BuzzFeed Inc (BZFD) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BuzzFeed Inc third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Juliana Clifton, Vice President of communications. Please go ahead.

Hi everyone and welcome to BuzzFeed Inc's third quarter of 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Juliana Clifton, VP of communications for BuzzFeed. Joining me today, our CEO, Jonah Peretti; and CFO, Matt Omer. Before we begin, please note that our remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.

Risks and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are described in our Q3 2025 earnings release. And in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our Q3 2025 quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.

Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements, as a result of new information or future events. During this call, we present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin.

The use of non-GAAP financial measures allows us to measure the operational strength and performance of our business. To establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. We believe adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin are relevant and useful information for investors, because they allow investors to view performance in a manner similar to the method used by our management.

A reconciliation of these GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings properly, which is available now on our investor relations website.

I'll turn the call over to Jonah now.

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Q3 was a challenging quarter with near-term headwinds that impact our results. Revenue decline, driven by soccer advertising demand, it's decrease in affiliate partner bonuses, and tougher [comparisons] against last year's Presidential election site. But despite a revenue decline, we still expect to deliver positive adjustment EBITDA for the full year would they step-up in Q4 driven by seasonal strength and commerce and advertise.

This is a direct result of the transformative work we've done, build a leaner, more resilient business model. Our audience metrics continue to show strength. But [BuzzFeed, Inc] remained number one among Gen Z and millennials in our competitive set with 10.7 million hours of Time Spent with this audience Q3, up 25% for Q2.

Our flagship Buzzy brand also remains the number one brand in our competitive set in Q3, generating 37.2 million hours of US Time Spent growing 4% year-over-year. Among Gen Z and millennial audiences, BuzzFeed was up 6% from Q2. Direct traffic, direct visits, internal referrals, and app uses now accounts for 63% of BuzzFeed.com traffic, up from 61% in Q2, reinforcing our reduced platform dependency.

Similarly, the HuffPost homepage drives exceptional traffic. Home page -- page views and referrals now account for 75% of total HuffPost.com traffic, up from 70% a year ago. We're also making significant progress on various R&D projects. I've been spending more of my time in the lab, and I'm excited to get a larger update on the next recording call on what we've been building with (technical difficulty).

Now pass to Matt, who will walk you through the Q3 finances.

Thank you, Jonah. As Jonah mentioned, Q3 was a challenging quarter, and I want to provide some additional context to the numbers before walking through the details. Total revenue for the quarter was $46.3 million down 17% year-over-year from $55.6 million in Q3 2024. This decline was driven by three factors. [Continued software] and direct sold advertising and content.

A decline in affiliate bonuses from a commerce Partners, and a difficult year-over-year comparisons given the elevated engagement and spend during the Presidential election cycle in Q3 2024. Despite these revenue headwinds, we've maintained our focus and cost discipline and operational efficiency.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was [$753,000] compared to $8.1 million in Q3 2024. While this represents a significant decline, it's important to note that we made adjusting EBITDA positive despite the decline, a testament to the lean operating structure we've built.

Now, let me walk through the revenue categories in more detail. Advertising revenues totaled $22.2 million compared to $24.8 million in Q3 2024, down 11%. Direct sold advertising declined to $5.1 million driven by continued market softness in this category.

Content revenue totaled $7.2 million compared to $10.7 million in Q3 '24, a decline of 33%. Direct sold content [sale] fell by $2.6 million at $5.9 million reflect the new demand for brand content -- branded content partnerships. Studio revenue declined modestly to $1.3 million.

And it's worth noting that in Q3 2024 included a non-recurring data license deal, which makes year-over- year comparison particularly difficult. In studio revenue will continue to vary quarter-to-quarter based on project timing and delivery schedules, but we remain confident in the long-term trajectory of this business, as we build out our [ID] portfolio.

Commerce and other revenues totaled $17 million compared to $20.1 million in Q3 '24, a decline of 15%. Organic affiliate commerce declined by $2.8 million to $16.8 million. This was primarily driven by a decline in supplemental bonuses from affiliate partners, including Amazon, as they continue to refine the commission methodologies.

It's worth noting, however, that year-to-date organic affiliate revenues is essentially flat year-over-year. On the audience engagement side. Total US Time Spent across our properties with 68.5 million hours compared to 80.3 million hours in Q3 '24.

This decline was largely expected as Q3 '24 benefits significantly from elevated news consumption during the Presidential election cycle. A sequential basis, Time Spent was relatively stable compared to Q2 2025, as we continue to see strong engagement metrics among our most loyal users.

Looking at the first nine months of 2025, total revenues reached $128.7 million compared to $133.7 million in the first nine months of 2024. The decline of 4%. Net loss from continued operations was $30.5 million compared to $29.8 million in the same period last year.

And adjusted EBITDA losses improved at $3.2 million compared to losses of $5.5 million in the first nine months of 2024, an improvement of 42%. This year to day performance reflects the ongoing transformation of our revenue mix with growing (technical difficulty) and programmatic advertising and studio revenue partially offset by a client in direct sold categories.

Looking ahead, we are reducing our full year '25 guidance by approximately $10 million to reflect the softness in Q3 and our cautious approach to Q4 2024 results. We now expect revenue in the range of $185 million to $195 million. And now the adjusted EBITDA on the range of breakeven to $10 million. This revised outlook reflects the near-term challenges in advertising and commerce, as well as a lumpiness in the studio project timing.

However, we remain committed to improving that income from continuing operations and achieving adjusting EBITDA profitability for the full year. And we continue to believe that our strategic focus use on earnings distribution and scalable revenue streams, and new innovative -- innovation on initiatives position us well for long-term value creation.

As we head into Q4, we're focused on executing against our seasonal strengths, particularly in affiliate commerce during key shopping windows like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We continue to invest in the foundations for future growth. Thank you for joining us today

I'll hand the call back to the operator now.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.