Expedia Group Inc (EXPE) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Expedia Group Q4 2022 Financial Results Teleconference. My name is Emily, and I'll be the operator for today's call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Expedia Group 2022 年第四季度財務業績電話會議。我叫艾米麗，我是今天電話的接線員。 （操作員說明）

For opening remarks, I will turn the call over to Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Strategy and Investor Relations, Harshit Vaish. Please go ahead.

對於開場白，我將把電話轉給企業發展、戰略和投資者關係高級副總裁 Harshit Vaish。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Expedia Group's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022 that ended December 31. I'm pleased to be joined on the call today by our CEO, Peter Kern; and our CFO, Julie Whalen.

下午好，歡迎來到 Expedia Group 截至 12 月 31 日的 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。我很高興今天我們的首席執行官 Peter Kern 加入電話會議；以及我們的首席財務官 Julie Whalen。

The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflects management's view as of today, February 9, 2023 only. We do not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information. As always, some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking, typically preceded by words such as we plan, we expect, we believe, we anticipate, we are optimistic or confident that or similar statements. Please refer to today's earnings release and the company's filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

以下討論，包括對您問題的回答，僅反映了截至 2023 年 2 月 9 日今天的管理層觀點。我們不承擔任何更新或修改這些信息的義務。與往常一樣，在今天的電話會議上發表的一些聲明是前瞻性的，通常以我們計劃、我們期望、我們相信、我們預期、我們樂觀或有信心或類似的聲明開頭。請參閱今天的收益發布和公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，了解可能導致我們的實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的信息。

You will find reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed today in our earnings release, which is posted on the company's Investor Relations website at ir.expediagroup.com. And I encourage you to consistently visit our IR website for other important information. Unless otherwise stated, any reference to expenses exclude stock-based compensation.

您會在我們的收益發布中找到非 GAAP 措施與今天討論的最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的對賬，該發布發佈在公司的投資者關係網站 ir.expediagroup.com 上。我鼓勵您持續訪問我們的 IR 網站以獲取其他重要信息。除非另有說明，否則任何提及的費用均不包括基於股票的補償。

And with that, let me turn the call over to Peter.

有了這個，讓我把電話轉給彼得。

Thank you, Harshit, and good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us today. This past year was an important one in our company's journey. We did a ton of work and made great progress on many transformational initiatives, all while delivering record EBITDA. Q4 was yet another step in that journey despite the impact to our P&L from the severe weather.

謝謝 Harshit，下午好，感謝大家今天加入我們。過去的一年是我們公司發展歷程中重要的一年。我們做了大量工作並在許多轉型計劃上取得了巨大進展，同時實現了創紀錄的 EBITDA。儘管惡劣天氣對我們的損益產生了影響，但第四季度是這一旅程的又一步。

Hurricane Ian in early October and the winter storms in late December drove up cancellations, causing bookings and revenue for the quarter to come in behind our expectations despite demand otherwise accelerating through the quarter. The good news is that we have seen those booking trends come back much stronger in January post the disruptions. So '23 is off to a great start. And we were really pleased that our investment over the last several years in service technology and capabilities allowed us to deliver best-in-class service through these difficult travel circumstances.

10 月初的颶風伊恩和 12 月下旬的冬季風暴導致取消數量增加，導致本季度的預訂量和收入低於我們的預期，儘管本季度需求在加速增長。好消息是，我們已經看到這些預訂趨勢在中斷後的 1 月份恢復得更加強勁。因此，'23 是一個良好的開端。我們非常高興過去幾年在服務技術和能力方面的投資使我們能夠在這些困難的旅行環境中提供一流的服務。

As I've said many times before, when your strategy is centered around long-term retention of valuable customers, every element of the work must deliver for the traveler. So a big thanks to our service team for all their hard work, especially over the holidays.

正如我之前多次說過的那樣，當您的戰略以長期保留有價值的客戶為中心時，工作的每一個要素都必須為旅行者提供服務。非常感謝我們的服務團隊的辛勤工作，尤其是在假期期間。

Now as we launch into '23, I'm particularly pleased with how our strategy of investing in and retaining high lifetime value members is showing accelerating improvement across our business. For the fourth quarter of '22 versus '19, our new customers that became loyalty members grew over 60%, and we entered '23 with a record number of active loyalty members, which is 10% higher than any prior year. And just as importantly, our quarterly active app users increased by approximately 40%.

現在，隨著我們進入 23 世紀，我對我們投資和留住高終身價值會員的戰略如何顯示出我們整個業務的加速改進感到特別高興。與 19 年相比，22 年第四季度，我們成為忠誠會員的新客戶增長了 60% 以上，進入 23 年時，我們的活躍忠誠會員數量創下歷史新高，比上一年高出 10%。同樣重要的是，我們的季度活躍應用程序用戶增加了約 40%。

For us, these are the most important metrics to gauge the progress of our strategy. Just to remind you, our loyalty members each drive 2x the gross profit and repeat business over an 18-month period as compared to nonmembers, and our app users each drive 2.5x the gross profit and repeat business over the same period. When you combine these 2 and have a loyalty member who also uses the app, this drives the highest production of all, and that group represented the fastest-growing customer cohort for us in 2022.

對我們來說，這些是衡量我們戰略進展的最重要指標。提醒您一下，與非會員相比，我們的忠誠會員在 18 個月內各自推動的毛利潤和回頭客是其 2 倍，而我們的應用程序用戶在同一時期內各自推動的毛利潤和回頭客是其 2.5 倍。當您將這兩者結合起來，並且有一個忠誠會員也使用該應用程序時，這將推動所有產品的最高產量，並且該群體代表了我們在 2022 年增長最快的客戶群體。

But as strong as those numbers are for our overall business, they are even better in our Expedia brand in the U.S. This is extremely important because Expedia U.S. is the business where we've been able to make our fastest product and marketing improvements and where we have the most complete set of capabilities to support our strategy. And the evidence is clear.

但是，儘管這些數字對我們的整體業務來說非常強勁，但在美國的 Expedia 品牌中，它們甚至更好。這非常重要，因為 Expedia U.S. 是我們能夠實現最快的產品和營銷改進的業務，也是我們的業務所在。擁有最完整的能力來支持我們的戰略。而且證據很清楚。

In the fourth quarter of '22 versus '19, Expedia U.S. grew new customers that became loyalty members by over 300%, and enters '23 with nearly 70% more active loyalty members than any prior year and almost 60% more active app users. Expedia U.S. was able to deliver almost 20% revenue growth in '22 as compared to '19, and there are still plenty of improvements yet to come.

與 19 年相比，22 年第四季度，Expedia 美國成為忠誠會員的新客戶增加了 300% 以上，進入 23 年時，活躍的忠誠會員比上一年增加了近 70%，活躍的應用程序用戶增加了近 60%。與 19 年相比，Expedia 美國在 22 年實現了近 20% 的收入增長，而且還有很多改進空間。

Of course, when you look at our all-up B2C numbers, the accelerating performance of Expedia U.S. has been largely offset by our intentional de-emphasis of some smaller noncore brands or pull back in certain geographies where we did not have the right model. And of course, our much-discussed technical migration, which required significant work and like all migrations resulted in some short-term friction.

當然，當您查看我們所有的 B2C 數據時，Expedia 美國的加速表現在很大程度上被我們有意淡化一些較小的非核心品牌或在我們沒有正確模型的某些地區撤退所抵消。當然，我們經常討論的技術遷移需要大量工作，並且像所有遷移一樣導致了一些短期摩擦。

But what I'm really excited about is that with the proofs now very clear that our strategy is working, we will begin more aggressively rolling it out to our other brands and our non-U.S. markets. After years of democratizing travel, we are now taking a leap forward to use cutting-edge technology, a better marketplace, a broader rewards program and best-in-class service to drive true customer benefit and loyalty because when you take care of customers and give them great experiences, they keep coming back, and that's how you win.

但我真正感到興奮的是，現在有證據表明我們的戰略正在發揮作用，我們將開始更積極地將其推廣到我們的其他品牌和非美國市場。經過多年的民主化旅行，我們現在正在向前邁進，使用尖端技術、更好的市場、更廣泛的獎勵計劃和一流的服務來推動真正的客戶利益和忠誠度，因為當您照顧客戶和給他們很棒的體驗，他們會不斷回來，這就是您獲勝的方式。

In support of this long-term strategy, you will see us maintain a higher mix of marketing spend to channels that attract desirable long-term customers rather than just chasing short-term transactions. Therefore, the parameters of when and who is worth marketing to and winning as a customer will be different.

為了支持這一長期戰略，您會看到我們將更多的營銷支出組合用於吸引理想的長期客戶的渠道，而不僅僅是追逐短期交易。因此，何時以及誰值得營銷並贏得客戶的參數將有所不同。

We have clearly proven the benefit of attracting and retaining the right customers and increasingly, our P&L will reflect that. We're starting '23 with the highest number of active loyalty members and app users for any year, and we will see further momentum in the business this year, thanks to a much larger base of loyal customers.

我們已經清楚地證明了吸引和留住合適客戶的好處，我們的損益表將越來越多地反映這一點。我們從 23 年開始，活躍的忠誠度會員和應用程序用戶數量是任何一年中最多的，而且由於忠誠客戶群的擴大，我們今年將看到業務的進一步發展。

Of course, our confidence in our strategy is ultimately only possible because of the underlying technology that we have invested so much in over the last several years. This is what has enabled Expedia U.S. to go faster, and all of our brands and geographies begin to ride on that same tech stack. We will expand our ability to compete and win in more places. Work that created a drag on our business in '22, like the migration of Hotels.com to our core platform become big unlocks for us in '23.

當然，我們對我們戰略的信心最終只能歸功於我們在過去幾年中投入大量資金的基礎技術。這就是讓 Expedia U.S. 走得更快的原因，我們所有的品牌和地區都開始採用相同的技術堆棧。我們將在更多地方擴大競爭和獲勝的能力。在 22 年對我們的業務造成拖累的工作，例如將 Hotels.com 遷移到我們的核心平台，在 23 年對我們來說是一個巨大的解鎖。

As one example of this, we expected our test velocity around optimizing our sites to grow roughly fourfold with the same resources this year as more engineers and product team members are freed up post migration, and our tests can be run across our entire base of core OTA traffic. In other words, we will have many more tests where the winners get deployed across a much larger base.

作為這方面的一個例子，隨著更多工程師和產品團隊成員在遷移後騰出時間，我們預計今年我們圍繞優化站點的測試速度將在相同資源下增長大約四倍，並且我們的測試可以在我們的整個核心基礎上運行OTA流量。換句話說，我們將進行更多的測試，其中獲勝者將部署在更大的基礎上。

And as we continue to invest further in product and technology and new features and capabilities to take online travel to the next level, these improvements increasingly impact more and more of our customers more rapidly worldwide. No travel player in the world has done more over the last few years to innovate around the shopping and service experience to improve the travel journey for the consumer.

隨著我們繼續進一步投資於產品和技術以及新特性和功能以將在線旅遊提升到一個新的水平，這些改進越來越多地影響我們在全球範圍內越來越多的客戶。在過去的幾年裡，世界上沒有任何一家旅遊公司在圍繞購物和服務體驗進行創新以改善消費者的旅行旅程方面做得更多。

And just to emphasize the point, all of our advances in technology, in products and in customer service, not only benefit our direct customers but continue to benefit our expanding base of B2B partners as well. Our B2B business is one of the largest in the world and continues to grow rapidly. The breadth and depth of our products are expanding as is our partner base, reinforcing the importance of our supply and our technology as the core operating system of the travel market.

還要強調一點，我們在技術、產品和客戶服務方面的所有進步，不僅有利於我們的直接客戶，而且繼續有利於我們不斷擴大的 B2B 合作夥伴基礎。我們的 B2B 業務是世界上最大的業務之一，並且繼續快速增長。我們產品的廣度和深度正在擴大，我們的合作夥伴基礎也在擴大，加強了我們的供應和技術作為旅遊市場核心操作系統的重要性。

To that end, we added many new partners and grew significantly in '22 despite Asia still being greatly constrained. With the return of travel into and out of China in '23 and a robust pipeline of new partners around the world, we anticipate significant growth and a great year for our B2B business.

為此，我們增加了許多新的合作夥伴，並在 22 年實現了顯著增長，儘管亞洲仍然受到很大限制。隨著 23 年進出中國的旅行回歸以及全球新合作夥伴的強大渠道，我們預計我們的 B2B 業務將實現顯著增長和豐收的一年。

So as we wrap up what was the most profitable year in our history, we begin what will be another exciting year of growth and the last in our major technical overhaul. This coming year, we will finish moving all of our brands onto 1 front-end stack. Vrbo, the last major brand to come across has already been testing traffic on the new front end and will make the final migration in the coming months. This last step will then allow us to launch our new One Key loyalty program, which will span all of our main brands. It will be the broadest, most flexible loyalty program in the world. And for the first time, give vacation home renters the benefits of a loyalty program. And importantly, it will complement our many partners' loyalty programs as well.

因此，當我們結束我們歷史上最賺錢的一年時，我們將開始又一個激動人心的增長年，也是我們進行重大技術改革的最後一年。來年，我們將完成將所有品牌遷移到一個前端堆棧的工作。 Vrbo 是最後一個遇到的主要品牌，已經在新前端測試流量，並將在未來幾個月內進行最終遷移。最後一步將使我們能夠啟動新的一鍵忠誠度計劃，該計劃將涵蓋我們所有的主要品牌。這將是世界上最廣泛、最靈活的忠誠度計劃。並且首次為度假屋租戶提供忠誠度計劃的好處。重要的是，它還將補充我們許多合作夥伴的忠誠度計劃。

So overall, I'm confident that with more technical tailwinds than headwinds this year and with a proven strategy that we will be expanding on, we will once again drive strong financial growth while completing the last of our major changes. It has taken several years and a lot of hard work, investment and patience, but we are extremely gratified about where we are and what we know we can deliver going forward. And I'm even more excited about moving the last big boulders of our plan across the line and driving greater acceleration in the future.

因此，總的來說，我相信今年技術順風多於逆風，並且我們將擴展經過驗證的戰略，我們將再次推動強勁的財務增長，同時完成我們最後的重大變革。這花了幾年的時間，付出了大量的努力、投資和耐心，但我們對我們所處的位置以及我們知道我們可以向前邁進的成果感到非常滿意。我更興奮的是，我們計劃中的最後一塊巨石將越過這條線，並在未來推動更大的加速。

And with that, let me hand it over to Julie.

然後，讓我把它交給朱莉。

Thanks, Peter, and hello, everyone. 2022 was a year of significant progress on our strategic growth initiatives, and our financial results are evidence that we are on the right path to deliver long-term profitable growth.

謝謝，彼得，大家好。 2022 年是我們戰略增長計劃取得重大進展的一年，我們的財務業績證明我們正走在實現長期盈利增長的正確道路上。

The accelerating success of our lodging business, particularly in our Brand Expedia business in the U.S., which is the first of our brands to benefit from our transformative tech and marketing initiatives enabled us to deliver total company record lodging bookings and revenue. And we did this while at the same time, driving significant profitability with record EBITDA levels at over $2.3 billion and an EBITDA margin of over 20%.

我們的住宿業務加速取得成功，尤其是我們在美國的 Brand Expedia 業務，這是我們品牌中第一個受益於我們的變革性技術和營銷計劃的品牌，這使我們能夠提供創紀錄的公司總住宿預訂量和收入。我們同時做到了這一點，推動了顯著的盈利能力，EBITDA 水平創歷史新高，超過 23 億美元，EBITDA 利潤率超過 20%。

Our fourth quarter also benefited from continued strong lodging demand, but unfortunately, it was heavily impacted by Hurricane Ian in October and the storms in the U.S. during December. Absent these weather-related events as well as FX headwinds, our results on both the top and bottom line would have been at record fourth quarter levels.

我們的第四季度也受益於持續強勁的住宿需求，但不幸的是，它受到了 10 月份的伊恩颶風和 12 月份美國風暴的嚴重影響。如果沒有這些與天氣相關的事件以及外匯逆風，我們的最高和最低業績將達到創紀錄的第四季度水平。

As far as the details regarding our financial performance for the fourth quarter, similar to previous earnings calls, I will discuss our revenue-related and adjusted EBITDA growth metrics this quarter, both on a reported and like-for-like basis. The like-for-like growth rate excludes the contribution from Egencia, Amex GBT and the nonlodging elements of our Chase relationship.

至於我們第四季度財務業績的細節，類似於之前的財報電話會議，我將在報告和類似的基礎上討論本季度我們與收入相關和調整後的 EBITDA 增長指標。同比增長率不包括易信達、美國運通 GBT 和我們大通關係的非住宿元素的貢獻。

As a reminder, on November 1, 2021, we completed the sale of Agenia and our EPS business entered into a 10-year lodging supply agreement with Amex GBT. It is also important to note that our fourth quarter 2022 growth rates as compared to 2019 were negatively impacted by FX headwinds of approximately 250 basis points to gross bookings, 400 basis points to revenue and 800 basis points to adjusted EBITDA or 70 to our adjusted EBITDA margin.

提醒一下，2021 年 11 月 1 日，我們完成了 Agenia 的出售，我們的 EPS 業務與 Amex GBT 簽訂了為期 10 年的住宿供應協議。同樣重要的是要注意，與 2019 年相比，我們 2022 年第四季度的增長率受到外匯逆風的負面影響，總預訂量約為 250 個基點，收入約為 400 個基點，調整後 EBITDA 約為 800 個基點，調整後 EBITDA 約為 70 個基點利潤。

We believe these like-for-like numbers and the disclosure of the negative impact from FX headwinds are helpful in assessing the operational performance of our business. Please note that we will discontinue disclosing these like-for-like numbers next quarter, the first quarter of '23, as we move away from comparing our financial performance to 2019 levels and move towards standard year-over-year comparisons.

我們認為，這些同類數據以及外匯逆風帶來的負面影響的披露有助於評估我們業務的運營績效。請注意，我們將在下個季度（2023 年第一季度）停止披露這些類似數字，因為我們不再將財務業績與 2019 年的水平進行比較，而是轉向標準的同比比較。

Now let's move back to our performance this quarter, starting with our gross booking trends. Total gross bookings were down 12% on a reported basis and down 2% on a like-for-like basis versus the fourth quarter 2019. Total gross bookings were impacted by a spike in cancellations and lost transactions related to the hurricane and the winter storms in the U.S., as previously mentioned. If we further adjust for the approximately 250 basis points negative impact from FX during the quarter, our gross bookings would have been above 2019 levels.

現在讓我們回到本季度的表現，從我們的總預訂量趨勢開始。與 2019 年第四季度相比，報告的總預訂量下降了 12%，同比下降了 2%。總預訂量受到與颶風和冬季風暴相關的取消和交易損失激增的影響在美國，如前所述。如果我們進一步調整本季度外匯帶來的大約 250 個基點的負面影響，我們的總預訂量將高於 2019 年的水平。

Growth was driven by total lodging gross bookings, which were the highest Q4 on record at plus 4% on a reported basis and plus 6% on a like-for-like basis versus Q4 2019. By month, lodging gross bookings on a reported basis were up 3% in October, which was impacted by the hurricane, up 7% in November and up 2% in December, which was impacted by the winter storms in the U.S.

增長是由總住宿總預訂量推動的，與 2019 年第四季度相比，第四季度的總預訂量創歷史新高，同比增長 4%，同比增長 6%。按月計算，住宿總預訂量按報告計算受颶風影響，10 月上漲 3%，11 月上漲 7%，12 月上漲 2%，受美國冬季風暴影響。

Excluding the weather-related events, growth versus 2019 for each month in Q4 reached high single digits that accelerated to the quarter. And in January, we saw a step change where our lodging gross bookings accelerated even further, growing over 20% versus 2019. While it is still early in the quarter in 2023, we are pleased to see strong lodging demand continue, including total lodging bookings for stays expected to occur in the first half of 2023, continuing to meaningfully outpace 2019 and 2022 levels.

排除與天氣相關的事件，第四季度每個月與 2019 年相比的增長均達到高個位數，並加速到本季度。在 1 月份，我們看到了一個階躍變化，我們的住宿總預訂量進一步加速，與 2019 年相比增長了 20% 以上。雖然 2023 年仍處於本季度初，但我們很高興看到強勁的住宿需求繼續存在，包括總住宿預訂量對於預計在 2023 年上半年發生的停留，將繼續顯著超過 2019 年和 2022 年的水平。

Moving to the key financial metrics in the P&L. Starting with total revenue. Revenue of $2.6 billion was down 5% on a reported basis and down 1% on a like-for-like basis versus Q4 2019 and includes the 400 basis point negative impact from FX as well as the financial impact from the weather-related events. Excluding these factors, our reported revenue would have been above 2019 levels.

轉到損益表中的關鍵財務指標。從總收入開始。收入 26 億美元，與 2019 年第四季度相比，報告的基礎上下降了 5%，同比下降了 1%，其中包括外匯帶來的 400 個基點的負面影響以及與天氣相關的事件帶來的財務影響。排除這些因素，我們報告的收入將高於 2019 年的水平。

Total revenue margin also improved to 13% for the quarter or up approximately 90 basis points versus Q4 2019, as we continue to benefit from a mix shift towards our higher-margin lodging business, which as a percentage of the total has grown approximately 1,000 basis points over the same period.

本季度總收入利潤率也提高至 13%，與 2019 年第四季度相比提高了約 90 個基點，因為我們繼續受益於向利潤率更高的住宿業務的混合轉變，該業務佔總收入的百分比增長了約 1,000 個基點同期積分。

Cost of sales was $408 million for the quarter, which is a cost reduction of $125 million or 24% and 380 basis points of leverage as a percentage of revenue versus 2019, driven by our divestitures and ongoing efficiencies primarily across our customer support operations.

本季度的銷售成本為 4.08 億美元，與 2019 年相比，成本減少了 1.25 億美元或 24%，槓桿率佔收入的百分比降低了 380 個基點，這主要是由於我們的資產剝離和主要在我們的客戶支持業務中持續提高效率。

Our customer support operations continue to benefit from the various automation initiatives we have implemented over the past couple of years, and we expect that going forward with the further consolidation of our tech stack onto a single platform, we should be able to continue to drive efficiencies across our cloud and licensing and maintenance costs as we eliminate systems that are no longer necessary to support.

我們的客戶支持業務繼續受益於我們在過去幾年中實施的各種自動化計劃，我們希望隨著我們的技術堆棧進一步整合到一個平台上，我們應該能夠繼續提高效率在我們消除不再需要支持的系統時，我們的雲以及許可和維護成本。

Direct sales and marketing expense in the fourth quarter was $1.2 billion, which was up 20% versus 2019. The primary drivers of this increase over 2019 were associated with both our B2B and B2C businesses. Our accelerating growth in our B2B business is driving an increase in commissions paid to our partners, and these commissions fall into our direct sales and marketing line.

第四季度的直接銷售和營銷費用為 12 億美元，比 2019 年增長 20%。2019 年這一增長的主要驅動因素與我們的 B2B 和 B2C 業務有關。我們 B2B 業務的加速增長推動支付給合作夥伴的佣金增加，這些佣金屬於我們的直接銷售和營銷線。

In our B2C business, we had increased marketing spend to support our accelerating growth during the quarter. Unfortunately, given the storm-related cancellations and lost transactions, and their impact to the top line at the end of the quarter, we did not fully realize the anticipated return of our marketing spend.

在我們的 B2C 業務中，我們增加了營銷支出以支持我們在本季度的加速增長。不幸的是，考慮到與風暴相關的取消和丟失的交易，以及它們對本季度末收入的影響，我們沒有完全實現營銷支出的預期回報。

In addition, we also have been strategically mixing towards longer-term investments in our marketing spend, which, given the longer-term return profile of the spend is less closely correlated to demand within any given quarter. As a result of these 2 factors, we saw this marketing spend deleverage versus Q4 2019. However, on the full year, we saw leverage in our total B2C spend versus 2019, inclusive of loyalty and discounting that are contra revenue. And we expect to maintain this leverage or improvement going forward.

此外，我們還戰略性地將營銷支出的長期投資混合在一起，鑑於支出的長期回報情況與任何給定季度內的需求相關性較低。由於這兩個因素，我們看到這種營銷支出與 2019 年第四季度相比出現了去槓桿化。但是，在全年中，我們看到 B2C 總支出與 2019 年相比出現了槓桿作用，包括與收入相對的忠誠度和折扣。我們希望在未來保持這種影響力或改進。

Overhead expenses were $590 million, a cost reduction of $157 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 or 21% and 470 basis points of leverage as a percentage of revenue versus 2019. We continue to remain disciplined on our cost structure and with the expected improvement from the consolidation of our tech stack and general growth initiatives, we believe we can continue to maintain this lower cost structure and drive long-term leverage as we deliver accelerating top line growth.

間接費用為 5.9 億美元，與 2019 年相比，2022 年第四季度的成本減少了 1.57 億美元，即 21% 和 470 個基點的槓桿率佔收入的百分比。我們繼續在成本結構上保持紀律，並預計從通過整合我們的技術堆棧和總體增長計劃，我們相信我們可以繼續保持這種較低的成本結構並推動長期槓桿作用，因為我們實現了加速的頂線增長。

Overhead expenses slightly increased from the third quarter, approximately $23 million, as we continue to invest in top talent across our product and technology teams to help accelerate our various platform initiatives, in support of our growth strategies that will drive long-term financial returns.

管理費用較第三季度略有增加，約為 2300 萬美元，這是因為我們繼續投資於我們產品和技術團隊的頂尖人才，以幫助加快我們的各種平台計劃，以支持我們將推動長期財務回報的增長戰略。

Adjusted EBITDA was $449 million or down 6% versus fourth quarter 2019 and was down 2% on a like-for-like basis, which includes the negative impact from the weather-related events and FX headwinds. On a margin basis, we are relatively in line with 2019 despite absorbing these negative impacts. And absent these factors, our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA grew in the mid-teens as compared to 2019.

調整後的 EBITDA 為 4.49 億美元，與 2019 年第四季度相比下降 6%，同比下降 2%，其中包括天氣相關事件和外匯逆風的負面影響。在邊際基礎上，儘管吸收了這些負面影響，但我們與 2019 年基本持平。如果沒有這些因素，我們第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 與 2019 年相比增長了十幾歲。

Free cash flow for the full year was strong at positive $2.8 billion, up approximately $1.2 billion and over 70% versus 2019. This strength was driven by our record EBITDA levels on the year and an improved benefit from working capital as well as lower overall capital expenditures as our spend is now primarily focused on our technology and product transformation.

全年自由現金流強勁，為正 28 億美元，比 2019 年增長約 12 億美元，增幅超過 70%。這一強勁勢頭得益於我們當年創紀錄的 EBITDA 水平、營運資本收益的改善以及整體資本的減少支出，因為我們的支出現在主要集中在我們的技術和產品轉型上。

On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with strong liquidity of $6.6 billion, driven by our unrestricted cash balance of $4.1 billion and our undrawn revolving line of credit of $2.5 billion, which provides us with ample access to cash to operate the business.

在資產負債表上，在我們 41 億美元的無限制現金餘額和 25 億美元的未提取循環信貸額度的推動下，我們在本季度結束時擁有 66 億美元的強勁流動性，這為我們提供了充足的現金來經營業務。

This liquidity, combined with our strong free cash flow levels enabled us to maximize our return of capital to shareholders during the quarter by further accelerating our share buybacks to approximately $350 million or 3.7 million shares in the fourth quarter. This resulted in approximately $500 million and 5.2 million shares being repurchased since the end of September 2022. Even after these buybacks, we enter 2023 with ample levels of shares remaining under our existing authorization for future repurchases at approximately 18 million shares.

這種流動性，加上我們強勁的自由現金流水平，使我們能夠在第四季度進一步加快股票回購至約 3.5 億美元或 370 萬股，從而在本季度最大限度地向股東返還資本。這導致自 2022 年 9 月底以來回購了大約 5 億美元和 520 萬股股票。即使在這些回購之後，我們進入 2023 年時仍有大量股票根據我們現有的授權未來回購約 1800 萬股。

And given our ongoing strong liquidity, our confidence in the business, and the fact that our stock remains undervalued and does not reflect our accelerating business performance, we plan to continue to buy back our stock opportunistically in 2023.

鑑於我們持續強勁的流動性、我們對業務的信心，以及我們的股票仍然被低估並且沒有反映我們加速的業務績效這一事實，我們計劃在 2023 年繼續擇機回購我們的股票。

In closing, I couldn't be more excited about what lies ahead in 2023 and beyond. With accelerating demand trends and the proof points that our growth initiatives are working, combined with our strong financial position as we enter 2023 with ample liquidity and a higher margin profile business. All of this gives us the confidence in our ability to deliver double-digit growth and expanding margins as well as long-term shareholder returns.

最後，我對 2023 年及以後的前景感到無比興奮。隨著需求趨勢的加速和我們的增長計劃正在發揮作用的證據，再加上我們進入 2023 年時的強勁財務狀況，我們將擁有充足的流動性和更高的利潤率業務。所有這些使我們對實現兩位數增長和不斷擴大的利潤率以及長期股東回報的能力充滿信心。

And with that, I would now like to open the call for questions. Thank you.

有了這個，我現在想開始提問。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自高盛的埃里克謝里丹。

Maybe 2, if I could. In terms of thinking about moving all of your brands and all of your geographies onto the technology stack as we go through 2023. Are there some elements of either costs that still have to be absorbed by the business model that we should be keeping in mind in 2023? And once that transition is over, how should we be thinking about possible lift from a business momentum standpoint on the other side of that transition?

也許 2，如果可以的話。在考慮到 2023 年將您的所有品牌和所有地區轉移到技術堆棧上時。我們應該牢記的是，這兩種成本中是否有一些元素仍需要被商業模式吸收？ 2023？一旦過渡結束，我們應該如何從過渡的另一端的業務勢頭角度考慮可能的提升？

And maybe one quick follow-up on B2B. I know obviously, we're not guide to the full year. But can you talk a little bit to some of the variables you're seeing in the B2B business that are building momentum or things that we should be keeping in front of mind as we think about what growth in volume might build in the B2B business through 2023?

也許對 B2B 進行快速跟進。我很清楚，我們不是全年的指南。但是，您能否談一談您在 B2B 業務中看到的正在形成勢頭的一些變量，或者我們在考慮 B2B 業務的銷量增長可能通過2023？

Thanks, Eric. That's a lot to cover. So I'll start at the top. In terms of moving the businesses onto a single technology stack and front-end stack, I think Hotels.com has been an instructive example in the sense that -- last year we talked about this a few times, as we're moving HCOM across, we obviously did less to improve HCOM as a stand-alone entity because all the engineers were working on moving it. So you lose a little momentum as you're moving something.

謝謝，埃里克。要涵蓋的內容很多。所以我將從頭開始。在將業務轉移到單一技術堆棧和前端堆棧方面，我認為 Hotels.com 在某種意義上是一個有啟發性的例子——去年我們討論了幾次這個問題，因為我們正在將 HCOM 轉移到，我們顯然沒有把 HCOM 作為一個獨立的實體來改進，因為所有的工程師都在努力移動它。所以當你移動某物時，你會失去一點動力。

And then there is typically an uplift period where you've got to optimize the new stack and the new product on the new stack to get back to where you were and then get all the benefits beyond that. So there is typically, if you will, a lull that takes place as you move things and some friction that you have to absorb in the numbers.

然後通常會有一個提升期，您必須優化新堆棧和新堆棧上的新產品以回到原來的狀態，然後獲得除此之外的所有好處。因此，如果您願意的話，通常會在您移動事物時出現平靜，並且您必須在數字中吸收一些摩擦。

So we did that with HCOM, as I mentioned. We're now getting the benefit of much faster testing between all the OTA brands. Vrbo is the next one to move. It will suffer a little bit of the same things, but we think we can absorb that, as Julie said, and still show the growth we are planning for this year. And that unlocks then, of course, being able to do One Key and other things. So there's a lot of unlocks on the other side, but you do have to sort of weather a little friction to get across, and we've weathered it in last year's numbers.

所以正如我提到的，我們通過 HCOM 做到了這一點。我們現在受益於所有 OTA 品牌之間更快的測試。 Vrbo 是下一個移動的。它會遭受一些同樣的事情，但我們認為我們可以吸收它，正如朱莉所說，並且仍然顯示我們今年計劃的增長。然後解鎖，當然，能夠做一鍵和其他事情。所以在另一邊有很多解鎖，但你確實需要經歷一些摩擦才能通過，我們在去年的數據中已經度過了難關。

We have a little left to weather this year, again, we think will drive very good growth despite that. And of course, when it's behind us, grow even faster. So that's what we're really looking at.

今年我們還有一點時間可以度過，儘管如此，我們認為仍將推動非常好的增長。當然，當它在我們身後時，增長得更快。這就是我們真正關注的。

And then on the other side of it, you get the benefit of testing faster, improving the products faster across everybody, you get the benefit of One Key. And you also get the benefit of being able to then deprecate older stacks that have costs associated with them, engineers associated with them, et cetera, so that you can put all your resources on the most valuable thing.

然後在它的另一邊，你會得到更快測試的好處，更快地改進每個人的產品，你會得到 One Key 的好處。而且，您還可以棄用與成本相關的舊堆棧、與之相關的工程師等等，這樣您就可以將所有資源放在最有價值的事情上。

So that's the big thing we've got left to do. Those are the 2 big hitters we're launching this year, but there's lots of other work going on under the covers constantly, both in optimization and in cleaning up and consolidating other back-end things in the stack.

所以這是我們要做的最重要的事情。這些是我們今年推出的 2 大擊球手，但還有許多其他工作在幕後不斷進行，包括優化以及清理和整合堆棧中的其他後端事物。

And then on the B2B front, there's a lot that's gone into what's growing. As I mentioned, we think Asia opening up will be good for us. We've had some big relationships there including China, where we haven't gotten much output during COVID. That will help. But really, we've been growing across many vectors. We've talked in the past about our optimized distribution product that we used to help hoteliers with their wholesale businesses, that's been growing very well.

然後在 B2B 方面，有很多東西正在增長。正如我提到的，我們認為亞洲開放對我們有利。我們在那裡建立了一些重要的關係，包括中國，在 COVID 期間我們在那裡沒有獲得太多產出。那會有所幫助。但實際上，我們一直在跨越多個方向發展。我們過去曾討論過我們用於幫助酒店經營者開展批發業務的優化分銷產品，該產品發展得非常好。

We've invested in our travel agent product, which has driven a lot of growth. And we've expanded, as I said, the breadth of our partnerships, the number of our partnerships. We continue to power a lot of the biggest supply partners like airlines and others. So we continue to grow kind of in every dimension. So we have more partners, more depth with each partner and new products coming all the time. So that continues to be an exciting area for us.

我們投資了我們的旅行社產品，這推動了很多增長。正如我所說，我們已經擴大了合作夥伴關係的廣度和合作夥伴的數量。我們繼續為航空公司等許多最大的供應合作夥伴提供動力。因此，我們在各個方面都在繼續增長。所以我們有更多的合作夥伴，與每個合作夥伴的深度更深，新產品不斷湧現。所以這對我們來說仍然是一個令人興奮的領域。

And as we innovate faster with technology, with AI and other capabilities, those underlying capabilities become more and more valuable to our partners. Hopefully, that answered your questions.

隨著我們利用技術、人工智能和其他能力更快地進行創新，這些潛在能力對我們的合作夥伴來說變得越來越有價值。希望這能回答您的問題。

Our next question comes from Lee Horowitz with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Lee Horowitz。

Great. So just thinking about the investment plans for 2023 and how that impacts margins. So on the one hand, you obviously have investments in One Key, driving some incremental marketing investments. What are the areas that you see potentially offset some of those incremental investments from perhaps lower fixed cost growth, maybe underlying marketing efficiency via bringing that function under a unified stack or perhaps other areas of cost efficiency that you see across the P&L?

偉大的。因此，只需考慮 2023 年的投資計劃及其對利潤率的影響。因此，一方面，您顯然對 One Key 進行了投資，推動了一些增量營銷投資。您認為哪些領域可能會抵消一些增量投資可能來自較低的固定成本增長，可能是通過將該功能置於統一堆棧下的潛在營銷效率，或者您在損益表中看到的其他成本效率領域？

Yes. Lee, we will be investing somewhat more in the loyalty program, but we expect, as we've talked about many times, we think about our investment in acquiring and retaining customers as everything from loyalty to discounting to direct marketing spend and performance brand, et cetera. And we expect to balance those things. So we don't expect the all-up cost of that, if you will, to be expanding over the course of the year. It might shift between buckets. And we believe we can underwrite that with the total spend we already have.

是的。 Lee，我們將在忠誠度計劃上投入更多，但我們希望，正如我們多次談到的那樣，我們認為我們在獲取和留住客戶方面的投資是從忠誠度到折扣到直接營銷支出和績效品牌的方方面面，等等。我們希望平衡這些事情。因此，如果您願意的話，我們不希望在這一年中增加全部成本。它可能會在桶之間移動。我們相信我們可以用我們已經擁有的總支出來承保。

So there may be some noise. And when we get there, we'll explain it to you in terms of how the loyalty program will roll out, but we expect to absorb that all in the -- in all those line items, just trading them off one against another.

所以可能會有一些噪音。當我們到達那裡時，我們將根據忠誠度計劃將如何推出向您解釋，但我們希望在所有這些項目中吸收所有內容，只是將它們相互交換。

Great. And one follow-up, if I could. Obviously, you're seeing really strong underlying demand for the industry with growth into January, that looks really healthy. Obviously, this is maybe somewhat counterintuitive given the state of the consumer savings rates and inflation. I guess, to what do you owe sort of this strong underlying demand for the overall travel industry given the macro backdrop?

偉大的。如果可以的話，還有一個後續行動。顯然，隨著 1 月份的增長，您看到該行業的潛在需求非常強勁，這看起來非常健康。顯然，考慮到消費者儲蓄率和通貨膨脹的狀況，這可能有點違反直覺。我想，在宏觀背景下，您對整個旅遊業的這種強勁潛在需求有何看法？

Yes. I mean I think you've heard travel CEOs talking about it for a while and maybe it was hopeful. But we continue to see that people are prioritizing travel over just about everything. If any of you have been traveling, I'm sure you've seen it. Rates are still very high. Demand is high. Planes are full.

是的。我的意思是，我認為您已經聽過旅遊行業的 CEO 談論過一段時間了，也許這是充滿希望的。但我們繼續看到，人們將旅行置於幾乎所有事情之上。如果你們中有人旅行過，我相信你已經看過了。利率仍然很高。需求量很大。飛機滿員。

So I think maybe it's still the effect of COVID and people realizing there's more valuable things to do with their lives and they -- it's not just they like revenge travel, but it's beyond that, like I want to keep traveling. I want to keep enriching my life. But I think we're just -- we're seeing high demand. We obviously think we're doing a good job of capturing that demand relatively speaking. But the markets are strong.

所以我認為這可能仍然是 COVID 的影響，人們意識到他們的生活還有更有價值的事情要做，而且他們 - 不僅僅是他們喜歡報復旅行，而且還不止於此，就像我想繼續旅行一樣。我想繼續豐富我的生活。但我認為我們只是 - 我們看到了很高的需求。相對而言，我們顯然認為我們在捕捉這種需求方面做得很好。但是市場很強勁。

We still haven't seen really Asia come back fully. I'm sure we'll see pockets. I mean, we've all worried about it. But so far, demand continues to be quite robust, and we're really pleased with how '23 is starting. So with any luck, there will be soft landings all over the world and Asia will come back and the industry will remain robust through this year.

我們還沒有真正看到亞洲完全回歸。我相信我們會看到口袋。我的意思是，我們都為此擔心。但到目前為止，需求仍然非常強勁，我們對 23 年的開始方式感到非常滿意。因此，運氣好的話，世界各地都將實現軟著陸，亞洲將捲土重來，該行業將在今年保持強勁勢頭。

The next question comes from Kevin Kopelman with Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Kevin Kopelman 和 Cowen。

I had a follow-up on that. Could you help us think about or help us better understand the growth that you're seeing year-to-date? Should we think of that as kind of getting back to that high single-digit number? Or have you been able to surpass that?

我對此進行了跟進。您能否幫助我們思考或幫助我們更好地了解您今年迄今所看到的增長？我們是否應該將其視為回到那個高個位數？或者你有能力超越它嗎？

Yes. I think as Julie pointed out, January was north of 20% up in lodging GBV gross bookings. So we're definitely running ahead of high single digits. So far, we'll have to see how the rest of the year plays out, the rest of the quarter, the rest of the year plays out. But it's really been driven by pretty much all quadrants. It's our brands, it's our B2B business. It's geographically dispersed. APAC is coming back a little stronger, but that's a relatively small base for us.

是的。我認為正如 Julie 指出的那樣，1 月份的 GBV 總預訂量增長了 20% 以上。所以我們肯定領先於高個位數。到目前為止，我們必須看看今年餘下時間、本季度餘下時間、今年餘下時間的情況。但它實際上是由幾乎所有像限驅動的。這是我們的品牌，這是我們的 B2B 業務。它在地理上是分散的。亞太地區的回歸更加強勁，但這對我們來說是一個相對較小的基數。

So it's been pretty broad. And right now, it's definitely running well ahead of where we were in the fourth quarter.

所以範圍很廣。而現在，它肯定比我們在第四季度的表現要好得多。

Yes. And I think just to remember, even if you go back to the third quarter, I mean, through most of that we also had high single digits. So really, the fact that we're holding that ex all the storms and the noise that we've been talking to you guys about and it's been accelerated in the fourth quarter, and we're seeing a step change as we enter into 2023 as well as with our [BEX] U.S. business, we think that's a really good sign that we've got some strength ahead for this year.

是的。而且我想記住，即使你回到第三季度，我的意思是，在大部分時間裡我們也有很高的個位數。所以說真的，事實上我們一直在與你們討論所有的風暴和噪音，並且在第四季度加速了，我們看到了進入 2023 年的一步變化以及我們的 [BEX] 美國業務，我們認為這是一個非常好的跡象，表明我們今年有一定的實力。

Yes. And I'd add, Kevin, I talked a little bit on the first question about friction. We spent a lot of last year doing some heavy lifting on things like Hotels.com, having reduced testing, et cetera. We really spooled that up in the fourth quarter and it's accelerating further now.

是的。我要補充一點，凱文，我在第一個關於摩擦的問題上談了一點。去年我們花了很多時間在諸如 Hotels.com 之類的事情上做一些繁重的工作，減少了測試等等。我們在第四季度真的把它搞砸了，現在它正在進一步加速。

So just the ability to be back and really innovating in the product and the day-to-day in the product is really valuable, and it's increment by increment. It's small pieces, but when you add them up, it really can drive a lot.

因此，能夠回歸併在產品中進行真正的創新以及在產品中進行日常工作是非常有價值的，而且它是逐步增加的。都是小塊，但是加起來真的能開很多。

So conversion is improving. Lots of things are improving. So I think we're just starting to multiply those effects of all the work we've done along with the marketing and everything else. And hopefully, also, we're working in a good demand environment, which helps. But I think those things are just more tailwinds than headwinds again, and that's just helping to drive us a little faster.

所以轉化率正在提高。很多事情都在改善。所以我認為我們剛剛開始將我們所做的所有工作以及營銷和其他一切的影響倍增。希望我們也能在良好的需求環境中工作，這會有所幫助。但我認為這些事情只是順風多於逆風，這只是幫助推動我們更快一點。

Great. And just one quick follow-up on that. You touched on ADR trends. It was the kind of slower number in Q4. Was that just related to the weather [aspect]?

偉大的。並且只是對此進行快速跟進。您談到了 ADR 趨勢。這是第四季度較慢的數字。那隻是與天氣[方面]有關嗎？

Yes. That was [actually] called out in our remarks, but that was pretty much solely due to the weather-related incidents. ADRs have been holding pretty strong. They're still elevated. I don't think we've heard anyone else speak to any issues with ADRs. We've seen a little bit of movement in Vrbo, but again, it's coming off of really high levels, and it's not that significant, slight movement, but ADRs are really holding strong for us across the board.

是的。我們的評論中 [實際上] 提到了這一點，但這幾乎完全是由於與天氣有關的事件。 ADR 一直保持強勁。他們仍然很高。我認為我們沒有聽到其他任何人談到 ADR 的任何問題。我們已經看到 Vrbo 出現了一些變化，但同樣，它已經脫離了非常高的水平，而且並不是那麼顯著、輕微的變化，但 ADR 確實對我們全面保持強勁。

The next question comes from Lloyd Walmsley with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Lloyd Walmsley。

Great. Two, if I can. First, just on the -- I think on the marketing -- the all-in marketing side, loyalty, discounting and marketing and the plan for that to kind of be balanced through the year. Is there a point where you get to the other side of kind of some of this longer-dated spend and you feel like you're going to see leverage as this bears fruit?

偉大的。兩個，如果可以的話。首先，就——我認為在營銷方面——全面的營銷方面，忠誠度、折扣和營銷以及全年平衡的計劃。是否有一點，你到達了一些這種長期支出的另一邊，你覺得你會看到槓桿作用，因為這會產生成果？

And then sort of related to that, it sounds like the stats around loyalty and app users are -- show a compelling uplift. How convinced are you guys? Like is it that those boosts are incremental and kind of causal rather than just coincident with your heaviest users just gravitate towards those things? Anything you can share there would be great.

然後與此相關的是，聽起來忠誠度和應用程序用戶的統計數據顯示出令人信服的提升。你們有多確信？就像這些提升是漸進的並且是因果關係，而不是僅僅與您最重的用戶一起被這些東西所吸引？任何你可以在那里分享的東西都會很棒。

Yes. So on the marketing side, from a leverage perspective, we actually are leveraging with our all-up spend, which we put as obviously loyalty and discounting, which are contra revenues. When you look at it in the totality on the year, we are leveraging and we expect to hold that, if not improve it next year.

是的。因此，在營銷方面，從槓桿的角度來看，我們實際上是在利用我們的全部支出，我們將其明顯地視為忠誠度和折扣，這是相反的收入。當您從今年的整體來看時，我們正在發揮槓桿作用，我們希望保持這一點，如果明年不能改善的話。

I think we're just wanting to make sure we make the point that on any particular quarter, you can see movement, right, because we're shifting our spend and have started to do that now for a couple of quarters where we're putting more of our spend into long-term investments.

我想我們只是想確保我們指出，在任何特定的季度，你都可以看到變化，對吧，因為我們正在改變我們的支出，並且現在已經開始在幾個季度這樣做了將更多的支出用於長期投資。

And so you could make that investment today and get the benefit 2 or 3 quarters out. And so it's not about any 1 particular 90 days that we should be judging per se, the total bucket of our spend. So we're really focused on leveraging it in total on the year across the entire spend profile.

因此，您今天就可以進行投資，並在 2 或 3 個季度後獲得收益。因此，我們本身不應判斷任何 1 個特定的 90 天，即我們的總支出。因此，我們真正專注於在整個支出概況中全面利用它。

So I think that's how you should think about it. I think it's great that we've seen it leverage. We're shooting for that again this year. And I think when you look at things like the types of customers, the high lifetime value customers that we are getting and are getting significantly more in the Brand Expedia U.S. business, and we're seeing that translate into really strong revenue. It's a pretty exciting time to see this all come to fruition.

所以我認為這就是你應該考慮的方式。我認為我們看到它的影響力很棒。我們今年再次為此而努力。而且我認為，當您查看諸如客戶類型之類的事情時，我們在 Brand Expedia U.S. 業務中獲得的高終生價值客戶數量明顯增加，我們看到這轉化為非常強勁的收入。看到這一切都實現，這是一個非常激動人心的時刻。

Yes. And I would just add on your question of causal or not. What we've seen, Lloyd is that we've been able to greatly expand the numbers at a pretty rapid pace and bring more and more people into the loyalty plans and into app usage and our historical. Those trends I gave about 2x and 2.5x and with even higher multiple for app loyalty members. Those have held even as we've expanded the pool.

是的。我只想補充一下您的因果關係或非因果關係問題。勞埃德，我們所看到的是，我們已經能夠以相當快的速度大大擴大人數，並將越來越多的人帶入忠誠度計劃、應用程序使用和我們的歷史。我給出的這些趨勢約為 2 倍和 2.5 倍，應用忠誠度會員的倍數甚至更高。即使我們擴大了池，這些仍然存在。

So it's not just the devotee who is becoming a loyalty member. It's really everybody -- excuse me, nursing a cold. Everybody that we can get into loyalty, that we can get into app usage starts to see all the member benefits, start to get the pricing benefits and the points and other things. And that's consistently sticky at bringing them back.

因此，成為忠誠會員的不僅僅是奉獻者。真的是每個人——對不起，感冒了。我們可以進入忠誠度的每個人，我們可以進入應用程序使用的每個人都開始看到所有會員福利，開始獲得定價優惠、積分和其他東西。這在將他們帶回來方面始終如一。

And as Julie says, over time, we'll create more leverage in the model because once we have this bigger and bigger base of loyal customers, then the marketing beyond that, beyond loyalty, et cetera, becomes, again, trying to buy the right customers in given places and add them to the pool. And that we think we can do more effectively once we have a bigger base and more efficiently. Excuse my cough.

正如朱莉所說，隨著時間的推移，我們將在模型中創造更多的影響力，因為一旦我們擁有越來越大的忠誠客戶群，那麼超越忠誠度等的營銷就會再次成為試圖購買在給定的地方找到合適的客戶並將他們添加到池中。而且我們認為，一旦我們擁有更大的基礎和更高的效率，我們就可以做得更有效。請原諒我的咳嗽。

The next question comes from Anthony [Post] with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

下一個問題來自美銀美林的 Anthony [Post]。

Great. Maybe one big picture and then like a picture -- question about the shape of the year. Your marketing spend is over 50% of revenues. I know you're working on a lot of projects to build a better customer base. Can you help us think about how you think about that long term? And when you said leverage this year, does that mean on that line? Or are you thinking about it as a percentage of bookings for '23?

偉大的。也許一張大圖，然後像一張圖片——關於年度形狀的問題。您的營銷支出佔收入的 50% 以上。我知道您正在進行許多項目以建立更好的客戶群。你能幫我們想想你是如何看待這個長期的嗎？當你今年說槓桿時，那是指在那條線上嗎？還是您將其視為 23 年預訂的百分比？

And then secondly, just a comp question. I know some tough virus comps, right? Easy virus comps right now, a ton of bookings flowed in kind of in the spring. How are you thinking about the shape of the year when -- for our models?

其次，只是一個比較問題。我知道一些強硬的病毒組合，對嗎？現在簡單的病毒補償，大量的預訂在春天湧現。對於我們的模型，您如何看待今年的情況？

I'll let Julie deal with the second one. But to your first one, I think the way to think about it, you've got to break it up a little. But first of all, we've got the expanding B2B business, which -- where commissions are part of -- are part of our marketing spend. So as that business grows and has been growing currently faster than our B2C business, you've got some movement into that mix where the commissions are higher than this 50% level. So it's pulling the number higher.

我會讓朱莉處理第二個。但是對於你的第一個，我認為思考它的方式，你必須將它分解一點。但首先，我們有不斷擴大的 B2B 業務，其中佣金是我們營銷支出的一部分。因此，隨著該業務的增長並且目前比我們的 B2C 業務增長得更快，您已經進入了佣金高於 50% 水平的組合。所以它把數字拉高了。

At the same time, we're trying to use marketing to build this base of customers, leverage the model. And as the base of direct gets bigger, right? You're driving more business from direct and you start to get leverage in what you're spending to add new people to the funnel because the new people become a somewhat smaller piece of the overall pie of business.

與此同時，我們正在嘗試利用營銷來建立這個客戶群，利用這個模型。隨著 direct 的基數越來越大，對吧？您正在通過直接方式推動更多業務，並且您開始利用將新人員添加到漏斗中所花費的資金，因為新人員在整個業務中所佔的比例較小。

And so that is where I think you will start to see us gain leverage is at the big base of loyalty and app members grows and grows and grows, and we're very focused on retaining them, lowering churn, all the pieces that go into that. That is how we get a bigger direct business that we're driving on top of adding new people to the funnel but that spend is now on top of just a bigger and bigger base of customers that keep coming back.

所以這就是我認為你會開始看到我們在忠誠度的大基礎上獲得影響力的地方，應用程序成員不斷增長，我們非常專注於留住他們，降低流失率，所有進入的部分那。這就是我們如何獲得更大的直接業務，我們正在推動將新人添加到漏斗中，但現在的支出只是在不斷回頭客的越來越大的客戶群之上。

So that's where we believe long term we get that leverage from. And the better we get at it, who knows how we will balance growth and profitability. But that is the base on which we build. And then I'll let Julie answer the second question was -- can you repeat the second question? I'm sorry, Anthony.

所以這就是我們相信長期我們從中獲得影響力的地方。我們做得越好，誰知道我們將如何平衡增長和盈利能力。但這是我們建立的基礎。然後我讓朱莉回答第二個問題——你能重複第二個問題嗎？對不起，安東尼。

Sure. We have easy comps now with virus first couple of months, and then you saw a big flood of bookings into the industry in April and May. Just want to make sure people are thinking about the models right and how you think about that.

當然。頭幾個月，我們現在可以輕鬆應對病毒，然後您會在 4 月和 5 月看到大量預訂進入該行業。只是想確保人們正確地考慮模型以及您是如何考慮的。

So for top line comps is what you're suggesting?

那麼對於頂線補償是你的建議嗎？

Comps till last year.

比較到去年。

And bookings. Yes.

和預訂。是的。

Yes. I mean obviously, to say that we believe on the gear that we can drive double-digit comps year-over-year. We're obviously not speaking to how it plays out by quarter. But I think what's super exciting is how we've started 2023 at this -- at these levels with greater than '20 on our stated growth looking and really coming out of the year strong. That gives us a lot of confidence that plus Expedia U.S. and how it's performing under the covers. It gives us a lot of confidence for the momentum as we move throughout the year. But I won't get ahead of us right now, still early in the year, early in the quarter, but we are committing to the double-digit growth in the year.

是的。我的意思是很明顯，要說我們相信我們可以年復一年地推動兩位數的競爭。我們顯然不是在談論它如何按季度進行。但我認為最令人興奮的是我們是如何在 2023 年開始的——在這些水平上，我們聲明的增長看起來超過 20 年，而且今年確實表現強勁。這給了我們很大的信心，再加上 Expedia U.S. 及其在幕後的表現。這讓我們對全年的發展勢頭充滿信心。但我現在不會領先於我們，還是在年初，在本季度初，但我們致力於在今年實現兩位數的增長。

The next question comes from Brian Fitzgerald with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Brian Fitzgerald。

A couple of questions, guys. Could you give us an update on China outbound, your partnerships there and how those work in relation to other players in the market? And any early thoughts on how you would pursue that opportunity as they reopen? And then -- the second one was just really quickly on the test velocity, you said that it can grow 4x. Vrbo cuts over in the first half of the year or first couple of quarters, if I got that right.

幾個問題，伙計們。您能否向我們介紹一下中國出境游的最新情況、您在那裡的合作夥伴關係以及這些合作夥伴與市場上其他參與者的關係如何？當他們重新開放時，您是否有任何關於如何抓住這個機會的早期想法？然後 - 第二個測試速度非常快，你說它可以增長 4 倍。如果我沒記錯的話，Vrbo 會在今年上半年或前幾個季度結束。

If you had to put a bow around the amount of testing across all your properties, are we in the ninth inning in terms of -- or eighth inning in terms of, hey, Vrbo just the last thing we go over and then we're humming on that 4x test velocity?

如果你不得不對所有屬性的測試量鞠躬，那麼我們是在第九局 - 還是第八局，嘿，Vrbo 只是我們討論的最後一件事然後我們是以 4 倍的測試速度嗡嗡作響？

No. So thank you for that. I'll take a shot at both of those. So China first. Our biggest relationship there is outbound with Trip.com in China. And then we have some smaller relationships and some offline travel relationships. It's early days.

不，謝謝你。我會嘗試一下這兩個。所以中國第一。我們在中國最大的關係是與 Trip.com 的出境游。然後我們有一些較小的關係和一些線下旅行關係。現在還早。

There's tons of interest. I'm sure you'll hear this from other players, but there's a lot of shopping going on, but it's still fairly challenging for outbound travel between the political issues between airlift, which is challenging, and there's still a lot of unique rules now getting in and out of China that the airlines are dealing with, make it hard to fly direct and so forth.

有很多興趣。我相信你會從其他玩家那裡聽到這個，但是有很多購物正在進行，但是對於空運之間的政治問題之間的出境旅行仍然相當具有挑戰性，這是具有挑戰性的，而且現在仍然有很多獨特的規則航空公司正在處理進出中國的問題，因此很難直飛等等。

And then, of course, you've got the issues of Russian airspace, which create issues with European airlift to China. So it's going to take a little while to work itself out. But interest is very high. We expect -- certainly, we are seeing uplift, but we expect a big uplift to be still a little ways out. But it's very exciting, obviously.

然後，當然，你會遇到俄羅斯領空問題，這會導致歐洲空運到中國的問題。所以它需要一些時間才能自行解決。但是興趣非常高。我們預計 - 當然，我們正在看到提升，但我們預計大幅提升還有一段路要走。但這顯然非常令人興奮。

And hopefully, some of the things that are going on will quiet down, and we'll continue to see more robust cooperation between various governments to make it more possible. Certainly, the U.S. travel industry is doing a lot to lobby, to get rid of various restrictions.

希望一些正在發生的事情會平靜下來，我們將繼續看到各國政府之間更強有力的合作，使之更有可能。當然，美國旅遊業正在做很多遊說，以擺脫各種限制。

And then the second piece, we are already planned at 4x velocity. So that has a lot to do with bringing sort of the core classic OTA brands together. So hotels, Expedia and then some of the smaller brands that ride the same rails already. Vrbo is the next thing to come across, and it will benefit from a lot of similar testing, but it will also be a somewhat unique product in its own right. So the 4x has nothing to do with Vrbo coming across or not. It's really around core OTA.

然後是第二部分，我們已經計劃以 4 倍的速度進行。因此，這與將核心經典 OTA 品牌整合在一起有很大關係。所以酒店、Expedia，然後是一些已經走在同一條軌道上的小品牌。 Vrbo 是下一個出現的東西，它將受益於大量類似的測試，但它本身也將是一個有點獨特的產品。所以 4x 與是否遇到 Vrbo 無關。它確實圍繞著核心 OTA。

When Vrbo comes across, it will get the knock-on effect of some of these winners and some of these benefits that can go across everything, whether it's in checkout or payments or other things. But on the front end, the Vrbo front end will still be a little different, and it will get some of those benefits, but the 4x is already baked, going to happen.

當 Vrbo 出現時，它將獲得其中一些獲勝者的連鎖反應，其中一些好處可以遍及所有方面，無論是結賬、付款還是其他方面。但在前端，Vrbo 前端仍然會有些不同，它會獲得一些好處，但 4x 已經出爐，即將發生。

And I think in terms of what we're capable of as a company, I would say that's less than halfway home because as we get more and more of the whole back end of the stack aligned, as we get our test environment all aligned, we have lots of opportunity to go faster. And a lot of our tests are now really more than what used to be a single test because they're AI-driven with multi variables. And so 1 test might be the equivalent of 10 tests.

而且我認為就我們作為一家公司的能力而言，我會說這還不到一半，因為隨著我們越來越多地對齊堆棧的整個後端，隨著我們使測試環境全部對齊，我們有很多機會可以走得更快。我們的很多測試現在確實比以前的單一測試要多，因為它們是 AI 驅動的多變量測試。因此 1 次測試可能相當於 10 次測試。

So it's really starting to amp up considerably. And there's a lot of opportunity that we haven't gotten to during all our big transitions because we were just so focused on shifting things and moving them into 1 platform. And we're finally getting back to the bread and butter of doing that, and there's a lot of upside there.

所以它真的開始大幅增加。在我們所有的重大轉變中，我們還沒有得到很多機會，因為我們非常專注於轉移事物並將它們轉移到一個平台上。我們終於回到了這樣做的生計上，那裡有很多好處。

The next question comes from John Colantuoni with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 John Colantuoni。

I wanted to start with the comment you made about the Expedia brand performing well, and that some of your smaller brands and geographies have been sort of dragging down the overall business because of sort of intentional decisions to deemphasize them.

我想從你對 Expedia 品牌表現良好的評論開始，你的一些較小的品牌和地區一直在拖累整體業務，因為有意決定淡化它們。

So I'm just curious if there's an inflection -- if there's going to be an inflection point when those smaller brands and geographies become less material, so that the overall growth improves as it starts to mirror the Expedia and Vrbo brands?

所以我很好奇是否會出現拐點——當那些較小的品牌和地區變得不那麼重要時是否會出現拐點，以便隨著 Expedia 和 Vrbo 品牌開始反映整體增長而改善？

And then the second question is there's been a big uptick in conversations about AI. And I'm curious if you could unpack where you see the biggest opportunities to leverage AI capabilities across the business? And how that could alter your trajectory in the travel ecosystem. Customer service is obviously one that immediately comes to mind. But curious to get your perspective on that as well.

然後第二個問題是關於人工智能的對話有了很大的上升。我很好奇您是否可以在您認為在整個企業中利用 AI 功能的最大機會的地方展開分析？以及這將如何改變您在旅游生態系統中的軌跡。客戶服務顯然是立即浮現在腦海中的服務。但也很想知道您對此的看法。

Yes. Thanks. I think we can probably talk about your second question for a couple of hours. But I'll take your first one first, which is, yes, we precisely believe that with Brand Expedia, again, we talked about Expedia in the U.S., Expedia is obviously in a lot of countries. And the issue has been not everything we've developed was immediately available in all languages, in all geographies. Likewise, not on all brands.

是的。謝謝。我想我們大概可以用幾個小時來討論你的第二個問題。但我會先拿你的第一個，是的，我們完全相信 Brand Expedia，我們再次談到美國的 Expedia，Expedia 顯然在很多國家。問題是並非我們開發的所有內容都可以在所有地區立即以所有語言提供。同樣，並非所有品牌。

So as we start to be able now with Hotels.com on the same stack, with each benefiting from the same goodness that comes from tests and other things, we're going to be able to roll out that playbook to more and more places.

因此，當我們現在開始能夠在同一個堆棧上使用 Hotels.com 時，每個人都受益於來自測試和其他事物的相同優點，我們將能夠將該劇本推廣到越來越多的地方。

Now there's still some work to do, HCOM's loyalty program is still different than Expedia. Once we have One Key that will simplify that whole ecosystem as well. But we believe that those big brands, inclusive of Expedia, Hotels.com now on the same stack and Vrbo and our B2B business, they will they will inflect past the slower growth of some of the smaller things.

現在還有一些工作要做，HCOM 的忠誠度計劃仍然不同於 Expedia。一旦我們擁有 One Key，這也將簡化整個生態系統。但我們相信，那些大品牌，包括 Expedia、Hotels.com 現在在同一個堆棧上，以及 Vrbo 和我們的 B2B 業務，它們將改變過去一些較小事物的緩慢增長。

But to be clear, we want to move back into geographies. We want to play this playbook out in more places. This is not about like keeping the good and slowing down the bad, and there's no bad, but slowing down the slower growing. This is about keeping the focus on the winning strategy and deploying it in as many places and as rigorous and controlled the way as we can and winning in more places and driving the business that way.

但需要明確的是，我們想回到地理上。我們想在更多地方使用這個劇本。這並不是說要保留好的，減緩壞的，沒有壞的，而是要放慢增長緩慢的速度。這是關於保持對製勝戰略的關注，並將其部署在盡可能多的地方，並儘可能嚴格和控制方式，並在更多地方取勝，並以此方式推動業務發展。

So it's a bit of -- you're right, the big, good stuff overtaking the slower growth stuff. It's also about deploying the strategy to some of the slower growth items where we think we can still drive -- whether it's a geography or a certain brand in a certain market where we believe we can play this playbook out and have the same success. So it's a combination of those things.

所以它有點——你是對的，大的、好的東西超過了增長緩慢的東西。這也是關於將戰略部署到我們認為我們仍然可以推動的一些增長較慢的項目——無論是地理區域還是某個市場中的某個品牌，我們相信我們可以在這些市場上發揮作用並取得同樣的成功。所以它是這些東西的組合。

As far as AI goes, the big conversation, we already use a fair amount of AI and machine learning in all kinds of products. There's opportunities for sure in some of the newer things we're all talking about like voice and et cetera, in customer service.

就人工智能而言，大話題，我們已經在各種產品中使用了大量的人工智能和機器學習。在我們都在談論的一些較新的事物中肯定有機會，比如客戶服務中的語音等等。

We're already experimenting with that there in creating content, in answering queries for customers, but we're using machine learning across the board in terms of personalization, in terms of how we sort for you, what we serve up to you. We'll use it in direct consumer communications over time, et cetera. So we're using that.

我們已經在創建內容、回答客戶查詢方面進行了試驗，但我們在個性化、我們如何為您分類以及我們為您提供什麼服務方面全面使用機器學習。隨著時間的推移，我們將在與消費者的直接溝通中使用它，等等。所以我們正在使用它。

And as I mentioned, we're using it in testing as well as we develop more sophisticated algorithms to test multivariable test, you do multi-variable tests that expedites all our testing. So we're using it. I'd say it's probably the biggest, highest value is ultimately in personalization.

正如我所提到的，我們在測試中使用它，並且我們開發了更複雜的算法來測試多變量測試，您進行多變量測試可以加快我們所有的測試。所以我們正在使用它。我想說它可能最大、最高的價值最終在於個性化。

But you can think about that really broadly in terms of how you get service taken care of, how you search even for properties, natural voice search, which we already have in voice search capability, but that will get better with the benefit of the new AI capability.

但你可以從如何獲得服務、如何搜索屬性、自然語音搜索等方面真正廣泛地考慮這一點，我們已經在語音搜索功能中擁有這些功能，但隨著新功能的出現，這會變得更好人工智能能力。

So all of those things become big opportunities to advance it. And we -- I think we are, by far, at the forefront in our category in terms of how to use it and how we can use it to best improve the customer experience.

因此，所有這些都成為推進它的大好機會。而且我們 - 我認為到目前為止，在如何使用它以及我們如何使用它來最好地改善客戶體驗方面，我們在我們的類別中處於領先地位。

The next question comes from Tom Champion with Piper Sandler.

下一個問題來自 Tom Champion 和 Piper Sandler。

Maybe two quick ones for Julie. Julie, could you just quickly restate and clarify the guidance and expectations for the year? I think it was double-digit growth. Is that in bookings? Is that versus 2019 or year-over-year? Can you just restate that for us? And I was also curious, your comments around headcount, it seems like a little bit of a different comment than we've been hearing this earnings season. How are you thinking about headcount through the year?

也許給朱莉兩個快速的。朱莉，你能否快速重申並闡明今年的指導和期望？我認為這是兩位數的增長。那是在預訂中嗎？這是與 2019 年相比還是同比？你能為我們重申一下嗎？我也很好奇，你對員工人數的評論，似乎與我們在這個財報季聽到的評論有點不同。您如何考慮全年的員工人數？

Yes. So from a guidance perspective, we said double-digit growth that's on both top and bottom line, and it's relevant to year-over-year. So as I mentioned at the beginning, that we're going to be switching next year to no longer be per se, on tracking against a 4-year-old metric. We're going to move to year-over-year, and so that guidance is relevant to that.

是的。因此，從指導的角度來看，我們說的是最高和最低的兩位數增長，並且與同比相關。因此，正如我在開頭提到的那樣，我們將在明年切換到不再跟踪 4 年前的指標。我們將轉向年復一年，因此該指導與此相關。

Regarding headcount, yes, that is different than probably what you've heard in other places. I think what's important to remember is that the team here did an incredible job taking out $1 billion worth of cost over the last couple of years. And so we're coming -- assets from a different spot than many other tech companies and so forth. And so we've taken out a lot of that cost already and heads. I think we're down at some point, down to 30% or so.

關於員工人數，是的，這可能與您在其他地方聽到的有所不同。我認為需要記住的重要一點是，這裡的團隊在過去幾年中花費了 10 億美元，做得非常出色。所以我們來了——資產來自與許多其他科技公司不同的地方等等。所以我們已經拿出了很多成本和頭腦。我認為我們在某個時候下降了，下降到 30% 左右。

And so again, coming from a different spot. We're really being thoughtful about what we invest back in Q2 for obvious reasons. We're watching the economy just like everybody else. Obviously, we're seeing incredibly strong business, but we're being thoughtful about who we invest back into.

又一次，來自不同的地方。出於明顯的原因，我們真的在考慮我們在第二季度的投資回報。我們和其他人一樣關注經濟。顯然，我們看到了非常強勁的業務，但我們正在考慮重新投資給誰。

And really, our investments are primarily in product and tech to support our growth initiatives and to get us over this line, as Peter has been talking about, getting this tech stack completed. And so we feel like we're in a great spot to be able to do that with limited levels of headcount growth and maintaining our strong financial discipline, keeping our cost structure below our sales growth.

實際上，我們的投資主要是在產品和技術上，以支持我們的增長計劃並讓我們越過這條線，正如彼得一直在談論的那樣，完成這個技術堆棧。因此，我們覺得我們處於一個很好的位置，能夠在有限的員工人數增長水平和保持我們強大的財務紀律的情況下做到這一點，使我們的成本結構保持在我們的銷售增長之下。

The next question comes from Doug Anmuth with JP Morgan Chase.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

This is Dae Lee on for Doug, I have 2. So [when you stated about demand] comment. Is this something that you're seeing across geos and [accommodation types]? Or are there any particular geos or maybe property types that might be driving some of that strength that you're seeing? And then with regards to your January comment, what's changed from 4Q to January that might be driving the strong margin growth in January? And how sustainable do you think those factors are going forward?

這是道格的大李，我有 2 個。所以 [當你陳述需求時] 評論。這是您在不同地理位置和 [住宿類型] 中看到的情況嗎？或者是否有任何特定的地理位置或財產類型可能會推動您所看到的某些優勢？然後關於您 1 月份的評論，從 4Q 到 1 月份發生了什麼變化可能會推動 1 月份的強勁利潤增長？您認為這些因素的可持續性如何？

Yes. So I think to your first question, we're not seeing anything. I'm sure if we could dissect every variable and find some difference. But there's not anything when you look at it broadly, that says luxury is doing well, but the bottom is doing poorly or vice versa. We are generally a little more biased towards the middle and upper end of the market, and we are seeing fairly consistent strength.

是的。所以我認為對於你的第一個問題，我們沒有看到任何東西。我確定我們是否可以剖析每個變量並找到一些差異。但是從廣義上看，並沒有什麼說奢侈品做得好，但底層做得不好，反之亦然。我們總體上更偏向於中高端市場，我們看到相當穩定的實力。

As I mentioned, APAC measured against itself is coming back faster, but it had a longer way to come back. Obviously, the West has been back for a while, but is also seeing nice growth. So APAC for us is not big enough to drive our overall number. So it really is kind of everything. And by and large, it's every class of product and class -- every type within a class of product.

正如我所提到的，根據自身衡量，亞太地區恢復得更快，但恢復的時間更長。顯然，西方已經回歸了一段時間，但也看到了不錯的增長。所以亞太地區對我們來說還不夠大，無法推動我們的整體數字。所以它真的是一切。總的來說，它是每一類產品和每一類——一類產品中的每一類。

So there's nothing we've really seen that's driving like, wow, luxury is off the board and everything else -- and it's making up for other things. So we haven't seen much movement between products or trade downs or any of that. It's been pretty consistent.

因此，我們真正看到的駕駛體驗並沒有像，哇，奢侈是不可能的，其他一切——它正在彌補其他事情。因此，我們沒有看到產品之間或貿易下降或任何其他方面有太大變化。它一直非常一致。

And then January, as I mentioned, we believe it's a combination of a lot of work we've put in, in terms of improving the product, getting through some of the hardest transitions, getting back to testing, getting our marketing machine refined, and that's constantly improving.

然後是 1 月，正如我提到的，我們相信這是我們投入的大量工作的結合，在改進產品方面，通過一些最艱難的過渡，回到測試，完善我們的營銷機器，這在不斷改進。

And we've been talking for a long time, Julie mentioned it that we've been investing for a while in some of these long-term vectors. And as we've all talked about, we gave up some short-term business to focus on app downloads to focus on getting the right kinds of customers. And we knew it would take some time for this to start to multiply on itself and get the benefit because people don't always book travel 20 times a year.

我們已經談了很長時間，朱莉提到我們已經在其中一些長期載體上投資了一段時間。正如我們所說，我們放棄了一些短期業務，專注於應用程序下載，專注於吸引合適的客戶。我們知道這需要一些時間才能開始自我繁殖並獲得收益，因為人們並不總是每年預訂 20 次旅行。

So I think this is the benefit of time of catching up and stacking up the base of members, this base of app users, improving the product as we've done. We've launched a bunch of great features around flight tracking and comparison shopping and smart shopping and collaborative shopping and a bunch of new products, all of which have been very engaging in their own right. We're rolling those out to more places all the time.

所以我認為這是趕上和積累會員基礎的時間的好處，這個應用程序用戶基礎，像我們所做的那樣改進產品。我們推出了一系列圍繞航班跟踪和比較購物、智能購物和協作購物的強大功能，以及一系列新產品，所有這些產品本身都非常吸引人。我們一直在將它們推廣到更多地方。

We just recently rolled out flight tracking to the rest of the world outside the U.S. So we're seeing great benefits in those things. And I think they're just starting to stack up now. There's no magic to January 1. So I can't tell you exactly why January. But post all the disruptions of the storms, we've seen really strong robust demand and rebound. And I think it's the combination of a ton of hard work across our entire company.

我們最近剛剛向美國以外的世界其他地區推出了航班跟踪服務，因此我們看到了這些方面的巨大好處。而且我認為他們現在才剛剛開始堆積。 1 月 1 日沒有什麼神奇之處。所以我不能告訴你為什麼是 1 月。但在風暴的所有破壞之後，我們看到了非常強勁的強勁需求和反彈。我認為這是我們整個公司大量辛勤工作的結合。

Our final question today comes from Deepak Mathivanan with Wolfe Research.

我們今天的最後一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Deepak Mathivanan。

Maybe a couple of ones for Julie. So first, the guidance on margin expansion was helpful, but curious if you can put any more specificity to it. I understand that obviously, macro creates a lot of uncertainty. But is there a level that we can expect should macro trends kind of remain consistent with what you've seen in January and maybe recovery holds up through the year?

也許有幾個給朱莉。因此，首先，關於保證金擴張的指導很有幫助，但很好奇你是否可以更具體地說明它。我明白，顯然，宏觀經濟會帶來很多不確定性。但是，如果宏觀趨勢與您在 1 月份看到的情況保持一致，並且複蘇可能會持續一整年，我們是否可以預期一個水平？

And then also another financial question maybe on buybacks. What is a philosophy in terms of maintaining the velocity of buybacks? Is 4Q kind of a good proxy for us to think about given the business is very cash flow generative, and you have plenty of capacity?

然後還有另一個財務問題可能與回購有關。保持回購速度的理念是什麼？考慮到該業務的現金流生成能力很強，而且您有足夠的能力，第四季度是否是我們考慮的一個很好的代表？

Sure. Yes. So on margin expansion, I think, first of all, it's important to remember that we're ending this year with record EBITDA levels and margins that are 20 expanding 200 basis points, and we're committing to expanding on top of that. So we're really proud of where our margins are.

當然。是的。因此，在利潤率擴張方面，我認為，首先，重要的是要記住，我們今年將以創紀錄的 EBITDA 水平和利潤率結束，即 20 擴大 200 個基點，我們致力於在此基礎上擴大。所以我們真的為我們的利潤率感到自豪。

Certainly, we would love to give a target. But I think at that point, I think I even said this last time that when you give the target, then they want a higher target. So we're really pushing towards driving efficient growth and driving profitable growth. And we think as we're starting to demonstrate when we're getting these lifetime value customers, if we can get more efficient as we have started to do in the year with our marketing spend, and we're driving the top line of the levels that we're seeing that it's accelerated through to Q4 and it's coming in even stronger in 2023. All of that should bode well for us to be able to drive profitability and EBITDA.

當然，我們很樂意給出一個目標。但我認為在那個時候，我什至上次說過，當你給出目標時，他們就會想要更高的目標。所以我們真的在推動有效增長和盈利增長。我們認為，當我們開始展示我們何時獲得這些終生價值客戶時，如果我們能夠像我們今年開始的營銷支出那樣提高效率，並且我們正在推動收入增長我們看到它已經加速到第四季度，並且在 2023 年會更加強勁。所有這些都預示著我們能夠提高盈利能力和 EBITDA。

And so that's about where we're going to commit to at this point is margin expansion. But over time, we can update you once we move through. From a buyback perspective, as I said earlier, we're really committed to buying back our stock. We believe it's the best use of capital to maximize shareholder returns at this time. Certainly, with that momentum we're seeing in the business, our stock is still undervalued, we believe. And so therefore, we believe buying back our own stock is the best return.

所以這就是我們現在要承諾的地方是利潤率擴張。但隨著時間的推移，我們可以在完成後向您更新。從回購的角度來看，正如我之前所說，我們真的致力於回購我們的股票。我們認為，這是目前最大化股東回報的最佳資本利用方式。當然，我們相信，憑藉我們在業務中看到的這種勢頭，我們的股票仍然被低估了。因此，我們相信回購我們自己的股票是最好的回報。

So we're going to continue with that. We're going to buy it back opportunistically. Obviously, as you mentioned and as we said earlier, we did buy it back on an accelerated basis, $350 million approximately in the fourth quarter, and that was on top of another $150 million that we had started sort of at the end of September. And so we're going to be continuing with these elevated levels and buying back opportunistically as we go throughout 2023.

所以我們將繼續這樣做。我們會趁機買回它。顯然，正如您提到的和我們之前所說的那樣，我們確實在加速的基礎上回購了它，大約在第四季度回購了 3.5 億美元，這是我們在 9 月底開始的另外 1.5 億美元的回購。因此，我們將繼續保持這些較高的水平，並在整個 2023 年期間機會主義地回購。

Thank you. I think that was it. So thank you all for joining us. Appreciate your time, and look forward to our next update. Take care. Thank you, operator.

謝謝。我想就是這樣。感謝大家加入我們。感謝您的寶貴時間，並期待我們的下一次更新。小心。謝謝你，運營商。

That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a nice day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開線路。祝你今天過得愉快。