Groupon Inc (GRPN) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to Groupon's fourth quarter 2024 financial results conference call. On the call today are Chief Executive Officer, Dusan Senkypl; Chief Financial Officer, Yuji Jiri Ponrt; and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Rana Kashyap. (Operator instructions)

您好，歡迎您參加 Groupon 2024 年第四季財務業績電話會議。今天參加電話會議的有執行長 Dusan Senkypl；財務長 Yuji Jiri Ponrt；以及企業發展和投資者關係高級副總裁 Rana Kashyap。（操作員指示）

Today's call will be a question-and-answer session only. The company has posted earnings materials, including earnings commentary and earnings slides on the company's Investor Relations website at investor.groupon.com.

今天的電話會議將只是問答環節。該公司已在其投資者關係網站 investor.groupon.com 上發布了收益資料，包括收益評論和收益幻燈片。

Today's conference call is being recorded. Before we begin, Groupon would like to remind listeners that the following discussion and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, March 12, 2025, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the company's forward-looking statements. Groupon undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

今天的電話會議正在錄音。在我們開始之前，Groupon 想提醒聽眾，以下討論和對您的問題的回答僅反映管理層截至 2025 年 3 月 12 日的觀點，並將包含前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能與公司前瞻性陳述中表達或暗示的結果有重大差異。Groupon 不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而更新這些前瞻性聲明的義務。

Additional information about risks and other factors that could potentially impact the company's financial results are included in its earnings press release and in its filings with the SEC, including its annual report on Form 10-K. We encourage investors to use Groupon's Investor Relations website at investor.groupon.com as a way of easily finding information about the company. Groupon promptly makes available on this website the reports that the company files and furnishes with the SEC, corporate governance information and select press releases and social media postings.

有關可能影響公司財務業績的風險和其他因素的更多信息，包含在公司的收益新聞稿和向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（包括 10-K 表年度報告）中。我們鼓勵投資者使用 Groupon 的投資者關係網站 investor.groupon.com 來輕鬆找到有關該公司的資訊。Groupon 會及時在此網站上公佈公司向美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提交的報告、公司治理資訊以及精選新聞稿和社交媒體貼文。

On the call today, the company will also discuss the following non-GAAP financial measures: adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. In Groupon's press release and their filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on its Investor Relations website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable measures under US GAAP.

在今天的電話會議上，該公司還將討論以下非 GAAP 財務指標：調整後的 EBITDA 和自由現金流。在 Groupon 的新聞稿和向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中（均發佈在其投資者關係網站上），您可以找到有關這些非 GAAP 指標的額外披露，包括這些指標與美國 GAAP 下最可比指標的對帳。

And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dusan to make a few opening remarks before we jump into Q&A.

在我們進入問答環節之前，我想讓杜桑先講幾句開場白。

Hello, and thanks for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. It's a pleasure to be with all of you. Yesterday, after the market close, we released our earnings and posted our earnings commentary and updated slides on our Investor Relationship website. In addition, I encourage you to review our press release and 10-K, which contain more detail on our fourth quarter and full year results.

您好，感謝您參加我們的 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。很高興和大家在一起。昨天，收盤後，我們在投資者關係網站上公佈了收益並發布了收益評論和更新的幻燈片。此外，我鼓勵您查看我們的新聞稿和 10-K，其中包含有關我們第四季度和全年業績的更多詳細資訊。

Today, my plan is to make brief opening remarks and then open up the call for questions, both live from our analysts and several pre-submitted in advance. I'm pleased to share that 2024 was a pivotal year in Groupon's transformation journey, and we are entering 2025 with significant momentum.

今天，我的計劃是先做簡短的開場白，然後開始提問，其中既有我們分析師的現場提問，也有提前提交的幾個問題。我很高興地告訴大家，2024 年是 Groupon 轉型之旅的關鍵一年，我們將以強勁的勢頭邁入 2025 年。

Groupon today is fundamentally different than it was two years ago when I joined the CEO. While our core mission remains unchanged, to be the trusted destination for discovering high-quality local experiences at unbeatable value, how we deliver on this mission has evolved significantly.

今天的 Groupon 與兩年前我擔任 CEO 時相比有著根本的不同。雖然我們的核心使命保持不變，即成為以無與倫比的價值探索高品質本地體驗的值得信賴的目的地，但我們實現這一使命的方式已經發生了重大變化。

Our transformation is delivering results across three key areas. First, in Marketplace Health. We have shifted from chasing volume to building quality evidenced by North America Local's positive 8% billing growth after declining 19% in 2022. This improvement stands directly from our focus on curated experiences and strategic merchant partnerships.

我們的轉型正在三個關鍵領域中取得成果。首先，在 Marketplace Health。我們已經從追求數量轉向打造質量，北美本地業務的賬單額在 2022 年下降 19% 之後實現了 8% 的正增長，這便是明證。這項改進直接源自於我們對精心策劃的體驗和策略商家夥伴關係的關注。

Second, in our platform modernization. We've completed major migrations, including our private fraud detection platform, North America Cloud infrastructure, new website and ERP system. These are just technical upgrades. We are strategic investments that enable us to innovate faster and create more engaging experiences.

第二，我們的平台現代化。我們已經完成了主要的遷移，包括我們的私人詐欺偵測平台、北美雲端基礎設施、新網站和 ERP 系統。這些只是技術升級。我們進行策略性投資，使我們能夠更快地創新並創造更具吸引力的體驗。

Third, in our financial strength. We generated $69 million in adjusted EBITDA and $41 million in free cash flow for the full year, our first positive free cash flow since exiting the pandemic. This improvement flows directly from our more efficient operations and healthier marketplace dynamics. For Q4 specifically, after a challenging Q3 impacted by technical migrations, we rebounded stronger.

第三，我們的財務實力。我們全年的調整後 EBITDA 為 6,900 萬美元，自由現金流為 4,100 萬美元，這是我們自疫情結束後首次實現正自由現金流。這項改進直接源自於我們更有效率的營運和更健康的市場動態。具體到第四季度，在經歷了受技術遷移影響的充滿挑戰的第三季度之後，我們實現了更強勁的反彈。

We are seeing encouraging signs across the business. North America returned to 8% billing growth, International Local, excluding Italy, grew billings by 2% with positive momentum in all four major markets. We saw double-digit growth in key verticals, including Things To Do, Enterprise Brands and Gifting and Seasonal Offerings.

我們在整個行業中看到了令人鼓舞的跡象。北美恢復了 8% 的營業額成長，除義大利外的國際本地業務營業額成長了 2%，四大主要市場均呈現正面動能。我們在關鍵垂直領域實現了兩位數成長，包括「待辦事項」、「企業品牌」以及「禮品和季節性產品」。

Looking ahead to 2025, we are confident this will be the year-on-year term coupon to sustain growth. Our 2025 strategy focuses on winning in key markets through our proven approach. Prioritizing high-impact categories like Things To Do, Beauty & Wellness and Gifting, enhancing customer retention through improved personalization, boosting merchant success with enhanced tools and completing our remaining technical migration, including our North American mobile up in Q2.

展望 2025 年，我們有信心這將是維持成長的逐年定期票息。我們的 2025 策略專注於透過我們行之有效的方法在關鍵市場中取勝。優先考慮「待辦事項」、「美容與健康和禮品」等高影響力類別，透過改進個人化來提高客戶保留率，透過增強的工具來提高商家的成功率，並完成我們剩餘的技術遷移，包括第二季度的北美行動業務。

With a much better cash position of $229 million versus the previous year and a clear road map for growth, we are well positioned to create value for all stakeholders as we execute the next chapter in Groupon's transformation. I want to thank the Groupon team for their resilience and commitment, which have been instrumental in our progress.

與前一年相比，我們的現金狀況好得多，達到 2.29 億美元，並且擁有清晰的成長路線圖，我們有能力在 Groupon 轉型的新篇章中為所有利益相關者創造價值。我要感謝 Groupon 團隊的堅韌和奉獻，這對我們的進步起到了重要作用。

With that, let's open the call for questions.

現在，讓我們開始提問。

Sean McGowan, ROTH Capital.

羅仕資本的肖恩·麥高恩（Sean McGowan）。

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, can you talk a little bit about the -- what you think was driving that local growth in the US. It seemed like it really turned around. I mean I think when you gave us an update on the third quarter conference call, it was running down through October. So what do you think drove that turnaround in the late part of the quarter?

謝謝。我很感激。是的，您能否稍微談談——您認為是什麼推動了美國的本地成長。好像真的轉過來了。我的意思是，我認為當您向我們提供第三季電話會議的最新消息時，它已經持續到十月了。那麼您認為是什麼推動了本季後期的轉變？

Yes. So thanks for the question. We had a lot of headwinds during last year with technical migrations and platform projects, which were impacting our ability to deliver. So it was definitely one of the drivers. And as we were either finalizing them or mitigating impact our platform returned to, let's say, the performance, which we are expecting from it.

是的。感謝您的提問。去年，我們在技術遷移和平台專案方面遇到了許多阻力，這影響了我們的交付能力。所以這肯定是驅動因素之一。當我們最終確定這些措施或減輕影響時，我們的平台就恢復到了我們期望的效能。

But at the same time, during the last earnings call, I was talking about our strategy shift shifting to curated marketplace with a sales organization focusing on quality, and we don't go for quantity, but we -- what we need on our platform. We are also spending much more time with our merchants to make sure that they have deals which perform. So I would say that this is a combination of all these elements, which finally, all of it together and they are reflected in the results, especially in the later part of Q4.

但同時，在上次財報電話會議上，我談到了我們的策略轉變，轉向精選市場，銷售組織注重質量，我們不追求數量，而是我們平台所需要的東西。我們也花更多時間與商家溝通，以確保他們達成交易。所以我想說這是所有這些因素的結合，最終，所有這些因素結合在一起，並反映在結果中，特別是在第四季度的後期。

Can I ask if you were able to recover any of the lost cohort, that cohort that fell off of more loyal customers. Were you able to get any of those guys back?

我可以問一下您是否能夠挽回那些失去的客戶群，也就是那些失去更多忠實客戶的客戶群。你能把那些傢伙救回來嗎？

It's highly related to overall platform stability, which significantly improved. We saw improvement in this cohort. But overall, I would say that the team did a great job really on focusing on what's wrong and what are the issues with every individual customer, which we had and it reflected in better results, not only from this cohort, but overall on the platform through higher conversions.

這與平台整體穩定性息息相關，平台整體穩定性顯著提高。我們看到這個群體有所進步。但總的來說，我想說團隊確實做得很好，他們關注的是每個客戶的問題和錯誤，這不僅體現在這個群體身上，也體現在整個平台上，透過更高的轉換率，取得了更好的結果。

Great. Thank you very much.

偉大的。非常感謝。

Bobby Brooks, Northland Capital.

布魯克斯（Bobby Brooks），北國資本（Northland Capital）。

Hey, good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my question. So I wanted to ask on the top -- in the slide deck, you mentioned that the top five metro areas in North America saw double-digit growth in the fourth quarter. Could you just discuss what drove that strength?

嘿，大家早安。感謝您回答我的問題。所以我想問一下——在幻燈片中，您提到北美前五個大都市區在第四季度實現了兩位數的增長。您能否討論一下是什麼推動了這種優勢？

And was this -- and probably more so, was this a result of your team specifically targeting those top five metros first -- and if so, then is this something that you think you can then roll out and reflect that strategy something that you can roll out and replicate to other metros?

這是不是——或者更確切地說，這是您的團隊首先專門針對前五大都市的結果——如果是這樣，那麼您認為您可以推出並反映這一戰略，然後將其推廣並複製到其他都市嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Bob, for the question. Actually, we were also talking about international and Spain as the first sign of the result of a strategy shift, which we did some two years ago as a pilot and actually in Spain, we have some areas in some metros, which actually we think 2019 numbers.

是的。謝謝鮑伯提出這個問題。實際上，我們也在談論國際和西班牙，這是我們戰略轉變結果的第一個跡象，我們在大約兩年前就進行了試點，實際上在西班牙，我們在一些大都市的一些地區，實際上我們認為這是 2019 年的數字。

And during last 18 months, let's say, we started implementing similar measures also in NA. Specifically, I was discussing on previous call explaining that we are building this market management capability within Groupon, which is focusing for us on the largest materials where we are defining what we need what other deals, which should be up on the platform and actually also deals, it should not be on the platform. So this is the reflection of this strategy.

在過去的 18 個月裡，我們也開始在北美實施類似的措施。具體來說，我在上次電話會議上解釋說，我們正在 Groupon 內部建立這種市場管理能力，這將使我們專注於最大的材料，即定義我們需要什麼其他交易，哪些應該在平台上，以及實際上哪些交易不應該在平台上。這就是這策略的展現。

We are still in the middle of there is plenty of work ahead of us. But the goal is that once this process, this structure will be optimized for top two metros in will be scaling to other locations too.

我們仍處於工作之中，還有很多工作要做。但目標是，一旦完成這一過程，該結構將針對前兩個大都市進行最佳化，並且也將擴展到其他地區。

Got it. So it's something where, yes, those top five metros were targeted first and going -- and you're still working on figuring out what the optimist -- or how to optimize it best, but it's something that you haven't yet rolled out to all different metros.

知道了。所以，是的，這五個大都市是首先被瞄準的目標，而且你們仍在努力弄清楚樂觀主義者認為什麼是最好的，或者如何對其進行最佳優化，但你們尚未將這項服務推廣到所有不同的都市。

Yes. We are still learning the right way how to do it. It's a combination of market management where we are understanding the market dynamics, the specific parameters and behavior of each location. And then there is also the category I mentioned to -- we are digging much deeper and understanding what our category needs because Groupon is not one place fits all, but we are developing a strategy for each key vertical, which we have on the platform. So it's this combination category in one dimension and as a second. And once we will feel comfortable that this is a scalable process, which we can everywhere we will be rolling that out to more locations.

是的。我們仍在學習如何正確做這件事。它是市場管理的結合，我們了解市場動態、每個地點的具體參數和行為。然後還有我提到的類別——我們正在深入挖掘並了解我們的類別需要什麼，因為 Groupon 並不是一個適合所有情況的地方，但我們正在為平台上的每個關鍵垂直領域制定策略。因此，它是一維和二維的組合類別。一旦我們確信這是一個可擴展的過程，我們就可以在任何地方將其推廣到更多地方。

Got it. And then -- so North American active customers that grew sequentially after -- I mean I have my data back going back to 2018 and the resolve sequential declines on active customers in North America. So that was really great to see -- and so kind of two questions on that is, one, does your guy bake in any continued customer growth? And could you maybe just touch on what you felt drove that? I know you talked about better conversion. If you could just share any more details on that, that would be appreciated.

知道了。然後 — — 北美活躍客戶數量環比增長 — — 我的意思是，我有 2018 年的數據，可以追溯到北美活躍客戶數量環比下降的情況。看到這一點真是太好了——關於這一點，我有兩個問題：第一，你的員工是否考慮到了持續的客戶成長？您能否簡單談談您認為是什麼導致了這一現象？我知道您談到了更好的轉變。如果您能分享更多有關此問題的詳細信息，我們將不勝感激。

Yes. So I will go back again to platform stability because it was a big topic for us last year and really in Q4 when all these pieces fit together. We saw performance marketing channels to be really stepping up and improving and we are really driving the acquisition part which, in my opinion, but we still have a potential to do more. We have a plan.

是的。因此，我將再次回到平台穩定性問題，因為這是我們去年討論的一個重要話題，實際上在第四季度，當所有這些部分結合在一起時，它確實是一個重要的話題。我們看到績效行銷管道確實在不斷加強和改善，我們也確實在推動收購部分，但在我看來，我們仍有潛力做得更多。我們有一個計劃。

We improved and strengthened the team in marketing departments. And we know that we can grow further. But at the same time, we are shifting our focus right now on customer retention, where we are bringing some especially food and drink deals, which we call WoWDeals which can help us to improve the frequency. I believe we cracked the customer acquisition and now opus is customer eventual second, third quarter transaction.

完善並加強了行銷部門的團隊建立。我們知道我們能夠進一步發展。但同時，我們現在將重點轉移到客戶保留上，我們推出了一些特別的食品和飲料優惠，我們稱之為 WoWDeals，它可以幫助我們提高頻率。我相信我們已經破解了客戶獲取難題，現在 opus 是客戶最終第二季、第三季的交易。

Got it. And then just kind of -- so does the guide -- does your guide bake in -- like any customer growth? Or is that not really a function of it?

知道了。那麼，指南是否也考慮到了客戶成長？或者這實際上並不是它的功能？

Our plan expects that we will be doing better and better with customer acquisition. We don't expect that it will be like several times better, obviously, but we will be improving, and we expect in the plan, slight improvement in retention to.

我們的計劃是希望我們在客戶獲取方面做得越來越好。顯然，我們並不期望它會好幾倍，但我們會不斷改進，並且我們預計在計劃中，保留率會略有提高。

Got it. I appreciate it. I'll, return back to the queue. Thanks guys, and congrats on the good quarter.

知道了。我很感激。我會回到隊列。謝謝大家，恭喜本季取得良好業績。

Eric Sheridan, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的艾瑞克·謝裡丹。

Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe two, if I could. Just coming back to the point on purchase frequency. Could you go a little bit deeper in what you see as the critical investments to drive more purchase frequency and what you might be seeing in terms of different behavior in terms of purchase frequency when you line it on top of vertical-based behavior on the platform to what resonates and what might be some of the key unlocks to drive increased frequency?

非常感謝您回答這些問題。如果可以的話，也許兩個。回到購買頻率的話題。您能否更深入地說明一下，您認為推動更多購買頻率的關鍵投資是什麼，以及當您將其與平台上的垂直行為聯繫起來時，您可能會看到哪些不同的購買頻率行為，哪些行為會引起共鳴，以及哪些可能是推動增加頻率的關鍵解鎖因素？

And then the second question would just be, you talked a lot about how enterprise is increasingly are using Groupon as a platform to go to market. Can you maybe give a few examples about enterprises as a strategy continues to evolve and what that might do to broaden out supply on the platform over the longer term. Thanks so much.

第二個問題是，您多次談到企業如何越來越多地使用 Groupon 作為平台來進入市場。您能否舉幾個例子，說明隨著企業策略​​的不斷發展，這些策略可能會在長期內對擴大平台供應產生什麼作用。非常感謝。

Thank you, Eric, for the question. So I will start with verticals. Yes, we see different behavior in different verticals on the platform. There are verticals like online retail where customers are not buying really the local services and experiences where it's quite open and it will depend on our marketing performance and on our marketing systems to be typically in Google and Facebook and well looking for some solutions.

謝謝 Eric 提出的問題。因此我將從垂直行業開始。是的，我們在平台上的不同垂直領域中看到了不同的行為。在一些垂直領域，例如線上零售，客戶實際上購買的並不是本地服務和體驗，而這些領域是相當開放的，這將取決於我們的行銷表現和行銷系統，通常是在Google和 Facebook 上尋找一些解決方案。

So if you are buying some stuff, which is kind of commodity and it's still in Groupon, then it's a very different behavior. But when we move to categories which are more local than the behavior is different. And we see a huge potential to increase purchase frequency both and we started already late Q4 is doing -- we are adding something which we call olds, which are typically foot entering really great offer with top brands on the market. And our main intention is to offer those SAP after the first purchase.

因此，如果你正在購買一些東西，這是一種商品，而且它仍然在 Groupon 中，那麼這是一種非常不同的行為。但是當我們轉向更在地化的類別時，行為就不同了。我們看到了增加購買頻率的巨大潛力，並且我們已經在第四季度末開始這樣做了 - 我們正在添加一些我們稱之為舊產品的東西，這些產品通常是市場上頂級品牌的真正優惠。我們的主要目的是在首次購買後提供這些 SAP。

In the past, we quite often focused after the purchase just to deliver the voucher, then do nothing for next few days and then come back again to customer. Right now, we are improving shortening that period of time when we communicate with customer -- and based on our tests, we see very positive reactions from customers. So we believe that this will be one of the important elements to drive purchase frequency higher.

過去，我們經常只專注於在客戶購買後提供優惠券，然後在接下來的幾天內甚麼也不做，然後再回來為客戶服務。目前，我們正在努力縮短與客戶溝通的時間——根據我們的測試，我們看到客戶的反應非常積極。所以我們相信這將是推動購買頻率提高的重要因素之一。

In terms of enterprise partners, like you see overall market that many companies are really looking for consumer demand. Some of them are struggling. So Groupon is a great platform for them. When you are advertising on Google, on Facebook, you are typically paying for clicks and yes, you are optimizing for performance, but Groupon is really the only, I would say, big platform where you can make campaigns which are pure performance based.

就企業合作夥伴而言，就像您看到的整體市場一樣，許多公司都在真正尋求消費者需求。他們中的一些人正在苦苦掙扎。所以 Groupon 對他們來說是一個很好的平台。當你在 Google 或 Facebook 上投放廣告時，你通常會為點擊付費，而且你會針對效果進行優化，但我想說，Groupon 確實是唯一一個可以開展純粹基於效果的廣告活動的大型平台。

So they make a lot of sense. And then if we dig in two categories where typically, these businesses have fixed cost or we are selling memberships -- and suddenly, the economics of these deals work great for them and Groupon is really a top platform for which we really want to scale. And I would say most limitations which are there are still on the technical integration part, which is our focus to be more open to more accessible to these enterprises, which have their own issues. We were on quite often legacy platforms and we need to be able to connect them.

所以它們非常有意義。然後，如果我們深入研究兩個類別，通常這些企業都有固定成本，或者我們出售會員資格——突然間，這些交易的經濟效益對他們來說非常好，而 Groupon 確實是我們真正想要擴展的頂級平台。我想說的是，大多數限制仍然存在於技術整合部分，我們的重點是讓這些有自身問題的企業更開放、更容易取得資訊。我們經常使用傳統平台，我們需要能夠連接它們。

But in general, when I'm meeting with these partners on every meeting, I have the feeling that we can do much, much bigger business with versus what we do right now.

但總的來說，每次我與這些合作夥伴會面時，我都感覺我們可以做比現在大得多的業務。

All right. We'll now post written questions to management that came in through our Investor Relations press line. Our first written question is for Dusan. Can you share what the December Christmas period look like from a growth perspective. North America Local was running in the low single digits positive during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and was likely down negative high single digits to negative low double digits in October based on your commentary at that time around guidance framing.

好的。我們現在將透過投資者關係新聞熱線向管理層發布書面問題。我們的第一個書面問題是針對杜桑的。您能否從成長角度分享 12 月聖誕節期間的情況？在黑色星期五和網路星期一期間，北美本地銷售額呈低個位數正增長，而根據您當時對指導框架的評論，10 月份的銷售額可能從負高個位數下降到負低兩位數。

So would this imply the business was running up positive double digits in December Christmas based on reported North American local growth of plus 8% year-over-year.

那麼，根據報告的北美本地銷售額年增 8% 來看，這是否意味著該公司 12 月聖誕節的銷售額實現了正兩位數的成長？

So December was very good. However, good, we have to take into account is that year-over-year compare was impacted by timing of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So it's not really apples-to-apples. But even so that on a like-for-like basis comparing holiday 2024 to holiday 2023, we believe we had a very successful year in Local, including some great numbers in the lead up to Christmas and period between Christmas and New Year.

所以十二月非常好。然而，我們必須考慮到，同比比較受到黑色星期五和網路星期一時間的影響。所以這其實並不是同類的。但即便如此，如果將 2024 年假期與 2023 年假期進行同等比較，我們相信我們在 Local 度過了非常成功的一年，包括聖誕節前夕以及聖誕節和新年期間的一些出色表現。

And what's important in the past, we have mentioned that we observed that our platform tends to perform better during the key buying seasons and Q4 was really no exception to that. For our Q1 outlook, as mentioned in earnings commentary, we lost some of the excitement from the Q4 season as we started Q1, but we have been pleased with the momentum in North America Local and see continued growth in billings.

過去重要的是，我們曾提到，我們觀察到我們的平台在關鍵的購買季節往往表現較好，而第四季也不例外。對於我們的第一季展望，正如收益評論中所提到的，我們在第一季開始時失去了第四季度的一些興奮感，但我們對北美本地的發展勢頭感到滿意，並看到賬單持續增長。

And while we commented that our first quarter outlook assumes better performance in local versus Q4. At this time, we don't believe it will be double-digit growth in billings.

雖然我們評論說，我們的第一季展望假設本地表現將優於第四季。目前，我們認為營業額不會有兩位數的成長。

Great. We have a few more questions from our analysts on the call. It looks like Bobby, you had your hand up first.

偉大的。我們的分析師在電話會議上也提出了一些問題。看起來 Bobby 是你第一個舉手的人。

Hey, thanks, guys. Thanks for taking the question again. So bringing higher quality supply onto the platform as a strategy. You've talked about a lot since Dusan took over and specifically on this call. So I was just interested on really how you are getting these higher-quality merchants onto the Groupon platform?

嘿，謝謝大家。感謝您再次回答這個問題。因此，將更高品質的供應引入平台是一種策略。自從杜桑接任以來，您談了很多，特別是在這次電話會議上。所以我真正感興趣的是，你們是如何將這些高品質的商家引入 Groupon 平台的？

Maybe some examples of wins, but what is typically the selling point that wins these guys older? Is it the improved tracking you can provide merchants on the deals progress? Or is it something different?

也許有一些勝利的例子，但贏得這些年長球員的典型賣點是什麼？您是否可以為商家提供更好的交易進度追蹤？或有什麼不同？

Well, actually, it starts with us and with our sales force and the consultative approach which we were talking about in the past. And let me give you one example. When we started and we are reviewing what we call deal books internally, which is like, let's say, procurement, which describes what deals we should be getting for the platform for -- the most preferred type of deal, a slight bit 50%-plus discount and $40 per hour.

嗯，實際上，它始於我們、我們的銷售團隊以及我們過去談論過的諮詢方法。讓我給你舉一個例子。當我們開始時，我們正在內部審查所謂的交易書，就像採購一樣，它描述了我們應該為平台達成的交易——最受歡迎的交易類型，略高於 50% 的折扣和每小時 40 美元。

But when we are doing the analytics, we see that really, the messages which we sell most actually something completely else. We are quite often about $100. It's a couple massage with nice merchants. So we have to convince our sales force first that we don't go by the deepest discount.

但當我們進行分析時，我們發現，我們銷售最多的資訊實際上是完全不同的東西。我們通常花費大約 100 美元。這是一家情侶按摩店，店員人很好。因此，我們必須先讓銷售人員相信，我們不會提供最大的折扣。

We go for something which is a value for customer because Groupon is always a place where we will not be selling the most expensive stuff. We will be selling high-quality stuff, which will be a good deal for a customer. So now we don't go to the lowest quality merchants. We go to good quality and high-quality merchants. We don't go where with like $40 per hour massage, but we go where with massage, which makes them more money, which makes also more money to Groupon and actually customer a bit more.

我們追求對顧客有價值的東西，因為 Groupon 永遠不會出售最昂貴的東西。我們將出售高品質的產品，這對顧客來說是一筆划算的交易。所以現在我們不會去找品質最差的商家。我們去找品質好、品質高的商家。我們不會去那些每小時 40 美元的按摩店，但我們會去那些提供按摩服務的地方，這讓他們賺了更多錢，Groupon 也賺了更多錢，實際上也為顧客帶來了更多收入。

And it's actually combined with the gifting strategy, which works very well. These are the types of deals, which you can buy and give us a gap because you see the quality immediately. So this is the main strategy really starting on our side deciding what are the good deals, which we need, identify right merchants and negotiate a deal which makes sense for merchant and Groupon.

它實際上與贈送策略相結合，效果非常好。這些是您可以購買的交易類型，並且給我們一個差距，因為您可以立即看到品質。因此，這實際上是從我們的角度出發，決定哪些是我們需要的好交易，確定合適的商家，並協商出對商家和 Groupon 都有意義的交易。

Awesome. And that's toric, that makes a lot of sense. And then just the last one for me. So obviously, you guys give a lot of value to the consumers like you just mentioned, there's obviously some pressure on the consumers here with more macro-related stuff.

驚人的。這就是環面的，這很有道理。對我來說這是最後一個了。所以很明顯，就像你剛才提到的那樣，你們為消費者提供了很大的價值，這裡的消費者顯然面臨著更多宏觀相關的東西的壓力。

So I was just curious if you could just maybe talk about high level like would you guys actually see like a counter -- kind of counter cyclical tailwinds if the consumer sees more pressure? Or I should say, would you expect that? I mean, that's kind of historically I think, has been the case, but is that something that you think will continue to be the case going forward, if we start to see pressure on the consumer?

所以我只是好奇，您是否可以談談高層次的問題，例如，如果消費者面臨更多壓力，您是否真的會看到一種逆週期順風？或者我應該說，你期望那樣嗎？我的意思是，我認為從歷史上看，情況一直如此，但如果我們開始看到消費者面臨壓力，您認為這種情況會繼續下去嗎？

Jiri, do you want to take this one?

吉里，你想拿這個嗎？

Yes. Thank you, Bobby. I think this will be headwinds and eleven. Definitely, we will be the business which will be interesting for merchants in terms of if they will have empty capacity, they will be looking for the options, how they can bring the customers in, and I think the Groupon is a great place for that.

是的。謝謝你，鮑比。我認為這將是逆風和十一。毫無疑問，我們的業務對商家來說很有吸引力，如果他們有空閒容量，他們就會尋找選擇，尋找如何吸引顧客，而我認為 Groupon 就是一個絕佳的選擇。

For sure, there will be also because the people might have a little bit deeper pocket. So it might have impacted the categories like -- high value. But I believe the customers will be looking for the value, and I think that the Groupon is a good place for that.

當然，也會有，因為人們的錢可能比較充裕。因此它可能會影響諸如高價值之類的類別。但我相信顧客會尋求價值，我認為 Groupon 是一個很好的平台。

Really appreciate the call guys. I'll turn back thank you. Thank you.

非常感謝大家的來電。我會回頭的，謝謝。謝謝。

Thanks, Bobby. We'll move back to Sean McGowan, Roth Capital.

謝謝，鮑比。我們將回到羅斯資本的肖恩·麥高恩 (Sean McGowan)。

Yeah, thank you. Just I was wondering, Sean, if you could give any metrics around the improvement in gifting, there seems to have been a big priority of the company, and you've set some goals of improving that as a percentage of total business. So can you give us some sense of that progress?

是的，謝謝。肖恩，我只是想知道，您是否可以提供任何有關贈送改進的指標，這似乎是公司的一大優先事項，並且您已設定了一些目標，將其作為總體業務的百分比進行改進。那麼您能向我們介紹一下這項進展嗎？

We didn't disclose any specific numbers here, but I can share some like top level view. I mentioned that Getting is gaining importance. And what I can share with you is that during the peak holiday season, the gifting was in double digits share of our orders. It's very low double digit, obviously, but a significant improvement versus last year.

我們沒有在這裡透露任何具體的數字，但我可以分享一些頂級的觀點。我提到過，「獲取」變得越來越重要。我可以告訴大家的是，在節日高峰期，贈送的訂單占我們訂單的兩位數。顯然，這是一個非常低的兩位數，但與去年相比已經有了顯著的改善。

We see very strong trend and strong growth there and especially in some categories because some categories are simply more suitable for gifting than others. It's all interconnected. It will take us time to get.

我們看到了非常強勁的趨勢和強勁的成長，特別是在某些類別，因為某些類別比其他類別更適合贈送禮物。一切都是相互關聯的。我們需要一些時間才能得到。

And I believe in the past, we were mentioning that the benchmark, which we had was 50% for the holiday season, we are very far from that. But for that, we need to improve inventory. I was answering the previous question with more actuaries, let's say, massage deals. We need to have enough deals like this because these are the deals which as if more often.

我相信，我們過去曾提到，假期季節的基準是 50%，但我們距離這個目標還很遠。但為此，我們需要改善庫存。我用更多的精算師來回答前面的問題，比如說按摩交易。我們需要有足夠多這樣的交易，因為這些交易似乎更頻繁。

I will also stress out what we mentioned several times that Groupon is performing very well platform during season, and there are many seasonal occasions where Gifting will be helping us because people can be self gifting, gifting to others. So this is all big projects, which will take us time. But like I see that we are on a very good path in delivering it.

我還要強調的是，我們多次提到過，Groupon 在旺季期間表現得非常好，而且在許多季節性場合，贈送禮物會對我們有所幫助，因為人們可以給自己贈送禮物，也可以給別人贈送禮物。所以這些都是大項目，要花時間。但我發現我們在實現這一目標的道路上走得非常好。

Right, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Thank you, John. We'll move back to some written questions, another one for you, Johan. Can you talk about the drivers of growth within international, excluding Italy, which geographies are you seeing strength in addition to Spain running up to 2019 levels?

謝謝你，約翰。我們將回到一些書面問題，另一個問題給你，約翰。能否談談國際成長的動力？除義大利外，您認為除了西班牙以外，哪些地區的成長動能將達到 2019 年的水準？

I was actually mentioning in previous answer that the -- we have some cities in Spain, which are already near 2019 levels, which is extremely encouraging. We see very positive signals and trends in all our big countries, which is Spain, UK, France and Germany, these four for make approximately 80% of our International Local.

我實際上在之前的回答中提到過——西班牙的一些城市已經接近 2019 年的水平，這非常令人鼓舞。我們在所有大國都看到了非常積極的信號和趨勢，即西班牙、英國、法國和德國，這四個國家約占我們國際本地業務的 80%。

In Spain, as I mentioned, we started two years ago by strengthening the sales force by focusing more on market management and really deciding what's needed on the platform, and we are following same steps in other countries. It starts with a strong leadership.

正如我所提到的，在西班牙，我們兩年前就開始加強銷售隊伍，更加重視市場管理，真正決定平台需要什麼，我們也在其他國家採取同樣的措施。一切始於強而有力的領導。

So we are strengthening and we did strengthen teams in every single country, which I mentioned we are holistically looking on performance of the country, what deals we should be bringing but then also rebuilding the cooperation with marketing to make sure that we are promoting price right stuff. And although we did not migrate both countries to new platform just by optimizing supply and marketing, we were able to get them to grow, and we are very optimistic going forward there.

因此，我們正在加強並且確實加強了每個國家的團隊，我提到過，我們正在全面關注該國的表現，我們應該帶來哪些交易，同時也重建與營銷的合作，以確保我們推廣價格合適的產品。儘管我們並沒有透過優化供應和行銷將這兩個國家遷移到新的平台，但我們能夠讓它們成長，我們對未來非常樂觀。

Another written question for you, Dusan. There appears to be a lot of employee turnover, assuming this is just potentially to make sure the go-to-market is top-notch. How are you keeping your top salespeople around and how variable is their comp structure is sales productivity improving.

杜桑，還有一個書面問題想問你。似乎有很多員工流動，假設這只是為了確保進入市場的產品品質一流。您如何留住頂尖銷售人員？他們的薪酬結構如何改變？銷售效率如何提升？

So I have a very good feeling about strengthening our management team in sales in general. I think we are on a very, very good path there. And yes, in sales varies and there will be always much, much higher turnover. We pretty much went back to original how Groupon but also many other companies, I was working with in the past were working.

因此，我對加強我們整體銷售管理團隊感到非常高興。我認為我們正走在一條非常非常好的道路上。是的，銷售額會有所不同，營業額總是會高得多。我們基本上恢復了 Groupon 以及我過去合作過的許多其他公司最初的運作方式。

We are hiring a lot of junior people right of it's their first job or second job after college. They go through training and some of them realize this is not for them, this type of job some of them and become great salespeople. So this is simply the way how we are working and that will be high turnover, especially during the initial stage of hiring.

我們招募了很多初級員工，這是他們大學畢業後的第一份工作或第二份工作。他們接受培訓後，有些人意識到這不適合他們，有些人認為這種類型的工作不適合他們，因此成為了優秀的銷售人員。這就是我們的工作方式，而且人員流動率會很高，特別是在招募的初始階段。

And in terms of remuneration, we are highly performance motivated company and on structure, I would say, and our top salespeople are making money that recently deserve they are bringing, and I believe they had its remuneration system.

在薪資方面，我們是一家高度注重績效和結構的公司，我想說，我們的頂尖銷售人員最近賺到的錢與他們應得的相符，我相信他們有自己的薪資制度。

A written question for you, Jiri. What do you believe, if any, will be the impact on Groupon of recent US tariffs?

吉里，給你一個書面問題。您認為美國近期的關稅會對 Groupon 產生什麼影響？

Yes. As we understand the current discussions about tariff policies, they are targeted mostly to the goods or consumer products. If I look on Groupon business, most of our business is local experience, meaning glucan merchants, local products and impact from types is minimum, mostly where we will see some impact to our business will be good.

是的。據我們了解，目前有關關稅政策的討論主要針對的是商品或消費品。如果我看一下 Groupon 業務，我們的大部分業務都是本地體驗，這意味著葡聚醣商家、本地產品和類型的影響是最小的，大多數情況下，我們會看到對我們的業務產生一些影響，這將是好的。

But let's be clear, this line of business is -- was less than 5% of our revenues in 2024. And and we do not expect the growth in 2025. So it will be smaller and smaller part of our marketplace. And therefore, I would say the impact -- potential impact of targets implications will be minimal and would not be material to our 2025 outlook.

但我們要明確的是，到 2024 年，這條業務線的收入還不到我們收入的 5%。我們預計 2025 年不會出現成長。因此，它在我們的市場中所佔的比例將會越來越小。因此，我想說，目標的潛在影響將是微乎其微的，並且不會對我們 2025 年的展望產生重大影響。

Thank you, Yuji. We have one more question, it looks like from Sean McGowan.

謝謝你，Yuji。我們還有一個問題，似乎是 Sean McGowan 提出來的。

Thanks. I wanted to circle back on something. I think in your prepared remarks, you talked about user engagement, maybe something that could see some improvement and yet you got the 8% increase in North America and local. So could you give us a little bit more color on that -- the relationship between user engagement and that growth?

謝謝。我想重新討論某件事。我認為在您準備好的發言中，您談到了用戶參與度，也許有些方面可以看到一些改進，但您在北美和本地卻獲得了 8% 的增長。那麼，您能否向我們詳細介紹一下用戶參與度和成長之間的關係？

So we have, in general, better conversion on the platform, which is helping us. We are also -- in our comments, we mentioned that our marketing platform is really working very well. The acquisition marketing platform. So this is a primary source of this growth. So we are able to approach customers in NA.

因此，總體而言，我們在平台上的轉換率更高，這對我們有幫助。我們也——在我們的評論中提到，我們的行銷平台確實運作得非常好。收購行銷平台。所以這是這種成長的主要來源。因此我們能夠接觸到北美的客戶。

I would say international is a very similar story. We are able to present them a peering offering. We see increased conversion in the sales process, which is something which we were expecting when we were talking about the new platform we are releasing, but also just coming together with higher quality supply, it's driving also higher AOV, not only Gifting, but in general, higher-quality deals.

我想說國際上的情況非常相似。我們可以向他們提供對等服務。我們看到銷售過程中的轉換率有所提高，這正是我們在談論即將發布的新平台時所期待的，而且僅僅是與更高質量的供應相結合，它就能推動更高的 AOV，不僅是禮品，而且總體而言，還能推動更高質量的交易。

Now what needs to be coming and what's our focus is certain churn, meaning we need to increase the number of transactions our customers are doing with Groupon.

現在需要做的和我們關注的是特定的客戶流失，這意味著我們需要增加客戶與 Groupon 進行的交易數量。

Okay. I think we've talked in the past that each incremental or each turn of user engagement adds tremendously to incremental EBITDA, like $100 million for each turn or something like that. Is that still your expectation? And when do you think we start to reflect to that? What you would expect over the next couple of years?

好的。我想我們過去曾討論過，用戶參與度的每一次增加或轉變都會大大增加 EBITDA，例如每次增加 1 億美元或類似的數字。這仍然是您的期望嗎？您認為我們什麼時候開始反思這一點？您對未來幾年有何期待？

So I'm not able to be exactly specific about the numbers. But like just to give you an idea, when we are talking internally about Strategy 2025, the first line, the North Star for whole company is customer and merchant retention. So as you see, it's becoming the priority number one for Groupon in general.

所以我無法確切地給出具體的數字。但只是為了給你一個想法，當我們在內部討論 2025 策略時，第一線，整個公司的北極星是客戶和商家保留。所以正如你所看到的，這已經成為 Groupon 的首要任務。

We are already experimenting with plenty of not only deals, but different approaches, how to decorate. And I'm optimistic that we will be able to improve it but we are not ready yet to share specific numbers. But I expect improvements this year, and then it will gradually continue in next years.

我們已經嘗試了很多，不僅有交易，還有不同的裝飾方法。我樂觀地認為我們能夠改進它，但我們還沒有準備好分享具體的數字。但我預計今年會有所改善，並且明年會逐漸繼續下去。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you, Sean. We have one more written question for can you comment on the trends underpinning the guide?

謝謝你，肖恩。我們還有一個書面問題，您能否評論一下該指南背後的趨勢？

Yes, for sure. So depends on that is. We left Q4 in definitely better positions than we enter Q4 after a very turmoil Q3. So we are continuing in -- we expect in Q1 still negative -- slightly negative trend in billings. This is what we put there. We continue and we will see the lower take rates. It remains year-over-year. It means that our revenues impact will be more negative versus trends of the billings.

是的，當然。所以取決於那一點。在經歷了動盪的第三季後，我們第四季的處境肯定比進入第四季時要好。因此，我們預計第一季的帳單趨勢仍將呈現負面——略微呈現負面。這就是我們放在那裡的東西。我們繼續下去，我們將看到更低的接受率。與去年同期相比，這一數字保持不變。這意味著我們的收入影響相對於帳單趨勢而言將更加負面。

But we believe we will be, as we were last year, positive in adjusted EBITDA. About the cash flow, this is these things which we have to take into account our business is seasonal in terms of we have strong holiday season in Q4 which is -- by our customers in Q1, which resulted naturally in negative cash flow in Q1.

但我們相信，與去年一樣，調整後的 EBITDA 將保持正成長。關於現金流，我們必須考慮到這些因素，我們的業務具有季節性，因為第四季度是假日旺季，而第一季我們的客戶對此很感興趣，這自然導致第一季出現負現金流。

So this is about Q1. For full year, we actually expect that we will be growing billings, we expect to be growing revenues. We will be adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, definitely better than we were in 2024. But is very good to mention here -- and we expect some for impact roughly 100 basis points.

這是關於 Q1 的。對於全年而言，我們實際上預計我們的營業額將會成長，我們預計收入也會成長。我們將調整 EBITDA 和自由現金流，肯定會比 2024 年更好。但在這裡提及這一點非常好——我們預計影響約為 100 個基點。

It may be good to mention that last year we left Italy beginning of Q2. And I mean, it's not the local market. So this is all the things which we should comparably mention. We also believe, and I think it was mentioned here are today that we continue and we will continue to invest in our marketing and in our sales force.

值得一提的是，去年我們在第二季初離開了義大利。我的意思是，這不是本地市場。所以這就是我們應該比較提及的所有事情。我們也相信，我想今天這裡提到過，我們會繼續並且將繼續對我們的行銷和銷售團隊進行投資。

We expect that our SG&A will be flattish year-over-year. It might be a little bit different each quarter, but we see some pockets where we can still have savings in our SG&A. On the other hand, we are hiring. We are hiring especially to our sales force, and this is a place where we would like to take our savings, which we will delivering during the year 2025 and paying back to the business and definitely strengthen our capacities in sales force.

我們預計銷售、一般及行政開支將與去年同期持平。每個季度可能都會有點不同，但我們發現仍有一些地方可以節省銷售、一般及行政費用。另一方面，我們正在招募。我們正在專門為我們的銷售團隊招聘，我們希望把節省下來的資金投入到銷售隊伍中，我們將在 2025 年之前將這些資金回饋給企業，並肯定會加強我們銷售團隊的能力。

About marketing, we expect, and it was also said here, we expect to be stable spending roughly 30%, 35% of our gross profitable marketing assuming and being conditioned that we are positive in ROI. If we will be positive ROI, we would be able to spend even more, which will certainly will impact our oppositive.

關於行銷，我們預計，這裡也提到，我們預計穩定支出約 30%、35% 的毛利行銷費用，假設並且我們的投資回報率為正。如果我們的投資報酬率為正，我們將能夠花費更多，這肯定會對我們的反面產生影響。

Thank you, Yes. There are no other questions. This concludes our call for today. Thank you for everyone for joining. For additional information, please go to investor.groupon.com.

謝謝，是的。沒有其他問題。今天的通話到此結束。感謝大家的參與。如需更多信息，請訪問 investor.groupon.com。