Chegg Inc (CHGG) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Chegg Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tracey Ford, Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG.

您好，歡迎參加 Chegg 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）。提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興向大家介紹主持人特蕾西·福特 (Tracey Ford)，她是投資者關係和 ESG 副總裁。

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Chegg's Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. 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 at our Investor Relations website, investor.chegg.com. A replay of this call will also be available on our website. We routinely posted 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.

下午好。感謝您參加 Chegg 2023 年第二季度電話會議。出席今天電話會議的有聯合董事長兼首席執行官 Dan Rosensweig；和首席財務官安迪·布朗。我們的收益新聞稿以及投資者介紹可在我們的投資者關係網站 Investor.chegg.com 上獲取。我們的網站上也將提供本次電話會議的重播。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。我們鼓勵您利用這些資源。

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. 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 21, 2023, as well as our other filings with the SEC.

在開始之前，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。這些前瞻性陳述存在重大風險和不確定性，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。我們特別建議您參閱今天的收益發布中包含的警示性語言以及Chegg 於2023 年2 月21 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的10-K 表格年度報告中描述的風險因素，以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件。美國證券交易委員會。

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.

我們今天做出的任何前瞻性陳述均基於我們認為截至目前合理的假設。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 IR website. Now, I will turn the call over to Dan.

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 業績以及 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調節表可在我們的收益新聞稿中找到，以及在我們的 IR 網站 Investor.chegg.com 上找到的投資者幻燈片。我們還建議您查看投資者數據表，該數據表也發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上。現在，我將把電話轉給丹。

Thank you, Tracey, and welcome, everyone, to our 2023 Q2 earnings call. Our team executed well, outperforming guidance for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. As the second quarter progressed, we saw year-over-year trends for customer acquisition and retention rates improve, which drove the upside in our results. We are entering an exciting new chapter for Chegg, catalyzed by the advances in artificial intelligence.

謝謝特雷西，歡迎大家參加我們的 2023 年第二季度財報電話會議。我們的團隊執行良好，收入和調整後 EBITDA 的表現都超出了指導。隨著第二季度的進展，我們看到客戶獲取和保留率的同比趨勢有所改善，這推動了我們業績的上升。在人工智能進步的推動下，Chegg 正在進入激動人心的新篇章。

To take advantage of these new opportunities, Chegg is rapidly pivoted because we believe that category-defining companies with strong brand loyalty, sought after services and highly valuable data sets can leverage AI to grow and will create outsized returns.

為了利用這些新機遇，Chegg 迅速轉向，因為我們相信，具有強大品牌忠誠度、受歡迎的服務和高價值數據集的品類定義公司可以利用人工智能實現增長，並創造超額回報。

It is still early and since we last reported, we gained greater insights into students use and perceptions of AI and how it relates to Chegg. Our recent survey shows student see ChatGPT and Chegg as complementary with very different use cases.

現在還為時過早，自從我們上次報導以來，我們對學生對人工智能的使用和看法以及它與 Chegg 的關係有了更深入的了解。我們最近的調查顯示，學生認為 ChatGPT 和 Chegg 是互補的，具有非常不同的用例。

The latest [wire poll] survey states that while Gen Z students are using AI to improve their education, they are not comfortable with the exact information ChatGPT could tell. And it's become clear to us that a simple, high-quality, accurate personal learning assistant is needed, and we feel we are uniquely positioned to deliver a world-class personal learning system.

最新的 [wire poll] 調查表明，雖然 Z 世代的學生正在使用人工智能來改善他們的教育，但他們對 ChatGPT 可以提供的確切信息並不滿意。我們清楚地認識到，需要一個簡單、高質量、準確的個人學習助手，並且我們認為我們具有獨特的優勢，可以提供世界一流的個人學習系統。

We are moving fast and launched the beta version of our initial generative experience in May. Feedback has been very positive. Specifically, our students like our simple user interface, which is conversational, and they have always trusted the quality, accuracy and relevance of our proprietary step-by-step solutions. Our research also shows that 86% of students say that they prefer study help that is reviewed by human subject matter experts, and 85% say they wanted to be personalized to their individual learning needs. So, it is no surprise that engagement from our beta testers is extremely high, and they are interacting more with each question and are staying for significantly longer sessions.

我們正在快速行動，並於五月推出了初始生成體驗的測試版。反饋非常積極。具體來說，我們的學生喜歡我們簡單的對話式用戶界面，並且他們始終信任我們專有的分步解決方案的質量、準確性和相關性。我們的研究還表明，86% 的學生表示他們更喜歡由人類主題專家審核的學習幫助，85% 的學生表示他們希望根據個人學習需求進行個性化。因此，我們的 Beta 測試人員的參與度非常高也就不足為奇了，他們對每個問題的互動更多，並且停留的時間明顯更長。

We appreciate that speed and execution are critical to our success. Our partnership with Scale AI announced today will allow us to accelerate our ability to deliver the new Chegg experience starting in the fall and rolling out over the course of the next two semesters. The new Chegg will combine the best of generative AI, with Chegg's proprietary high-quality solutions and demonstrated ability to improve student outcomes. They can expect to see a much simpler conversational user interface, personalized learning pathways, more in-depth content and the ability to transform it automatically, into innovative study tools such as practice tests, study guides and flash cards.

我們認識到速度和執行力對我們的成功至關重要。今天宣布的與 Scale AI 的合作將使我們能夠加快提供新 Chegg 體驗的能力，從秋季開始，並在接下來的兩個學期推出。新的 Chegg 將把最好的生成式人工智能與 Chegg 專有的高質量解決方案相結合，並展示出提高學生成績的能力。他們可以期望看到更簡單的會話用戶界面、個性化的學習路徑、更深入的內容以及自動將其轉換為創新學習工具（例如練習測試、學習指南和閃存卡）的能力。

In order to further enhance our competitive moat and lower our costs, we are building our own large language models, which gives us the ability to train them specifically for education. Our LLMs will be trained with our unique data sets and with the help of our 150,000 subject matter experts, we expect to deliver a significantly enhanced and differentiated learning experience for students compared to the generic models that are available today. And this is just the beginning.

為了進一步增強我們的競爭護城河並降低成本，我們正在構建自己的大型語言模型，這使我們能夠專門針對教育進行訓練。我們的法學碩士將使用我們獨特的數據集進行培訓，並在我們 150,000 名主題專家的幫助下，與當今可用的通用模型相比，我們希望為學生提供顯著增強和差異化的學習體驗。而這僅僅是個開始。

I want to give you a sense of how big we believe this TAM expanding opportunity can be, and how we plan to capture it. We intend to build the largest connected community of learners around the world. With a truly scalable, affordable adaptive learning assistant by combining the tools, pathways and the accuracy that students depend on.

我想讓您了解我們認為 TAM 擴張機會有多大，以及我們計劃如何抓住它。我們打算建立世界上最大的互聯學習者社區。通過結合學生所依賴的工具、途徑和準確性，打造真正可擴展、價格實惠的自適應學習助手。

Chegg's proven learning taxonomy, along with our deep history of data from schools, classes and professors sets us apart. We have said for years that students challenges go way beyond the academic need and now by leveraging advancements in artificial intelligence, we believe we can make a significant impact on reducing the nearly 40% of students, who drop out of the higher education system and the more than 50% that never enter.

Chegg 經過驗證的學習分類法，以及我們來自學校、班級和教授的深厚數據歷史，使我們與眾不同。多年來，我們一直表示，學生面臨的挑戰遠遠超出了學術需求，現在，通過利用人工智能的進步，我們相信我們可以對減少近 40% 的學生輟學和輟學產生重大影響。超過50%從未進入。

Increasingly, students are connecting their academic journey with their skills-based needs in order to be employable in today's economy. Chegg is developing integrated skills pathways that will help students assess their current proficiency, identify their gaps and then help them acquire those skills. We are in a great position to do this by leveraging our skills offerings, where we continue to see excellent growth.

越來越多的學生將他們的學術旅程與他們的技能需求聯繫起來，以便在當今的經濟中找到工作。 Chegg 正在開發綜合技能途徑，幫助學生評估他們當前的熟練程度，找出他們的差距，然後幫助他們獲得這些技能。我們處於有利位置，可以利用我們提供的技能來實現這一目標，並且我們將繼續看到出色的增長。

We also appreciate that students today, face a wide variety of personal challenges that can get in the way of graduating on time or at all. We know that, if we can connect students to solutions that address some of these issues, such as mental health, food and security and financial barriers, we can improve their chances of finishing their education and thriving.

我們也理解今天的學生面臨著各種各樣的個人挑戰，這些挑戰可能會妨礙按時畢業或根本無法畢業。我們知道，如果我們能夠為學生提供解決其中一些問題的解決方案，例如心理健康、食品和安全以及財務障礙，我們就可以提高他們完成學業和成長的機會。

We have created a concept video for you, which illustrates how this may all come together, which you can review within our investor deck posted on our IR website.

我們為您製作了一個概念視頻，其中說明了這一切是如何結合在一起的，您可以在我們的投資者關係網站上發布的投資者平台中查看該視頻。

More than 50% of the world's population is below the age of 30 and they have increasingly turned to online to advantage themselves academically and professionally. Now aided further by the proliferation of AI, the opportunity for Chegg to serve them is bigger than ever. And with that, I will turn it over to Andy. Andy?

全球超過 50% 的人口年齡在 30 歲以下，他們越來越多地轉向網絡，以在學術和職業上獲得優勢。現在，在人工智能擴散的進一步幫助下，Chegg 為他們提供服務的機會比以往任何時候都更大。有了這個，我會把它交給安迪。安迪？

Thanks, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone. Q2 was a good quarter as we exceeded our revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance and also delivered strong cash flow. Total revenue was $183 million, driven by subscription services revenue of $166 million. During the quarter, we had approximately 4.8 million subscribers on our platform. Sales and other revenue was $17 million, driven by strong growth in skills, offset primarily by the change in the required materials model, which is now a revenue share. Gross margin of 74% came in slightly higher than expected. This, along with the revenue beat contributed to adjusted EBITDA beating guidance, which came in at $60 million or 33% margin.

謝謝丹，大家下午好。第二季度是一個不錯的季度，因為我們超出了收入並調整了 EBITDA 指導，並且還提供了強勁的現金流。總收入為 1.83 億美元，其中訂閱服務收入為 1.66 億美元。本季度，我們的平台上有大約 480 萬訂閱者。銷售和其他收入為 1700 萬美元，主要由技能的強勁增長推動，但主要被所需材料模型的變化所抵消，該模型現在是收入份額。 74%的毛利率略高於預期。加上收入增長，調整後的 EBITDA 超過指導值，達到 6000 萬美元，即 33% 的利潤率。

Free cash flow was $56 million, the result of strong operating performance and higher interest rates with interest income contributing $10.7 million in the quarter, an increase of $8.7 million from last year.

自由現金流為 5,600 萬美元，這是強勁的經營業績和較高利率的結果，本季度利息收入貢獻了 1,070 萬美元，比去年增加了 870 萬美元。

We had several items that impacted our GAAP net income for the quarter. These included a gain of $53.8 million from the repurchase of some of our outstanding convertible debt, which was partially offset by a restructuring charge of $5.7 million we announced during the quarter and a loss contingencies of $7 million we accrued related to a previous gain taken on an equity investment. We continue to have a strong balance sheet and drive significant free cash flow. We ended the quarter with $808 million of cash and investments, with total convertible debt outstanding of $773 million at par value, representing $35 million of net cash. As mentioned earlier, we repurchased $427 million of our outstanding convertible debt of $369 million and use some of the net savings to retire 3.4 million shares of our common stock for approximately $35 million.

我們有幾個項目影響了本季度的 GAAP 淨利潤。其中包括回購部分未償還可轉換債務帶來的 5380 萬美元收益，該收益被我們在本季度宣布的 570 萬美元重組費用以及與之前收益相關的 700 萬美元或有損失所部分抵消。股權投資。我們繼續擁有強勁的資產負債表並推動大量的自由現金流。本季度結束時，我們擁有 8.08 億美元的現金和投資，按面值計算的未償還可轉換債務總額為 7.73 億美元，相當於淨現金 3500 萬美元。如前所述，我們回購了 3.69 億美元的未償可轉換債務中的 4.27 億美元，並使用部分淨儲蓄以約 3500 萬美元的價格註銷了 340 萬股普通股。

We continue to believe the combination of our operating model balance sheet and cash flows are among the strongest in the education industry, and will allow us to deliver attractive results to our shareholders. As Dan mentioned, we are rapidly realigning our resources around AI efforts, including partnering with scale AI to develop large language models required for students to have a fully generated conversational experience rolling out over the next two semesters. We believe our approach of developing and owning these models versus solely relying on third-party providers will create a truly differentiated and better experience with students at a lower cost.

我們仍然相信，我們的運營模式、資產負債表和現金流的結合是教育行業中最強的，將使我們能夠為股東帶來有吸引力的業績。正如丹所提到的，我們正在圍繞人工智能工作迅速重新調整我們的資源，包括與規模人工智能合作開發大型語言模型，以便學生在接下來的兩個學期中獲得完全生成的對話體驗。我們相信，與僅僅依賴第三方提供商相比，我們開發和擁有這些模型的方法將以更低的成本為學生創造真正差異化的更好體驗。

Now moving on to guidance. For Q3, we expect total revenue to be between $151 million and $153 million, with subscription services revenue between $135 million and $137 million, gross margin between 68% and 69% and adjusted EBITDA between $34 million and $36 million.

現在繼續指導。對於第三季度，我們預計總收入在1.51 億美元至1.53 億美元之間，訂閱服務收入在1.35 億美元至1.37 億美元之間，毛利率在68% 至69% 之間，調整後EBITDA 在3400萬美元至3600 萬美元之間。

It is worth noting that we typically experience seasonally lower revenue and margins in Q3. We also have an elevated level of content depreciation from recently acquired professor-led material, which is impacting gross margins. We expect the impact of this to moderate in Q4 and margins improved.

值得注意的是，我們在第三季度的收入和利潤率通常會出現季節性下降。最近購買的教授主導材料的內容折舊程度也較高，這影響了毛利率。我們預計第四季度的影響將減弱，利潤率將有所改善。

In closing, we expect the development of AI will allow Chegg to embrace a much larger opportunity over time. We believe there is nobody better equipped to meet the current or future needs of students than Chegg. We have an industry-leading brand for proprietary data, strong operating model and a balance sheet to extend our leadership into the future. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for your questions.

最後，我們預計隨著時間的推移，人工智能的發展將使 Chegg 獲得更大的機遇。我們相信，沒有人比 Chegg 更能滿足學生當前或未來的需求。我們擁有行業領先的專有數據品牌、強大的運營模式和資產負債表，可將我們的領先地位延伸至未來。這樣，我會將電話轉給接線員詢問您的問題。

At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.

此時，我們將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

Can you just talk about how the new AI experience with scale AI will differ from Chegg Mate and kind of the path that you've been going down? And then, I guess, second, if you could also just talk about the drivers you think of the 2Q improvements around customer acquisition and retention, as you went through the quarter. Is that just distance, you think, from the ChatGPT launch or more of the students recognizing perhaps some of the deficiencies on that side?

您能否談談規模人工智能的新人工智能體驗與 Chegg Mate 有何不同以及您一直在走的道路？然後，我想，第二，如果你也能談談你認為第二季度圍繞客戶獲取和保留的改進的驅動因素，就像你整個季度一樣。您認為這只是距 ChatGPT 發布的距離還是更多的學生認識到了這方面的一些缺陷？

Yes. No, great question. I'll take the second question first, which is I think it's what you said, which is -- and the research seems to indicate that, which is once students recognize that they do very different things, and that what we do, they can't do and what we do is actually what they need because it's been built directly and specifically for students that they will use ChatGPT, but they're not going to try to use it for the things that they use Chegg for.

是的。不，很好的問題。我首先回答第二個問題，我認為這就是你所說的，研究似乎表明，一旦學生認識到他們做了非常不同的事情，而我們所做的事情，他們可以我們所做的實際上是他們需要的，因為它是直接專門為學生構建的，他們將使用ChatGPT，但他們不會嘗試將它用於他們使用Chegg 的用途。

And our current research seems to indicate that the overwhelming majority of those that use both plan to remain with Chegg. So I think that's very good news, and it's an update on what we've seen, and I think the results seem to suggest that. So that's really good news for us.

我們目前的研究似乎表明，絕大多數同時使用這兩種產品的人都計劃繼續使用 Chegg。所以我認為這是一個非常好的消息，這是我們所看到的情況的更新，我認為結果似乎表明了這一點。這對我們來說確實是個好消息。

The second thing -- the first question that you asked, which is how does it differ? Really, what it is, is instead of building a separate product, we have in our ripping Chegg down to it does and completely rebuilding the user experience, so that it's available to everybody that uses CS and CSP. So it is the same vision, and that's why we supplied a concept video for people to really get an understanding of just how great that this can be, and how different it is from the existing experience, how much more conversational, how much more simple, easy interface, conversational in nature. And one of the really cool things that we'll be able to do differently than anybody else would be able to do is take the 100 million-plus questions that we have and all the data we've been able to collect and create completely personalized learning experiences on a per user basis based on knowing not only the history of that particular student, but others that have gone to that school, that class and with that professor.

第二件事——你問的第一個問題，它有什麼不同？實際上，我們不是構建一個單獨的產品，而是將 Chegg 分解為它的功能並完全重建用戶體驗，以便每個使用 CS 和 CSP 的人都可以使用它。所以這是相同的願景，這就是為什麼我們提供了一個概念視頻，讓人們真正了解它有多麼偉大，它與現有體驗有多麼不同，更加對話化，更加簡單，簡單的界面，自然對話。我們能夠做的與其他人不同的真正酷的事情之一就是利用我們擁有的 1 億多個問題以及我們能夠收集和創建完全個性化的數據基於每個用戶的學習體驗，不僅基於了解該特定學生的歷史，而且還基於了解該學校、該班級和該教授的其他學生的歷史。

So that is not something that any generalist to AI can do or frankly, anybody else in the education space could do because we have the largest direct-to-consumer list. So that's pretty exciting.

因此，這不是任何人工智能通才都可以做到的事情，或者坦率地說，教育領域的任何其他人都可以做到，因為我們擁有最大的直接面向消費者的名單。所以這非常令人興奮。

And then to take the way they learn best and actually build study tools out of the content they're using without them having to do anything. So I think our ease of use and the difficulty in using ChatGPT, the fact that it's overwhelmingly for writing and not for learning. I think those things were pretty significant in affecting those trends to the positive which is great for us and great for our shareholders. And then, instead of it just being Chegg Mate, it's just going to be Chegg.

然後採取他們最好的學習方式，並根據他們正在使用的內容實際構建學習工具，而無需他們做任何事情。所以我認為我們的易用性和使用 ChatGPT 的難度，事實上它絕大多數是為了寫作而不是為了學習。我認為這些事情對於積極影響這些趨勢非常重要，這對我們和我們的股東都有好處。然後，它不再只是 Chegg Mate，而是 Chegg。

What scale AI does is something very different. We continue to work with ChatGPT, just as we announced and that's all the conversational nature and the descriptions and explanations and things of that nature, which is what it does well. What scale AI does is allow us to use what Chegg uniquely has, which is our data, our history, our user information, our content and create very specific and unique learning experiences for each student.

規模人工智能所做的事情是非常不同的。正如我們宣布的那樣，我們繼續與 ChatGPT 合作，這就是所有對話性質、描述和解釋以及這種性質的東西，這就是它做得很好的地方。規模人工智能的作用是讓我們能夠利用 Chegg 獨有的東西，即我們的數據、我們的歷史、我們的用戶信息、我們的內容，並為每個學生創造非常具體和獨特的學習體驗。

So this is the differentiator. We were always planning on building this, working with scale AI will allow us to do all of the categories we have much faster. So instead of launching with just a few we will be doing a rolling launch and get to all 26 of them in a much more rapid period of time. So it's a great deal, they're an extraordinarily great partner, they work with ChatGPT. They work with everybody, but we will continue to work with all the relevant generalists that can supply value inside of our system. But what scale AI does is allow us to leverage what we uniquely have that no one else has and everybody else wants.

所以這就是差異化因素。我們一直在計劃構建這個，與規模人工智能合作將使我們能夠更快地完成所有類別的工作。因此，我們不會只發布幾個，而是滾動發布，並在更快的時間內發布全部 26 個。所以這很重要，他們是非常好的合作夥伴，他們與 ChatGPT 合作。他們與每個人合作，但我們將繼續與所有能夠在我們系統內提供價值的相關通才合作。但規模化人工智能的作用是讓我們能夠利用我們獨特擁有的、其他人沒有且每個人都想要的東西。

That's very helpful. Thank you Dan.

這非常有幫助。謝謝丹。

Let me just fill in here. Dan mentioned earlier in the answer to that question. CS and CSP, just so everybody is aware on the call that he's referring to Chegg Study and Chegg Study Pack. That's our internal link though, that he was using. Thank you.

我就在這裡填一下吧。丹早些時候在回答這個問題時提到過。 CS 和 CSP，讓每個人都知道他指的是 Chegg Study 和 Chegg Study Pack。不過，這是他正在使用的我們的內部鏈接。謝謝。

Our next question comes from Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Jeff Silber。

I'm just wondering, if you're seeing any different trends in your subscribers between the U.S. and some of the larger markets that you serve overseas?

我只是想知道，您是否發現美國和您在海外服務的一些較大市場之間的訂戶趨勢有何不同？

Well, the summer school is really a U.S. experience more than it is outside the U.S. So most of the data we have over the last few months in terms of actual user behavior is U.S.-based. So, I really can't speak to outside the U.S. What I can say for those that we have outside the U.S. that have been testing our new experiences, the results have been very, very similar, which is significantly increased engagement, length of time using it because they're getting access to more information and asking more and more questions that we will have in the system already.

嗯，暑期學校實際上是美國的體驗，而不是美國以外的體驗。因此，我們過去幾個月獲得的實際用戶行為的大部分數據都是基於美國的。所以，我真的不能對美國以外的人說。對於那些在美國以外測試我們新體驗的人，我能說的是，結果非常非常相似，即參與度顯著增加，時間長度顯著增加。使用它是因為他們可以訪問更多信息並提出越來越多的問題，而我們的系統中已經有了這些問題。

So -- but it's too early to give international lens versus the U.S. I think we'll be able to do a lot more of that on the next call because really, the semester picks up in about two weeks. So sort of the last week or two of August through the first two weeks of September is the overwhelming majority of when the good stuff happens.

所以——但現在就國際視角與美國進行比較還為時過早。我認為我們可以在下一次電話會議上做更多的事情，因為實際上，這個學期將在大約兩週後開始。因此，從八月的最後一兩周到九月的前兩週，絕大多數都是好事發生的時候。

Okay. That's helpful. I know -- I'm sorry. In the past, you've talked about the strong visibility in your business. And I'm just curious, what do you need to see before you think you'll start talking about annual guidance again?

好的。這很有幫助。我知道——對不起。過去，您曾談到過您的業務具有很強的知名度。我只是很好奇，在你認為你會再次開始談論年度指導之前，你需要看到什麼？

Yes. We ask ourselves that same question, and I'm sure Andy is going to have some perspective on this. But I think for the moment, given the volatility of how people are reacting to information, our lens right now is to focus on what's right ahead of us, which we have really great confidence in, and as we build a few of those, I think it leads us back to where you're asking.

是的。我們問自己同樣的問題，我相信安迪對此會有一些看法。但我認為目前，考慮到人們對信息反應的波動性，我們現在的重點是關注我們面前的事情，我們對此非常有信心，當我們建立其中一些時，我我想這會讓我們回到你所問的地方。

What I will just add to what I said earlier is as the semester evolves, third, fourth week of August, first couple of weeks in September, that gives us a really good lens into obviously, to Q4. And since Q1 is a rollover from Q4, I think we're getting closer to that. But I think, we're just going to stay with what we're doing now, because it's just a more conservative approach to things. And I think, we learned the impact of the volatility of people just, in my opinion, over reacting to information that we provided. Andy, I don't know if you have more to add to that.

我要補充的是，隨著學期的發展，八月的第三週、第四周，九月的前幾週，這讓我們對第四季度有了一個非常好的了解。由於第一季度是第四季度的延續，我認為我們正在接近這一目標。但我認為，我們只會堅持現在正在做的事情，因為這只是一種更保守的處理方法。我認為，我們了解了人們波動性的影響，在我看來，只是對我們提供的信息做出了過度反應。安迪，我不知道你是否還有更多要補充的。

No, Dan, I think you nailed it. I think -- and Jeff, you're aware, obviously, the season start to pick up, like Dan said, in the next couple of weeks. If we continue to see the trends we've seen over the last few months, that will certainly give us more confidence, but we need a few more periods before we get to that point.

不，丹，我想你已經成功了。我認為——傑夫，你知道，顯然，正如丹所說，賽季將在接下來的幾週內開始好轉。如果我們繼續看到過去幾個月的趨勢，這肯定會讓我們更有信心，但我們還需要一些時間才能達到這一點。

Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的埃里克·謝里丹。

Allow me to ask two questions, if I could, quickly: One would just be the cost question. So when we talked 3 months ago, you laid out a strategy around Chegg Mate and Open AI. With this new strategy, how different is the potential cost or investment implications for this approach versus the prior approach? And how should we sort of bring that back and reflect that in cadence of either margin or needed to invest in the business?

如果可以的話，請允許我快速問兩個問題：一個是成本問題。因此，當我們 3 個月前交談時，您圍繞 Chegg Mate 和 Open AI 制定了戰略。採用這種新策略，這種方法的潛在成本或投資影響與之前的方法有何不同？我們應該如何恢復這一點，並以利潤率或業務投資所需的節奏來反映這一點？

And then, I'm just a little bit unclear. So the second one will be a follow-up. When people go back to school over the next month, this will be a solution that builds on its momentum as you get deeper into the year. And the solution you're talking about today would be more fully implemented towards the end of this calendar year and the beginning of next calendar year? Or will it be deployed over the next one to two months? Just one would be timing and one would be depth of investment.

然後我就有點不清楚了。所以第二個將是後續。當人們在下個月重返學校時，這將是一個隨著今年的深入而發展的解決方案。您今天討論的解決方案將在今年年底和明年年初得到更全面的實施？還是會在未來一到兩個月內部署？一是時機，一是投資深度。

Yes, I'll handle the second one first, and then I'm sure Andy is going to want to handle the depth of investment, which I think you're going to be happy with the answer because we are. But on the second one, consider it just a forever rollout, which is the product is just going to get better every day, let students use it. So, depending on what subjects they use or what did they use it, they will see the product evolves. So it really is that way to think about it, which is they'll start to experience certain aspects of the conversational nature and the generative AI kind of content, depending on the subject matter they're doing, they'll start to experience that in the fall.

是的，我會先處理第二個問題，然後我確信安迪會想要處理投資的深度，我認為你會對答案感到滿意，因為我們是。但對於第二個，將其視為永久推出，即產品每天都會變得更好，讓學生使用它。因此，根據他們使用的主題或使用的目的，他們將看到產品的發展。所以確實是這樣思考的，他們將開始體驗對話性質和生成人工智能內容的某些方面，這取決於他們正在做的主題，他們將開始體驗在秋天。

So it's a little bit like rolling thunder, and we expect word of mouth, viral nature of it, all the things that have built Chegg over the years to start to spread over that period of time. But I think right now, what has spread is the quality of our content and the accuracy of our content, which are essential for people trying to learn. So I'll let Andy talk about the cost structure and the cost. But I think, again, I think you're going to find them to be constructive and positive.

所以這有點像雷聲滾滾，我們期望口口相傳，病毒式傳播，多年來打造 Chegg 的所有東西都將在這段時間內開始傳播。但我認為現在傳播的是我們內容的質量和內容的準確性，這對於人們嘗試學習至關重要。那麼我就讓Andy談談成本結構和成本。但我想，你會發現它們是建設性的、積極的。

Yes. So when we talked about this on the last call, there was a lot of moving parts. And there still is to some extent, but as we evaluated the multiple options that we had as far as having a fully generative -- conversational generative experience for our students.

是的。因此，當我們在上次通話中討論這個問題時，有很多變化的部分。在某種程度上仍然存在，但是當我們評估我們擁有的多種選擇時，我們可以為我們的學生提供完全的生成性對話生成體驗。

When we evaluated this, the option of partnering with scale AI became by far a few things: One is it made us get to market sooner and it was the lowest cost versus completely leveraging third-party technology. And so, as we look at this, this is by far the least cost-effective way -- as soon as we can get -- the least cost effective way, yes, the least the most cost effective way -- and like I said, we've said in the past, we think that this will allow us to maintain or even potentially over time, increase margins and we believe over time will allow us to actually deploy less CapEx, as we implement these solutions. So this is -- it was really a big win for us. And as it rolls out over the next two semesters.

當我們評估這一點時，與規模人工智能合作的選擇到目前為止已經變成了幾件事：一是它讓我們更快地進入市場，而且與完全利用第三方技術相比，它的成本最低。因此，當我們看到這一點時，這是迄今為止成本效益最低的方式——一旦我們能夠得到——成本效益最低的方式，是的，成本效益最低的方式——就像我說的那樣，我們過去曾說過，我們認為這將使我們能夠隨著時間的推移維持甚至可能增加利潤，並且我們相信隨著時間的推移，我們在實施這些解決方案時將能夠實際部署更少的資本支出。所以這對我們來說確實是一個巨大的勝利。隨著它在接下來的兩個學期推出。

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。

I guess on the improvement that you talked about during 2Q and customer acquisition and retention, I would love some more detail there, especially how you're measuring that improvement, if there's any kind of rough quantification you can provide? And also, did you see some of those trends continue into early third quarter, thinking about July?

我想關於您在第二季度以及客戶獲取和保留期間談到的改進，我希望有更多細節，特別是您如何衡量這種改進，是否可以提供任何類型的粗略量化？另外，您是否看到其中一些趨勢持續到第三季度初，考慮到 7 月份？

Yes. So what we're referring to are, obviously, everybody that runs a company should know the levers in their business. Andy has explained subscription math multiple times. And -- so it really is, what is your retention rates and in retention rates, you look at a lot of different variables, which is what's up for renewal, what canceled, what percentage renewed, those kinds of things.

是的。顯然，我們指的是經營公司的每個人都應該了解其業務的槓桿。安迪多次解釋過訂閱數學。而且——事實確實如此，你的保留率是多少，在保留率中，你會考慮很多不同的變量，哪些是需要續訂的，哪些是取消的，續訂的百分比是多少，諸如此類的事情。

So, we have been seeing a decrease in cancels, which is excellent. And we have been seeing an increase in people that are up for renewal that renewed. So those metrics are basically we're seeing higher retention rate, which is great.

因此，我們看到取消航班的數量有所減少，這非常好。我們看到願意更新的人有所增加。所以這些指標基本上是我們看到更高的保留率，這很好。

The second one is new accounts, which is really where all of this challenges started because we used to do -- before COVID, we used to do about 3.2 million new accounts a year, and we peaked at peak COVID about 5.8 million. Now we have remained above 5 million. So we're really so far ahead of where we were before COVID, that the company has just accelerated. So it always surprises me when people don't really understand how big we become compared to what we were just a few years ago. But what we're referring to now is the trend in new account growth.

第二個是新賬戶，這實際上是所有這些挑戰開始的地方，因為我們過去常常這樣做——在新冠疫情爆發之前，我們每年大約創建320 萬個新賬戶，在新冠疫情高峰期我們的新賬戶數量達到了約580 萬個。現在我們保持在500萬以上。因此，我們確實遠遠領先於新冠疫情之前的水平，公司剛剛加速了發展。因此，當人們並不真正了解我們與幾年前相比有多大時，我總是感到驚訝。但我們現在指的是新賬戶增長的趨勢。

So, we were seeing declining new account growth and it was pretty substantial, and that is improving each and every month, including in July. So we're getting closer to our objective of returning to growth.

因此，我們看到新賬戶增長下降，但增長幅度相當可觀，而且每個月都在改善，包括 7 月份。因此，我們越來越接近恢復增長的目標。

Very helpful. Good to hear. One quick follow-up. I just noticed that you didn't use Chegg Mate branding at all in the press release or prepared remarks. Was that intentional? And I guess, are you considering changing the potential branding there at all?

很有幫助。很高興聽到。一項快速跟進。我只是注意到您在新聞稿或準備好的評論中根本沒有使用 Chegg Mate 品牌。這是故意的嗎？我想，您是否正在考慮改變那裡的潛在品牌？

Yes. I mean, the point we're trying to make here is it's no longer going to be a separate product, it's Chegg. And when I say Chegg, initially, it's Chegg Study and Chegg Study Pack. Obviously, AI will be integrated into everything, including skills and writing and math. But as we got deeper, and as we really understood the depth and the quality and the differentiation that we have versus ChatGPT or bard or anybody else, even in the education space in terms of what we could know and the value it could create for students that we made the decision to just make it all of Chegg.

是的。我的意思是，我們在這裡想要表達的一點是，它不再是一個單獨的產品，而是 Chegg。當我說 Chegg 時，首先指的是 Chegg Study 和 Chegg Study Pack。顯然，人工智能將融入一切，包括技能、寫作和數學。但隨著我們變得更深入，當我們真正了解我們與ChatGPT 或吟遊詩人或其他任何人相比的深度、質量和差異時，甚至在教育領域，我們可以知道什麼以及它可以為學生創造的價值我們決定將這一切都交給 Chegg。

And as we think about how additional value gets created, the more value that we create for students, the more that we add the more sticky that it becomes, the more things we can do for them. And as you watch the video, the concept video that we put out, you'll see the other areas that we can address. We believe our pricing power, which has always been strong, will even get stronger. And over time, as we roll it out to everybody, we can imagine continuing to increase our ARPU and our yield. So, it's a bigger move than the one we had before.

當我們思考如何創造額外價值時，我們為學生創造的價值越多，添加的越多，粘性就越大，我們可以為他們做的事情就越多。當您觀看我們發布的概念視頻時，您會看到我們可以解決的其他領域。我們相信，我們一直以來都很強的定價能力將會變得更強。隨著時間的推移，當我們向每個人推廣它時，我們可以想像我們的 ARPU 和收益會繼續增加。所以，這是一個比我們之前更大的舉措。

Our next question comes from Josh Baer with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的喬什·貝爾。

Wanted to ask one on competition. I think historically, you had a pretty favorable competitive landscape as the clear leader and maybe students used a few different solutions sort of in a complementary fashion. I'm just wondering, how to think about the new competitive landscape, maybe ignoring ChatGPT for a moment? Like how does the future Chegg compared to other education-specific companies that are leveraging similar language models or Open AI, APIs thinking about [Conmego] or Quizlet or what might come from (inaudible). Like any thoughts on the new competitive landscape as these education vendors use AI as well?

想請教一下關於競爭的問題。我認為從歷史上看，作為明確的領導者，您擁有相當有利的競爭格局，也許學生以互補的方式使用了一些不同的解決方案。我只是想知道，如何思考新的競爭格局，也許暫時忽略ChatGPT？就像未來的 Chegg 與其他利用類似語言模型或開放 AI、API 考慮 [Conmego] 或 Quizlet 或可能來自什麼（聽不清）的教育特定公司相比如何。隨著這些教育供應商也使用人工智能，對新的競爭格局有什麼想法嗎？

Yes. No, great question. And I think from our perspective, they don't -- we have such a big moat -- and the moat is only going to get stronger because really, what we're learning is the speed of the computing, NVIDIA, thank goodness for everything that they have done, they really have sort of changed the game here. And then sort of the conversational nature that the analysis that ChatGPT has shown.

是的。不，很好的問題。我認為從我們的角度來看，他們沒有——我們有這麼大的護城河——而且護城河只會變得更強，因為實際上，我們正在學習的是計算的速度，NVIDIA，謝天謝地他們所做的一切，確實改變了這裡的遊戲規則。然後對 ChatGPT 的分析顯示的對話性質進行排序。

But at the end of the day, the next set of value is being created by companies that already exists that already have very big brands, incredible loyalty are known for doing something and are able to leverage against their own data sets and their own customers. So nobody in the education space from our perspective has a more relevant or better data set than we do.

但歸根結底，下一組價值是由已經存在的公司創造的，這些公司已經擁有非常大的品牌，以令人難以置信的忠誠度而聞名，並且能夠利用自己的數據集和自己的客戶。因此，從我們的角度來看，教育領域沒有人比我們擁有更相關或更好的數據集。

We're learning it's running the AI against the data that creates the differentiated experience not the AI itself on its own. Without the data, it's irrelevant, that's why these generalists can't do what we do. And so by keeping it proprietary and as Andy said, building our own LLMs, we think our moat gets only bigger.

我們了解到，它是根據數據運行人工智能來創造差異化的體驗，而不是人工智能本身。沒有數據，一切都是無關緊要的，這就是為什麼這些通才無法做我們所做的事情。因此，通過保持專有性，正如安迪所說，建立我們自己的法學碩士，我們認為我們的護城河只會變得更大。

The second thing is, it does take capital to invest and none of them really have it. I think, we generate more free cash flow than most of them generate revenue in total. So the actual size of these companies is insignificant versus what Chegg has in terms of the business, the data sets and the capabilities to do. What you've seen is mostly just sort of chat bots versus what we're building, and I think you'll be able to compare our concept video, as where we're going with what you see from them. I think you'll leave with similar perspective that we do, which is our moat only gets bigger and it was already big.

第二件事是，投資確實需要資金，但他們都沒有真正擁有資金。我認為，我們產生的自由現金流比大多數公司產生的總收入還要多。因此，與 Chegg 的業務、數據集和能力相比，這些公司的實際規模微不足道。您所看到的大多只是聊天機器人與我們正在構建的機器人，我認為您將能夠將我們的概念視頻（我們的發展方向）與您從它們中看到的內容進行比較。我想你離開時會帶著與我們類似的觀點，那就是我們的護城河只會變得更大，而且它已經很大了。

That's helpful. And then one quick one for Andy on CapEx. The lowest quarterly level since 2018, I think. Just wondering, how much of that was lower engagement or Q&A from students versus leveraging Gen AI for your own content creation. Essentially, like is this level that we saw sustainable? Or how should we think about CapEx going forward?

這很有幫助。然後是安迪關於資本支出的快速介紹。我認為這是自 2018 年以來的最低季度水平。只是想知道，與利用 Gen AI 進行自己的內容創作相比，其中有多少是由於學生的參與度或問答較低所致。從本質上講，我們看到的這個水平是否可持續？或者我們應該如何考慮未來的資本支出？

No, it was fairly seasonally low without a doubt. And as you know, we have -- it's probably the -- is the quarter where we have the fewest students actually in school, right? Some school while we went -- it seems to have gone well for us. It's still a small period of time. So no, I wouldn't expect that. But we do expect CapEx efficiencies beyond this. We do believe that as we start implementing some of these -- some of our AI solutions that will have a benefit on CapEx, as we move into call it into 2024 for the sake of argument at this point.

不，毫無疑問，這是相當季節性的低水平。如您所知，我們可能是實際在校學生最少的季度，對嗎？我們去的時候去了一些學校——看來我們進展順利。現在還很短的一段時間。所以不，我沒想到會這樣。但我們確實預計資本支出效率會超出此範圍。我們確實相信，當我們開始實施其中一些人工智能解決方案時，我們的一些人工智能解決方案將對資本支出帶來好處，為了便於討論，我們將其稱為 2024 年。

And so the reason for that, by the way, I think Andy explained it perfectly. The reason for that is the cost of content in each particular piece of content should get less for us being able to leverage AI versus everything always being human. So, the cost of content we'll actually be able to answer more questions than we've ever answered before at a lower rate on a per question basis and therefore, overall spending.

順便說一句，我認為安迪對此的解釋非常完美。其原因是，對於我們能夠利用人工智能而不是一切都是人類而言，每個特定內容的內容成本應該會降低。因此，我們實際上能夠以更低的價格回答比以前更多的問題，從而降低總體支出。

So I think some of the other areas that we were investing in, like professor-led content and things of those nature become much less important in this new world. And the ability to leverage the data we have with ChatGPT and scale AI to create unique learning paths is really going to be the differentiator. And so that's the reason for what Andy was saying.

因此，我認為我們投資的其他一些領域，例如教授主導的內容和此類性質的事物，在這個新世界中變得不那麼重要了。利用我們擁有的 ChatGPT 數據和擴展人工智能來創建獨特的學習路徑的能力確實將成為差異化因素。這就是安迪所說的原因。

Our next question comes from Ryan MacDonald with Needham & Company.

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

I'll have two separate ones in this. And the first one is just a clarification, Dan, in terms of your commentary around retention rates and sort of the new accounts sign-ups improving. Should we expect then second quarter subscriber counts to sort of trough here in 2Q and start to see improvements as we go into the back half of the year?

我將在其中有兩個單獨的。第一個只是澄清，丹，關於您對保留率和新帳戶註冊情況改善的評論。我們是否應該預期第二季度的訂戶數量會在第二季度達到谷底，並在進入下半年時開始看到改善？

And then separately, just curious to get your thoughts. There were some research out, I think, Stanford and Berkeley, in mid-July about sort of potentially the maybe declining or lack of efficacy from GPT4 on math problems. And just wondering, if you're using that at all when you think about the additional rollout of Chegg of leaning into that math use case more and sort of the functionality you have with the math way to further differentiate yourself.

然後分開，只是想知道你的想法。我認為，斯坦福大學和伯克利分校在 7 月中旬進行了一些研究，表明 GPT4 在數學問題上的有效性可能會下降或缺乏。只是想知道，當您考慮額外推出 Chegg 來更多地關注數學用例以及通過數學方式擁有的功能來進一步區分自己時，您是否正在使用它。

Yes, good question. Let me take the second one first. One of the things about the college market that we've learned over the years is -- it's very viral in nature in terms of students communicate to one another. And I think that's to our advantage. It was when we were building the company. And I think people got very excited about ChatGPT. And we are, too, by the way, and AI in terms of helping education.

是的，好問題。我先來說第二個。多年來我們了解到的關於大學市場的一件事是——就學生之間的交流而言，它本質上是非常病毒式的。我認為這對我們有利。那是我們建立公司的時候。我認為人們對 ChatGPT 感到非常興奮。順便說一句，人工智能在幫助教育方面也是如此。

I mean, if you're going to apply AI to anything, how great would it be if it could help people with all backgrounds, all walks of life, have the ability to elevate themselves both with academic support and skills-based support. I think we'd all root for that, and that's what Chegg is building. And I think that's why a lot of people are rooting for our success that would surprise you in terms of the people that have been calling to be interested in and to help. So that message gets out on its own. And it takes one person getting the wrong information to destroy their semester, and so that happened pretty quickly. And I think, we're known for our accuracy. So there's really nothing more to lead into it because we're great and getting better. To be honest with you, I think I forgot the first question, would you mind reasking it?

我的意思是，如果你要把人工智能應用到任何事情上，如果它可以幫助各種背景、各行各業的人們有能力通過學術支持和基於技能的支持來提升自己，那該多好啊。我想我們都會支持這一點，這就是 Chegg 正在構建的。我認為這就是為什麼很多人都支持我們的成功，而那些一直呼籲對我們感興趣並提供幫助的人會讓您感到驚訝。所以這個消息會自己傳出去。一個人獲得錯誤的信息就會毀掉他們的學期，所以這種情況很快就發生了。我認為，我們以準確性而聞名。所以真的沒有什麼可以引導的，因為我們很棒並且正在變得更好。老實說，我想我忘記了第一個問題，你介意再問一下嗎？

Yes, It was around the commentary in one of the previous Q&A around retention rates, and that you're seeing sort of fewer cancellations and more subscribers that are up for renewal actually renewing. So, as you think about sort of that dynamic, would we expect sort of second quarter subscriber count to be sort of the trough level here and you start to see growth in that metric, as we get into the back half of this year?

是的，這是圍繞之前關於保留率的問答中的評論，您會看到取消的數量減少了，而準備續訂的訂戶實際上正在續訂。因此，當您考慮這種動態時，我們是否會預計第二季度的訂戶數量將達到谷底水平，並且隨著我們進入今年下半年，您會開始看到該指標的增長嗎？

I think I'm sure Andy will add to this. From our perspective, I think we're going to stick to the one quarter at a time, like we mentioned earlier because we've had false promises before in terms of what we see -- and -- but we -- if current trends continue, and we'll find out if current trends continue as the year goes on, then I think you'll see a very different and a very positive trend that we're all looking for and I'll expect to happen.

我想我確信安迪會補充這一點。從我們的角度來看，我認為我們將堅持一次一個季度，就像我們之前提到的那樣，因為我們之前就我們所看到的情況做出過錯誤的承諾- 而且- 但我們- 如果當前的趨勢繼續，我們會發現當前的趨勢是否會隨著時間的推移而繼續下去，然後我想你會看到一個非常不同的、非常積極的趨勢，我們都在尋找，我預計會發生。

We do expect to return to growth. From our perspective, we think the launch of the new products will be very valuable to that. We think the fact that the Stanford Research that you pointed to also acknowledge is that it isn't really good for what we do. And what we do is more valuable to students than what they do, which is writing papers, which we don't do. So, we expect to be a growth company again. And -- but when that happens, we're just going to have to wait and see, but the trends are moving in the direction that we were hoping for.

我們確實期望恢復增長。從我們的角度來看，我們認為新產品的推出對此非常有價值。我們認為，您提到的斯坦福研究中心也承認，它對我們所做的事情並沒有真正的好處。我們所做的對學生來說比他們所做的更有價值，即寫論文，而我們不這樣做。因此，我們期望再次成為一家成長型公司。而且，當這種情況發生時，我們只能拭目以待，但趨勢正在朝著我們希望的方向發展。

Our next question comes from Alex Fuhrman with Craig-Hallum.

我們的下一個問題來自亞歷克斯·福爾曼和克雷格·哈勒姆。

I was hoping you could talk a little bit about your business in emerging markets and specifically India, I think in the past, you said that maybe you hadn't handled the rollout of payments so well in India, can you give us a little bit of an update on the time line to (inaudible) debit card acceptance in India and when you could start to see that market move the needle?

我希望您能談談您在新興市場，特別是印度的業務，我想您過去說過，也許您在印度的支付推廣處理得不太好，您能給我們介紹一下嗎？印度接受（聽不清）借記卡的時間線有更新嗎？您什麼時候可以開始看到市場發生變化？

Yes. The latter one is hard for me to say, and I don't want to predict it yet because I think in the world that we've lived in, in the last three or four years, making predictions has not really resulted in a good outcome for us, or anybody else for that matter.

是的。後一個對我來說很難說，我還不想預測它，因為我認為在我們生活的世界裡，在過去的三四年裡，做出預測並沒有真正帶來好的結果。我們或任何其他人的結果。

But the first one I can answer very specifically, which is we are rolling out this month the new payment capability of the unified payment platform, which will allow for debit cards. So that's going to start to happen this month. And, when we start seeing the impact of that we'll find out over the next few months, but it's going live this month. So that's very exciting for us.

但我可以非常具體地回答第一個問題，那就是我們本月將推出統一支付平台的新支付功能，該功能將允許使用借記卡。所以這將從本月開始發生。而且，當我們開始看到其影響時，我們將在接下來的幾個月內找到答案，但它將於本月上線。這對我們來說非常令人興奮。

Our next question comes from Brent Thill with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的布倫特·希爾 (Brent Thill)。

Dan, just on the tone of demand you saw in Q2 and going into the later summer. Can you just bring us up to speed on that and ultimately, anything new in the playbook in the going back to school season here that you're seeing that may be working or contemplating?

丹，就像你在第二季度和進入夏末看到的需求基調一樣。您能否讓我們了解一下這方面的情況，以及最終您認為在返校季的劇本中可能有效或正在考慮的任何新內容？

Yes. Look, to give you a sense to your question of the scale, investor winds down, school starts, we have summer school and then the school semester really picks up. So, the volume will double then triple and then go up by about 50% again, all within a 3.5- to 4-week period.

是的。聽著，為了讓你了解你的規模問題，投資者結束了，學校開始了，我們有暑期學校，然後學校學期才真正開始。因此，交易量將在 3.5 至 4 週內增加一倍、三倍，然後再次增加約 50%。

That period will start in about two weeks from now. And I think we'll peak around the first 10 days of September in terms of what we're expecting in terms of when our real new account volume happens, and we're prepared for that.

該時期將從現在起大約兩週後開始。我認為我們將在 9 月的前 10 天左右達到峰值，就我們對實際新賬戶數量的預期而言，我們已經為此做好了準備。

Now in terms of the go-to-market, we've always been really good at go to market. I think you've seen that, no one else has anything near the size that we do with paid subscribers.

現在就進入市場而言，我們一直非常擅長進入市場。我想您已經看到了，沒有任何一家公司的付費訂戶規模能與我們相媲美。

I mean in the education space, others have tried. No one else has succeeded.

我的意思是在教育領域，其他人已經嘗試過。沒有其他人成功過。

As I said, we generate more EBITDA than most companies do in revenue. So, we're very good at it. But I think the channels that have been working obviously, TikTok as a channel over the last couple of years, that has become much more significant to us in terms of us being able to use clips and influencers who are using our content to teach people, and that's been really effective for us. So I would say that's the only new one on the horizon that we're leading into more than we have in the past.

正如我所說，我們產生的 EBITDA 比大多數公司的收入還要多。所以，我們非常擅長。但我認為，顯然一直在發揮作用的渠道，TikTok 作為過去幾年的一個渠道，對我們來說變得更加重要，因為我們能夠使用剪輯和有影響力的人使用我們的內容來教導人們，這對我們來說非常有效。所以我想說，這是我們即將取得比過去更多的成果的唯一新成果。

And sorry, on the tone of demand, the demand continuing to strengthen week-over-week and did you see that going into the beginning of Q3 as well?

抱歉，從需求的基調來看，需求每週都在持續增強，您是否也看到這種情況進入第三季度初？

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we began to see positive trends versus what we were expecting, really beginning of June and all through June and through the first month of this quarter, and that gives us confidence to give the guidance that we have given, things can change because as I say, the last two weeks of August are as big as the first three weeks of the first two to three weeks of August. So, one week will be larger -- one day will be larger than a week in the peak season versus the trough season.

是的。正如我之前提到的，我們開始看到與我們預期相反的積極趨勢，實際上從6 月初到整個6 月以及本季度的第一個月，這讓我們有信心給出我們已經給出的指導，事情可以變化是因為正如我所說，八月的最後兩週與八月的前兩到三週的前三週一樣重要。因此，一周會更長——旺季的一天比淡季的一周要長。

So, as Andy said to me this weekend, he said, "You have to do something, you're not the best at, which is be patient. So I like the rest of you are just going to be patient as we go through it. But what we were hoping to see now, we are seeing, and what we were seeing in terms of the positive trends have continued.

所以，正如安迪這個週末對我說的那樣，他說：“你必須做點什麼，你不是最擅長的，那就是要有耐心。所以我希望你們其他人在我們經歷的過程中保持耐心。 ”但我們現在希望看到的、我們正在看到的，以及我們所看到的積極趨勢仍在繼續。

Our next question comes from Brian Peterson with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自布萊恩·彼得森和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

This is [Erica] on for Brian. As companies inside are exploring new use cases with AI and in the light f your partnership with scale AI, are you considering M&A opportunities in this space? And more broadly, how are you thinking about our overall capital strategy as things stand today?

這是 [Erica] 為 Brian 做的。由於內部公司正在探索人工智能的新用例，並且鑑於您與規模人工智能的合作關係，您是否正在考慮該領域的併購機會？更廣泛地說，您如何看待我們目前的整體資本戰略？

Yes, I'll do the first part and let Andy do the second part on our capital strategy because I think people should see the work that they've done and recognize, what he's done with the debt and buying back stock has been really effective for shareholders, which is why we -- I think people were confused that we weren't net cash positive to our debt, but we are. And that's really Andy and his team's great work.

是的，我會做第一部分，讓安迪做我們資本策略的第二部分，因為我認為人們應該看到他們所做的工作並認識到，他在債務和回購股票方面所做的事情非常有效對於股東來說，這就是為什麼我們——我認為人們很困惑，我們的債務淨現金不是正數，但我們是。這確實是安迪和他的團隊的偉大工作。

In terms of M&A, look, the thing that you want that companies are going to need is the data and the database and the customer list, we have all that. So it's -- for us to achieve what we're trying to achieve in this space right now doesn't feel like M&A is the answer because the moat that we have actually gets amplified as a result of AI because what we can do with what we have will be so much more than anybody can do with what they have today or what they'll be able to do simply because of the way our data structures have been built. And the over 10 years of understanding student behavior and content and behavior by each school and each class and each professor. These are things -- and the way the questions are crafted informed and even our ability to take them through images, which others can't do, we're slight years ahead of where other people are. So there really isn't an obvious need in the short term for us to be able to do what we need to do. There's always -- there may always be something that will just accelerate it or speed it up. But right now, that's not a priority. I think, Andy has better uses for the cash. So Andy?

在併購方面，你看，公司需要的是數據、數據庫和客戶名單，我們都有。所以，對於我們來說，現在要在這個領域實現我們想要實現的目標，感覺併購並不是答案，因為我們擁有的護城河實際上由於人工智能而得到了放大，因為我們可以用什麼來做什麼我們所擁有的將比任何人用他們今天所擁有的或他們將能夠做的事情要多得多，僅僅因為我們的數據結構的構建方式。還有十多年來每個學校、每個班級、每個教授對學生行為的了解和內容與行為。這些都是事情——以及設計問題的方式，甚至我們通過圖像來回答問題的能力，這是其他人做不到的，我們比其他人領先了幾年。因此，短期內我們確實沒有明顯的需要去做我們需要做的事情。總有——可能總有一些東西會加速它或加速它。但現在，這不是優先事項。我認為安迪可以更好地利用這些現金。那麼安迪？

Yes. So I mean, when you look at capital allocation, I mean in the ideal world, you'd use your capital to drive and grow the business. Those opportunities, as Dan had mentioned, really don't exist and don't make sense for us at this point in time. But, what we have been doing over the last several quarters has been very opportunistic with respect to some of our securities buyback.

是的。所以我的意思是，當你考慮資本配置時，我的意思是在理想的世界中，你會用你的資本來推動和發展業務。正如丹所提到的，這些機會確實不存在，而且目前對我們來說沒有意義。但是，在過去幾個季度中，我們在一些證券回購方面一直在採取非常機會主義的做法。

Last quarter, for example, we retired debt at a sizable discount, almost $54 million. You saw that and we will continue to be, I'll call it, opportunistic and potentially active depending upon the value, but we've got a very strong balance sheet, like Dan said, we're driving significant free cash flow. So, we've got the ability and confidence to make those moves should the opportunities exist.

例如，上個季度，我們以相當大的折扣償還了債務，接近 5400 萬美元。你看到了，我們將繼續，我稱之為，機會主義和潛在的積極性，具體取決於價值，但我們有一個非常強大的資產負債表，就像丹說的，我們正在推動大量的自由現金流。因此，如果有機會的話，我們有能力和信心採取這些舉措。

Our next question comes from Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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

Great. This is Devin on for Jason today. Nice beat on the revenue and EBITDA results, I just want to dive in on the subscriber number a little bit more. I think in the quarter, 4.8 million subscribers came in a little bit lighter than expected and also represents a decel there. But any additional color you can provide on what drove the decel in the quarter? Is it mainly on the softer new account side of the house? Or did you see higher expected churn in the quarter?

偉大的。這是德文今天為傑森做的。收入和 EBITDA 業績表現出色，我只想進一步了解訂閱者數量。我認為本季度 480 萬訂戶數量略低於預期，也代表了該季度的下降。但對於推動本季度經濟放緩的因素，您還能提供任何其他信息嗎？主要是在房屋較軟的新帳戶方面嗎？或者您是否看到本季度的預期流失率更高？

I'll let Andy give more detail, but we -- that's not our read on what we did. I mean we beat revenue and we beat EBITDA substantially, which is very hard to do on a $17 product in a lower season, particularly as the season end. So I don't know that we felt that we were light at all. And I think, what we saw was better than what we expected, so I'm not sure what you're comparing it to, but Andy?

我會讓安迪提供更多細節，但是我們——這不是我們對我們所做的事情的解讀。我的意思是，我們的營收和 EBITDA 均大幅超過，這對於淡季 17 美元的產品來說是很難做到的，特別是在季末。所以我不知道我們是否感覺自己很輕。我認為，我們所看到的比我們預期的要好，所以我不確定你將其與什麼進行比較，但是安迪？

Yes, yes. So first thing is we don't guide to net the paying subscribers to be clear. But it's what I call subscription maps. We're in a period right now -- Q2 was a period where it was -- to some extent, Q3, where it's dominated by renewals, which is from prior periods where we had steeper declines in new subscribers. What Dan is talking about is the fact that we're digging ourselves out of that pool, is improving relative to what we expected. And in fact, when you look at the quarter as a whole, both from a -- like Dan said, from a retention standpoint and from a new subscriber standpoint, it was better than we expected. But once again, that's -- it was better.

是的是的。因此，首先要明確的是，我們不引導付費用戶上網。但這就是我所說的訂閱地圖。我們現在正處於一個時期——第二季度是這樣的時期——在某種程度上，第三季度，它以續訂為主，這與之前我們的新訂戶下降幅度更大的時期相比。丹所說的是這樣一個事實：我們正在從這個池子中挖掘自己，相對於我們的預期正在進步。事實上，當你從整個季度來看時，無論是從保留的角度還是從新訂戶的角度來看，就像丹說的那樣，它都比我們預期的要好。但再一次，那是——更好了。

Got it. No, understood. And then just one more question for me. I think last quarter, you called out areas like Mexico with really high type of final interests, but low conversion. I'm just curious, if there's any additional initiatives that went in, in the quarter to kind of drive that convert up?

知道了。不，明白了。然後還有一個問題要問我。我認為上個季度，您指出墨西哥等最終興趣類型非常高但轉化率較低的地區。我只是好奇，本季度是否有任何其他舉措來推動轉化？

Yes. These are really interesting questions here, which is, as we have adjusted the entire company to leverage what AI is capable of doing, the prioritization of the countries hasn't changed. So Mexico, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, the U.K., Turkey, places like that, remain the places where our initial efforts are focused on.

是的。這些都是非常有趣的問題，也就是說，當我們調整整個公司以利用人工智能的能力時，國家的優先順序並沒有改變。所以墨西哥、菲律賓、加拿大、澳大利亞、英國、土耳其等地仍然是我們最初努力的重點地區。

What has changed to the better is what AI allows us to do is do these things better and faster, in some cases, simultaneously. So for example, AI in terms of being able to do instant translation is much better, for us to be able to add localized content faster and less expensive than we would have done before. So, we're really just going to take advantage of what the new capabilities allow us to do on behalf of the students.

更好的是人工智能讓我們能夠更好更快地完成這些事情，在某些情況下，甚至是同時完成。例如，人工智能在即時翻譯方面要好得多，讓我們能夠比以前更快、更便宜地添加本地化內容。因此，我們實際上只是要利用新功能為學生做的事情。

And we'll continue to do all the price testing that we've been doing. But during a slow season, it doesn't give off the right signal in terms of knowing really what's going to happen because, particularly, U.S. at high summers schools, most other places don't.

我們將繼續進行我們一直在做的所有價格測試。但在淡季期間，它並沒有發出正確的信號來真正了解將會發生什麼，因為，特別是在美國的高中暑期學校，大多數其他地方都沒有。

There are no further questions at this time. I would now, like to turn the floor back over to Dan Rosensweig for closing comments.

目前沒有其他問題。現在，我想將發言權交還給 Dan Rosensweig，以徵求結束意見。

Yes. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for your questions. We're really proud of the team and the results. As the information and the awareness of AI evolves and its capabilities evolve, we believe that history is a good guide here, which is the players that have really big brands, really unique and proprietary assets that are valuable, can leverage new technology and new capabilities to the advantage of their customers and therefore, the advantage of their business models. And I think, you're beginning to see that, whether it's Adobe or Microsoft or Google or ServiceNow or any of these companies that have built really strong relationships and loyalty and expectations of quality with our audiences are going to be able to do things faster. And we believe at a lower cost over time and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

是的。謝謝大家。感謝您的提問。我們對團隊和成果感到非常自豪。隨著人工智能的信息和意識的發展及其能力的發展，我們相信歷史是一個很好的指南，那些擁有真正大品牌、真正有價值的獨特和專有資產、可以利用新技術和新能力的參與者有利於他們的客戶，從而有利於他們的商業模式。我認為，你開始看到，無論是 Adob​​e、微軟、谷歌、ServiceNow，還是任何與我們的受眾建立了真正牢固的關係、忠誠度和質量期望的公司，都將能夠更快地做事。我們相信隨著時間的推移，以更低的成本並使自己從競爭對手中脫穎而出。

So, we are excited about the momentum that we are seeing right now. We are going to take things one quarter at a time, until we get comfortable that this is sustainable. We expect to return to growth. And as we do, you'll see the margins continue to improve.

因此，我們對現在看到的勢頭感到興奮。我們將一次一個季度地進行一些事情，直到我們確信這是可持續的。我們預計將恢復增長。當我們這樣做時，您會看到利潤率不斷提高。

We have remained over 30% margins for the last several years, so we have the capital necessary, the business model to get it right and this proprietary data set that others wish to think you can access to that we are not getting it to them. We are going to use it and build our own elements to our advantage. And so, the next six months are going to be super exciting for Chegg, and we're just head down working. So thank you all for joining the call. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Thanks.

過去幾年，我們的利潤率一直保持在 30% 以上，因此我們擁有必要的資本、正確實施的商業模式，以及其他人希望認為您可以訪問的專有數據集，但我們卻沒有提供給他們。我們將使用它並構建我們自己的元素來發揮我們的優勢。因此，接下來的六個月對於 Chegg 來說將是非常令人興奮的，我們只是埋頭工作。感謝大家加入此次通話。享受你剩下的夏天。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。