(CHGG) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

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

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Chegg, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call.

    謝謝你的支持。這是會議接線員。歡迎來到 Chegg, Inc. 2022 年第四季度收益電話會議。

  • (Operator Instructions)

    (操作員說明)

  • I would now like to turn the conference over to Tracey Ford, VP of Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

    我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係和 ESG 副總裁 Tracey Ford。請繼續。

  • Tracey Ford - VP of IR

    Tracey Ford - VP of IR

  • Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Chegg's Fourth Quarter 2022 Conference Call.

    下午好。感謝您加入 Chegg 的 2022 年第四季度電話會議。

  • On today's call are Dan Rosensweig, Co-Chairperson and CEO; and Andy Brown, Chief Financial Officer. A copy of our earnings press release, along with our investor presentation, is available on our Investor Relations website, investor.chegg.com. A replay of this call will also be available on our website. We routinely post information on our website and intend to make important announcements on our media center website at chegg.com/mediacenter. We encourage you to make use of these resources.

    參加今天電話會議的有聯席主席兼首席執行官 Dan Rosensweig;和首席財務官 Andy Brown。我們的收益新聞稿副本以及我們的投資者介紹可在我們的投資者關係網站 investor.chegg.com 上獲取。本次通話的重播也將在我們的網站上提供。我們定期在我們的網站上發布信息,並打算在我們的媒體中心網站 chegg.com/mediacenter 上發布重要公告。我們鼓勵您使用這些資源。

  • Before we begin, I would like to point out that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding future events, including the future financial and operating performance of the company.

    在我們開始之前,我想指出,在本次電話會議期間,我們將對未來事件做出前瞻性陳述,包括公司未來的財務和經營業績。

  • Before we begin, I would like to point out that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding future events, including the future financial and operating performance of the company. These forward-looking statements are subject to material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We caution you to consider the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. In particular, we refer you to the cautionary language included in today's earnings release and the risk factors described in Chegg's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 22, 2022 as well as our other filings with the SEC.

    在我們開始之前,我想指出,在本次電話會議期間,我們將對未來事件做出前瞻性陳述,包括公司未來的財務和經營業績。這些前瞻性陳述受重大風險和不確定因素的影響,可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中的結果存在重大差異。我們提醒您考慮可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中的結果存在重大差異的重要因素。特別是,我們建議您參考今天的收益發布中包含的警示性語言和 Chegg 於 2022 年 2 月 22 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表格年度報告以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中描述的風險因素.

  • Any forward-looking statements that we make today are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

    我們今天所做的任何前瞻性陳述均基於我們認為截至該日期合理的假設。我們不承擔因新信息或未來事件而更新這些聲明的義務。

  • During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Our GAAP results and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in our earnings press release and the investor slide deck found on our IR website, investor.chegg.com. We also recommend you review the investor data sheet, which is also posted on our website.

    在本次電話會議中,我們將介紹 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標。我們的 GAAP 結果和 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調節表可以在我們的收益新聞稿中找到,投資者幻燈片可以在我們的 IR 網站 investor.chegg.com 上找到。我們還建議您查看同樣發佈在我們網站上的投資者數據表。

  • Now I will turn the call over to Dan.

    現在我將把電話轉給丹。

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Thank you, Tracey, and welcome, everyone, to our 2022 Q4 earnings call.

    謝謝 Tracey,歡迎大家參加我們的 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。

  • Chegg ended the quarter and the year on a strong note, beating the high end of our guidance with services revenue growing 10%, finishing the year with over 8 million subscribers and generating over $150 million in free cash flow.

    Chegg 在本季度和本年度結束時表現強勁,服務收入增長 10%,超過了我們指導的上限,在這一年結束時擁有超過 800 萬訂戶,並產生了超過 1.5 億美元的自由現金流。

  • The last few years, we saw significant headwinds in higher education, including the loss of nearly 1.5 million students during COVID. Through it all, the Chegg team executed very well, positioning us for a much bigger future.

    過去幾年,我們看到了高等教育的重大逆風,包括 COVID 期間近 150 萬學生的流失。通過這一切,Chegg 團隊執行得非常好,使我們為更廣闊的未來做好了準備。

  • In the second half of the year, we saw significant improvements in new subscriber growth, increased take rates for Chegg Study Pack, which is now 40%, and retention for CSP is now nearly equal to that of Chegg Study. In addition, we also saw increased demand over the year for Chegg Skills to our partnership with Guild. We believe that this positive momentum will continue and lead to accelerating revenue growth in the second half of 2023.

    今年下半年,我們看到新訂戶增長顯著改善,Chegg Study Pack 的採用率提高,現在為 40%,CSP 的留存率現在幾乎與 Chegg Study 持平。此外,我們還看到,在過去一年中,我們與 Guild 的合作夥伴關係對 Chegg Skills 的需求有所增加。我們相信,這種積極勢頭將持續下去,並導致 2023 年下半年收入加速增長。

  • After the initial wave of the COVID pandemic, as students return to campus, we saw fewer of them enrolled and those that did, took fewer classes. There was also less of an emphasis on academic rigor from both students and professors. This created a reduction in the demand for higher education support services and, ultimately, a substantial loss in our subscriber base, particularly in the first half of 2022.

    在 COVID 大流行的最初浪潮之後,隨著學生返回校園,我們發現入學人數減少了,而那些入學的人數也減少了。學生和教授也不太重視學術嚴謹性。這導致對高等教育支持服務的需求減少,並最終導致我們的用戶群大幅流失,尤其是在 2022 年上半年。

  • Since August, higher education has begun to normalize, which has helped us start to climb out of the COVID hole and helped us increase our new subscriber growth. This shift, along with the strong execution from our team, led to better performance and predictability. As a result, we see new opportunities for growth. Domestically, we have continued to expand our content offerings with initiatives like Uversity, which adds professor-created content and new subjects and formats to our platform allowing us to be relevant to millions of students that we historically haven't served.

    自 8 月以來,高等教育開始正常化,這幫助我們開始爬出 COVID 洞,並幫助我們增加了新用戶增長。這種轉變,加上我們團隊的強大執行力,帶來了更好的性能和可預測性。因此,我們看到了新的增長機會。在國內,我們繼續通過 Uversity 等計劃擴展我們的內容產品,該計劃將教授創建的內容以及新科目和格式添加到我們的平台,使我們能夠與數百萬我們歷史上未曾服務過的學生建立聯繫。

  • We also invested in improving the quality of our existing experiences with our new structured Q&A platform, which enables our experts to create better and clearer learning solutions for students. Early feedback has been very positive. Students tell us they prefer this format and believe it is more helpful to understand the topic and learn the concepts so they can solve the problems on their own.

    我們還通過新的結構化問答平台投資提高現有體驗的質量,這使我們的專家能夠為學生創造更好、更清晰的學習解決方案。早期的反饋非常積極。學生告訴我們,他們更喜歡這種形式,並認為這種形式更有利於理解主題和學習概念,因此他們可以自己解決問題。

  • Our new Ask and Learn platform provides students with richer and more personalized learning experience from Chegg. We will continue making smart investments in content, technology and AI to improve our value, quality and relevance to even more students around the world.

    我們新的 Ask and Learn 平台為學生提供了來自 Chegg 的更豐富、更個性化的學習體驗。我們將繼續在內容、技術和人工智能方面進行明智的投資,以提高我們的價值、質量和與世界各地更多學生的相關性。

  • Internationally, we've also made progress localizing our content. We've created new apps for Turkey and one in Spanish initially targeting students in Mexico. We launched local pricing in 4 countries and we are currently testing and optimizing pricing in 9 other countries. All of these efforts make our services more personalized and accessible to learners everywhere and we are expanding into new markets to reach more students.

    在國際上,我們在內容本地化方面也取得了進展。我們為土耳其創建了新的應用程序,並為墨西哥的學生創建了一個西班牙語的應用程序。我們在 4 個國家/地區推出了本地定價,目前正在其他 9 個國家/地區測試和優化定價。所有這些努力使我們的服務更加個性化,世界各地的學習者都可以使用,並且我們正在擴展到新市場以覆蓋更多學生。

  • To expand into new growth categories, we invested in our language learning platform, Busuu. We are making great strides with the launch of our freemium version for the United States and have already seen increased registration and engagement, which we believe will lead to future revenue growth.

    為了擴展到新的增長類別,我們投資了我們的語言學習平台 Busuu。我們在為美國推出免費增值版本方面取得了長足的進步,並且已經看到註冊和參與度的增加,我們相信這將帶來未來的收入增長。

  • We also invested in one of the hottest growth areas in education, skills-based learning. We expanded our partnership with Guild, growing significantly faster than we expected, which suggests that this is a big opportunity for Chegg. Outside of the U.S., we launched a pilot program in Africa with Nexford as the demand for skilling frontline workers is now global.

    我們還投資於教育領域最熱門的增長領域之一——基於技能的學習。我們擴大了與 Guild 的合作夥伴關係,增長速度明顯快於我們的預期,這表明這對 Chegg 來說是一個巨大的機會。在美國之外,我們與 Nexford 一起在非洲啟動了一個試點項目,因為現在對熟練一線工人的需求是全球性的。

  • As the opportunity grows, we are expanding our range of courses from technology fundamentals to cybersecurity. We are also excited for all that is ahead, and in '23, we will continue making strategic investments for that growth.

    隨著機會的增加,我們正在擴大我們的課程範圍,從技術基礎到網絡安全。我們也對未來的一切感到興奮,在 23 年,我們將繼續為這種增長進行戰略投資。

  • The opportunity to better serve learners continues to evolve and expand and now includes helping students solve some of their biggest nonacademic challenges. That is why we now provide free access to Calm, the world's #1 app for sleep, meditation and relaxation, through Chegg, and we just announced a partnership with DoorDash to offer DashPass for students for free to our subscribers. These offerings help students deal with their mental health and help them save money.

    更好地為學習者服務的機會不斷發展和擴大,現在包括幫助學生解決一些最大的非學術挑戰。這就是為什麼我們現在通過 Chegg 免費提供 Calm,這是世界排名第一的睡眠、冥想和放鬆應用程序,我們剛剛宣布與 DoorDash 合作,為學生免費提供 DashPass。這些產品幫助學生處理他們的心理健康並幫助他們省錢。

  • We believe these partnerships not only increase our TAM, but will also increase conversion and retention, allowing us to improve ARPU over time. These types of initiatives are designed to deepen engagement, accelerate growth, strengthen brand loyalty and importantly, help learners by delivering overwhelming value. Our ability to partner with these companies also validates how valuable our audience is to some of the biggest brands.

    我們相信這些合作夥伴關係不僅會增加我們的 TAM,還會增加轉化率和保留率,從而使我們能夠隨著時間的推移提高 ARPU。這些類型的舉措旨在加深參與度、加速增長、增強品牌忠誠度,重要的是,通過提供壓倒性的價值來幫助學習者。我們與這些公司合作的能力也證明了我們的受眾對一些最大品牌的價值。

  • The hot topic right now is AI and machine learning. We've all seen that large language models, such as ChatGPT, have captured the attention of many people. We believe AI will have a significant effect on human capabilities and humanity overall. But AI and machine learning models are not new to Chegg. We have been leveraging these technologies within our platform for years, and we believe these continued advancements will benefit Chegg and students. As an example, we've been using GPT-2 inside of our writing products, improving our ability to provide support with grammar, paraphrasing and sentence structure. We also use it to increase speed and quality while reducing the cost of content development.

    現在的熱門話題是人工智能和機器學習。我們都看到像 ChatGPT 這樣的大型語言模型已經引起了很多人的關注。我們相信人工智能將對人類能力和整體人性產生重大影響。但人工智能和機器學習模型對 Chegg 來說並不陌生。多年來,我們一直在我們的平台中利用這些技術,我們相信這些持續的進步將使 Chegg 和學生受益。例如,我們一直在我們的寫作產品中使用 GPT-2,提高我們提供語法、釋義和句子結構支持的能力。我們還使用它來提高速度和質量,同時降低內容開發成本。

  • We will continue to build and leverage AI tools, including those from Open AI and others, allowing us to expand our content capabilities, increase the number of ways students can learn through our platform and increase our efficiency. Importantly, we believe the best learning experience for students will leverage AI, will use a combination of vertical experts who utilize data, ML models and AI on a user platform designed specifically for learning.

    我們將繼續構建和利用 AI 工具,包括來自 Open AI 和其他公司的工具,使我們能夠擴展我們的內容能力,增加學生通過我們的平台學習的方式,並提高我們的效率。重要的是,我們相信學生最好的學習體驗將利用人工智能,將結合垂直專家,他們在專門為學習設計的用戶平台上利用數據、機器學習模型和人工智能。

  • The last several years have been very challenging for everyone. However, the best, most innovative companies come out of difficult times and are able to improve their market position. We are very excited about the next chapter for Chegg and are energized by the scale of the opportunity in front of us. We believe there is significant growth ahead for our business, both domestically and internationally, and that we are in the best position to drive some of the most transformative trends to shape our industry. The investments that we've been making and our priorities in 2023 are all designed to return Chegg to double-digit growth.

    過去幾年對每個人來說都非常具有挑戰性。然而,最優秀、最具創新精神的公司都能走出困難時期,並能夠提高其市場地位。我們對 Chegg 的下一章感到非常興奮,並為擺在我們面前的機會的規模而充滿活力。我們相信我們的業務在國內和國際上都有顯著增長,而且我們處於最佳位置來推動一些最具變革性的趨勢來塑造我們的行業。我們一直在進行的投資和我們在 2023 年的優先事項都是為了讓 Chegg 恢復兩位數的增長。

  • And with that, I'll turn it over to Andy.

    有了這個,我會把它交給安迪。

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • Thanks, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone.

    謝謝,丹,大家下午好。

  • Today, I will discuss our financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2022 and as well as our outlook for 2023.

    今天,我將討論我們 2022 年第四季度和全年的財務業績以及我們對 2023 年的展望。

  • As Dan mentioned, we ended the year on a positive note with revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow all coming in above the high end of our expectations. And while the beginning of the year did not transpire as we initially thought, due to external factors, including reduced enrollments and uncertain economic conditions, the Chegg team performed well. demonstrating the strength and resiliency of our operating model, where we continue to grow Chegg Services revenue, drive profits and cash flow, while many others struggled.

    正如 Dan 所提到的,我們以積極的方式結束了這一年,收入、調整後的 EBITDA 和自由現金流都超過了我們預期的高端。儘管今年年初並沒有像我們最初想像的那樣發生,但由於外部因素,包括入學人數減少和經濟狀況不明朗,Chegg 團隊表現良好。展示了我們運營模式的實力和彈性,我們繼續增加 Chegg Services 收入,推動利潤和現金流,而許多其他人則在苦苦掙扎。

  • Looking more specifically at our 2022 performance, total revenue was $767 million, with Chegg Services growing 10% to $734 million with 6 points of growth coming from Busuu, which we acquired in January of 2022. We increased our total services subscriber base to 8.2 million with 2.1 million coming from international. This increased the diversity of our revenue streams as international represented 15% of total revenue in 2022, an increase from 11% in 2021. We were very pleased that we were able to deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of 33% or $255 million and free cash flow margin of 20% or $155 million, which represented 61% of adjusted EBITDA above the high end of our expectations. As we survey the broader learning landscape, it's clear we have best-in-class margins and free cash flow, and we expect to increase free cash flow margin in 2023.

    更具體地看一下我們 2022 年的業績,總收入為 7.67 億美元,Chegg Services 增長 10% 至 7.34 億美元,其中 6 個增長點來自我們於 2022 年 1 月收購的 Busuu。我們的服務訂戶總數增加到 820 萬其中 210 萬來自國際。這增加了我們收入來源的多樣性,因為國際收入佔 2022 年總收入的 15%,高於 2021 年的 11%。我們很高興能夠實現 33% 或 2.55 億美元的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率和自由現金流動利潤率為 20% 或 1.55 億美元,佔調整後 EBITDA 的 61%,高於我們預期的上限。當我們調查更廣泛的學習環境時,很明顯我們擁有一流的利潤率和自由現金流,我們預計將在 2023 年增加自由現金流利潤率。

  • Looking at Q4, total revenue was $205 million, driven by better-than-expected Chegg Services revenue growth of 7% to $201 million, which led to adjusted EBITDA of $74 million, the high end of our expected range.

    看看第四季度,總收入為 2.05 億美元,這得益於 Chegg Services 收入增長 7% 至 2.01 億美元,好於預期,這導致調整後的 EBITDA 為 7,400 萬美元,處於我們預期範圍的高端。

  • Looking at the balance sheet, we ended the year with cash and investments of $1.3 billion. This was bolstered by the aforementioned free cash flow of $155 million. We believe our balance sheet and operating model, that generates significant cash flows, represent a competitive advantage that can drive shareholder value, whether that be through adding assets or prudent security repurchases, both of which we did in 2022. During the year, we demonstrated the power of our balance sheet by opportunistically buying back $500 million in principal of our convertible securities for approximately $400 million. As a reminder, as of December 31, we had $643 million remaining under the securities repurchase program.

    查看資產負債表,我們在年底的現金和投資為 13 億美元。這得益於上述 1.55 億美元的自由現金流。我們認為,我們的資產負債表和運營模式產生了大量現金流,代表了可以推動股東價值的競爭優勢,無論是通過增加資產還是審慎的證券回購,我們在 2022 年都這樣做了。在這一年裡,我們證明了通過機會主義地以大約 4 億美元的價格回購 5 億美元的可轉換證券本金來增強我們資產負債表的力量。提醒一下,截至 12 月 31 日,我們的證券回購計劃剩餘 6.43 億美元。

  • As we enter 2023, we no longer have significant revenue from Required Materials. Required Materials is now 100% revenue share based, and we expect it to represent less than $5 million of revenue for the full year. Therefore, we are changing the way we report revenue to better represent what Chegg is now, predominantly a large subscription service with several other smaller product offerings that while important, have yet to reach scale. As such, our revenue breakouts moving forward will be Subscription Services, which includes all of our subscription offerings, including Chegg Study, Chegg Study Pack, Mathway, Chegg Writing Subscriptions and Busuu. The other bucket will be called Skills and Other, which today represents Skills, Advertising and the Required Materials revenue share. We believe this new breakout will allow our investors to better monitor and evaluate our business trends. To provide full transparency, we have provided additional details on both the new and historical revenue breakouts in the data sheet and in the investor deck, which are available on the Investor Relations website.

    當我們進入 2023 年時,我們不再從所需材料中獲得可觀的收入。所需材料現在基於 100% 的收入分成,我們預計全年收入將低於 500 萬美元。因此,我們正在改變我們報告收入的方式,以更好地代表 Chegg 現在的情況,主要是大型訂閱服務以及其他幾個雖然重要但尚未達到規模的較小產品。因此,我們未來的收入突破將是訂閱服務,其中包括我們所有的訂閱產品,包括 Chegg Study、Chegg Study Pack、Mathway、Chegg Writing Subscriptions 和 Busuu。另一個桶將稱為技能和其他,今天代表技能、廣告和所需材料的收入份額。我們相信這一新的突破將使我們的投資者能夠更好地監控和評估我們的業務趨勢。為了提供完全的透明度,我們在數據表和投資者面板中提供了有關新的和歷史收入突破的更多詳細信息,這些信息可在投資者關係網站上找到。

  • Before I go into specific 2023 guidance, I want to provide a little bit more context on the numbers. As we discussed last year, the issues of low enrollment, a strong labor market and inflation impacted the higher education industry and led to reduced traffic to education support sites. While the business executed well with stellar retention, record Chegg Study Pack take rates, macro headwinds negatively impacted our new subscriber growth. As Dan mentioned, new subscriber growth turned the corner in mid-2022, and that improvement has continued. Our plan reflects this momentum continuing through 2023, where the benefits become more evident in our revenue starting in the second half of 2023 and into 2024.

    在我進入具體的 2023 年指南之前,我想提供更多關於這些數字的背景信息。正如我們去年所討論的那樣,低入學率、強勁的勞動力市場和通貨膨脹等問題影響了高等教育行業,並導致教育支持網站的訪問量減少。雖然業務表現良好,保留率高,Chegg Study Pack 創紀錄的採用率,但宏觀逆風對我們的新用戶增長產生了負面影響。正如 Dan 所提到的,新用戶增長在 2022 年年中出現拐點,並且這種改善還在繼續。我們的計劃反映了這種勢頭將持續到 2023 年,從 2023 年下半年到 2024 年,收益在我們的收入中變得更加明顯。

  • On the non-subscription side of the business, we expect continued growth in skills, offset by a decline in Required Materials as we have fully transitioned out of textbook ownership and we are forecasting reduced advertising revenues due to the well-documented headwinds in the macro advertising environment.

    在業務的非訂閱方面,我們預計技能將持續增長,但會被所需材料的下降所抵消,因為我們已經完全擺脫了教科書的所有權,而且我們預測,由於宏觀經濟中有據可查的不利因素,廣告收入將減少廣告環境。

  • We also expect to see a meaningful increase in free cash flow in 2023, resulting from both strong operating performance including a reduction in CapEx for the year and a higher interest rate environment.

    我們還預計 2023 年自由現金流量將大幅增加,這得益於強勁的經營業績(包括當年資本支出的減少)和更高的利率環境。

  • Also to assist with modeling, we have added a slide to the investor deck of our Investor Relations website that includes expected revenue and adjusted EBITDA seasonality of 2023.

    此外,為了協助建模,我們還在投資者關係網站的投資者平台上添加了一張幻燈片,其中包括 2023 年的預期收入和調整後的 EBITDA 季節性。

  • Specifically, for 2023, we expect: Total revenue to be in the range of $745 million to $760 million, with subscription revenue in the range of $675 million to $690 million. Gross margins to be in the range of 71% to 73%, adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $240 million to $250 million with free cash flow increasing to $185 million to $195 million or approximately 80% of adjusted EBITDA. And finally, we expect CapEx to be in the $80 million to $85 million range, which as a reminder, is mostly content.

    具體來說,我們預計 2023 年:總收入將在 7.45 億美元至 7.6 億美元之間,訂閱收入將在 6.75 億美元至 6.9 億美元之間。毛利率將在 71% 至 73% 之間,調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2.4 億美元至 2.5 億美元之間,自由現金流增加至 1.85 億美元至 1.95 億美元,約佔調整後 EBITDA 的 80%。最後,我們預計資本支出將在 8000 萬至 8500 萬美元之間,提醒一下,這主要是滿足的。

  • Moving to Q1 of 2023. We expect total revenue to be between $184 million and $186 million, with subscription revenue between $166 million and $168 million. Gross margin to be in the range of 72% to 73% and adjusted EBITDA to between $53 million and $55 million.

    轉到 2023 年第一季度。我們預計總收入將在 1.84 億美元至 1.86 億美元之間,訂閱收入將在 1.66 億美元至 1.68 億美元之間。毛利率在 72% 至 73% 之間,調整後的 EBITDA 為 5300 萬至 5500 萬美元。

  • And finally, in addition to building a great business, we are also building a great company, and that can only be done by building a strong culture and being a good citizen in our community. I want to acknowledge our ESG team led by Tracey for some recent accolades Chegg has received. We were thrilled to be upgraded to AAA by MSCI, their highest rating, and we also recently were added to Sustainalytics 2023 Top ESG Companies list. All of this took a tremendous amount of work from our team, and we couldn't be more proud of the progress we have made.

    最後,除了建立一個偉大的企業,我們也在建立一個偉大的公司,而這只能通過建立強大的文化和成為我們社區的好公民來實現。我要感謝由 Tracey 領導的我們的 ESG 團隊,感謝 Chegg 最近獲得的一些榮譽。我們很高興被 MSCI 升級為 AAA,這是他們的最高評級,而且我們最近也被添加到 Sustainalytics 2023 頂級 ESG 公司名單中。所有這一切都花費了我們團隊的大量工作,我們為我們所取得的進步感到無比自豪。

  • With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for your questions.

    有了這個,我會把電話轉給接線員來回答你的問題。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • (Operator Instructions)

    (操作員說明)

  • The first question comes from Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets.

    第一個問題來自 BMO Capital Markets 的 Jeff Silber。

  • Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

    Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

  • Can you hear me?

    你能聽到我嗎?

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • We can hear you -- I can hear your now. Yes.

    我們能聽到你的聲音——我現在能聽到你的聲音了。是的。

  • Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

    Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

  • Okay. Sorry about that. I wanted to start with subscriber growth. You talked about your new subscribers growth turning the quarter. Specifically in the U.S., are your U.S. subscribers growing, and do you expect that to continue to grow into 2023?

    好的。對於那個很抱歉。我想從用戶增長開始。您談到了本季度的新訂戶增長。特別是在美國,您的美國訂戶是否在增長,您預計這種增長會持續到 2023 年嗎?

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • Dan, you're on mute.

    丹,你靜音了。

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • I'll take it first. Yes, the answer is yes. Both are growing, and we expect both to continue to grow. So what Andy referred to in the prepared remarks was there were hundreds of thousands of subscribers that did not come back from that 1.5 million group. And because students, if you recall in our earnings calls, a year ago, there was no academic rigor. So we had a double whammy hit us at the beginning of the year. But as you saw, over the year, things progressed for us and they began to be reveal themselves in our numbers.

    我先拿了是的,答案是肯定的。兩者都在增長,我們預計兩者都將繼續增長。因此,安迪在準備好的發言中提到的是,有數十萬訂閱者沒有從 150 萬組中回來。因為學生們,如果你還記得我們一年前的財報電話會議,沒有學術上的嚴謹性。所以我們在年初遭受了雙重打擊。但正如您所看到的,在過去的一年裡,我們的情況有所進展,它們開始在我們的數字中顯現出來。

  • So we are seeing continued growth in new accounts, both domestically and internationally. And international, in some of the countries, we're seeing it because they're coming back, but also because of the choices that we made, which is we lowered the prices in a number of countries, and that's making a big deal in subscriber growth.

    因此,我們看到國內和國際的新客戶持續增長。在國際上,在一些國家,我們看到它是因為他們回來了,但也因為我們做出的選擇,即我們降低了一些國家的價格,這在訂戶增長。

  • We've also invested in the Turkish app and the Mexican app. We're seeing not only increased renewals but also substantial increased conversion. So the choices and investments we made have been working in the U.S. It's not simply the return to school, it's because of the investments we've made in content and expanding the content and the relationships that we've done with Calm, and we're beginning to see the impact of DoorDash. We'll see whether or not it continues to improve retention or not. It's too soon around that, but also the investments we're making in the quality and personalization of the site. All those things are helping. And again, as Andy said in his prepared remarks, we began to see in the summer school time, an increase in new accounts, and we're seeing that through the first 5 weeks of this year.

    我們還投資了土耳其應用程序和墨西哥應用程序。我們不僅看到續訂量增加,而且轉化率也大幅增加。所以我們所做的選擇和投資在美國一直有效。這不僅僅是為了重返學校,這是因為我們在內容方面所做的投資,以及我們與 Calm 所做的內容和關係的擴展,而且我們'我們開始看到 DoorDash 的影響。我們將看看它是否會繼續提高保留率。現在還為時過早,但我們在網站的質量和個性化方面所做的投資也是如此。所有這些都有幫助。再一次,正如安迪在他準備好的發言中所說,我們在暑期學校開始看到新賬戶的增加,我們在今年的前 5 週看到了這一點。

  • So we have a large hole to dig out of. But as you see it from the way the seasonality works as we dig out of it, we exit the year in substantially higher growth and going to '24 with an expectation of return to double-digit growth. And that's a combination of the investments we made, the expansion of the TAM, the growth of new accounts plus continued improvement in Chegg Study Pack take rate and renewal. So those things are beginning to show promise. We just have to spend the year digging out of that hole and we are.

    所以我們有一個大洞要挖出來。但是,正如您從我們挖掘的季節性運作方式中看到的那樣,我們以大幅提高的增長結束了這一年,並進入 24 年,預計將恢復兩位數的增長。這是我們所做的投資、TAM 的擴展、新客戶的增長以及 Chegg Study Pack 的持續改進和更新的結合。所以這些事情開始顯示出希望。我們只需要花一年的時間從那個洞裡挖出來,我們做到了。

  • Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

    Jeffrey Marc Silber - MD & Senior Equity Analyst

  • Okay. I appreciate that. And I also appreciate the dialogue about AI and machine learning, it's really helpful that you guys pointed out what you've been doing all along. But I'm just curious, again, there's been a lot of media speculation about that ChatGPT and what it's been doing. And I know the product is in its infancy. Are you seeing any impact on your business in terms of new subscribers growth or returning subscribers this quarter?

    好的。我很感激。我也很欣賞關於人工智能和機器學習的對話,你們指出你們一直在做的事情真的很有幫助。但我只是很好奇,再一次,有很多媒體猜測 ChatGPT 及其一直在做什麼。我知道該產品還處於起步階段。您是否看到本季度新訂戶增長或回訪訂戶對您的業務有任何影響?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • No. Nothing at all that is noticeable. And obviously, we're going to track it, but we've seen nothing. We've seen continued really powerful renewals and reduction in cancellations. We've seen continued high take rates of Chegg Study Pack. The fact that we crossed 40% at the end of last year, and we continue to see that, I think it's a very powerful statement.

    沒有。沒有任何值得注意的地方。顯然,我們要追踪它,但我們什麼也沒看到。我們已經看到持續的非常強大的續訂和取消的減少。我們已經看到 Chegg Study Pack 的持續高采用率。事實上,我們在去年年底超過了 40%,而且我們繼續看到這一點,我認為這是一個非常有力的聲明。

  • But I mean, look, it's early with that. But no, nothing that we've seen right now. But our expectation, and I think you're going to see it from a lot of companies -- remember, Chegg, they've already said that they do not plan to keep it free. They can't run it if it's free. So it's going to be an API-based business where we will be participating and using it to enhance our product. And we think it's going to be a big opportunity to say you get everything from them plus what you get from us plus all the expansion. So -- at the moment, we feel like the plan we have in place is the right plan, and it's pretty exciting.

    但我的意思是,看,現在還為時過早。但不,我們現在還沒有看到任何東西。但是我們的期望,我想你會從很多公司看到它——記住,Chegg,他們已經說過他們不打算讓它免費。如果它是免費的,他們就無法運行它。因此,這將是一個基於 API 的業務,我們將參與並使用它來增強我們的產品。我們認為這將是一個很好的機會,可以說你從他們那裡得到了一切,加上你從我們那裡得到的,再加上所有的擴張。所以——目前,我們覺得我們制定的計劃是正確的,而且非常令人興奮。

  • The more of these things develop, the more the companies who are the leaders in the space use them to their advantage, and that's our plan. But at the moment, we see no degradation of anything.

    這些東西發展得越多,該領域的領導者公司就越能利用它們來發揮自己的優勢,這就是我們的計劃。但目前,我們沒有看到任何退化。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.

    下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

  • Bryan Michael Smilek - Analyst

    Bryan Michael Smilek - Analyst

  • It's Bryan Smilek from JPMorgan on for Doug. Just to start, thinking about the 2023 guide, what gives you confidence that growth will meaningfully continue to reaccelerate as you enter the back half of 2023 and into 2024? And then can you just discuss the road map to achieving higher normalized growth rates longer term?

    Doug 是來自摩根大通的 Bryan Smilek。首先,想想 2023 年的指南,是什麼讓您相信隨著您進入 2023 年下半年和 2024 年,增長將有意義地繼續重新加速?然後你能不能討論一下實現更高的長期標準化增長率的路線圖?

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • Yes. So when we look at our guide, particularly as the first question was on the new subscriber growth. We're already on the trajectory. And so we're not expecting anything dramatically different than what we're on. And to a great extent, it's of what I call -- it's kind of called subscription math, right? It takes a while to refill the renewal base, which is what we're dealing with right now. And the trajectory we saw starting in the second half of last year, we just expect to continue not to dramatically increase in any way for us to meet our numbers.

    是的。因此,當我們查看我們的指南時,尤其是當第一個問題是關於新用戶增長時。我們已經在軌道上了。因此,我們不會期待任何與我們正在做的有很大不同的事情。在很大程度上,這就是我所說的——有點叫做訂閱數學,對吧?重新填充更新基礎需要一段時間,這就是我們現在正在處理的問題。我們從去年下半年開始看到的軌跡,我們只是希望繼續不會以任何方式大幅增加以滿足我們的數字。

  • Okay. Okay. I just -- I thought we lost something. Operator, there's another call -- I assume there's more questions?

    好的。好的。我只是 - 我以為我們失去了一些東西。接線員,還有一個電話——我想還有更多問題?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • So if I could just sort of -- while the operator is figuring this out, just sort of add a little color to what Andy just said there, which is our plan if we achieve it, and obviously, we wouldn't put it out if we expected not to, but things can happen over the course of the year, shows a constant progress of growth, which there's -- when you exit the year, that number with the new subscriber growth, the base being filled back up, the rollover of the subscription math, as Andy pointed out, the continued take rate of Chegg Study Pack and the renewal near-equality between Chegg Study and Chegg Study Pack, the company returns to a substantial growth over the course of '23 at the end of the year, and then into '24. And we have all the leverage in the model in terms of you're already seeing increased free cash flows in the company.

    因此,如果我可以——在運營商解決這個問題的同時,為 Andy 剛才所說的話添加一點顏色,這是我們實現它的計劃,顯然,我們不會把它放出來如果我們預計不會,但事情可能會在一年中發生,顯示增長的持續進展,當你退出這一年時,這個數字隨著新用戶的增長,基礎被填補,正如 Andy 指出的那樣,訂閱數學的滾動,Chegg Study Pack 的持續採用率以及 Chegg Study 和 Chegg Study Pack 之間的更新幾乎相等,公司在 23 年底的過程中恢復了大幅增長那一年,然後進入'24。就您已經看到公司自由現金流量增加而言,我們擁有模型中的所有槓桿作用。

  • So we feel like this is a year that we've got to get through to refill that hole, and it's the hole that we talked about last year when we had to change the guidance because literally 1.5 million kids didn't show up.

    所以我們覺得這是我們必須度過的一年來填補這個漏洞,這就是我們去年談到的漏洞,當時我們不得不更改指南,因為實際上有 150 萬孩子沒有出現。

  • So -- but our confidence in what we're seeing is very top and it's very positive, and we're seeing also growth in skills. So we feel like the next several years, you'll see that sustained growth because the businesses and the choices that we made to invest are returning in that direction and it's very positive what we see right now.

    所以 - 但我們對我們所看到的東西的信心非常高,而且非常積極,我們也看到技能的增長。所以我們覺得在接下來的幾年裡,你會看到持續的增長,因為我們所做的業務和投資選擇正在朝著這個方向回歸,我們現在看到的是非常積極的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Our next question comes from Stephen Sheldon with William Blair.

    我們的下一個問題來自斯蒂芬謝爾頓和威廉布萊爾。

  • Stephen Hardy Sheldon - Analyst

    Stephen Hardy Sheldon - Analyst

  • It seems like one of the bigger potential growth drivers here is keeping students on the platform longer. I'm just curious how you're thinking about what's a realistic expectation for that? How do things like Calm and the DoorDash memberships kind of play into that and other forms of student support? How optimistic are you that you can extend that student retention? And what would the financial implications be?

    似乎這裡更大的潛在增長動力之一是讓學生在平台上停留的時間更長。我只是想知道您如何考慮對此的現實期望是什麼? Calm 和 DoorDash 會員資格之類的東西如何發揮這種和其他形式的學生支持?您對延長學生保留時間有多樂觀?財務影響是什麼?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. Great question. And the goal has been to go from historically 2 days a year to 365 days a year. We've done an incredible job getting close to 5-plus months per student. And the goal is to keep them over the summer or in the December-January period before school starts. And so these are examples of the kinds of things that we're doing.

    是的。很好的問題。目標是從歷史上的一年 2 天增加到一年 365 天。我們做了一項令人難以置信的工作,讓每個學生接近 5 個多月。目標是讓它們在整個夏天或開學前的 12 月至 1 月期間保存。因此,這些是我們正在做的事情的例子。

  • So if you take a look, for example, at the Calm deal and the DoorDash deal, students get them for free. It's the value -- the two of them together equals a value greater than the price of what they pay for Chegg. And so the hope is that they continue to use it over the summer because they get other benefits outside of the academic support.

    因此,如果您看一下 Calm 交易和 DoorDash 交易,學生可以免費獲得它們。這是價值——他們兩個加在一起的價值大於他們為 Chegg 支付的價格。因此,希望他們在整個夏天繼續使用它,因為他們可以獲得學術支持之外的其他好處。

  • And so the way to look at it is for each month that they stay on, it's on average another $17. So it's a 15% or 20% increase depending on when that starts to work and how well that works. So these -- the deals are designed to do that, to increase conversion and increase the take rate and increase retention.

    因此,看待它的方式是,對於他們留下來的每個月,平均還要多花 17 美元。所以它會增加 15% 或 20%,具體取決於它何時開始起作用以及它的效果如何。所以這些 - 交易旨在做到這一點,以增加轉化率並提高采用率並增加保留率。

  • What we've seen so far is, yes, it's helping on conversion. So you see new accounts growing, and you see take rates now being over 40%, which I think is pretty remarkable. So the next way we'll take a look at it is over the summer, and we'll see the impact on retention. We still know yet because it's too early. We just launched them. But that is the vision and the goal for adding these things. And eventually to become a 12-month service, which goes from academic support to nonacademic support, skills-based support. So just adding more and more value to our services to students so that they stay on for much longer periods of time. So the economic impact will be quite substantial when it works.

    到目前為止,我們所看到的是,是的,它有助於轉化。所以你看到新賬戶在增長,你看到現在的利率超過 40%,我認為這是非常了不起的。因此,我們將在整個夏天查看它的下一個方法,我們將看到對保留的影響。我們仍然知道,因為現在還為時過早。我們剛剛推出了它們。但這是添加這些東西的願景和目標。並最終成為一項為期 12 個月的服務,從學術支持到非學術支持,基於技能的支持。因此,只需為我們為學生提供的服務增加越來越多的價值,這樣他們就能堅持更長的時間。因此,當它起作用時,經濟影響將是相當可觀的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Josh Baer with Morgan Stanley.

    下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Josh Baer。

  • Joshua Phillip Baer - Equity Analyst

    Joshua Phillip Baer - Equity Analyst

  • I was hoping you could talk a little bit about your subscriber base and the composition of it and how it breaks down between STEM versus humanities or literature?

    我希望您能談談您的訂閱者基礎及其構成,以及它如何在 STEM 與人文或文學之間分解?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. So 3 to 4 years ago, the way college students broke down was there were more humanities and non-STEM-B than there were STEM. Now it's more STEM-B than it is non-STEM-B. So hours' break down, 90% STEM-B, which humanity users using us within a quarter or a semester where they have to take the class. But the goal with content expansion, Uversity and ultimately using the AI content creation is to grow beyond that so we're relevant for those students every semester, even if they're not taking STEM-B classes.

    是的。所以 3 到 4 年前,大學生崩潰的方式是人文學科和非 STEM-B 多於 STEM。現在它更多的是 STEM-B 而不是非 STEM-B。所以幾個小時的分解,90% 的 STEM-B,人類用戶在他們必須上課的一個季度或一個學期內使用我們。但內容擴展、大學和最終使用 AI 內容創建的目標是超越這一目標,因此我們每個學期都與這些學生相關,即使他們沒有參加 STEM-B 課程。

  • So that is what we've been talking about for the last few years. That's what we mean by the expansion of the TAM, the 5 million students that we historically have not been the primary learning service for. But with the use of AI, chat AI, as well as Uversity, we're expanding that content. And we think that's going to help a lot and help us grow in those areas.

    這就是我們過去幾年一直在談論的內容。這就是我們擴展 TAM 的意思,500 萬學生在歷史上並不是我們主要的學習服務對象。但是通過使用 AI、聊天 AI 以及大學,我們正在擴展這些內容。我們認為這將有很大幫助,並幫助我們在這些領域發展。

  • So we see -- the difficulty is this year, we got to get through that hole. But if you saw the inside of the company, you see the hole is getting filled up very fast. And so if it continues to get filled up very fast, you'll see the growth return and sustain because the investments we've made are paying off at least internally in the company. It's just that's a hole that was just something nobody would have expected 1.5 million students left, a bunch of professors didn't assign anything. And that's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

    所以我們看到 - 困難在於今年,我們必須克服這個漏洞。但如果你看到公司內部,你就會發現這個漏洞正在迅速被填補。因此,如果它繼續快速填滿,你會看到增長回報並持續下去,因為我們所做的投資至少在公司內部得到了回報。只是那隻是一個空子,誰也沒想到,150萬學生就這麼走了,一幫教授什麼都沒佈置。那是成百上千的訂閱者。

  • What I'm really excited about is if you look back before COVID, we only had about 3 million subscribers. Now we have almost twice as many. And even though we lost a bunch, we're still more than 2x what we were just in 2019. So we see ourselves returning to growth. We just have to fill that hole, and that's what we're doing now. And when we do, you'll see double-digit growth return and all of that fall to free cash flow and improving margins. So we just got to execute, execute, execute this year. And I'm very excited we're able to do it with increasing our free cash flow substantially.

    我真正感到興奮的是,如果你回顧 COVID 之前,我們只有大約 300 萬訂閱者。現在我們的數量幾乎是原來的兩倍。儘管我們失去了很多,但我們仍然是 2019 年的兩倍多。所以我們看到自己恢復增長。我們只需要填補那個洞,這就是我們現在正在做的。當我們這樣做時,你會看到兩位數的增長回報,而所有這些都歸功於自由現金流和利潤率的提高。所以我們今年只需要執行,執行,執行。我很高興我們能夠通過大幅增加自由現金流來做到這一點。

  • So a lot of good news happening on top of the fact that we're just not growing that fast externally in the first half of the year.

    因此,除了今年上半年我們的外部增長沒有那麼快這一事實之外,還有很多好消息。

  • Joshua Phillip Baer - Equity Analyst

    Joshua Phillip Baer - Equity Analyst

  • I was hoping I could ask one on the Study Pack reaching around 40% of all subscribers. I guess, really like where can this go? And then I'm also just wondering if, from a linearity perspective, like does this consistently trend higher? And also just wondering if there's seasonality with Study Pack adoption or usage around finals similar to the rest of your business?

    我希望我能在 Study Pack 上問一個問題,覆蓋所有訂閱者的 40% 左右。我想,真的很喜歡這可以去哪裡?然後我也只是想知道,從線性的角度來看,這是否一直呈上升趨勢?並且還想知道 Study Pack 的採用或使用是否與您的其他業務一樣具有季節性?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. Great questions and ones that we couldn't answer 1.5 years ago or 2 years ago when we launched these, but now we have multiple semesters, renewal periods, and we've been able to improve the investment.

    是的。 1.5 年前或 2 年前推出這些時我們無法回答的好問題,但現在我們有多個學期、更新期,並且我們已經能夠改善投資。

  • So look, we know we have additional pricing power. So we took the dollar increase, and we said by taking that dollar increase we would also be able to move more people to Study Pack, and we did. So more people are in. Almost -- we're almost at 1 out of 2 willing to pay $19.95 rather than $15.95. The expectation is as we add more value, we'll be able to not only move more people in there, but then Chegg Study Pack will become the base.

    所以看,我們知道我們有額外的定價權。所以我們接受了美元的增加,我們說通過美元的增加,我們也能夠讓更多的人使用 Study Pack,我們做到了。所以更多的人加入。幾乎 - 我們幾乎有二分之一的人願意支付 19.95 美元而不是 15.95 美元。期望隨著我們增加更多的價值,我們不僅能夠將更多的人轉移到那裡,而且 Chegg Study Pack 將成為基礎。

  • So these are all steps that we're taking in terms of to get us to a much higher ARPU and much higher profitability per customer. But in difficult times, the last thing we want to do is use that pricing power. We want them to volunteer for it and 4 out of 10 are doing that now. So that's a very big step for us and something that we think is going to yield investors a great return.

    因此,這些都是我們正在採取的所有步驟,以使我們獲得更高的 ARPU 和更高的每位客戶盈利能力。但在困難時期,我們最不想做的就是使用這種定價權。我們希望他們自願參加,現在十分之四的人正在這樣做。所以這對我們來說是非常大的一步,我們認為這會給投資者帶來豐厚的回報。

  • In terms of what's happened, every semester since we launched it, there has been a higher take rate and every semester since we've launched it, we've been able to improve retention. And we're almost at parity. I mean it's within 2 points of parity right now. And that's a huge step for us.

    就發生的事情而言,自從我們推出它以來的每個學期,都有更高的採用率,而且自從我們推出它以來的每個學期,我們都能夠提高保留率。我們幾乎處於平價狀態。我的意思是它現在在平價的 2 個點以內。這對我們來說是一大步。

  • So ultimately, though, you can imagine the base price of Chegg being closer to $19.95 than $15.95 and the pack being higher because we keep adding more value. But our view is you need to take each step at a time. You need to confirm that this is accurate. We only saw about 7,000 loss of customers out of 8 million customers when it came to taking the price increase. So we know we have substantially more price increase, and we're just not leveraging it beyond getting people to take Study Pack right now.

    所以最終,雖然,你可以想像 Chegg 的基本價格更接近 19.95 美元而不是 15.95 美元,而且包裝價格更高,因為我們不斷增加更多價值。但我們的觀點是,您需要一次邁出每一步。您需要確認這是準確的。在提價方面,我們只看到 800 萬客戶中約有 7,000 人流失。所以我們知道我們有更多的價格上漲,我們只是沒有利用它來讓人們現在就服用 Study Pack。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Ryan MacDonald with Needham & Company.

    下一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Ryan MacDonald。

  • Ryan Michael MacDonald - Senior Analyst

    Ryan Michael MacDonald - Senior Analyst

  • Dan, I wanted to ask about the localized pricing initiatives. You talked about that you're testing in 9 additional countries right now. And as we think about how that's being factored into the fiscal '23 revenue outlook, how should we start to think about when those 9 countries where you're testing and go officially live -- and what sort of impact do you expect that to have on ARPU trends in the near term?

    丹,我想問一下本地化定價計劃。您談到您現在正在另外 9 個國家/地區進行測試。當我們考慮如何將其納入 23 財年的收入前景時,我們應該如何開始考慮您正在測試並正式上線的那 9 個國家/地區何時生效——以及您預計這會產生什麼樣的影響ARPU 近期趨勢如何?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. So we expect it to have -- so remember, we have to deal with semesters. The actual school year is late August through May. So we're in the spring of this year. So any increase in enrollment, any increase in change in behavior isn't going to happen until the second half of the year, and that's the way our business works. So again, that's a variable in the front half of the year about why you don't see a big jump up in the first half of the year because you're dealing with the same subscriber pool that we had in the fall of the year, which we did take a step up.

    是的。所以我們希望它有——所以請記住,我們必須處理學期。實際學年是八月底到五月。所以我們在今年春天。因此,入學人數的增加,行為改變的增加,要到今年下半年才會發生,這就是我們的業務運作方式。所以,這又是上半年的一個變量,說明為什麼你在上半年看不到大幅增長,因為你處理的是與今年秋季相同的訂戶群,我們確實邁出了一步。

  • So we expect to continue to -- what we've seen in every country that we've done it is substantial improvement in conversion and with retention remaining where it was. So we're seeing improvements across the board. We're rolling them out over the course of this year. All 9 additional ones will be rolled out by the second half of the year. So we'll start to see that impact on subscriber growth in the second half of the year.

    因此,我們希望繼續——我們在每個國家/地區看到的是,我們所做的是在轉化率和保留率方面的顯著改善。所以我們看到了全面的改進。我們將在今年推出它們。到今年下半年將推出所有 9 個額外的。因此,我們將在今年下半年開始看到這種對用戶增長的影響。

  • A lot of the ARPU decline that might come from charging less in those will be offset by the fact that so many people are taking Study Pack and renewing at higher rates in the U.S.

    許多 ARPU 的下降可能來自於那些收費較低的人將被如此多的人正在使用 Study Pack 並在美國以更高的利率續訂這一事實所抵消。

  • Ryan Michael MacDonald - Senior Analyst

    Ryan Michael MacDonald - Senior Analyst

  • Super helpful. And maybe just a follow-up question in regards to Busuu. So you talked about you rolling out the freemium model and you're starting to see more engagement there. Just curious how you're thinking about the cross-sell strategy potential between Busuu and the core Chegg Study user base and whether -- what you're doing -- if there's anything you can do around promotional pricing to kind of continue to drive that motion?

    超級有幫助。也許只是關於 Busuu 的後續問題。所以你談到你推出免費增值模式,你開始看到更多的參與。只是好奇您如何看待 Busuu 和 Chegg Study 核心用戶群之間的交叉銷售策略潛力,以及您是否可以在促銷定價方面做些什麼來繼續推動它運動?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. We're -- yes, great question again. We're testing the promotional pricing to existing Chegg customers because remember, part of the premise of why we bought it was that 55% of U.S. college students said they need or want to learn a language, but we didn't have the right product for them. So offering one with an automatic paywall when there's one with a freemium model, we knew it wasn't going to work. So that's why we've invested in the freemium model.

    是的。我們 - 是的,又是一個很好的問題。我們正在測試現有 Chegg 客戶的促銷價格,因為請記住,我們購買它的部分前提是 55% 的美國大學生表示他們需要或想要學習一門語言,但我們沒有合適的產品為他們。因此,在有免費增值模式的情況下提供帶有自動付費牆的模式,我們知道這是行不通的。這就是我們投資免費增值模式的原因。

  • We're beginning to see positive results from doing that. I think you'll see the cross-promotion in the fall semester, which is the first semester of the year. Everything right now is to keep our growth that we've been seeing since last August of new accounts continuing to go and adding more value into Study Pack with Calm and with DoorDash, and those are our priorities right now. So -- and they're working. So we're pleased where we are right now to be able to achieve the numbers that we put out, which would lead us to exiting the year at a much, much higher growth rate.

    我們開始看到這樣做的積極成果。我想你會在秋季學期看到交叉推廣,這是今年的第一學期。現在的一切都是為了保持我們自去年 8 月以來一直看到的增長,新客戶繼續使用 Calm 和 DoorDash 為 Study Pack 增加更多價值,這些是我們現在的首要任務。所以 - 他們正在工作。因此,我們很高興我們現在能夠實現我們提出的數字,這將使我們以更高的增長率退出今年。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Mike Grondahl with Northland Securities.

    下一個問題來自 Northland Securities 的 Mike Grondahl。

  • Michael John Grondahl - Senior Research Analyst & Head of Equity Research

    Michael John Grondahl - Senior Research Analyst & Head of Equity Research

  • I don't know if I heard how the dollar price increase to existing subscribers in October went, and kind of the retention related to that?

    我不知道我是否聽說 10 月份現有訂戶的美元價格上漲情況如何,以及與此相關的保留率如何?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. Mike, yes, we only lost about 7,000 customers in total. So what it says is we have extraordinary pricing power because the value of Chegg continues to go up. Investment in personalization, utilizing AI to make the user experience better, utilizing it to be able to get more content in for lower prices, these are all things that allowed us to take it really with absolutely no disruptions whatsoever.

    是的。邁克,是的,我們總共只失去了大約 7,000 名客戶。所以它說的是我們擁有非凡的定價能力,因為 Chegg 的價值繼續上漲。對個性化的投資,利用 AI 改善用戶體驗,利用它以更低的價格獲得更多內容,所有這些都讓我們能夠真正做到完全不受任何干擾。

  • At the same time, you can see the pricing power we have by the fact that 4 out of 10 are taking the $19.95 product. So it seems they're willing to pay more for value and we are adding that value. So we know that we could do more sooner. We don't think it's a good idea to do more sooner. But the ultimate goal, Mike, is to move everybody to $19.95 and then have the Study Pack be at a higher price and adding DoorDash now and adding Calm now, and you'll see other announcements coming out over the course of the year, puts us in a position to do that.

    同時,您可以看到我們擁有的定價權,因為 10 人中有 4 人購買了 19.95 美元的產品。因此,他們似乎願意為價值付出更多,而我們正在增加這種價值。所以我們知道我們可以更快地做更多事情。我們不認為早點做更多是個好主意。但邁克,最終目標是將每個人的價格提高到 19.95 美元,然後讓 Study Pack 的價格更高,現在添加 DoorDash,現在添加 Calm,你會在這一年中看到其他公告發布,我們有能力這樣做。

  • But we're very careful about picking the right times to do these for students because that's the relationship that wins us all this business.

    但我們非常謹慎地選擇合適的時間為學生做這些,因為正是這種關係為我們贏得了所有這些業務。

  • Michael John Grondahl - Senior Research Analyst & Head of Equity Research

    Michael John Grondahl - Senior Research Analyst & Head of Equity Research

  • Got it. And then you mentioned Calm and DoorDash. And I think you -- so can we expect like a third, a fourth and a fifth over the next year? I mean, do you plan to build up those perks or benefits? A couple more, several more?

    知道了。然後你提到了 Calm 和 DoorDash。我想你——那麼我們可以期待明年有三分之一、四分之一和五分之一嗎?我的意思是,你打算增加這些津貼或福利嗎?多幾個,多幾個?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. I don't want to put a number around it because not sure what it would suggest to people, but the answer is yes. You will see more over the course of the year. You'll see more potentially in the base. You'll see more in the Study Pack. You'll see more opportunities outside of those things because the demand to have access to our audience is only increasing, and we have the most efficient access to the audience.

    是的。我不想在它周圍加上一個數字,因為不確定它會給人們帶來什麼建議,但答案是肯定的。在這一年中,您會看到更多。你會在基地看到更多的潛力。您會在學習包中看到更多內容。你會在這些事情之外看到更多的機會,因為接觸我們的觀眾的需求只會增加,而我們可以最有效地接觸觀眾。

  • So I mean we're talking about two of the leading brands that we're working with already and you see other very well-known brands that we're working with now to figure out what is the best way for them to reach college students through Chegg and advantage to Chegg student by doing so and improve our business. So, yes, the answer is yes.

    所以我的意思是我們正在談論我們已經合作的兩個領先品牌,你會看到我們正在合作的其他非常知名的品牌,以找出讓他們接觸大學生的最佳方式通過 Chegg 並通過這樣做為 Chegg 學生帶來優勢並改善我們的業務。所以,是的,答案是肯定的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

    下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Jason Celino。

  • Jason Vincent Celino - Senior Research Analyst

    Jason Vincent Celino - Senior Research Analyst

  • Just one question for me. Even with the savings that we're getting from the textbook transition and the benefits from the price increases and the higher take rate Study Pack, it's disappointing to see the margin still compress this year. Is this just a function of lack of topline growth? And then are there any leverage drivers we can think about outside of just revenue growth accelerating?

    只問我一個問題。即使我們從教科書過渡中獲得的節省以及價格上漲和更高的學習包採用率帶來的好處,今年利潤率仍然壓縮仍然令人失望。這僅僅是缺乏收入增長的結果嗎?那麼除了收入增長加速之外,還有什麼我們可以考慮的槓桿驅動因素嗎?

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • Yes, that's a good question. Yes, we can still continue to drive pretty stellar margins. And if you -- particularly if you take a look at cash flow, our cash flow margin is actually increasing this year or at least we're forecasting to increase this year.

    是的,這是個好問題。是的,我們仍然可以繼續推動可觀的利潤率。如果你 - 特別是如果你看一下現金流量,我們今年的現金流量利潤率實際上在增加,或者至少我們預測今年會增加。

  • As far as the levels go, I mean, the big levers are revenue growth. When you think about it incrementally, when you think about adding a subscription probably in the very short term, $0.95 at the dollar drops to the bottom line. So our focus internally is driving new subscribers, driving retention through all of the -- many of the things that Dan has already talked about. And we're -- certainly early in the year, we're on a path to do that. But that's the real -- that's going to be the real driver.

    就水平而言,我的意思是,最大的槓桿是收入增長。當你逐漸考慮它時,當你考慮在很短的時間內添加訂閱時,每美元 0.95 美元就會下降到底線。因此,我們在內部的重點是吸引新訂戶,通過所有 - 丹已經談到的許多事情來提高保留率。而且我們 - 當然在今年年初,我們正在努力做到這一點。但這是真實的——這將是真正的驅動力。

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • But it's just sort of a follow-on to that question. The leverage comes with obviously revenue growth. So we could be a lot more profitable at any time. But the things that we're investing in, again, it's hard because it gets masked by the big hole. But we think that they are working. And as the company grows, the margins will grow.

    但這只是該問題的後續問題。槓桿作用明顯伴隨著收入增長。所以我們可以隨時獲得更多利潤。但是我們正在投資的東西,又一次,很難,因為它被大洞掩蓋了。但我們認為它們正在發揮作用。隨著公司的發展,利潤率也會增長。

  • So I think, as Andy has said multiple times, we're nowhere near fixed data margins. We expect this company to be closer to 40% than where we are now. And really the gross margin of the company allow these things to fall to the bottom line over time.

    所以我認為,正如安迪多次說過的那樣,我們離固定的數據利潤還差得很遠。我們預計這家公司將比我們現在的比例接近 40%。而且公司的毛利率真的讓這些事情隨著時間的推移下降到底線。

  • We still -- we're still investing in skills, in language, and those continue to improve dramatically year-over-year. But it's really a function right now of just executing on our plan and the margins automatically get higher.

    我們仍然——我們仍然在技能、語言方面進行投資,並且這些方面逐年繼續大幅提高。但它現在真的是一個功能,只要執行我們的計劃,利潤就會自動變高。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Brett Thill with Jefferies.

    下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Brett Thill。

  • David Marshall Lustberg - Equity Associate

    David Marshall Lustberg - Equity Associate

  • This is Dave Lustberg on for Brett. Two, if I may. But to start, you guys talked a little bit about the subscription path and adding more value and increasing the pricing of Chegg Study Pack over time. Just curious if you guys have thought about the optionality to do annual subscriptions for a slight price decrease or even create a higher-price bundle that includes things like Busuu and skills based learning embedded inside of that? Or is it really just focusing on the Chegg Study Pack that you have now?

    我是布雷特的戴夫·勒斯特伯格 (Dave Lustberg)。兩個,如果可以的話。但首先,你們談了一些關於訂閱路徑以及隨著時間的推移增加更多價值和提高 Chegg Study Pack 定價的問題。只是好奇你們是否考慮過以略微降價的方式進行年度訂閱,或者甚至創建一個更高價格的捆綁包,其中包括 Busuu 和嵌入其中的基於技能的學習?或者它真的只是專注於您現在擁有的 Chegg Study Pack?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. Great question. Also the answer is yes. You can expect you'll see an annual subscription from us. And believe it or not, it was technologically a challenge for us to be able to do that. We now can do that. And so we are looking and we are testing what the right price would be for an annual subscription.

    是的。很好的問題。答案也是肯定的。您可以期待您會看到我們的年度訂閱。不管你信不信,要做到這一點對我們來說在技術上是一個挑戰。我們現在可以做到這一點。因此,我們正在尋找並測試年度訂閱的合適價格。

  • But -- yes. And now we have reasons for people to want to stay annually, right? Initially, without something over the summer like Calm and DoorDash or the other things that we'll be adding, it's just a matter of sort of discounting with the hope that people will stay on longer to pay the credit card. We want to actually give them real reasons to do it, real value to do it. So -- yes, you can expect to see that from us eventually.

    但是,是的。現在我們有理由讓人們每年都想留下來,對吧?最初,沒有像 Calm 和 DoorDash 這樣的夏季產品或我們將要添加的其他產品,這只是一種打折的問題,希望人們能留下更長時間來支付信用卡費用。我們實際上想給他們真正的理由去做這件事,真正的價值去做。所以 - 是的,你可以期待最終從我們這裡看到這一點。

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • And just as a reminder, on some of our other subscription products, we do have annual subscriptions. So for example, Mathway and Busuu both do annual subscriptions. In fact, Busuu is predominantly an annual subscription. So I just want to give you that information also.

    提醒一下,在我們的其他一些訂閱產品上,我們確實有年度訂閱。例如,Mathway 和 Busuu 都進行年度訂閱。事實上,Busuu 主要是按年訂閱。所以我也想給你那個信息。

  • David Marshall Lustberg - Equity Associate

    David Marshall Lustberg - Equity Associate

  • Yes. No, that's super helpful. I appreciate the color. And then one more on AI and ChatGPT. I appreciate the color that you provided in the intro, Dan, super helpful. But I think it would be really great if maybe you could provide a little bit more color around how long you guys have been using AI? What the level of investment has looked like? And then as you guys think about 2023 and 2024 and beyond that, do you guys plan to increase your investments around AI? And maybe does some of that come from in-house? Do you guys continue to partner with some of the leading AI venders out there? Appreciate it.

    是的。不,那超級有用。我很欣賞這種顏色。然後再介紹 AI 和 ChatGPT。我很欣賞你在介紹中提供的顏色,Dan,非常有幫助。但我認為,如果你們能提供更多關於你們使用 AI 多長時間的顏色,那就太好了?投資水平如何?然後當你們考慮 2023 年和 2024 年及以後時,你們是否計劃增加對 AI 的投資?也許其中一些來自內部?你們會繼續與一些領先的 AI 供應商合作嗎?欣賞它。

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes, you'll see both. So we've been using machine learning, we've been using for 5, 6, 7 years. Those are the algorithms. Those are the things that we do to match people to the right content and match it to the right experts. As AI has been getting better and we've been using our own plus external, we've really focused on getting the efficiency of the question answering and the scale and the speed and the quality up a lot, which is why you can see a substantial reduction we have in CapEx. It's because the cost to get a solution is now substantially less than it used to be based on the investments we've made in technology like ML and AI, and we've been able to reduce duplication. We've been able to get better quality answers, to get them answered faster. All of those things have saved us a tremendous amount of money and improve the quality of the product over time. That's never going to end.

    是的,你會看到兩者。所以我們一直在使用機器學習,我們已經使用了 5、6、7 年。這些就是算法。這些是我們為將人們匹配到正確的內容並將其匹配到正確的專家所做的事情。隨著 AI 變得越來越好,我們一直在使用我們自己的加上外部的,我們真正專注於提高問題回答的效率以及規模、速度和質量,這就是為什麼你可以看到我們的資本支出大幅減少。這是因為基於我們在 ML 和 AI 等技術上的投資,現在獲得解決方案的成本大大低於過去,而且我們已經能夠減少重複。我們已經能夠獲得更高質量的答案,更快地得到他們的答复。所有這些都為我們節省了大量資金,並隨著時間的推移提高了產品質量。那永遠不會結束。

  • What you will see for the first time later on in the year, will be user-based experiences that would be more obvious to the consumer. So think about a scenario where we have what the AI companies don't have. We have the 100-plus million questions that are asked and answered. What we can use AI technology to be able to do is to be able to say something like -- so you've gone through the solution, do you want us to build you a sample test, a multiple question test? We can make the questions easier for you to understand if you're not understanding the concept. Everything that we'll be using for on the user side will be able to have the user be more engaged and expand the ways that they can learn at the levels that they're more capable of learning at.

    您將在今年晚些時候第一次看到的是基於用戶的體驗,這對消費者來說會更加明顯。所以想一想我們擁有人工智能公司所沒有的場景。我們有超過 100 萬個問題被提出和回答。我們可以使用 AI 技術來做的是能夠說出類似的話——所以你已經完成了解決方案,你想要我們為你構建一個樣本測試,一個多問題測試嗎?如果您不理解這個概念,我們可以讓您更容易理解問題。我們將在用戶方面使用的所有內容都將能夠讓用戶更加參與並擴展他們可以在他們更有能力學習的水平上學習的方式。

  • So we're actually really, really, really excited. I think we, like everybody else, was impressed. I have the good fortune of sitting on the Adobe board. So I've seen all the AI investments that they're making on images and other things. So it was less of a surprise for us. But it's really impressive. It just -- it doesn't do what we do yet. So I think we've discovered this maybe 6% overlap in what they can provide versus what we provide. And of the 6%, I think currently, 50% of them were wrong. So we have time to work with them, but we expect a number of vendors. We expect to work with whoever the best vendor is to do the things that we want to do to help students to be able to learn better through us.

    所以我們真的,真的,真的很興奮。我想我們和其他人一樣,印象深刻。我有幸坐在 Adobe 董事會上。所以我看到了他們在圖像和其他方面所做的所有人工智能投資。所以這對我們來說不足為奇。但它確實令人印象深刻。它只是——它還沒有做我們所做的事情。所以我認為我們已經發現他們可以提供的內容與我們提供的內容可能有 6% 的重疊。在這 6% 中,我認為目前有 50% 是錯誤的。所以我們有時間與他們合作,但我們希望有許多供應商。我們希望與最好的供應商合作,做我們想做的事情,幫助學生通過我們更好地學習。

  • So it's actually a very exciting time. It's a real substantial platform shift, and I don't think there's been one of this magnitude probably since mobile. And my experience is that the companies that utilize this, these are companies that are building APIs for companies like ours to do exactly these things. But the verticality, the experts that we have, the knowledge, the user experience designed specifically for learning is going to be our moat and our advantage. What we have plus what they have.

    所以這實際上是一個非常激動人心的時刻。這是一個真正的重大平台轉變,我認為自移動以來可能還沒有發生過如此大規模的轉變。我的經驗是,利用這一點的公司,這些公司正在為像我們這樣的公司構建 API 來做這些事情。但是垂直性,我們擁有的專家,知識,專為學習而設計的用戶體驗將成為我們的護城河和我們的優勢。我們擁有的加上他們擁有的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Brian Peterson with Raymond James.

    下一個問題來自 Brian Peterson 和 Raymond James。

  • Unidentified Analyst

    Unidentified Analyst

  • This is (inaudible) on for Brian. I've got a high-level question. As we started spring semester in the U.S., is there a certain time at the start of the semester where you typically see adoption rates really increase with your different subscription? And what is that sort of spring -- has there been any deviation so far from the pattern in 2023?

    這是 Brian 的(聽不清)。我有一個高級問題。當我們在美國開始春季學期時,在學期開始的某個特定時間,您通常會看到採用率隨著訂閱的不同而真正增加嗎?那是什麼樣的春天——到目前為止與 2023 年的模式有任何偏差嗎?

  • Andrew J. Brown - CFO

    Andrew J. Brown - CFO

  • I'm sorry, you broke up just a little bit. Do we see what in the spring, which -- do you mind repeating it?

    對不起,你們分手了一點點。我們在春天看到了什麼,你介意重複嗎?

  • Unidentified Analyst

    Unidentified Analyst

  • Yes. So the whole question, is there a certain time in the start of the semester, we typically see adoption rates really increase for your subscriptions. And like when is that in spring? And has there been a deviation from that pattern in 2023?

    是的。所以整個問題是,在學期開始的某個時間,我們通常會看到您的訂閱的採用率確實增加了。就像春天是什麼時候? 2023 年是否出現了偏離該模式的情況?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Okay. So it's sort of the timing. We've been at this a long time, so our timing is pretty good. Textbooks was always harder. But the subscription services are easier now once it returned to some form of normalcy in the middle of last year. Beginning of last year, it was nearly impossible because we just didn't expect so many people not to show up. But now that we're back to understanding the size of these markets, each semester has its own world, like September is the biggest month of the year for us. But in this case, for the spring semester, the biggest days for new account growth have passed us, meaning we're -- when Andy says that we like what we see, it's because we passed the 3 biggest days of new account growth.

    好的。所以這是一種時機。我們已經這樣做了很長時間,所以我們的時機非常好。教科書總是更難。但是,一旦它在去年年中恢復某種形式的正常狀態,現在訂閱服務就更容易了。去年年初,這幾乎是不可能的,因為我們只是沒想到會有這麼多人不出現。但現在我們又開始了解這些市場的規模,每個學期都有自己的世界,就像 9 月對我們來說是一年中最大的月份。但在這種情況下,對於春季學期,新客戶增長最大的日子已經過去了,這意味著我們 - 當安迪說我們喜歡我們所看到的時,那是因為我們已經過了新客戶增長最大的 3 天。

  • So it is -- it's really the second, third and first -- second, third week of January and the first week of February, and then it's September, October, leading up to midterm. So the second half of the year is always substantially bigger than the first half of the year. And -- but the rollover that we expect to get to the first half of the year shows that base that we lost a year ago. So that's how we build back to growth, and that's the path we think we're on right now.

    所以它是——實際上是一月的第二、第三和第一周——第二、第三周和二月的第一周,然後是九月、十月,直到期中考試。所以下半年總是比上半年大得多。而且 - 但我們預計今年上半年的滾動顯示我們一年前失去的基礎。這就是我們恢復增長的方式,這就是我們認為我們現在所走的道路。

  • Did that answer for you?

    這對你有答案嗎?

  • Unidentified Analyst

    Unidentified Analyst

  • Yes.

    是的。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • The next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

    下一個問題來自高盛的 Eric Sheridan。

  • Eric James Sheridan - Research Analyst

    Eric James Sheridan - Research Analyst

  • Maybe just zooming out and asking 2 sort of big picture questions as we look out over the next 6 to 12 months and put a finer point on some of the themes on the call, when you look out to the next full year starting out in August, September, October, what do you see as the 2 to 3 things that are the top priorities for you on the investment side or the product side that you think will set the company up well for that landscape as you see it now?

    也許只是在我們展望未來 6 到 12 個月時縮小範圍並提出 2 個大局問題,並在您展望 8 月開始的下一個完整年度時對電話會議的某些主題提出更精細的觀點、9 月、10 月,您認為在投資方面或產品方面最優先考慮的 2 到 3 件事是什麼,您認為這將使公司在您現在看到的情況下做好準備?

  • And second, I know someone asked earlier about annual plans, how do you see the broader pricing matrix for the company sort of evolving not only just into the next school year, but on a multiyear so you're striking the right balance between value provided and sort of value received from your basic users?

    其次,我知道有人早些時候問過年度計劃,你如何看待公司更廣泛的定價矩陣不僅在下一學年而且在多年內不斷演變,所以你在提供的價值之間取得了正確的平衡以及從您的基本用戶那裡獲得的價值?

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Yes. I would say that the answer to the first part of your question is: The investments that we've been making are starting to show real signs of payoff. In the skills area, we think in the Busuu area, certainly in DoorDash, Calm, in terms of the Study Pack, the rate increase we took. So probably the newest area of focus or the only additional area of focus, it's more just executing on what we've been executing on, which is creating more content, expanding the TAM in the United States, getting the pricing right from outside the United States, building into the bundles, get the higher take rate.

    是的。我想說你問題第一部分的答案是:我們一直在進行的投資開始顯示出真正的回報跡象。在技能領域,我們認為在 Busuu 領域,當然是在 DoorDash、Calm 中,就 Study Pack 而言,我們採取了提高的速度。因此,可能是最新的關注領域或唯一的額外關注領域,它更像是在執行我們一直在執行的工作,即創造更多內容,擴大美國的 TAM,從美國以外的地方獲得定價權建立捆綁包的州獲得更高的採用率。

  • We'll be -- now that these AI products are released, our teams have been working feverishly with them to be able to incorporate them into the user experience. And so that's probably the only priority that is one that we haven't already been working on in a substantial way. So we -- the priorities of last year are the priorities of this year with that addition. Those will set us up, we think, very well.

    我們將會——現在這些人工智能產品已經發布,我們的團隊一直在與他們一起狂熱地工作,以便能夠將它們融入用戶體驗中。因此,這可能是我們尚未以實質性方式開展工作的唯一優先事項。因此,我們——去年的優先事項加上今年的優先事項。我們認為,這些會很好地幫助我們。

  • In terms of the pricing scenarios, the plan has been we have a multiyear plan, which is the first plan was to put out a bundle, get people to use the bundle, get retention near equality. And then take a raise in the base that was very small, but one that we could capture with losing almost nobody and push conversion more towards the bundle. Those things have worked. So the next step is to be able to build an annual subscription plan, which become an annual membership plan. And in addition to that, ultimately, the first package at $15.95 will probably be the basic $19.95. These are all over the next couple of years.

    在定價方案方面,計劃是我們有一個多年計劃,第一個計劃是推出捆綁包,讓人們使用捆綁包,獲得接近平等的保留率。然後在非常小的基礎上加薪,但我們可以在幾乎沒有人損失的情況下獲得這一加薪,並將轉化率更多地推向捆綁。這些東西奏效了。所以下一步是能夠建立年度訂閱計劃,成為年度會員計劃。除此之外,最終,15.95 美元的第一個套餐可能是基本的 19.95 美元。這些都是在接下來的幾年裡發生的。

  • So we're very judicious about when we take it, we test these things. The reason we were so successful is because we knew the outcome before we did it because we had tested it for a year. So we have to make sure that unlike other companies, we have basically 6 weeks out of the year where all our growth comes from. We can't afford to make a mistake. So we take our time with these things. But you will see us move towards more in the bundle, higher take rate. Once we get over the number that we want to get over, you can imagine that becoming the base -- and then adding on annual subscriptions with discounts.

    因此,我們在接受它時非常明智,我們會測試這些東西。我們之所以如此成功,是因為我們在做之前就知道結果,因為我們已經測試了一年。因此,我們必須確保與其他公司不同,我們一年中基本上有 6 周是我們所有增長的來源。我們不能犯錯誤。所以我們花時間處理這些事情。但是你會看到我們朝著更多的方向發展,更高的採用率。一旦我們超過了我們想要超過的數量,您就可以想像它成為基礎——然後以折扣的方式增加年度訂閱。

  • So we have a plan. All of that will generate a lot more revenue and a lot more margin and a lot more free cash flow. It's just not what you should expect to see in '23. '23 is the year that we want to return to excellent subscriber growth because we've already gotten ourselves to a really excellent retention growth. So taking price increases now will hurt us from filling that base that we lost a year ago. That's our view.

    所以我們有一個計劃。所有這些都將產生更多的收入、更多的利潤和更多的自由現金流。這不是你應該期望在 23 年看到的。 23 年是我們希望恢復出色訂戶增長的一年,因為我們已經實現了非常出色的保留增長。因此,現在提價將損害我們填補一年前失去的基礎。這是我們的看法。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • This concludes the question and the session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Rosensweig for any closing remarks.

    問題和會議到此結束。我想將會議轉回 Dan Rosensweig 的閉幕詞。

  • Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

    Daniel Lee Rosensweig - Co-Chairman, CEO & President

  • Okay. Thanks, everybody.

    好的。謝謝大家。

  • So this has been a very challenging time over the last couple of years. But in the ed tech space, we're growing. We're the only company that's profitable. We're increasing our margins on free cash flow. The investments we've made are returning our new subscribers to growth, and our retention continues to go up. And we believe that the execution is what's critical to us to achieve these numbers and return to much more substantial growth and higher profitability. We couldn't do all of this without the incredible employees that we have. Andy pointed out the ESG categories, you know the number of awards that we won for inclusion and for the balance of growth and the quality of employees to be able to attract the right kind of people who care about the mission that we're on.

    因此,在過去的幾年中,這是一個非常具有挑戰性的時期。但在教育科技領域,我們正在成長。我們是唯一盈利的公司。我們正在增加自由現金流的利潤率。我們所做的投資正在使我們的新訂戶恢復增長,並且我們的保留率繼續上升。我們相信,執行對於我們實現這些數字並恢復更大幅度的增長和更高的盈利能力至關重要。沒有我們出色的員工,我們無法完成所有這一切。安迪指出了 ESG 類別,你知道我們因包容、增長平衡和員工素質而贏得的獎項數量,以便能夠吸引關心我們使命的合適人才。

  • You might have also seen today that we announced a very important partnership with the United States government and the Vice President of the United States. So we announced today that we'll be working with the Vice President, along with other people, to help skill up and provide academic support in Honduras with the expectation and hope to train thousands of people who, instead of immigrating here, will become much more productive employees in their own companies. It's a validation of what Chegg can do in terms of helping people learn. We'll also provide new areas of growth.

    您今天可能還看到,我們宣布與美國政府和美國副總統建立非常重要的伙伴關係。所以我們今天宣布,我們將與副總統以及其他人一起工作,幫助提高洪都拉斯的技能並提供學術支持,期望並希望培訓成千上萬的人,而不是移民到這裡,將成為更多人他們自己公司中更有生產力的員工。這是對 Chegg 在幫助人們學習方面可以做些什麼的驗證。我們還將提供新的增長領域。

  • So there's a lot of good going on at Chegg. We just got to get through the first half of this year. And as we do, we will be returning to growth and greater profitability.

    所以 Chegg 發生了很多好事。我們剛剛度過了今年上半年。正如我們所做的那樣,我們將恢復增長並提高盈利能力。

  • I really want to thank everybody for joining the call. And I want to send our thoughts and our prayers to the people in Turkey. We have a lot of students there, and we have a lot of contractors there, and we're checking on them. None of this is easy, but all of this is worth doing. So we're grateful for our employees, and thank you, everybody, for dialing in. Talk to you next quarter.

    我真的要感謝大家加入電話會議。我想向土耳其人民表達我們的思念和祈禱。我們那裡有很多學生,那裡有很多承包商,我們正在檢查他們。這一切都不容易,但所有這一切都值得去做。因此,我們感謝我們的員工,並感謝大家的撥入。下個季度與您交談。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

    今天的電話會議到此結束。您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與,祝您度過愉快的一天。