Chegg Inc (CHGG) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Chegg, Inc., first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Tracey Ford, Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG for Chegg. Thank you. You may begin.

問候。歡迎參加 Chegg, Inc. 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。我現在將會議交給 Chegg 投資者關係和 ESG 副總裁 Tracey Ford。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Chegg's first-quarter 2024 conference call. On today's call are Dan Rosensweig, Co-Chairperson and CEO; Nathan Schultz, Incoming President and CEO; and David Longo, Chief Financial Officer.

午安.感謝您參加 Chegg 2024 年第一季電話會議。出席今天電話會議的有聯合董事長兼執行長 Dan Rosensweig；內森‧舒爾茨 (Nathan Schultz)，即將上任的總裁兼執行長；財務長戴維·隆戈(David Longo)。

A copy of our earnings press release, along with our investor presentation is available on our Investor Relations website, investor dot 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/media center. We encourage you to make use of these resources.

我們的收益新聞稿以及投資者簡報的副本可在我們的投資者關係網站投資者 dot chegg.com 上取得。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訊息，並打算在我們的媒體中心網站 chegg.com/media center 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 20th, 2024, as well as our other filings with the SEC. 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. 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 in the investor slide deck found on our IR website, investor dot chegg.com. We also recommend you review the investor data sheet, which is also posted on our IR website.

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有重大差異。我們提醒您考慮可能導致實際結果與前瞻性聲明中的結果有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 2024 年 2 月 20 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 SEC 提交的其他文件。我們今天所做的任何前瞻性陳述都是基於我們認為截至目前為止合理的假設。我們不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而更新這些聲明的義務。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 調整表可在我們的收益新聞稿中找到，該新聞稿位於我們的 IR 網站投資者 dot chegg.com 上的投資者幻燈片中。我們也建議您查看投資者資料表，該資料表也發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上。

Now I will turn the call over to Dan.

現在我將把電話轉給丹。

Thank you, Tracey, and welcome, everyone, to Chegg's Q1 2024 earnings call. It's a truly exciting day for Chegg, and I'm thrilled to announce that Nathan Schultz is being promoted to Chegg's President and CEO effective June 1. The Board and I have been focused on succession planning for the last several years to put Chegg in the best position to continue to drive the future of education.

謝謝特雷西，歡迎大家參加 Chegg 的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。對於Chegg 來說，這確實是激動人心的一天，我很高興地宣布，內森·舒爾茨(Nathan Schultz) 將於6 月1 日晉升為Chegg 的總裁兼首席執行官。裡，我和董事會一直致力於繼任計劃，以便將Chegg 納入董事會繼續推動教育未來的最佳位置。

Nathan has spent the last 16 years helping build Chegg into the leading global online learning platform that it is today. From our earliest days as a textbook rental company to leveraging AI. Today, Nathan has been at the core of our success. 18 has always lead with a student first mindset and a passion for innovating how when and where people learn. We'll be stepping into the role of Executive Chairman and working with Nathan and the Board during the next exciting phase of the company. Over the last few years, Nathan has worked to bolster our leadership team by adding a new Chief Marketing Officer, a new SVP of Business Operations and a new Chief Product Officer to work alongside Chuck Diker, our Chief Technology adviser, the Board and I are excited about this management team and the future of the business underneath into leadership we see the proliferation of AI and our ability to uniquely harness its potential in education as a transformative moment for Chegg, we've embraced AI and have completely rebuilt our user experience and services rolling out a multiyear product-led growth plan to emerge from the post-COVID period and return to revenue and profit growth. The transition will take time, but we are already seeing encouraging signs of how our new AI enabled platform will serve more students in more ways than ever before. This makes this the right time for Nathan to step into this new role and write the next chapter of the Chegg story.

Nathan 在過去 16 年裡一直致力於將 Chegg 打造為當今全球領先的線上學習平台。從我們最早的教科書租賃公司到利用人工智慧。今天，內森一直是我們成功的核心。 18 始終以學生至上的心態引領潮流，並熱衷於創新人們學習的時間和地點。我們將擔任執行董事長，並在公司下一個令人興奮的階段與內森和董事會合作。在過去的幾年裡，內森（Nathan）一直致力於加強我們的領導團隊，增加了一位新的首席營銷官、一位新的業務運營高級副總裁和一位新的首席產品官，與我們的首席技術顧問查克·迪克（Chuck Diker）一起工作，董事會和我是我們對這個管理團隊和領導層下業務的未來感到興奮，我們看到人工智能的擴散以及我們獨特地利用其在教育方面的潛力的能力，這是Chegg 的變革時刻，我們已經接受了人工智能並完全重建了我們的用戶體驗，服務推出了以產品為主導的多年增長計劃，以擺脫後疫情時期並恢復收入和利潤增長。這一轉變需要時間，但我們已經看到了令人鼓舞的跡象，表明我們的新人工智慧平台將以比以往更多的方式為更多的學生提供服務。這使得內森 (Nathan) 踏入新角色並書寫 Chegg 故事的下一個篇章恰逢其時。

So with that, I will turn it over to Nathan.

因此，我會將其交給內森。

Congratulations, Nathan.

恭喜，內森。

Thank you, Dan. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the tremendous impact you have had over the last 14 years, both on Chegg and on me, personally, I'm grateful for your leadership, your wisdom and your counsel as we rebound to the company so many years ago, expanding the vision of for how Chegg could serve learners around the world from print textbooks to our IPO from Homework Help to becoming a fully digital learning platform. You have to help steer us through so many critical transitions. And we would not be where we are today without you and where we are today is a company that is truly revolutionizing how we serve students around the world. We have rolled out a new interface for Q&A and developed proprietary AI platform, including our own 26 large language models uniquely verticalized for education. We are only just starting to realize our vision for Chegg as a personalized learning assistance, and we'll continue to iterate and develop how we bring a best-in-class learning experience to our customers. We had a productive first quarter continuing to roll out and improve upon our AI enabled experiences that will strengthen our product market fit in 24 and beyond. Executing against a multiyear product roadmap is essential to returning to subscriber growth as we continue to cycle through the customer expansion we experienced during the pandemic we are focused on increasing our relevancy with students and getting Chegg back to consistent positive growth in total revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We are already seeing encouraging trends in two important and early indicators, retention rate, which for Q1 is up over 100 basis points year over year and engagement. We have designed the Chegg platform with students at the center, focusing on providing a learning experience that capitalizes on immediacy, accuracy and quality. To give you a sense of how quickly this is scaling in Q1 of this year, we had over 9 million questions asked compared to 3.9 million questions at the same time last year as more questions, our app, we generate more content, which drives more traffic which we believe will lead to new customers in future quarters. This is the power of the Chegg flywheel. In fact, the increase in questions asked in Q1 has already driven a return to growth in a US. new customer funnel or Chegg Study. There is a growing opportunity to reach more customers with our new and expanded user experience made possible by proprietary AI technology that is resonating with students and delivering real value. As we develop an education focused AI platform, we believe it is essential to own our large language models and quality assurance layer. This allows Chegg to verticalize our AI for education specifically and is essential in our pursuit to control quality and accuracy at a lower cost deleveraging, generic AI platform it was built for this moment. Our unique assets such as our 100 million pieces of education content, our reach with learners around the globe and our 150,000 subject matter experts come together to deliver the most effective learning experience possible over the next few quarters, we are focused on rolling out enhancements and features that will deliver an even richer personalized learning experience, whether that means real-time conversational support with our AI, tutor generating flash cards, carrying plaque practice problems or creating a focused study guide. Our platform is designed to anticipate, generate and deliver personalized solutions, which we expect will increase our value to students and expand the audiences we can serve in a cost-efficient way. We have been testing pricing and packaging in the US and internationally in the U.S., we'll continue to test different options throughout 2024 outside the US, where we have tested for almost a year now our pricing and packaging strategy has solidified. We are focused on seven key markets for education that represents an incredible opportunity for Chegg with an addressable market larger than the United States in these priority markets, we've seen an increase in new accounts, which grew 2.3% year over year. Internationally, we will continue to roll out pricing and packaging optimizations as well as strengthen our product market fit through continued content and product localization. As we look ahead, I could not be more excited for the future and the path Chegg is on reimagining and reinventing how we can best serve learners around the world is our mission at Chegg and the opportunity to deliver a truly personalized learning experience has never been bigger nor more critical. And I am grateful to have this opportunity to expand where when and how we serve learners because of dance leadership on behalf of our employees, the Board and our leadership team.

謝謝你，丹。我想花點時間承認您在過去 14 年中對 Chegg 和我個人產生的巨大影響，我感謝您的領導、您的智慧和您的建議，因為我們為公司帶來瞭如此多的回報幾年前，我們擴展了Chegg 如何為世界各地的學習者提供服務的願景，從印刷教科書到我們的IPO，從家庭作業幫助到成為一個完全數位化的學習平台。您必須幫助引導我們度過如此多的關鍵轉變。如果沒有你們，我們就不會取得今天的成績，而我們今天的成績是一家真正徹底改變我們為世界各地學生服務的方式的公司。我們推出了新的問答介面，並開發了專有的人工智慧平台，包括我們自己的 26 種專門針對教育垂直化的大型語言模型。我們才剛開始實現 Chegg 作為個人化學習幫助的願景，我們將繼續迭代和開發如何為客戶帶來一流的學習體驗。我們的第一季富有成效，繼續推出和改進我們的人工智慧體驗，這將加強我們的產品在 24 小時及以後的市場契合度。執行多年產品路線圖對於恢復訂閱者成長至關重要，因為我們將繼續循環我們在大流行期間經歷的客戶擴張，我們專注於提高與學生的相關性，並使Chegg 恢復總收入、調整後EBITDA 的持續正成長和自由現金流。我們已經在兩個重要的早期指標中看到了令人鼓舞的趨勢：保留率（第一季同比增長了 100 個基點）和參與度。我們以學生為中心設計了 Chegg 平台，專注於提供即時性、準確性和品質的學習體驗。為了讓您了解今年第一季的擴展速度有多快，我們提出了超過900 萬個問題，而去年同期有390 萬個問題，隨著更多問題、我們的應用程式產生更多內容，從而推動更多內容我們相信這將在未來幾季帶來新客戶。這就是Chegg飛輪的力量。事實上，第一季提出的問題的增加已經推動了美國經濟的恢復成長。新客戶漏斗或 Chegg 研究。透過我們專有的人工智慧技術帶來的新的和擴展的用戶體驗，我們有越來越多的機會接觸更多的客戶，這些技術與學生產生共鳴並提供真正的價值。當我們開發以教育為中心的人工智慧平台時，我們認為擁有大型語言模型和品質保證層至關重要。這使得 Chegg 能夠將我們的人工智慧專門用於教育領域，這對於我們追求以更低的成本控製品質和準確性至關重要，去槓桿化的通用人工智慧平台是為此而建構的。我們獨特的資產，例如我們的1 億件教育內容、我們與全球學習者的聯繫以及我們的150,000 名主題專家將齊心協力，在未來幾季提供最有效的學習體驗，我們致力於推出增強功能和這些功能將提供更豐富的個人化學習體驗，無論這意味著與我們的人工智慧進行即時對話支援、導師生成閃存卡、攜帶牌匾練習題還是創建有針對性的學習指南。我們的平台旨在預測、產生和提供個人化解決方案，我們期望這將增加我們對學生的價值，並以經濟高效的方式擴大我們可以服務的受眾。我們一直在美國和美國國際市場上測試定價和包裝，我們將在 2024 年繼續在美國以外測試不同的選項，我們已經在美國測試了近一年，現在我們的定價和包裝策略已經固化。我們專注於七個關鍵的教育市場，這對 Chegg 來說是一個難以置信的機會，在這些優先市場中，其潛在市場比美國還大，我們看到新帳戶的成長，年成長 2.3%。在國際上，我們將繼續推出定價和包裝優化，並透過持續的內容和產品在地化來加強我們的產品市場契合度。展望未來，我對未來感到無比興奮，Chegg 正在重新構想和重塑我們如何最好地為世界各地的學習者提供服務，這是我們Chegg 的使命，提供真正個性化學習體驗的機會從未有過。我很高興有這個機會擴展我們為學習者提供服務的地點、時間和方式，因為代表我們的員工、董事會和領導團隊的舞蹈領導。

I want to take a moment again to thank you, Dan, for everything you've done for Chegg over the last 14 years. Your legacy will always be the way you cared deeply for people around you and how you always rooted for their success, whether that is shifting and employee to reach their potential are encouraging students to realize their dreams. You have changed many lives during your tenure at Chegg, including mine, and we are all deeply indebted.

我想再次花一點時間感謝你，Dan，感謝你在過去 14 年裡為 Chegg 所做的一切。您的遺產將永遠是您對周圍人的深切關懷以及您始終支持他們的成功的方式，無論這種情況是否正在發生變化，員工發揮自己的潛力是否正在鼓勵學生實現他們的夢想。您在 Chegg 任職期間改變了許多人的生活，包括我的生活，我們都深深感激您。

So with that, I will turn it over to Dave.

因此，我會將其交給戴夫。

Thank you, Nathan, and congratulations and I also want to thank you and I look forward to your continued guidance as you transition to your Executive Chairman role. Today, I will present our financial performance for the first quarter of 2024, as well as our outlook for Q2.

謝謝你，內森，恭喜你，我還要感謝你，我期待你在過渡到執行主席職位時繼續提供指導。今天，我將介紹我們 2024 年第一季的財務業績，以及我們對第二季的展望。

As Nathan mentioned, we had a very productive quarter. We were acutely focused on delivering our new AI. German experience to global learners and making progress on crucial metrics like engagement and retention. We believe these actions will support both revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth over time. We continued to deliver strong profitability and cash flows in the quarter and our balance sheet remains very healthy. We are prioritizing creating shareholder value and emphasizing prudent expense management as we navigate the past back to growth.

正如內森所提到的，我們度過了一個非常有成效的季度。我們非常專注於提供新的人工智慧。德國為全球學習者提供的經驗，以及在參與度和保留率等關鍵指標上取得的進展。我們相信，隨著時間的推移，這些行動將支持收入和調整後 EBITDA 的成長。本季我們繼續實現強勁的獲利能力和現金流，我們的資產負債表仍然非常健康。在我們帶領過去回歸成長的過程中，我們優先考慮創造股東價值並強調審慎的費用管理。

Focusing on our first quarter performance, total revenue was $174 million, down 7% year over year, including subscription services revenue of $154 million. We had 4.7 million subscribers in the quarter with 25% coming from international. Skills and other revenue was $20 million, an increase of 6% year over year.

關注我們第一季的業績，總收入為 1.74 億美元，年減 7%，其中訂閱服務收入為 1.54 億美元。本季我們有 470 萬訂戶，其中 25% 來自國際。技能和其他收入為 2000 萬美元，年增 6%。

First quarter adjusted EBITDA of $46.7 million represented margin of 27%. We maintained a prudent approach to expense management and offset some of the year-over-year revenue decline with lower expenses. We are working on aligning our expense base relative to the current revenue trends. We expect to accelerate our efficiency efforts as we progress through the year with the goal of stronger margins in the second half, leading to 30% or greater adjusted EBITDA margin for 2025.

第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 4,670 萬美元，利潤率為 27%。我們保持審慎的費用管理方法，並透過較低的費用抵消了部分年收入下降。我們正在努力根據當前的收入趨勢調整我們的支出基礎。我們預計，隨著今年的進展，我們將加快效率工作，目標是下半年實現更高的利潤率，到 2025 年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率達到 30% 或更高。

Free cash flow was $25.3 million in the first quarter, representing a 54% conversion from adjusted EBITDA. As a reminder, while interest income continues to contribute positively adding $7 million in the quarter, we are comping against higher cash balances in 2023.

第一季自由現金流為 2,530 萬美元，相當於調整後 EBITDA 的 54%。提醒一下，雖然利息收入繼續為本季帶來 700 萬美元的正面貢獻，但我們面臨的挑戰是 2023 年現金餘額增加。

Looking at the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and investments of $612 million and a net cash balance of $12 million. During the quarter, we completed the previously announced $150 million accelerated share repurchase with approximately 86% of the shares delivered back to us in the fourth quarter of 2023. Our end-of-quarter share count was down 15% year over year as we have continued to return capital to shareholders. In 2023 alone, we returned over $300 million to investors through equity repurchases and $597 million through convertible debt repurchases.

從資產負債表來看，本季末我們的現金和投資為 6.12 億美元，淨現金餘額為 1,200 萬美元。本季度，我們完成了先前宣布的 1.5 億美元加速股票回購，其中約 86% 的股票於 2023 年第四季返還給我們。返還資本。光是 2023 年，我們就透過股權回購向投資者返還了超過 3 億美元，透過可轉換債務回購向投資者返還了 5.97 億美元。

The progress we are making with the product experience and refueling the flywheel, starting with automated solutions and engagement will take time to build our new account acquisitions and renewal base before we see a positive impact on total subscribers and revenue. As a reminder, our unique subscription business model is reliant on two large customer acquisition periods, Q1 and Q4, as well as the student life cycle. And meanwhile, as previously mentioned, we will increase our focus on efficiently managing expenses to maintain strong profitability and cash flows.

我們在產品體驗和飛輪加油方面取得的進展，從自動化解決方案和參與開始，需要時間來建立我們的新帳戶獲取和續訂基礎，然後才能看到對總訂戶和收入的正面影響。提醒一下，我們獨特的訂閱業務模式依賴兩個大型客戶獲取期（第一季和第四季）以及學生生命週期。同時，如前所述，我們將更加重視有效管理費用，以維持強勁的獲利能力和現金流。

With respect to Q2 guidance, we expect total revenue between $159 million and $161 million, with subscription services revenue between $144 million and $146 million; gross margin to be in the range of 70% and 71%; and adjusted EBITDA between $38 million and $40 million.

就第二季指引而言，我們預計總收入在 1.59 億美元至 1.61 億美元之間，其中訂閱服務收入在 1.44 億美元至 1.46 億美元之間；毛利率在70%至71%之間；調整後的 EBITDA 在 3800 萬美元至 4000 萬美元之間。

In closing, we are seeing encouraging signs in the business and are excited about the continued development of our personalized and interactive student interface. We believe we are well-positioned to meet the current and future needs of learners. The opportunity ahead for Chegg is tremendous and I am confident in our team and our ability to execute.

最後，我們看到了業界令人鼓舞的跡象，並對我們個人化和互動式學生介面的持續開發感到興奮。我們相信我們有能力滿足學習者當前和未來的需求。 Chegg 面臨著巨大的機遇，我對我們的團隊和執行能力充滿信心。

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

這樣，我會將電話轉給接線員詢問您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Bryan Smilek, JPMorgan.

（操作員指令）Bryan Smilek，摩根大通。

Thanks for taking the question, guys, and congrats, Nathan as well. Can you just talk a bit more about the next steps in your strategy across the application layer for generative AI and potentially across both product and marketing and how it can translate to subscriber growth. And then just more near term to the 2Q guide was a bit below where we had expected. So could you just help us with some puts and takes from anything that stands out there, especially as you see good momentum on return to new subs growth within the U.S. Chegg Study Pack? Thank you.

謝謝你們提出這個問題，夥伴們，也恭喜內森。您能否多談談您在產生人工智慧應用程式層以及可能在產品和行銷方面的策略的後續步驟，以及如何將其轉化為用戶成長。然後，第二季的指導值近期略低於我們的預期。那麼，您能否幫助我們從任何突出的事物中進行一些調整和調整，特別是當您看到美國 Chegg 研究包中新潛艇恢復增長的良好勢頭時？謝謝。

Great. I appreciate the question. I'll take the first part of it and David follow up. And at the end around the product, we feel we're on we're on a multiyear journey with our products really, really a product-led growth strategy that we've been planning for a while, but really around the really around expanding the value that we can offer our students by expanding our relevancy of what we're building. And we are super excited with the first steps that we've taken in our AI vision. You've seen that in the language models that we've deployed, and you've seen that in the growth in our Q&A with questions, growing almost 100% year over year just in Q1 alone. That's a strong sign that the what we are building is resonating with students are finding value in it and they're continuing to engage in our service. So we're going to continue to kind of push the pedal on the innovation that Chegg is really getting stride with when we see a lot more opportunity being created for us and through the use to the thoughtful integration of A., I threw out our products and really the ownership of our AI platform is a big part of a cornerstone, if you will, of that strategy on the marketing side, first and foremost, you've got to get the product right is going to deliver on the promise, the promise that you are that you're that our customers are buying that as a service that that helps save them time that helps them get smarter. That helps them truly be efficacious in their studies, and that's what we're delivering to them. So first, we're going to deliver for our customers and then we can start to build that. John be beyond check. The great news is Chegg gets some over 30 over the last 12 months were 30 million visitors to our site users to our site on to our platform and that gives us a huge opportunity to amplify what we're doing for students and amplify the value that we have our students.

偉大的。我很欣賞這個問題。我會講第一部分，大衛會跟進。在產品的最後，我們覺得我們正處於一個多年的旅程中，我們的產品確實是一個以產品為主導的成長策略，我們已經計劃了一段時間，但實際上是圍繞著擴展通過擴大我們正在構建的內容的相關性，我們可以為學生提供的價值。我們對在人工智慧願景中邁出的第一步感到非常興奮。您已經在我們部署的語言模型中看到了這一點，也從我們問答的增長中看到了這一點，僅在第一季就同比增長了近 100%。這是一個強烈的跡象，表明我們正在建立的內容引起了學生的共鳴，他們發現了其中的價值，並且他們將繼續參與我們的服務。因此，當我們看到為我們創造了更多機會並透過使用 A. 的深思熟慮的整合時，我們將繼續推動 Chegg 真正取得進展的創新。的重要組成部分，首先也是最重要的是，你必須獲得正確的產品才能兌現承諾，您的承諾是，您是我們的客戶購買的服務，這有助於節省他們的時間，幫助他們變得更聰明。這有助於他們真正有效地學習，而這就是我們為他們提供的。因此，首先，我們將為客戶提供服務，然後我們就可以開始建立它。約翰無法控制。好消息是，在過去12 個月裡，Chegg 的平台上有超過30 名訪客，即3000 萬訪問者，這為我們提供了一個巨大的機會，可以擴大我們為學生所做的事情，並擴大我們的平台的價值。

Hi, Brian, this is David. With respect to the question on the Q2 guidance. A quick reminder, the math on our revenue for any quarter is a component of how many subs you have at the beginning of the period plus how many you add in the current period. And we began Q2 with lower subs than we did in the prior year. So as Nathan mentioned before, we're super excited about the product direction that we're heading. It's just going to take some time for us to fill up that funnel to get back to subs sub growth. And over time, we're optimistic that we'll get there as an entire company.

嗨，布萊恩，我是大衛。關於第二季指引的問題。快速提醒一下，我們任何季度的收入計算都是由您在該期間開始時擁有的訂閱人數加上當前期間添加的訂閱人數組成的。第二季開始時，我們的潛水艇數量比去年少。正如內森之前提到的，我們對我們正在走向的產品方向感到非常興奮。我們需要一些時間來填滿這個漏斗才能恢復子子成長。隨著時間的推移，我們樂觀地認為我們整個公司將實現這一目標。

Eric Sheridan, Goldman Sachs.

艾瑞克‧謝裡丹，高盛。

Maybe just following up on those two with us in your question about the coming months here. When you think about the education cycle going into the fall of this calendar year, what do you guys see as the most critical investments to make and positioning of the product as you think about that education cycle for September through the remainder of the calendar year and into the first part of next year. Thanks so much.

也許只是在您關於未來幾個月的問題中與我們一起跟進這兩個問題。當您考慮進入本日曆年秋季的教育週期時，當您考慮從 9 月份到日曆年剩餘時間的教育週期時，您認為最重要的投資和產品定位是什麼？非常感謝。

Appreciate the question, Eric and I love that you're tracking the cycles. We've got kind of our two big opportunities year, obviously in January and being a semester and in August and be in the fall semester. And we've been working hard in the development of our language models, which is which is the bedrock of our proprietary AI platform. We're going to continue to roll those out. I'm going to continue to make advancements and are the accuracy and the quality and the completeness of those models are going to start to see us roll out some more personalization features, particularly around the conversational ability that we that we see within the Q&A moment to really take that moment with the student has a question, expand the value we can deliver for them to build more content for them, that debt, that value of anticipating what the student is really there for and whether what they need allows us to generate with that, got that experience for them and become a highly personalized. We're going to continue to roll it out, make sure we're getting that ready for and for the rest of this year.

感謝這個問題，艾瑞克和我喜歡你追蹤週期。我們今年有兩個大機會，顯然是一月的一個學期和八月的秋季學期。我們一直在努力開發我們的語言模型，這是我們專有的人工智慧平台的基石。我們將繼續推出這些產品。我將繼續取得進步，這些模型的準確性、品質和完整性將開始看到我們推出一些更多的個人化功能，特別是圍繞著我們在問答時刻看到的對話能力真正抓住學生有問題的那一刻，擴大我們可以為他們提供的價值，為他們建立更多的內容，這種債務，這種預期學生真正在那裡的價值，以及他們的需要是否能讓我們創造這樣，他們就獲得了這種體驗，並成為一個高度個人化的人。我們將繼續推出它，確保我們為今年剩餘時間做好準備。

Ryan MacDonald, Needham & Company.

瑞安麥克唐納，李約瑟公司。

Thanks for taking my questions. I'm really wanted to ask around the pricing strategy and you talked about sort of already solidified the plans there internationally in the seven key markets, but still testing domestically.

感謝您回答我的問題。我真的很想問定價策略，你談到已經在國際上在七個關鍵市場上鞏固了計劃，但仍在國內進行測試。

You give us a sense of sort of the magnitude on the pricing discounts you're testing and then when we should start to see that layer into RPU assumptions as we go into the remainder of the year. Thanks.

您讓我們對正在測試的定價折扣的幅度有一定的了解，然後在進入今年剩餘時間時我們應該開始在 RPU 假設中看到這一層。謝謝。

Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate this question on pricing, pricing and packaging in general, I think of it as an important lever to levers to understand, Scott, as something that we at Chegg have always taken our strategic stance on always have look to optimize and understand, as you know and internationally, we tested for a little over a year. We got to a place before we got to a place. We felt the the pricing and packaging was solidified. Now you're starting to really see that and some of our new customer growth numbers there domestically.

謝謝，瑞安。欣賞這個關於定價、定價和包裝的問題，我認為它是理解槓桿的重要槓桿，斯科特，我們 Chegg 一直採取我們的戰略立場，始終尋求優化和理解，因為你眾所周知，在國際上，我們測試了一年多一點。在我們到達一個地方之前，我們已經到達了一個地方。我們覺得定價和包裝已經固化。現在您開始真正看到這一點以及我們在國內的一些新客戶成長數字。

Yes, I look at the goal remains how do we expose our service to the widest number of customers we possibly can. We'll continue to use pricing and packaging to do that, whether that needs and testing up testing down, we're going to be testing all around really. And that's and that's the goal there is to think of pricing impact. And strategically when they use it with the right segments to use it against at the right times of year a year use it. So yes, we're going to continue to just optimize and test that throughout 24.

是的，我認為目標仍然是如何為盡可能多的客戶提供我們的服務。我們將繼續使用定價和包裝來做到這一點，無論是否需要向上測試和向下測試，我們都將真正進行全面測試。這就是考慮定價影響的目標。策略性地，當他們將它與正確的細分市場一起使用時，在一年中的正確時間使用它。所以，是的，我們將在 24 小時內繼續優化和測試。

Josh Bayer, Morgan Stanley.

喬許·拜爾，摩根士丹利。

Great. Thanks for the question, and congratulations, Nathan and Dan, on your new roles. I wanted to follow up on on engagement. You have some interesting data points around the number of questions asked what about the time spent on the platform from an engagement perspective? And also curious about the time that like an average student might have the subscription turned on in a given period and the month of quarter?

偉大的。感謝您提出問題，並祝賀內森和丹擔任新職務。我想跟進訂婚情況。您有一些有趣的數據點，涉及問題的數量，從參與度的角度來看，在平台上花費的時間又如何？並且還想知道像普通學生一樣在給定時間段和季度月份內可能會開啟訂閱的時間？

Thanks. Josh, very astute question. As you would imagine, the first step in our path to get back to a place where we've got durable programs around new acquisition, total subscribers and positive revenue growth starts with our engagement on our platform on just in the fact that we're seeing more questions. That's not that it's coming from more students being engaged on the platform. And those students asking more questions themselves, which is driving up total time on the platform. So overall, encourage we take that next step around the conversational component is that is the one that really starts to elongate those sessions even more and trucks are to generate more value for the students. So today, we're really driving use of what we are known best for, which is product, high quality learning solutions that are tailored to the student debt is that beyond that as the flywheel we were built off of that's the flywheel that's spinning faster than ever. And that's the final we're very encouraged by and we're going to continue to see that engagement along with suites usage.

謝謝。喬希，非常精明的問題。正如您所想像的那樣，我們要回到圍繞新收購、總訂戶和積極收入成長制定持久計劃的道路上，第一步始於我們對平台的參與，因為我們看到更多問題。這並不是因為更多的學生參與該平台。這些學生自己提出更多問題，這增加了平台上的總時間。因此，總的來說，鼓勵我們圍繞對話部分採取下一步行動，這才是真正開始進一步延長這些會議的時間，而卡車將為學生創造更多價值。因此，今天，我們真正推動使用我們最知名的產品，即針對學生債務量身定制的高品質學習解決方案，除此之外，我們所建造的飛輪是旋轉得更快的飛輪比以往任何時候。這是我們非常鼓舞的決賽，我們將繼續看到這種參與以及套件的使用。

Brent Thill, Jefferies.

布倫特·希爾，杰弗里斯。

Thanks.

謝謝。

I guess, Dan, the question of why now and I guess just as a quick follow-up and having covered tech for a long time, given the deceleration of revenue growth and few companies are preserving margins, maybe at a level one, I'd choose to make some more investments in broadening the platform and adding additional modules are rather than focus on just margins.

我想，丹，為什麼現在的問題是，我想這只是一個快速的後續行動，並且已經報道了很長一段時間的技術，考慮到收入增長的減速，而且很少有公司能夠保持利潤率，也許是在一級，我'我們選擇在擴大平台和添加額外模組方面進行更多投資，而不是僅僅關注利潤。

And Brad, great question. This is Nathan. I'll take it. We're going to actually are we're continuing to invest in our platform. I want to make sure that that's well understood on. We've built into our our our financials already, the investments that we're making in AI on that are being built into it, and we're going to continue to expand those with the traction we're seeing. We're looking to go even faster with the rollout of our array of our personalization platform. So no it taken. I don't know what's putting the brakes on what we're all we're saying and in our prepared remarks is that we understand that this is a transition we're going through. We understand that we're on a multiyear path to regrow the company and that takes time. And during that time, we want to be prudent and in aligning our expenses with our current performance.

布拉德，好問題。這是內森。我要買它。實際上，我們將繼續投資我們的平台。我想確保這一點得到很好的理解。我們已經融入了我們的財務狀況，我們在人工智慧方面的投資也正在融入其中，我們將繼續擴大我們所看到的吸引力。我們希望以更快的速度推出一系列個人化平台。所以沒有。我不知道是什麼阻礙了我們所說的一切，在我們準備好的發言中，我們明白這是我們正在經歷的過渡。我們知道，我們正在走上多年的公司重建道路，這需要時間。在此期間，我們希望謹慎行事，使我們的支出與當前的業績保持一致。

And Brent, hi, it's Dan. I just want to again congratulate both David and Jason. So why now is pretty easy on the company's rating. The Company is ready for this transition, which is Nathan and I have been working together for a long time with the Board on a on a really well prepared transition with David stepping into the role as the CFO and with the hiring of all the senior leadership team now is the right time. In addition to that, the Company has gone through a series of transformations since we've been here for the last 14 years from a home of going bankrupt several times to a point where we're profitable and generate free cash flow from the AI opportunity is so powerful and has the chance to be so big that from having this new team in place to drive it for the next five, 10 years is exactly what we want. It happened because the TAM should expand the margin can expand. And so we want this new team to really take this in private and after 40 years, I thought this was the exact right time, so to the Board, and I just couldn't be more proud. And Nathan, I mean, I'm really excited about the Company's future. And I will be remaining involved with they've been up and so let's go.

布倫特，嗨，我是丹。我想再次祝賀大衛和傑森。那麼為什麼現在對該公司的評級相當容易呢？公司已為這一過渡做好了準備，內森和我一直與董事會合作很長時間，為過渡做好充分準備，大衛將擔任首席財務官，並聘用了所有高級領導層現在是團隊的最佳時機。除此之外，自成立以來的 14 年裡，公司經歷了一系列轉型，從多次破產的家到實現盈利並透過人工智慧機會產生自由現金流的地步它是如此強大，並且有機會發展得如此之大，以至於讓這個新團隊在未來五年、十年內推動它發展正是我們想要的。發生這種情況是因為 TAM 應該擴大利潤才能擴大。因此，我們希望這個新團隊真正私下處理這件事，40 年後，我認為現在正是正確的時機，所以對董事會來說，我感到非常自豪。內森，我的意思是，我對公司的未來感到非常興奮。我將繼續參與他們已經起床的工作，所以我們走吧。

Devin Au, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Devin Au，KeyBanc 資本市場。

Great. Thanks for taking my question. David, on the second quarter EBITDA margin guide implying, I think, 24% at the midpoint. And in your remarks, you kind of talked about the expectations of second half margins to be stronger and through accelerating efficiency efforts. Could you just elaborate on what these efforts are and without that?

偉大的。感謝您提出我的問題。大衛，關於第二季度 EBITDA 利潤率指導，我認為，中點為 24%。在您的演講中，您談到了下半年利潤率將透過加快效率努力而提高的預期。您能否詳細說明一下這些努力是什麼以及沒有這些努力嗎？

So the top line leverage what's giving you the confidence that you can protect your margins in the second half?

那麼，頂線槓桿是什麼讓您有信心在下半年保護您的利潤呢？

Sure. Thanks, Devin. We believe we've always been efficient with our spend. If you look at our spend Q1 this year versus last year, we were $10 million better this year than last year. The full year 2023 was better than the full year of 2022 we expect that we're going to look under every rock we can find and keep being efficient so that we keep driving EBITDA and cash flow to create shareholder value. And I look forward to continuing to report that later this year.

當然。謝謝，德文。我們相信我們的支出一直都很有效率。如果你看看我們今年第一季的支出與去年相比，我們今年比去年多了 1000 萬美元。 2023 年全年都比 2022 年全年好，我們預計我們將深入研究我們能找到的每一塊岩石並保持高效，以便我們繼續推動 EBITDA 和現金流，創造股東價值。我期待著今年晚些時候繼續報告這一點。

Alex Sklar, Raymond James.

亞歷克斯·斯克拉，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Thank you. I want to follow-up on Ryan's question around the pricing and packaging test internationally. It sounds like you found the right balance there. And I was just hoping you could elaborate a little bit more on how that average pricing and conversion rates look like now relative to a year ago, and you also talked about seven markets, any new countries you're investing behind or pulling back on relative to the euro as well.

謝謝。我想跟進 Ryan 關於國際定價和包裝測試的問題。聽起來你在那裡找到了正確的平衡。我只是希望您能詳細說明一下現在的平均定價和轉換率與一年前相比如何，您還談到了七個市場，您投資的任何新國家或相對撤回的國家也適用於歐元。

Appreciate question, Alex. I'll start off on the markets. I know there are new no new markets here. The ones that we have identified, we see a lot of leverage. And we see a lot of similarities between the student experience experiment experience. Paul does a lot of leverage between what we need to build for each country as we begin to localize, even though it's only in different languages, the actual students job job to be done and why they're coming to the Chegg platform allows us to get a lot of leverage with the technology we're building on. I don't want to have you walk away and say we're done on the pricing and packaging side. We have found a lot of we have some goodness there, obviously with new customer growth of 2.3% year over year, but we are not done on the pricing and packaging side internationally, we're going to continue to optimize that and to make sure we can capitalize network customers as possible.

感謝您提出問題，亞歷克斯。我將從市場開始。我知道這裡有新的市場，沒有新的市場。在我們已經確定的那些中，我們看到了很多槓桿作用。我們看到學生體驗實驗經驗之間有許多相似之處。當我們開始在地化時，Paul 在我們需要為每個國家/地區構建的內容之間做了很多槓桿作用，即使只是使用不同的語言，學生實際上要完成的工作以及他們為什麼來到Chegg 平台使我們能夠充分利用我們正在建構的技術。我不想讓你走開後說我們已經完成了定價和包裝方面的工作。我們發現我們有很多優點，顯然新客戶同比增長 2.3%，但我們在國際定價和包裝方面還沒有完成，我們將繼續優化並確保我們可以盡可能地利用網路客戶。

Alex Fuhrman, Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

亞歷克斯·福爾曼，克雷格-哈勒姆資本集團。

Guys, thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to kind of drill into the target for 30% EBITDA margins, a little bit more on how exactly you know, should we expect to get there as we think about potentially pulling back on sales and marketing or G&A or research and development? Is there some level of growth internationally or elsewhere that you would need to hit that target for next year? And then I think you alluded to seeing some cost cuts in the back half of this year that should get the margins going or are we going to see kind of a path to that 30% by the end of this year? Or is that really more something that we'll see when we get farther into next year?

夥計們，謝謝你們提出我的問題。只是想深入了解 30% EBITDA 利潤率的目標，並進一步了解您到底如何知道，當我們考慮可能減少銷售和行銷、一般管理費用或研發時，我們是否應該期望實現這一目標？為了實現明年的目標，國際或其他地方是否需要一定程度的成長？然後我想你提到今年下半年會削減一些成本，這應該會提高利潤率，還是我們會在今年年底前看到達到 30% 的目標？或者說，當我們進入明年更遠的時候，我們真的會看到更多的事情嗎？

Sure. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate the question. It's really going to be a function of us continuing to do what we've always done, which is being prudent on how we manage our expenses. We are optimistic that we can return the Company to growth growth will certainly be one way to get there, but we've demonstrated consistent cost cost containment. And while I can't give specifics around that now because we're only giving guidance in the first quarter and the next quarter when I report back in August on how we did in Q2 I think we'll have a better vision on how that materializes through the rest of the year.

當然。謝謝，亞歷克斯。感謝這個問題。這確實取決於我們繼續做我們一直在做的事情，即謹慎管理我們的開支。我們樂觀地認為，我們能讓公司恢復成長，成長肯定是實現這一目標的一種方式，但我們已經證明了持續的成本控制。雖然我現在無法給出具體細節，因為我們只在第一季和下一個季度提供指導，當我在8 月報告我們在第二季度的表現時，我認為我們會對如何做到這一點有更好的願景在今年剩餘時間內實現。

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Nathan Schultz, Incoming CEO for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束。現在，我將把電話轉給即將上任的執行長內森舒爾茨 (Nathan Schultz)，讓其致閉幕詞。

So thank you very much for your questions today and warm wishes on the job I had. I wanted to take a while for the time course to Great. I am honored that the Board has given me the opportunity and I am incredibly excited about the power of the platform, but it has proprietary AI that we're building and the opportunity that's in front of us. I'm very excited to do with my partner, David Longo, and I wish you all the best to date for a great day.

非常感謝您今天提出的問題並對我的工作表示熱烈的祝愿。我想花點時間去偉大的時間課程。我很榮幸董事會給了我這個機會，我對該平台的強大功能感到非常興奮，但它擁有我們正在建立的專有人工智慧以及擺在我們面前的機會。我很高興能與我的伴侶大衛隆戈合作，祝你們約會一切順利，度過美好的一天。

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，感謝您的參與。