Marchex Inc (MCHX) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Marchex's Second Quarter Conference Call. My name is Lauren, and I'll be coordinating your call today. (Operator Instructions) I will now hand you over to your host, Trevor Caldwell, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Strategic Initiatives to begin. Trevor, please go ahead.

歡迎參加 Marchex 第二季度電話會議。我叫勞倫，今天我將協調您的電話。 （操作員指示）我現在將把您交給東道主投資者關係和戰略計劃高級副總裁特雷弗·考德威爾（Tr​​evor Caldwell）開始。特雷弗，請繼續。

Thank you, Lauren. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Marchex's Business Update and Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Joining us today are Edwin Miller, our CEO; and Michael Arends, our Vice Chairman.

謝謝你，勞倫。大家下午好，歡迎參加 Marchex 的業務更新和 2023 年第二季度電話會議。今天加入我們的是我們的首席執行官埃德溫·米勒 (Edwin Miller)；和我們的副主席邁克爾·阿倫茲 (Michael Arends)。

Before we get started, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that our remarks today will include forward-looking statements, including references to our financial and operational performance, and actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in today's earnings press release and in our most recent annual and quarterly report filed with the SEC.

在開始之前，我想藉此機會提醒您，我們今天的言論將包含前瞻性陳述，其中包括對我們的財務和運營業績的提及，實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中預期的結果存在重大差異。今天的收益新聞稿以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的最新年度和季度報告中闡述了可能導致這些結果出現重大差異的風險和不確定性。

Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to long statements in the subsequent events. During the call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release. The earnings press release is available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

我們在本次電話會議中所做的任何前瞻性陳述均基於截至今天的假設，我們對後續事件中的長篇陳述不承擔任何義務。在電話會議期間，我們將介紹 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標。今天的收益新聞稿中包含了 GAAP 與非 GAAP 指標的調節。收益新聞稿可在我們網站的投資者關係部分獲取。

At this time, I want to turn the call over to Edwin.

這時，我想把電話轉給埃德溫。

Thank you, Trevor, and thank you for everyone who's joining. Good afternoon. I would like to thank you all for joining to discuss Marchex and what we consider a very hot topic around AI, or artificial intelligence, which we're in the middle of.

謝謝你，特雷弗，也感謝所有加入的人。下午好。我要感謝大家加入討論 Marchex 以及我們認為圍繞 AI 的非常熱門的話題，我們正處於其中。

Before we dive into details of the quarter, I will share some thoughts around my journey as CEO of Marchex. We believe we are in a strong market with strong and good tailwinds. I'm in the midst of building relationships with our clients and understanding their problems and how Marchex can provide solutions now and in the future.

在我們深入了解本季度的細節之前，我將分享一些關於我作為 Marchex 首席執行官的經歷的想法。我們相信，我們正處於一個強勁的市場，有著強大而良好的推動力。我正在與客戶建立關係並了解他們的問題以及 Marchex 如何在現在和將來提供解決方案。

Marchex is at a unique moment. Our early investments in artificial intelligence have positioned our business to capitalize on the market's growing demand for a vertical market understanding and products. We believe we are in the right place and at the right time to be a leader in the conversational intelligence market, and that we simply need to continue our path to execute across our talent, process and technology and empower our clients to be smarter each and every day.

Marchex 正處於一個獨特的時刻。我們對人工智能的早期投資使我們的業務能夠利用市場對垂直市場理解和產品不斷增長的需求。我們相信，我們在正確的地點和正確的時間成為對話智能市場的領導者，我們只需要繼續我們的人才、流程和技術執行之路，讓我們的客戶變得更加聰明。每天。

It has been a very good amount of time I spent out in person with our clients. It's been a really good set of meetings. We enjoy working with some of the largest businesses in the world. The potential we have with our current clients and in our vertical markets excite me. I continue to focus the bulk of my efforts on our customers and reorganizing the business to take advantage of the opportunity we see in front of us within a multibillion-dollar market.

我與客戶一起度過了非常愉快的時光。這是一系列非常好的會議。我們喜歡與世界上一些最大的企業合作。我們在現有客戶和垂直市場中所擁有的潛力令我興奮。我繼續將大部分精力集中在客戶身上，並重組業務，以利用我們在價值數十億美元的市場中看到的機會。

Over the past 6 months, I've been developing a deep understanding of the challenges and more importantly, the opportunities our customers possess in their industries. It has been exciting to see how our unique understanding of the vertical markets where we operate give us an advantage in mathematically understanding data to shape solutions around a complex set of conversations. This is exciting to create in collaboration with our clients, and I do stress with our clients.

在過去的 6 個月裡，我對挑戰有了深入的了解，更重要的是，我們的客戶在其行業中擁有的機遇。令人興奮的是，我們對所經營的垂直市場的獨特理解如何使我們在數學上理解數據以圍繞一組複雜的對話形成解決方案方面具有優勢。與我們的客戶合作創造這是令人興奮的，我確實對我們的客戶強調。

These are very large companies that engage with their customers across multiple communication channels. They care deeply about each step in their processes. They are data-driven, and are aware that many have significant gaps around understanding and engaging customers across their omnichannel communications.

這些都是非常大的公司，通過多種溝通渠道與客戶互動。他們非常關心流程中的每一步。他們是數據驅動的，並且意識到許多人在通過全渠道通信理解和吸引客戶方面存在巨大差距。

The era we find ourselves in now proves that Marchex was ahead of the curve in using our data to develop our AI capabilities. Our foresight in directing resources toward creating award-winning AI products is a testament to the talent and innovation of our team. In fact, in the second quarter, we received the highly sought after industry honor, the 2023 Artificial Intelligence Breakthrough Award for the best AI Solution for Sales. Say that again. Breakthrough Award for the Best AI Solution for Sales.

我們現在所處的時代證明，Marchex 在利用我們的數據開發人工智能功能方面處於領先地位。我們在將資源用於創建屢獲殊榮的人工智能產品方面的遠見卓識證明了我們團隊的才能和創新。事實上，在第二季度，我們獲得了備受追捧的行業榮譽——2023 年人工智能突破獎最佳人工智能銷售解決方案。再說一次。最佳銷售人工智能解決方案突破獎。

This award recognizes excellence, innovation, hard work and success in a range of AI and machine learning related categories, including generative AI, computer vision, AI ops, deep learning, robotics, natural language processing, industry-specific AI applications and much more.

該獎項旨在表彰一系列人工智能和機器學習相關領域的卓越、創新、努力和成功，包括生成式人工智能、計算機視覺、人工智能操作、深度學習、機器人、自然語言處理、特定行業的人工智能應用等等。

In the second quarter, Marchex also received our second customer success award from APPEALIE. APPEALIE SaaS awards on our customer base obsessed platforms and success stories that deliver extraordinary experiences and results. This represents further recognition that our cutting-edge solutions are highly effective in delivering exceptional results for our clients. We are creating solutions that can help realize tens of millions of incremental sales a year to Fortune 100 brands. Our customers are actively asking more from us. That's a large part of why we are winning new relationships and establishing record contract extensions with certain partners.

第二季度，Marchex 還獲得了 APPEALIE 頒發的第二個客戶成功獎。 APPEALIE SaaS 獎勵我們的客戶群痴迷的平台和成功案例，這些案例提供了非凡的體驗和成果。這進一步表明我們的尖端解決方案能夠非常有效地為客戶提供卓越的成果。我們正在創建的解決方案可以幫助財富 100 強品牌實現每年數千萬的增量銷售額。我們的客戶正在積極向我們提出更多要求。這就是我們贏得新關係並與某些合作夥伴創紀錄的續約合同的一個重要原因。

There's another reason we expect to lead this space. It is directly correlated to the exceptional relationships we have developed with several of the largest brands in the automotive, auto services, and home services industries, among others. These strategic partnerships have provided us with invaluable insights into customer needs and industry trends. Our team has worked over many years to solidify our position as a trusted and often exclusive provider of conversational intelligence solutions. As the new CEO of Marchex, I'm grateful for the care and consideration of our teams have poured into these relationships over the years.

我們期望引領這個領域還有另一個原因。這與我們與汽車、汽車服務和家庭服務等行業的幾個最大品牌建立的特殊關係直接相關。這些戰略合作夥伴關係為我們提供了對客戶需求和行業趨勢的寶貴見解。我們的團隊多年來一直致力於鞏固我們作為值得信賴且通常是獨家對話智能解決方案提供商的地位。作為 Marchex 的新任首席執行官，我感謝我們團隊多年來對這些關係的關心和考慮。

And what's most exciting is what many of our largest customers want us to do, which is expand now and in the future. To accomplish that, Marchex will continue to organize ourselves to move most quickly and serve our customers and innovate faster as we open new market opportunities. I will stress, I've now met all of our top customers around the globe. I'm now on second and third meetings with them, and it truly is exciting.

最令人興奮的是我們許多最大的客戶希望我們做的事情，即現在和未來的擴張。為了實現這一目標，Marchex 將繼續組織自己，以最快的速度行動，為我們的客戶提供服務，並在開闢新的市場機會時更快地進行創新。我要強調的是，我現在已經會見了我們在全球各地的所有頂級客戶。我現在正在與他們進行第二次和第三次會議，這確實令人興奮。

I'd like to take a moment now to talk about how, by focusing on 3 key areas, we intend to unlock our future opportunities. The first will be through building enhanced customer experiences for brands. Conversational intelligence holds the potential to revolutionize the way customers interact with brands. By leveraging our strong relationships with enterprise companies in auto, auto services, home services and other verticals, we can tailor conversational solutions to meet their unique needs. We can transform the way our customers interact with their customers and prospects across the phone and in text messaging and beyond.

我現在想花點時間談談我們打算如何通過關註三個關鍵領域來釋放未來的機遇。第一個是為品牌打造增強的客戶體驗。對話智能有可能徹底改變客戶與品牌互動的方式。通過利用我們與汽車、汽車服務、家庭服務和其他垂直領域的企業公司的牢固關係，我們可以定制對話解決方案來滿足他們的獨特需求。我們可以改變客戶通過電話、短信等方式與客戶和潛在客戶互動的方式。

The second is through our data-driven insights. Our access to billions and billions of anonymized data points from our partners gives us a significant competitive edge. We can extract insights from customer interactions through a granularity that our customers have never accessed for. This, again, is thanks to the power of our AI platform, and I'm going to add math models. We can identify emerging trends, customer preferences and pain points to help our clients make the best and most informed data-driven decisions. We've helped our customers achieve increased sales and improve services, driving loyalty and customer satisfaction.

第二個是通過我們的數據驅動的見解。我們從合作夥伴那裡獲取數十億匿名數據點，這給我們帶來了顯著的競爭優勢。我們可以通過客戶從未訪問過的粒度從客戶交互中提取見解。這又要歸功於我們人工智能平台的強大功能，我將添加數學模型。我們可以識別新興趨勢、客戶偏好和痛點，幫助客戶做出最佳、最明智的數據驅動決策。我們幫助客戶增加銷售額並改善服務，提高忠誠度和客戶滿意度。

Now on to my third and final point about what makes Marchex a differentiated competitor. It is our innovation in R&D. Staying ahead in the conversational intelligence market demands continuous innovation and investment in research and development. We've committed ourselves to expanding our team of talent engineers and data scientists, enabling us to develop cutting-edge technology that pushes the boundaries of conversational AI. The work we're doing is shaping the future of the industries we serve.

現在談談我的第三點也是最後一點，即為什麼 Marchex 成為一個與眾不同的競爭對手。這是我們研發的創新。要在對話智能市場保持領先地位，需要持續創新和研發投資。我們致力於擴大我們的人才工程師和數據科學家團隊，使我們能夠開發突破對話式人工智能界限的尖端技術。我們正在做的工作正在塑造我們所服務的行業的未來。

We are moving fast. We're further aligned. We further aligned the people, process and technology facets of the company in the past few months from the executive team to various other functions within the company. I am proud of the team. Additionally, we plan to continue to drive initiatives to achieve profitability earlier than we previously anticipated and preserve the balance sheet to meet our long-term needs.

我們正在快速行動。我們更加一致了。在過去的幾個月裡，我們進一步調整了公司的人員、流程和技術方面，從執行團隊到公司內的各個其他職能部門。我為這個團隊感到自豪。此外，我們計劃繼續推動各項舉措，以比我們之前預期更早實現盈利，並保持資產負債表以滿足我們的長期需求。

In addition, these efforts are focused to enable us to move faster as a company. AI is changing the landscape and software. Over the next several months, you will see new products and new go-to-market strategies unfold. Many of our customers are looking to us to provide much-needed innovation for their businesses. There is much work to do together, but I am excited about our future and I do look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming months.

此外，這些努力的重點是使我們公司能夠更快地發展。人工智能正在改變環境和軟件。在接下來的幾個月中，您將看到新產品和新的上市策略不斷湧現。我們的許多客戶都希望我們為其業務提供急需的創新。我們還有很多工作需要共同完成，但我對我們的未來感到興奮，並期待著在未來幾個月向您通報我們的最新進展。

With that, I'll turn it over to Mike.

有了這個，我會把它交給邁克。

Thank you, Edwin. For the second quarter, revenue was $12.5 million versus $13.5 million for the same quarter last year. From a revenue perspective, the quarter was mixed. On the one hand, we saw continued pressure on conversation volumes in certain vertical segments with growth in others. Specifically, there was continued pressure with our small business listing and solution providers that mostly sell marketing services to local businesses. This trend manifested over the latter part of 2022 and has continued into the first half of 2023.

謝謝你，埃德溫。第二季度收入為 1,250 萬美元，去年同期為 1,350 萬美元。從收入角度來看，該季度的情況好壞參半。一方面，我們看到某些垂直細分市場的對話量持續面臨壓力，而其他垂直細分市場的對話量則有所增長。具體來說，我們的小企業上市和解決方案提供商主要向當地企業銷售營銷服務，持續面臨壓力。這一趨勢在2022年下半年顯現出來，並持續到2023年上半年。

On the other side of the equation, certain verticals like automotive and auto services saw growth on a year-over-year basis. On a sequential basis, our auto dealership-facing products continue to see momentum. This is primarily as a result of the continued expanding support from auto OEM relationships, particularly those we've recently extended into multiyear terms. Over time, as we continue to expand our OEM and brand partnerships, we believe this will provide a continued tailwind for our dealership products. And in addition, we see significant potential to expand some of these products into verticals that have similar characteristics and where we already have relationships with many of the vertical leaders. I'll dive into this in more detail in a moment when I discuss further guidance for 2023.

另一方面，汽車和汽車服務等某些垂直行業出現了同比增長。從環比來看，我們面向汽車經銷商的產品繼續保持增長勢頭。這主要是由於汽車原始設備製造商關係不斷擴大的支持，特別是我們最近延長為多年期的支持。隨著時間的推移，隨著我們繼續擴大我們的 OEM 和品牌合作夥伴關係，我們相信這將為我們的經銷商產品提供持續的推動力。此外，我們還看到將其中一些產品擴展到具有相似特徵並且我們已經與許多垂直領導者建立關係的垂直行業的巨大潛力。當我討論 2023 年的進一步指導時，我將更詳細地探討這一點。

Turning to the P&L for the second quarter. Excluding stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets and acquisition or disposition-related costs, total operating costs for the second quarter were $14 million compared to $13.7 million for the second quarter of 2022. During the quarter, we incurred certain costs associated with reorganizing and modifying operating activities, totaling approximately $500,000. These were spread across functional areas and related primarily to personnel, facilities and system expenditures.

轉向第二季度的損益表。不包括股票薪酬、無形資產攤銷以及收購或處置相關成本，第二季度的總運營成本為1,400 萬美元，而2022 年第二季度為1,370 萬美元。在本季度，我們產生了與重組相關的某些成本修改經營活動，總計約 500,000 美元。這些支出分佈在各個職能領域，主要與人員、設施和系統支出有關。

Service costs were $5.5 million for the second quarter, which decreased as a percentage of revenue from the first quarter of 2023, excluding the impact of efficiency initiatives. Service costs increased on a year-over-year basis, in part due to increased data and labor costs associated with customer migrations on to new product platforms and increased staging investment for our AI initiatives which we expect to remain the case through the balance of this year and into next year.

第二季度的服務成本為 550 萬美元，佔收入的百分比較 2023 年第一季度有所下降，不包括效率舉措的影響。服務成本同比增加，部分原因是與客戶遷移到新產品平台相關的數據和勞動力成本增加，以及我們的人工智能計劃的分階段投資增加，我們預計通過平衡這一情況將保持這種情況年並進入明年。

Several of these investments are of a fixed nature and therefore, over time, we believe we will see a positive impact on service costs as a percentage of revenue as we sell through our new conversational intelligence products and advance our new channel initiatives.

其中一些投資具有固定性質，因此，隨著時間的推移，我們相信，隨著我們通過新的對話智能產品進行銷售並推進我們的新渠道計劃，我們將看到服務成本佔收入的百分比產生積極影響。

Sales and marketing costs were approximately $2.4 million for the second quarter. This was down from the prior comparative periods, in large part as a result of the reorganizing initiatives. Product development costs were $4 million for the second quarter as we continue to invest in our products and in building AI to expand our conversational intelligence capabilities.

第二季度的銷售和營銷成本約為 240 萬美元。這比之前的比較時期有所下降，這在很大程度上是重組舉措的結果。第二季度的產品開發成本為 400 萬美元，因為我們繼續投資於我們的產品和構建人工智能以擴展我們的對話智能能力。

Now moving to profitability measures. Adjusted operating loss before amortization for the second quarter was $1.5 million. Corresponding adjusted EBITDA was a loss of approximately $1 million. These amounts include approximately $500,000 for certain costs associated with reorganizing and modifying operating activities. Excluding those amounts, adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $550,000.

現在轉向盈利能力指標。第二季度攤銷前調整後運營虧損為 150 萬美元。相應的調整後 EBITDA 損失約為 100 萬美元。這些金額包括大約 500,000 美元，用於與重組和修改經營活動相關的某些費用。排除這些金額，調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 550,000 美元。

GAAP net loss was $2.7 million for the second quarter or $0.06 per diluted share. This compares to a loss of $1.5 million or $0.03 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted non-GAAP loss was $0.03 per share for the second quarter compared to a loss of $0.01 per share for the second quarter of 2022. Additionally, we ended the second quarter with approximately $14.1 million in cash on hand.

第二季度 GAAP 淨虧損為 270 萬美元，攤薄後每股虧損 0.06 美元。相比之下，2022 年第二季度虧損150 萬美元，即每股攤薄虧損0.03 美元。調整後的非公認會計原則第二季度虧損為每股0.03 美元，而2022 年第二季度每股虧損0.01美元。此外，第二季度結束時，我們手頭現金約為 1,410 萬美元。

Now turning to our outlook. We believe revenue in the third quarter of 2023 should increase modestly relative to the second quarter of 2023. We continue to see some headwinds in certain verticals, as previously mentioned, that will carry over into the third quarter. However, we believe those factors will be offset by the growth driven by new customer adoption and the onboarding of previously won relationships, including our recent OEM and auto brand wins and by existing customers ramping. In addition, based on that momentum, we continue to believe that we should see revenue growth in our back half of the year versus the first half of 2023, and we continue to believe that our traction within the automotive vertical can lead to double-digit growth on an annualized run rate year-over-year basis by the end of 2023 within that vertical.

現在轉向我們的展望。我們認為，2023 年第三季度的收入應比 2023 年第二季度小幅增長。正如前面提到的，我們繼續看到某些垂直領域面臨一些阻力，這些阻力將延續到第三季度。然而，我們相信這些因素將被新客戶採用和先前贏得的關係的加入所推動的增長所抵消，包括我們最近贏得的原始設備製造商和汽車品牌以及現有客戶的增加。此外，基於這一勢頭，我們仍然相信，與 2023 年上半年相比，今年下半年的收入將出現增長，並且我們仍然相信，我們在汽車垂直領域的牽引力可以帶來兩位數的增長到2023年底，該垂直領域內的年化運行率將實現同比增長。

With our current progress, we believe we will be at or near breakeven on an adjusted EBITDA basis in the third quarter, including at breakeven or above levels in September. Furthermore, our cost-saving initiatives, in tandem with expected future revenue growth initiatives, should enable greater leverage and consequently, we could see improvement in profitability measures in the future.

根據我們目前的進展，我們相信第三季度調整後 EBITDA 將達到或接近盈虧平衡，包括 9 月份達到盈虧平衡或更高水平。此外，我們的成本節約舉措與預期的未來收入增長舉措相結合，應該能夠實現更大的槓桿作用，因此，我們可以看到未來盈利能力的改善。

The first half of 2023 has seen significant change at the company. Several growth initiatives are just beginning to bear fruit for us and there is significantly more to share on our product and innovation road map. We remain in a unique position where many of our largest customers are asking for more of our products and signing long-term commitments to gain access to our conversational intelligence software and our pipeline of new products.

2023年上半年，公司發生了重大變化。多項增長舉措剛剛開始為我們帶來成果，我們的產品和創新路線圖上還有更多值得分享的內容。我們仍然處於獨特的地位，我們的許多最大的客戶都要求我們提供更多產品，並簽署長期承諾，以獲得我們的對話智能軟件和新產品系列。

While we can identify the work needed to unlock that potential, we also recognize there remain many other significant opportunities to expand our relationships with some of the largest companies in the auto, auto services, home services and health care verticals, among others. We believe that several of these relationships should contribute to growth this year with significant growth potential going forward. For example, we are encouraged to see that the progress with our auto OEM partners supports inroads and strategic advantage with our auto dealer sales channel. We expect this will continue in the future.

雖然我們可以確定釋放這一潛力所需的工作，但我們也認識到，仍然存在許多其他重要機會來擴大我們與汽車、汽車服務、家庭服務和醫療保健垂直行業等一些最大公司的關係。我們相信，其中一些關係將有助於今年的增長，並具有巨大的未來增長潛力。例如，我們很高興看到與汽車原始設備製造商合作夥伴的進展支持了我們的汽車經銷商銷售渠道的進展和戰略優勢。我們預計這種情況將在未來繼續下去。

And in addition, as mentioned, there are several new products and vertical initiatives that we expect to launch with some slated for later this year. Now as Edwin mentioned, we strongly believe that our company has significant untapped potential. We have been realigning the business to go faster and unlock opportunities with our existing customers while looking to open new market opportunities by penetrating verticals where we already have a critical mass of data to innovate from. And at the same time, we are continuing to invest in our innovation engine at a critical time when many industries need to understand how to leverage data science and AI to deliver better customer experiences and sell more.

此外，如上所述，我們預計將推出一些新產品和垂直計劃，其中一些計劃於今年晚些時候推出。現在，正如埃德溫提到的，我們堅信我們公司具有巨大的未開發潛力。我們一直在重新調整業務，以更快地發展並與現有客戶一起釋放機會，同時尋求通過滲透我們已經擁有大量數據進行創新的垂直領域來開闢新的市場機會。與此同時，在許多行業需要了解如何利用數據科學和人工智能來提供更好的客戶體驗並增加銷量的關鍵時刻，我們將繼續投資於我們的創新引擎。

As we go forward, we expect to see expanded relationships with numerous Fortune 500 customers and other new and significant relationships added to our base.

隨著我們的前進，我們期望看到與眾多財富 500 強客戶的關係得到擴大，並且其他新的重要關係也將增加到我們的基礎上。

I want to thank all of our employees again for their continued dedication and effort. And with that, operator, we will hand the call back to you.

我要再次感謝我們所有員工的持續奉獻和努力。接線員，我們會將電話轉回給您。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Dillon Heslin from ROTH Capital Partners.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 ROTH Capital Partners 的 Dillon Heslin。

First one, when you sort of talk about the volume trends with sort of your other services being down year-over-year still, but then still some momentum sequentially in auto, like if you compare 2Q to 1Q, are the general trends better in terms of a sequential basis where you might have at least reached sort of a trough and are on the way up in just the general volume trends across all the businesses?

首先，當你談論銷量趨勢時，你的其他服務仍然同比下降，但汽車領域仍然有一些連續的勢頭，就像你比較第二季度和第一季度一樣，總體趨勢是否更好從連續的角度來看，您可能至少已經達到了某種低谷，並且所有業務的總體銷量趨勢正在上升？

Thank you, Dillon, for the question. This is Mike. So as we mentioned in some of the prepared remarks, the small business solution providers that focus on some of their selling to local and the small and medium-sized businesses, they have manifested being down in the latter part of 2022. That trend continued, not just here in the first quarter of the year, but also in the second quarter. And we see that here as we sit in the early part of the third quarter as well.

謝謝狄龍的提問。這是邁克。正如我們在一些準備好的發言中提到的，專注於向本地和中小型企業進行部分銷售的小型企業解決方案提供商，他們在 2022 年下半年表現出下滑趨勢。這種趨勢仍在繼續，不僅是今年第一季度，第二季度也是如此。當我們在第三季度初期時，我們也看到了這一點。

What we do see though is in automotive, and in auto services and in some of the other verticals that we've referenced today, where we've had not only expanded relationships with some of our customer base that existed already but also some of the new wins and especially with some of the larger OEMs that we have announced previously in the last 6 months, we see things burgeoning. And we have onboarded in some cases, fortuitously, where the ramp has already started, and we saw a little bit of that during the second quarter, but that trend continues.

不過，我們確實看到的是在汽車、汽車服務以及我們今天提到的其他一些垂直領域，我們不僅擴大了與一些已經存在的客戶群的關係，還擴大了與一些現有客戶群的關係。新的勝利，特別是我們在過去6 個月中宣布的一些較大的OEM 廠商，我們看到事情正在蓬勃發展。在某些情況下，我們偶然地已經開始了增長，我們在第二季度看到了一些這種情況，但這種趨勢仍在繼續。

And so to answer your question, in those areas, especially with the expansion of the relationships, the committed relationships that have extended for several multiyear periods as well as some of the new prospects, we see the momentum as expected which gives us the pause for why we think the back half of the year, again, is going to be incrementally in higher revenue than the first half of the year and why we see the sequential growth as we sit here looking into the third quarter.

因此，為了回答你的問題，在這些領域，特別是隨著關係的擴展，已經延續了數年的承諾關係以及一些新的前景，我們看到了預期的勢頭，這讓我們暫停了為什麼我們認為今年下半年的收入將比上半年逐步增加，以及為什麼當我們坐在這裡展望第三季度時，我們會看到連續增長。

Importantly, I think the other part of the remarks we made, which I'll reiterate, we view at the end of 2023, particularly with the sponsorship opportunities we're getting through the OEM relationships in the auto sector, some of our dealer sales direct outreach initiatives and the new products that we brought with features and benefits at the dealer level, to be able to continue to see progress there. And by the end of this year, we expect on a run rate basis still that the revenue in that auto vertical to be double-digit revenue growth on a year-over-year basis by the end of 2023.

重要的是，我認為我們在 2023 年底發表的言論的另一部分（我將重申這一點），特別是我們通過汽車行業的 OEM 關係獲得的讚助機會，以及我們的一些經銷商銷售直接推廣計劃以及我們在經銷商層面帶來的具有功能和優勢的新產品，以便能夠繼續看到那裡的進展。到今年年底，我們仍預計，從運行率來看，到 2023 年底，該汽車垂直行業的收入將實現兩位數的同比收入增長。

What that does in our minds, especially given the nimbleness and some of the organization modifications that have been made to align more to go after certain of these momentum producing areas, we like what that sets us up for, for 2024.

這對我們來說意味著什麼，特別是考慮到靈活性和一些組織調整，這些調整是為了更好地追求某些動力產生領域而進行的，我們喜歡這為我們在 2024 年所做的準備。

Yes. Mike, I'll add one thing. This is Edwin. Thanks for the question. Yes. Let me add a little bit to that because on the front lines every day. So when he says nimbleness and movement, we really have structured the business to -- toward vertical market, go-to-markets, and what I'm finding which is really fun is the needs of the clients across our verticals, they're not different. The product offering is not different. The feature set is not different.

是的。邁克，我要補充一件事。這是埃德溫.謝謝你的提問。是的。讓我補充一點，因為我每天都在前線。因此，當他說靈活性和移動性時，我們確實已經將業務構建為面向垂直市場、進入市場，我發現真正有趣的是我們垂直領域客戶的需求，他們是沒有什麼不同。提供的產品沒有什麼不同。功能集沒有什麼不同。

It may be different math models with different nomenclature like in auto, you say broncho, it means a truck, not a horse. And when you jump to home services, what they say when they say pans, it's something else, right? So outside of the vernacular nomenclature, our go-to-markets look very similar, even so that our current inside sales group that has been targeting that double-digit growth in auto, which has been great. We now have them let up to start new campaigns in new vertical markets with new scripts that will drive the business and our ability to impact verticals where we already have some stickiness.

它可能是具有不同命名法的不同數學模型，就像在汽車中，你說“broncho”，它意味著一輛卡車，而不是一匹馬。當你跳到家庭服務時，當他們說平底鍋時，他們所說的是另一回事，對嗎？因此，除了白話術語之外，我們的市場定位看起來非常相似，即使我們目前的內部銷售團隊一直致力於汽車領域兩位數的增長，這已經很棒了。現在，我們讓他們在新的垂直市場中開展新的活動，使用新的腳本來推動業務和我們影響我們已經有一定粘性的垂直市場的能力。

And actually, just to -- sort of as a follow-up on what you mentioned, Edwin. So when you talk about expanding into those new verticals that are somewhat similar, do you think there's a large need for increased R&D to sort of help with training the models on sort of the new data sets? Or it's pretty similar enough where you can get those up and running fast?

事實上，埃德溫，這有點像你提到的內容的後續。因此，當您談到擴展到那些有些相似的新垂直領域時，您是否認為需要增加研發來幫助在新數據集上訓練模型？或者它非常相似，您可以快速啟動並運行它們？

Yes. They're very similar. The only difference I'd say in the math model is like we've got I don't know how many tens of millions of conversations in certain verticals. But understand this, we're already in the verticals. So every -- the 4 verticals we mentioned, I've been with clients in all 4 verticals already, and they're massive clients.

是的。他們非常相似。我想說的數學模型中唯一的區別是，我不知道某些垂直領域有多少數千萬個對話。但要明白這一點，我們已經進入了垂直領域。因此，對於我們提到的 4 個垂直行業，我已經與所有 4 個垂直行業的客戶打過交道，而且他們都是大客戶。

Our ability to position what we're doing in R&D across those verticals is consistent. It would be 1 data stack, 1 pipe. Our ability to build the math models to your problem has just gotten sped up. What we have is vertical dominance. The horizontal, and I was on a panel a couple of weeks ago with start-ups where they had a bunch of AI, everybody's AI now and they're horizontal. We actually have been in vertical for many, many, many, moons. And so the ability to walk in and understand those conversations and help them understand how to create a better relationship, whether it's a marketing or sales motion, we've got that data.

我們在這些垂直領域的研發工作定位的能力是一致的。它將是 1 個數據堆棧、1 個管道。我們為您的問題構建數學模型的能力剛剛加快。我們擁有的是垂直優勢。水平方向，幾週前我參加了一個初創公司的小組討論，他們擁有大量人工智能，現在每個人都有人工智能，而且它們是水平的。事實上，我們已經在垂直狀態下呆了很多很多很多衛星了。因此，我們已經獲得了這些數據，能夠走進並理解這些對話並幫助他們了解如何建立更好的關係，無論是營銷還是銷售活動。

So forming the math models, we've got the people. We are investing in that area. And I'm not worried about that at all. I would not want to be a horizontal AI player right now. I can tell you that.

因此，我們已經找到了建立數學模型的人員。我們正在該領域進行投資。我一點也不擔心這個。我現在不想成為一個橫向的人工智能玩家。我可以告訴你。

Our next question comes from Michael Latimore from Northland Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 Northland Capital Markets 的 Michael Latimore。

Edwin, conversational intelligence can mean a lot of different things. I guess what -- can you give a sort of concrete example of a use case that you're particularly excited about and maybe some of the ROI behind it that you're seeing maybe with some of your bigger customers?

埃德溫，會話智能可以意味著很多不同的事情。我猜怎麼著——你能舉一個你特別興奮的用例的具體例子嗎？也許你在一些大客戶身上看到了它背後的一些投資回報率？

Thanks, Mike, for the question. Certainly. I'm going to give a broad answer and then I'll go deep. I'll go 30,000 feet down to 2,000. Conversational intelligence really and omnichannel intelligence it's hard to do, and we have the platforms to do it, which is awesome. So our ability to collect, trap, analyze, understand and deliver data back in 20 seconds to a client about an experience of a hang-up or nontransfer or a bad conversation is powerful. Like I've not seen anything like it. I'm on my -- I've been on the journey in my career as a CEO. And this is fun.

謝謝邁克提出這個問題。當然。我將給出一個廣泛的答案，然後我會深入探討。我會從 30,000 英尺下降到 2,000 英尺。對話智能和全渠道智能確實很難做到，但我們有平台可以做到這一點，這非常棒。因此，我們能夠收集、捕獲、分析、理解並在 20 秒內向客戶返回有關掛斷、未轉移或糟糕對話體驗的數據。好像我沒見過類似的東西。作為首席執行官，我一直在我的職業生涯中前進。這很有趣。

So like a specific example would be, you want -- you've got 500 dealerships that are using our platform. It's from the OEM, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. And our ability to say what happened to deliver education very quickly to the people in the field trying to drive performance of dealership or know what happened on a call or a text, we're there.

舉一個具體的例子，您希望有 500 家經銷商正在使用我們的平台。它來自 OEM、第 1 級、第 2 級、第 3 級。我們有能力快速向現場人員提供教育，試圖提高經銷商的業績，或者通過電話或短信了解發生了什麼，我們在那裡。

Now do I think we're only there? No. And this is where I'm going to probably be careful, but we are a data analytics company. We've got more data than any company I've seen in my career as a CEO. So what we do with that data and how we form math models to drive value props for our clients, I mean I'm literally whiteboarding with our clients. I came off vacation, I flew twice last week, got my family located, got on a plane, flew and whiteboarded with clients.

現在我認為我們就在那裡嗎？不。這就是我可能要小心的地方，但我們是一家數據分析公司。我們擁有的數據比我在首席執行官職業生涯中見過的任何公司都多。那麼我們如何處理這些數據以及我們如何形成數學模型來為我們的客戶推動價值支撐，我的意思是我實際上是在與我們的客戶進行白板交流。我放假了，上週我飛了兩次，找到了我的家人，登上了飛機，與客戶一起飛行並在白板上進行了交流。

So the needs there, how they expand their use of our platform and our data analytics it's clear to me and a clear path, we've got a lot of work to do. I believe we can do it. We've got the right team in place. But yes, we -- the amount of value, when I say tens of millions of dollars a year to clients, it truly is on, let's call it, a math model with a signal, tens of millions a year that they get to save.

因此，我很清楚那裡的需求，他們如何擴展對我們平台和數據分析的使用，並且有一條清晰的道路，我們還有很多工作要做。我相信我們能做到。我們已經擁有合適的團隊。但是，是的，我們——當我對客戶說每年數千萬美元時，它確實是一個帶有信號的數學模型，他們每年可以節省數千萬美元。

And I will say, AI is going to help us move faster. And our customers want to do more with us, and I'm out there with them. So I actually got my first tugs on the road last week from clients, which is awesome. It was completely PC, by the way. Nothing bad happened.

我想說，人工智能將幫助我們更快地前進。我們的客戶希望與我們一起做更多事情，我也與他們一起努力。所以上週我真的得到了客戶的第一次上路拖車，這太棒了。順便說一句，它完全是個人電腦。沒有什麼不好的事情發生。

And then the -- I know you talked about the small business segment being soft. Are there any other verticals that are kind of in a declining mode still? And what percent of revenue would those be?

然後，我知道您談到了小型企業部門的疲軟。還有其他垂直行業仍處於衰退狀態嗎？這些佔收入的百分比是多少？

Mike, this is Mike here. So the small business listing and those solution providers make up the brunt. We do have some other smaller areas. But in terms of those small business solution providers being down on a year-over-year basis, that trend continues. In some cases, it's more than 20% down. They don't make up a significant proportion, but still a meaningful proportion of the aggregate revenues. Each quarter that we go and the automotive progresses, the auto services progresses and the home service progresses, the impact hopefully becomes further muted.

邁克，這是邁克。因此，小型企業列表和那些解決方案提供商首當其衝。我們確實還有其他一些較小的區域。但就那些同比下降的小型企業解決方案提供商而言，這種趨勢仍在繼續。在某些情況下，下降幅度超過 20%。它們所佔的比例並不大，但仍然佔總收入的很大一部分。每個季度，汽車、汽車服務和家庭服務都在進步，其影響有望進一步減弱。

Yes. And I'll add to that, Mike. The -- it's also -- again, I will stress that having benefit across on taking people that were in just in verticals now to other verticals so they can see just how the same problems exist and our software solves it. But I think our fit is it's not just before verticals we're in. I'm going to include health care in there. There are 3 more verticals I think we can go after with the same data pipe, data stack, data analytics we. Have to tweak the math models. Generative AI is helping with that. But we also have -- we got droves of data where we can build math models going into a market and actually predict what it's going to look like faster than someone who's trying to sell it for the first time.

是的。我要補充一點，邁克。我還要再次強調，將現在處於垂直行業的人們帶到其他垂直行業是有好處的，這樣他們就可以看到同樣的問題是如何存在的，而我們的軟件是如何解決它的。但我認為我們的適合之處不僅在於我們所處的垂直領域。我將把醫療保健納入其中。我認為我們還可以使用相同的數據管道、數據堆棧、數據分析來追求另外 3 個垂直領域。必須調整數學模型。生成式人工智能正在幫助解決這個問題。但我們也擁有大量數據，我們可以在這些數據中建立進入市場的數學模型，並比第一次嘗試出售它的人更快地實際預測它會是什麼樣子。

So -- but I think the complexity of B2B2C is where we live really well. I'm going to be hard to beat on the road on B2B2C. So yes, I'll pause there and probably give it here.

所以——但我認為 B2B2C 的複雜性正是我們生活得很好的地方。在 B2B2C 的道路上我將很難被擊敗。所以是的，我會在那裡暫停並可能在這裡給出。

Just one last topic then on generative AI. I guess, do you -- is the idea here that you can feed your data into a large language model and it will accelerate the kind of the customer sentiment to the understanding of the intent of the call faster, maybe just explain how generative AI will help here. And then I mean, do you have a license with like an OpenAI? How does that work?

最後一個主題是關於生成人工智能。我想，你認為——這裡的想法是，你可以將你的數據輸入到一個大型語言模型中，它將加速客戶情緒，更快地理解呼叫的意圖，也許只是解釋生成式人工智能將如何在這裡幫忙。然後我的意思是，你有 OpenAI 之類的許可證嗎？這是如何運作的？

So think about generative AI and everything that a ChatGPT or CoPilot or anybody's offering. It will help you accelerate a lot of different things. Like I can write a job description now with -- in seconds. I can feed it prompts. But you actually have to understand the prompts. You can't build the prompts without the vertical data. You can't build the prompts without the math models you already have around the vertical data.

因此，請考慮一下生成式人工智能以及 ChatGPT 或 CoPilot 或任何人提供的一切。它將幫助您加速許多不同的事情。就像我現在可以在幾秒鐘內寫出一份工作描述一樣。我可以給它提示。但實際上你必須理解提示。如果沒有垂直數據，您就無法構建提示。如果沒有圍繞垂直數據已有的數學模型，您就無法構建提示。

So the speed is going to be -- it's going to make our -- everybody's life -- it is transformative. I was in the Internet in 1993, and I remember getting told by a very large Fortune 100 they'd never used the Internet, they would stay on EDI. I sold them Internet in 1995. So it's going to be the same but faster progression for people leveraging the tools. The question is do you have the data? Can you build the math models? Do you know the clients?

因此，速度將會——它將改變我們——每個人的生活——它是變革性的。我在 1993 年接觸過互聯網，記得有一家財富 100 強企業告訴我，他們從未使用過互聯網，他們會繼續使用 EDI。我在 1995 年將它們賣給了互聯網。因此，對於使用這些工具的人們來說，這將是相同的，但進步更快。問題是你有數據嗎？你能建立數學模型嗎？你了解客戶嗎？

I mean we've got some of the largest clients in the world leveraging our platform. So we just got to keep doing what we've been doing in the past 6 months. We got -- and prior. We got to line up our processes. We've got to line up our talent. We've got a line up our technology, and we got to leverage everything coming at us and be ahead. So we're actually hiring in the data sciences world. I've got 13 people in the team looking at what's next, what's going to happen to us in 6 months with generative AI.

我的意思是，我們有一些世界上最大的客戶在利用我們的平台。所以我們必須繼續做過去六個月一直在做的事情。我們得到了——而且是更早的。我們必須協調我們的流程。我們必鬚髮揮我們的才能。我們擁有一系列技術，我們必須利用一切來取得領先。所以我們實際上是在數據科學領域招聘。我的團隊中有 13 個人在研究接下來會發生什麼，以及 6 個月後生成式 AI 會給我們帶來什麼。

You think 13 is a small number. It's not. Less is more when you're running a company with anything around technology. There are 50 people in a kitchen, you'll never get a dinner. You throw one good chef in dinner with some support staff, maybe 2 or 3, you get a great dinner. So I like to move agile. I like to move fast, but I'm excited about where we are.

你認為13是一個小數字。它不是。當你經營一家涉及技術的公司時，少即是多。廚房裡有50個人，你永遠吃不到一頓飯。你讓一位優秀的廚師和一些支持人員（也許是 2 到 3 名）一起參加晚餐，你會得到一頓豐盛的晚餐。所以我喜歡動作敏捷。我喜歡快速行動，但我對我們所處的位置感到興奮。

And are you going to leverage third-party LLM or is it all internal?

您打算利用第三方法學碩士還是全部都是內部的？

Good question. I think yes is the answer, short answer. We also have a lot of expertise around it. So I think jury is out for me on full yes without some other stuff internal. But we're certainly leveraging any external partner with expertise because we've got the data. We've got the math models. I've actually -- we've got the client.

好問題。我認為答案是肯定的，簡短的答案。我們也有很多相關的專業知識。所以我認為陪審團對我來說完全是肯定的，沒有其他內部的東西。但我們肯定會利用任何具有專業知識的外部合作夥伴，因為我們擁有數據。我們已經有了數學模型。事實上，我們已經找到了客戶。

So we're in a good spot. It's a mix but we are automating a lot of different things right now that can be automated in a very simple manner with generative AI as an example, or NLP as an example. But more to come on that. Good question.

所以我們處於有利位置。這是一個混合體，但我們現在正在自動化許多不同的事情，這些事情可以以非常簡單的方式自動化，例如生成人工智能或 NLP 為例。但還有更多的事情要做。好問題。

We currently have no further questions, so I will now hand back over to the management team for closing remarks.

目前我們沒有進一步的問題，所以我現在將交回給管理團隊進行總結髮言。

All right. Well, thank you so much for everyone attending. We appreciate your time. We know everybody is busy. We're excited about what we're doing. We're excited about our next call. So look forward to the next call. Thank you so much.

好的。嗯，非常感謝大家的出席。我們感謝您的寶貴時間。我們知道每個人都很忙。我們對我們正在做的事情感到興奮。我們對下一次通話感到興奮。所以期待下一次的通話。太感謝了。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開線路。