macquarie.

    我們的下一個問題來自麥格理的蒂姆·諾倫。

  • Timothy Wilson Nollen - Senior Media Analyst

    Timothy Wilson Nollen - Senior Media Analyst

  • 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的一些重大變化,也就是 DMA,我猜它將在幾週到三週後生效。此外,Google Android ID 的棄用以及 iOS 17.4 等都有很多值得思考的事情,可能會對這裡的行動廣告市場產生什麼影響。我想知道您是否可以對此發表評論。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,提姆,我想我們之前在談到隱私時說過,你不知道很多版本的日期。因此,當您談論谷歌時,誰知道實際推出的時間是什麼時候,cookie 比預期的要晚得多,並且推出的百分比仍然很小。所以我們不知道這些變化何時會發生。我們不知道這些變化的具體影響。我們確實知道的是,首先,我們的傳統營運方式非常具有創業精神,我們非常靈活,因此每當發生這些變化時,我們都能夠很好地適應。

  • 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,與開放網路上的許多屬性相比,我們運行的上下文行為模型更為豐富。因此,由於我們在涉及真正敏感的用戶資料時與消費者的互動並不多,因此我們的起點比許多其他企業要好得多。所以這兩件事總是讓我們有信心,無論發生什麼變化,我們都能夠應對。

  • Timothy Wilson Nollen - Senior Media Analyst

    Timothy Wilson Nollen - Senior Media Analyst

  • 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。我能否就 DMA 提出一個後續問題,您是否認為允許歐洲的應用程式商店費用大幅降低至少對應用程式開發有積極作用,進而可能導致未來更多的廣告支出?或者您對蘋​​果增加這 0.50 美元額外收費的回應有何看法?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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去實體店銷售並不是一個好的商業決策,因為人們想要討論的一件事就是在實體店銷售是否具有有機價值。因此,如果您收取 30% 的費用並從有機排名中計算出 10 到 15 個點的價值,那麼您的成本節省就降到了 15 個點,而開發人員的費用 — — 所有不同層次的費用總計大約為 20 個點。因此,今天沒有經濟理由去商店購物。不過,我們認為,隨著時間的推移,全球將面臨足夠的壓力,法院也將採取足夠的行動,繼續在不同的司法管轄區審查這個問題,我們認為,最終這將為內容開發商帶來經濟利益。

  • 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,我們一直說這將極大地有利於廣告解決方案。如果你只考慮我們平台上的美元,大多數都是為了推動當今的 IP 而進行的交易,而每美元的稅率降至 0.70 美元。如果有一天這一比例上升到 85-15,您可以這麼說,現在每位開發人員的收入都增加了 20% 嗎?他們願意在行銷上投入多少資金?其中很大一部分,對於我們這樣的平台來說是非常有益的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Moving on to Jason Bazinet with Citi.

    繼續討論花旗銀行的 Jason Bazinet。

  • Jason Boisvert Bazinet - MD, Global Head of EMT & Analyst

    Jason Boisvert Bazinet - MD, Global Head of EMT & Analyst

  • 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,考慮到你業務的吸引力、成長和自由現金流轉換,市盈率對我來說似乎很低。我看到了12億美元的回購授權。但我認為您在本季沒有回購任何股票,但您的指引還是不錯的。你知道它會建在街道上方。

  • 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的策略性暫停?然後我的第二個問題是,您是否認為您的倍數較低是因為您在軟體平台和第一方遊戲之間擁有兩個不同的業務?考慮到一個企業極具吸引力,而另一個企業表現一般,將這兩家企業合併在一起是否仍然有意義?

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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。我先拿回購的部分。所以 Jason,從策略角度來看,我們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。我們覺得這樣我們才能產生最大的影響,而第四季並沒有出現從現有股東那裡進行大規模回購的機會。所以,如果這種情況在未來確實出現,這就是我們將要採取的方法。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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。我們將致力於此。我們確實認為,作為像我們這樣能夠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返還價值。

  • 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、為什麼我們要以一定的倍數進行交易的問題時?我們無法回答這個問題,我們不是交易員,而且這個問題很難解答。行動遊戲是否會降低公司整體的估值?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,而且我們的財務數據也是分開的。因此,我們很容易就說,我們只看軟體部分。我們認為,對於我們的業務來說,最困難的部分是我們在22年處於零增長期。我們必須擺脫這種困境,並真正專注於執行,這也是我們對團隊的要求。現在我們已連續四個季度取得了出色的業績。而當你觀察軟體領域時,你會發現沒有太多軟體企業的 EBITDA 利潤率能達到 70% 以上,而且成長率也符合 [140, 150] 的規律或其他標準。這是一個驚人的數字,然後我們將該 EBITDA 的很大一部分轉換為現金流。

  • 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.

    所以我們認為這是因為這些技術是新的。投資人需要一段時間才能理解我們已經看到的東西,這不僅是我們核心市場上非常強大的技術,而且我們已經能夠比市場成長更快,因為這項技術是高效的,同時,我們的合作夥伴也在以更快的速度成長。

  • 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.

    您會發現,當今市場上的一些遊戲位居最暢銷榜的榜首,它們依賴我們的行銷管道,而且由於我們的解決方案變得更加高效,它們的成長也更加迅猛。這就是我們的核心市場。現在我們看到該技術在多個相鄰市場中的應用。我們認為我們將能夠應用它,不僅可以應用到我們已經討論過的其他一些應用程式上,我們還將在接下來的幾季中討論它。這讓我們非常興奮。因此,我們肯定會致力於回購,因為我們看到了價值,而且我們今天能夠比投資者更容易釋放價值,我們希望能夠在未來幾季向投資者清楚地表達這一情況。

  • Operator

    Operator

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

    我們現在將聽取拉爾夫·沙卡特 (Ralph Schackart) 和威廉·布萊爾 (William Blair) 的發言,抱歉。

  • Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

    Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

  • 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 的擴展以及超越遊戲垂直領域的話題。但也許可以向我們通報一下進展。您開始獲得遊戲垂直領域以外的貢獻。然後我有一個後續問題。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    非遊戲產業成長速度比遊戲產業快,但規模較小。顯然,還有更大的成長空間。拓寬這個平台是我們的承諾。我們已經討論過擴展到非遊戲領域,這是一個組成部分。我們討論過連網電視,這是目前正在進行的應用,旨在擴大我們的電視設備覆蓋範圍。

  • 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 提供支援的行銷解決方案,這項工作也在進行中。正如馬特在劇本中提到的那樣,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,還有更多的應用,我們也會在接下來的幾季中討論這些應用。因此,我們不僅為我們的解決方案在核心類別中所能發揮的作用感到興奮,而且也為我們帶來的擴展機會感到興奮。

  • Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

    Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

  • 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?

    也許你可以提供一些真正超出預期表現的背景資訊。我確信,想要引導其中含有一些保守主義的因素。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?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    我的意思是,人們不了解我們的平台,我想我們也不會清楚地表達 MAX 業務建立在超過 10 億每日活躍用戶、10 億遊戲用戶的基礎上。如果你想想美國,每天大約有 1.7 億活躍用戶。所以你說的是大多數美國成年人每天都在手機應用程式上玩遊戲,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,該管道每千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達到了更有效率的水平。因此,我們只是想更有效地將這些受眾轉化為現金。

  • 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,我們已經進入了幾個季度,我們的貨幣化程度確實較低。整個市場正在透過這些處於低谷的用戶玩遊戲來賺錢。當你擁有如此大的影響力,在美國有1.7億每日活躍用戶時,這些人就不僅僅是玩手機遊戲了。根本沒有辦法。它的受眾非常廣泛,主要是正在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.

    隨著這些技術發展到可以預測廣告將更加廣泛地應用於受眾的程度,它不僅會變得更加高效,還會擴大我們公司在其他垂直領域的覆蓋範圍,為出版商創造更高的效率,我們應該讓一切都得到發展。所以,真正讓我們興奮的是,這一切都歸結於如何有效地將我們能夠接觸到的龐大受眾群體貨幣化。

  • Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

    Ralph Edward Schackart - Partner & Technology Analyst

  • 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?

    也許我可以再偷偷問一個。 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 和 AXON 1 的主要區別是什麼。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,這樣更好。我的意思是,這項技術的建構是為了更好地擴展,使其更有高效,更有效。從根本上來說,這些都是預測技術。我將其與聊天 GPT 進行類比。我這樣做的唯一原因是我們都可以在框中輸入並獲得結果。我們都知道 Chat GPT 3 到 3.5 到 4,4 比 3.5 更好,比 3 更好,對吧?但我們已經可以看到這一點了。

  • 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,在黑盒演算法中我們看不到的是輸入和結果。但我們可以看到,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。在此過程中,有許多預測,而 AXON 2 使這些預測比之前的版本更好。這為我們的業務和合作夥伴帶來了巨大的效率提升。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Cannonball's Vasily Karasyov has the next question.

    Cannonball 的 Vasily Karasyov 提出了下一個問題。

  • Vasily Karasyov - Founder

    Vasily Karasyov - Founder

  • 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,您能否詳細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?您是否看到了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?

    然後第二個問題是,鑑於您所說的擴展軟體平台,我們在第四季度看到的該領域的 EBITDA 利潤率的可持續性如何?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    首先,我們沒有發現國內和國際之間有太大的差異。消費推動了我們的價值,演算法的效率和向我們投放廣告的合作夥伴也推動了價值。因此,除非國際上的一次性假期會改變收入百分比。如果你假設參與期是一致的,那麼收入組合也會是一致的。

  • 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問題是,我們所有的廣告都是 100% 基於效果的。因此,如果廣告商希望在美國獲得特定的利益,那麼他們也願意在土耳其、英國、德國或日本獲得相同的收益。因此,當他們在我們這裡做廣告時,他們主要是全球廣告商。因此我們不會看到太多的差異。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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.

    關於您的第二個問題,瓦西里,關於公平利潤。我們沒有看到任何顯著的差異。我的意思是,正如亞當之前提到的,目前,非博彩業務部分相對較小。但當我們進入這些其他新的垂直領域和行業時,我們沒有看到現有行動遊戲業務與非遊戲業務的利潤率有任何實質差異。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,當你們看到大約 80% 的流通量時,我們並不真的認為情況會有所不同,因為軟體業務仍在繼續成長。流通量對 EBITDA 的轉換應該非常高。

  • Vasily Karasyov - Founder

    Vasily Karasyov - Founder

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

    那麼第四季的表現可以預示我們明年的預期嗎?每個季度?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • On the incremental revenue growth, yes.

    就增量收入成長而言,是的。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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,我們指導的是一個類似的位置,對吧,整體 EBITDA 利潤率在 50% 到 51% 之間。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • And Matt Cost with Morgan Stanley.

    還有摩根士丹利的馬特‧科斯特 (Matt Cost)。

  • Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

    Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

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

    如果可以的話,有兩個。因此,從即時競價的角度來看,我可能已經凍結了。你還能聽到我的聲音嗎?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • Yes.

    是的。

  • Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

    Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

  • 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。嗯,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?那麼您能談談這個過程完成後會產生的財務影響以及投資者應該如何考慮這一點嗎?然後我還有第二個。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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。首先,Google宣布將在行動中介拍賣中以即時競價為主,我想那是在十月的某個時候。他們承諾在一月之前完成任務。但在整個第四季度,絕大多數市場都是以程式化的即時方式進行交易。對於我們這樣的企業來說,這具有雙重影響力。

  • 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,當廣告公司非即時競價時,我們不收取任何費用;當廣告公司即時競價時,我們會收取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,大多數市場都朝著這個方向發展,這對 MAX 平台來說是一個很好的經濟發展,顯然也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.

    關於第二點影響,即時競價的作用是更快完成拍賣。消耗少了。因此,與瀑布式拍賣相比,處理即時拍賣的基礎架構負載較少,廣告投放速度也更快。透過更快地投放廣告,發布者可以從中受益,因為他們可以在任何時候向消費者展示更多的廣告,而不必等待廣告真正清除,廣告清除得更快,展示的廣告也更多。

  • 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,它創造了一個這樣的世界:出版商開始以高效的方式獲得更多收益,從而可以提高他們每個用戶的廣告收入。然後,我們運作的整個公式是出版商賺得更多,他們在用戶獲取上再投資更多,他們的業務增長,我們促進這種增長,我們的業務也隨之增長。因此,我們只看到這轉變的正面意義。

  • Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

    Matthew Andrew Cost - Research Analyst

  • 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,其中一個競爭對手正在經歷重大重組。我想,您是否看到今年迄今為止的競爭格局發生了積極或消極的變化?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    你看,自從我們上市以來,我們一直是該領域非常強大的獨立領導者。我認為那裡沒有任何改變。我們一直專注於自我執行。而且我們的技術也變得越來越有效率。顯然,我們正在為廣告商創造更多價值。但我想,我們已經說了好幾個季度了,我們都不是在進行零和遊戲。因此,當我們能夠為這些基於效果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 現在比以前好了 5 倍。因此,我們也和他們一起擴大預算。

  • 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.

    他們能夠將更多資金重新投資於用戶獲取,這有助於他們的業務成長。這個領域之所以如此吸引人,是因為無論對出版商或廣告商而言,都不是零和遊戲。因此,我們能夠全神貫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,其效果比任何其他技術都要好——我想任何廣告商或我們的同行都已經在這個領域見過,但這使該領域的每個人都受益。因此我們很興奮,這就是我們所處行業的現實。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • David Karnovsky with JPMorgan has the next question.

    摩根大通的 David Karnovsky 提出了下一個問題。

  • David Karnovsky - Analyst

    David Karnovsky - Analyst

  • 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.

    亞當,也許相對於您之前致股東的信來說,您似乎在描述行動市場,而該市場正在廣泛地向好的方向發展。所以我想看看您是否可以介紹其中的一些驅動因素,以及您所看到的。

  • 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?

    然後對於馬特,想確認一下,您說預計從這裡開始的自由現金流轉換率為 70%。我認為之前的範圍是 50% 到 60%。那麼,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?

    然後只是對第一季指南進行整理,在預期應用程式成長方面,甚至在方向上,有什麼具體資訊嗎?您是否應該連續獲益?或者我們會看到某種季節性的下降?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    我會讓馬特負責第二和第三部分。第一個是針對行動市場,我們發布了一個部落格。我認為那是在感恩節前後。因此,這是一個很好的例子,突出了行業中的 CPM 成長,比較了 23 年和 22 年假期期間的情況。我們在第四季看到,在剛擺脫2022年疲軟的同店銷售額之後,當時經濟的各個領域都感到恐懼,而這個行業尤其恐懼,我們看到品牌和效果廣告商更願意在行銷上投入資金。

  • 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,從我們的數據、業績和技術可以看出,行銷技術在人工智慧的推動下取得了進步,而 Facebook 和谷歌在過去一年裡所做的事情是否推動了這種加速?還是僅僅是經濟正在復甦?我們認為這是兩者共同的作用。我們確實這麼認為,因為我們根本不是品牌廣告。我們的成功完全歸功於技術效率,你會看到這個市場開始復甦。它正從疲軟的競爭對手中脫穎而出。因此恢復成長比過去更容易。但行銷技術正在不斷發展,持續改善將成為行動市場恢復成長的真正良好催化劑。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • 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.

    就自由現金流而言,大衛,我們並沒有預期長期自由現金流將達到 70%。每個季度,我們的收入都會有波動,這取決於營運資本以及繳稅的時間。但我們看到 EBITDA 的自由現金流轉換比我們預期的要好,這是我們所做的所有技術改進帶來的正面影響。

  • 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.

    然後就第一季指引而言,您的最後一個問題,顯然,我們不提供分部指引,因此我不會對應用程式與軟體發表評論,但考慮到這是廣告市場的季節性低迷期,我們很高興能夠引導第一季度實現小幅增長。

  • Operator

    Operator

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

    好吧,亞當和馬特,我們將回答瑞銀的克里斯昆塔里奇的最後一個問題。

  • Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

    Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

  • 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?

    我認為我們現在對 CTV 測試已經進行了更進一步的了解。您能否從廣告主的角度向我們提供一些關於採用情況的回饋?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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.

    你看,CTV 的測試和推出還處於早期階段。現在我們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,它成為一種非常重要的出路,他們都對此很感興趣,因為傳統上,我不知道如果你進行頻道檢查,你不會找到其他地方讓這些廣告商可以按照績效購買,就像我們今天在聯網電視上實現的那樣。

  • 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,每個人都對能夠以我們能夠實現的方式在新設備上招募消費者的前景感到興奮,而這些消費者以前從未接觸過這種設備,但這還處於早期階段,而且我們的業務規模如此之大,增長如此之快,任何新舉措要想產生實質性影響,都還需要數年時間。

  • Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

    Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

  • 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,我認為它過去的定位是,遊戲和非遊戲領域採用 AXON 2 之間存在一點滯後,而一旦廣告商採用 AXON 2,非遊戲業務中的預算就會擴大。

  • 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?

    您能否談談,非遊戲業務中預算擴展的緩慢是否開始正常化並開始恢復到您在遊戲業務中看到的狀況?

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,這是個好問題。非遊戲領域我們可能永遠無法像行動遊戲那樣快速發展。行動遊戲行銷人員看到了機會並抓住了它。只是它傾向於成為更商品化的領域,對於內容提供者來說,這是一個更難規劃的領域,而非遊戲企業往往擁有一個品牌,並且有固定的預算,他們通常在每個季度和幾年內規劃預算。正因為如此,它永遠不會成為一個快速發展的市場,也就是說,我們談論的是它比遊戲領域的成長速度更快。

  • 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見過的任何類別。因此,當我們獲得金融科技廣告商、租賃公司或電子商務公司的支持時,我們看到了全面的成功。所以這是我們正在投資的領域。現在我們始終有效率、精實地運作。所以這並不意味著需要花費很多成本,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,因為我們看到那裡有很多機會。

  • Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

    Christopher Louis Kuntarich - Analyst

  • 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。如果可以的話,也許只說一件家務事。我認為,這始於強勁的市場,並隨著廣告商預算的成長而結束。如果我們要對這些不同的影響進行排序,我們應該有方向性還是有針對性的?這是從影響最大到影響最小的嗎?或是有什麼可以讀的嗎?

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

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

    不,它們不是按等級排序的,這是我的因素清單。是的,這只是一個組合。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • 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,鑑於我們現在的成長率,以及你已經看到的多個季度的情況,我們成長的更大部分是為廣告商帶來更有效率的價值,釋放更多的預算,並擴大廣告商總數而不是市場規模。市場的成長速度遠不及我們。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • 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,本季的問答環節到此結束。我們感謝大家今天的參與。祝下午愉快。我們下次再見。

  • Matt Stumpf - CFO

    Matt Stumpf - CFO

  • Thanks, everyone.

    謝謝大家。

  • Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

    Adam Arash Foroughi - Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson

  • Thanks.

    謝謝。