SEMrush Holdings Inc (SEMR) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Semrush Holdings Fourth Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) A transcript of the prepared remarks will be available at investors.semrush.com after the call.

早上好。我叫 Audra，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。此時，歡迎大家參加 Semrush Holdings 2022 年第四季度業績電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）電話會議後，將在 investors.semrush.com 上提供準備好的發言稿。

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Bob Gujavarty, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

此時，我想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Bob Gujavaarty。請繼續。

Good morning. I'm Bob Gujavarty, VP of Investor Relations, and welcome to Semrush Holdings Fourth Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. We'll be discussing the results announced in our press release issued after market close on Monday. With me on the call is our CEO, Oleg Shchegolev; our CFO, Evgeny Fetisov; our President, Eugene Levin; and our CMO, Andrew Warden.

早上好。我是 Bob Gujavaarty，投資者關係副總裁，歡迎來到 Semrush Holdings 2022 年第四季度業績電話會議。我們將討論周一收市後發布的新聞稿中公佈的結果。與我通話的是我們的首席執行官 Oleg Shchegolev；我們的首席財務官 Evgeny Fetisov；我們的總裁 Eugene Levin；以及我們的首席營銷官 Andrew Warden。

Today's call will contain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, expected growth, adoption and demand for our existing and any new products and features, investments and acquisitions and their anticipated benefits, industry and market trends, our competitive position, our market strategies, market opportunities, our guidance for the first quarter of 2023 and the full year 2023 and statements about future operating results, including margin improvements, profitability and free cash flow goals can be identified by words such as expect, anticipate, intend, plan, believe, seek or will. These statements reflect our views as of today only and should not be relied upon as representing our views at any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any duty to update these statements.

今天的電話會議將包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述是根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款作出的。前瞻性陳述包括關於我們預期的未來業務和財務業績以及財務狀況、預期增長、採用對我們現有和任何新產品和功能的需求、投資和收購及其預期收益、行業和市場趨勢、我們的競爭地位、我們的市場戰略、市場機會、我們對 2023 年第一季度和 2023 年全年的指導以及關於未來經營業績的陳述，包括利潤率提高、盈利能力和自由現金流量目標，可以用諸如預期、預期、打算、計劃、相信、尋求或將要等詞來識別。這些聲明僅反映我們截至今天的觀點，不應被視為代表我們在任何後續日期的觀點，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的任何義務。

Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks and important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as our other filings with the SEC.

前瞻性陳述涉及受風險和不確定性影響的事項，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。有關可能影響我們實際結果的風險和重要因素的討論，請參閱我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-Q 表季度報告和 10-K 表年度報告以及我們的其他報告向 SEC 提交的文件。

Also during the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. There is a reconciliation schedule showing the GAAP versus non-GAAP results currently available on our press release issued yesterday after market close, which can be found at investors.semrush.com.

同樣在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考某些非 GAAP 財務指標。我們昨天收市後發布的新聞稿中有一個顯示 GAAP 與非 GAAP 結果的核對時間表，可在 investors.semrush.com 上找到。

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

有了這個，讓我把電話轉給奧列格。

Thank you, and good morning to everyone on the call. Fourth quarter revenue of $69 million was up 28% year-over-year and up 5% from the previous quarter. Despite a more challenging market economic environment, revenue came in above our expectations.

謝謝大家，早上好。第四季度收入為 6900 萬美元，同比增長 28%，環比增長 5%。儘管市場經濟環境更具挑戰性，但收入仍超出我們的預期。

We reported a strong year, a full year revenue of $254 million, up 35% year-over-year as we beaten range to estimates throughout 2022. We have a well-positioned business with a growing market, and we are excited who we are as a business.

我們報告了強勁的一年，全年收入為 2.54 億美元，同比增長 35%，因為我們在整個 2022 年超出了預期範圍。我們的業務定位良好，市場不斷增長，我們很高興我們是誰作為一項業務。

I wanted to priority a few highlights on 2022, and then Eugene will talk about our future strategic initiatives in 2023. In 2022, we launched our first brand marketing campaign, which we conducted a wide variety of experiments across different channels to determine which would drive the best results. We had a number of successful brand marketing campaigns, with the fact that net new audiences and users to Semrush beyond our core customer growth, which is particularly promising.

我想優先考慮 2022 年的一些亮點，然後 Eugene 將談談我們在 2023 年的未來戰略舉措。在 2022 年，我們啟動了第一個品牌營銷活動，我們在不同渠道進行了廣泛的實驗，以確定哪些會推動最好的結果。我們開展了許多成功的品牌營銷活動，事實是，Semrush 的新受眾和用戶超出了我們核心客戶的增長，這是特別有前途的。

These results were largely positive as we delivered record new customer additions in 2022 despite a more challenging environment. Because we hear with over 95,000 paid customers, however, net customer additions were slightly lower than the year ago period. We continue to see record new customer additions, which were partially offset by churn of existing customers.

這些結果在很大程度上是積極的，因為儘管環境更具挑戰性，但我們在 2022 年增加了創紀錄的新客戶。但是，因為我們聽說有超過 95,000 名付費客戶，淨客戶增加量略低於去年同期。我們繼續看到創紀錄的新客戶增加，這部分被現有客戶的流失所抵消。

I wanted to share some data about churn and propensity of customers to return to Semrush. For example, on average, more than 30% of customers who chose Semrush returned to the platform. For the customers returned, it will onset of COVID-19 lockdowns in April 2020, the return rate was more than 40%. We believe this level of customer [index] demonstrates the value of our product and its necessity to thousands of marketing professionals for organizations of all sizes.

我想分享一些關於客戶流失和返回 Semrush 的傾向的數據。例如，平均而言，選擇 Semrush 的客戶中有超過 30% 的客戶返回了該平台。對於返回的客戶，它將在 2020 年 4 月開始 COVID-19 鎖定，返回率超過 40%。我們相信，這種級別的客戶 [指數] 證明了我們產品的價值及其對各種規模組織的數千名營銷專業人員的必要性。

We are implementing targeted personalized promotions to help address churn and are already seeing improvements thus far in the first quarter. We are optimistic about the future growth based on the record new customer as a history of customer returns post-pandemic. In fact, we experienced a strong start to 2023 with record new customer additions in January and February.

我們正在實施有針對性的個性化促銷活動，以幫助解決客戶流失問題，並且在第一季度到目前為止已經看到了改善。基於創紀錄的新客戶作為大流行後客戶退貨的歷史，我們對未來的增長持樂觀態度。事實上，我們在 2023 年開局強勁，1 月和 2 月新增客戶數量創歷史新高。

Other important leading indicators, registrations and trials have hit new peak levels as much as 79% year-over-year for trials in February 2023, which is significant. Looking ahead to 2023 guidance, we expect it will be a year of balanced growth and significant margin improvement starting in the third quarter, and we expect to return to a non-GAAP breakeven run rate in Q3 time through our growth and efficiency initiatives.

其他重要的領先指標、註冊和試驗在 2023 年 2 月的試驗中達到了新的峰值水平，同比增長高達 79%，這一點意義重大。展望 2023 年的指引，我們預計從第三季度開始將是平衡增長和利潤率顯著改善的一年，我們預計將通過我們的增長和效率舉措在第三季度恢復到非 GAAP 盈虧平衡運行率。

For the first quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $70.3 million to $70.7 million, up approximately 23% year-over-year. We expect the first quarter non-GAAP net loss of $8 million to $7 million. For the full year, I expect revenue in the range of $306 million to $309 million, which would represent growth at the midpoint of approximately 21% year-over-year. We expect non-GAAP net income equivalent to $3 million for the full year 2023, including approximately $1.3 million of exit costs.

對於第一季度，我們預計收入在 7030 萬美元至 7070 萬美元之間，同比增長約 23%。我們預計第一季度非 GAAP 淨虧損為 800 萬至 700 萬美元。對於全年，我預計收入在 3.06 億美元至 3.09 億美元之間，這將代表同比增長約 21% 的中點。我們預計 2023 年全年的非 GAAP 淨收入相當於 300 萬美元，其中包括約 130 萬美元的退出成本。

I would remind investors that post our relocation program, roughly 30% of our costs are now incurred [in Euro and Euro elite currencies]. My guidance for 2023 non-GAAP net income assumes a year exits rate of approximately $1.08 to $1 for the remainder of the year.

我想提醒投資者，在我們的搬遷計劃發布後，我們現在大約有 30% 的成本是 [以歐元和歐元精英貨幣] 發生的。我對 2023 年非 GAAP 淨收入的指導假設今年剩餘時間的年度退出率約為 1.08 美元至 1 美元。

I remain very encouraged by underlying trends in the business and have been efficient in deploying capital. And we are focused on achieving non-GAAP profitability in Q3 2023. We are uniquely positioned and are diversified across geographies, industries and customer size with no consolidations. Our price points and go-to-market strategies target the widest possible customer base and we offer our customers a high degree of flexibility. I believe these qualities will provide to be even more competing in 2023.

我仍然對業務的潛在趨勢感到非常鼓舞，並且在部署資本方面一直很有效。我們專注於在 2023 年第三季度實現非 GAAP 盈利。我們具有獨特的定位，並且在沒有合併的情況下跨地域、行業和客戶規模實現多元化。我們的價格點和上市策略以盡可能廣泛的客戶群為目標，我們為客戶提供高度的靈活性。我相信這些品質將使 2023 年更具競爭力。

In closing, I want to thank all our employees, customers and partners for helping us deliver strong growth, while navigating through a challenging year. We remain focused on shareholder value and execution on our strategy to drive growth and future profitability.

最後，我要感謝我們所有的員工、客戶和合作夥伴幫助我們實現強勁增長，同時度過充滿挑戰的一年。我們仍然專注於股東價值和執行我們推動增長和未來盈利的戰略。

Before I turn it over to Eugene, I wanted to highlight the recent announcement we made appointing Brian Mulroy as Chief Financial Officer, effective April 10, 2023. Brian brings an exceptional background to Semrush, with over 23 years of experience in finance and technology. He has very strong leadership skills, most recently holding SAP finance roles at Microsoft and Nuance Communications.

在我把它交給 Eugene 之前，我想強調一下我們最近宣布任命 Brian Mulroy 為首席財務官，自 2023 年 4 月 10 日起生效。Brian 為 Semrush 帶來了非凡的背景，他在金融和技術領域擁有超過 23 年的經驗。他具有很強的領導能力，最近在 Microsoft 和 Nuance Communications 擔任 SAP 財務職務。

I also want to thank Evgeny for his key contributions to Semrush over the last 4 years. His expertise was instrumental in building our financial foundation, and we wish Evgeny success in his future endeavors.

我還要感謝 Evgeny 在過去 4 年中對 Semrush 做出的重要貢獻。他的專業知識在建立我們的財務基礎方面發揮了重要作用，我們希望 Evgeny 在他未來的努力中取得成功。

And now I pass it to Eugene.

現在我把它傳給尤金。

Thank you, Oleg. I'm pleased with our results in 2022 and even more excited about the future. During 2023, we will be focused on expanding our product portfolio, while leveraging new technologies and search landscape changes, driving operational efficiency and managing expenses across the organization and delivering positive free cash flow.

謝謝你，奧列格。我對我們在 2022 年取得的成績感到滿意，對未來更加興奮。在 2023 年期間，我們將專注於擴大我們的產品組合，同時利用新技術和搜索格局的變化，提高運營效率和管理整個組織的費用，並提供積極的自由現金流。

Let me cover each area in more detail. First, we plan to continue updating and adapting the product as we have every year to incorporate new sources of data and improved functionality. We will further develop our platform by one, adding new apps to App Center; two, increasing our capacity to onboard new apps, making the onboarding process more automated; and three, allowing bundles to be bought outside of main subscription plans.

讓我更詳細地介紹每個領域。首先，我們計劃像每年一樣繼續更新和調整產品，以納入新的數據源和改進的功能。我們將進一步開發我們的平台，將新的應用程序添加到應用程序中心；第二，提高我們加載新應用程序的能力，使加載過程更加自動化；第三，允許在主要訂閱計劃之外購買捆綁包。

As the leading online visibility management software vendor, Semrush is uniquely positioned to benefit from two strong tailwinds to our business: generative AI and changes in the search engine industry landscape. Generative AI is not a product by itself, but rather technology that can be used across an entire portfolio of our products. We already have implemented generative AI in several of our products, including our writing system and position tracking. This year, we are planning to keep expanding our portfolio of products to use this technology, both within our core products and in the App Center.

作為領先的在線可見性管理軟件供應商，Semrush 處於獨特的地位，可以從我們業務的兩個強大順風中受益：生成 AI 和搜索引擎行業格局的變化。生成式 AI 本身不是產品，而是可以在我們整個產品組合中使用的技術。我們已經在我們的幾個產品中實施了生成人工智能，包括我們的書寫系統和位置跟踪。今年，我們計劃繼續擴展我們的產品組合，以在我們的核心產品和 App Center 中使用這項技術。

As the search and web landscape changes, digital marketers rely more heavily on digital landscape data. And as the reliance on this data builds, we will see spike in demand for data and insights. For example, Bing becoming bigger, more meaningful player and -- is gaining market share will benefit us as we can sell products for Bing optimization on top of those we offer for Google today.

隨著搜索和網絡格局的變化，數字營銷人員更加依賴數字景觀數據。隨著對這些數據的依賴增加，我們將看到對數據和見解的需求激增。例如，Bing 變得更大、更有意義，並且 - 正在獲得市場份額將使我們受益，因為我們可以在我們今天為 Google 提供的產品之上銷售用於 Bing 優化的產品。

Additionally, optimization for combined chat and search interfaces or answer engines is more complex than the regular search engine optimization and require sophisticated products that we can provide. We can address online visibility questions and as search engines introduce new interfaces, we can help our customers to navigate in an ever-changing environment.

此外，聊天和搜索組合界面或答案引擎的優化比常規搜索引擎優化更複雜，需要我們提供的複雜產品。我們可以解決在線可見性問題，並且隨著搜索引擎引入新界面，我們可以幫助我們的客戶在不斷變化的環境中導航。

Second, we will be focused on operating more efficiently. We expect to launch more efficient marketing campaigns, drive increased productivity of sales with focus on expansion and reduction of G&A spend as a percentage of revenue. With respect to marketing, we will fine-tune our go-to-market strategy to focus on territories and channels, which result in the best return on investment. We expect to focus more of our budget on those channels and campaigns with the highest return on investment.

其次，我們將專注於提高運營效率。我們希望推出更有效的營銷活動，推動提高銷售效率，重點是擴大和減少 G&A 支出佔收入的百分比。在營銷方面，我們將微調我們的進入市場戰略，以專注於區域和渠道，從而獲得最佳的投資回報。我們希望將更多的預算集中在那些投資回報率最高的渠道和活動上。

We expect changes in our go-to-market with a heightened focus on automation and more balanced marketing spend between organic and paid channels. We made an investment in our organic search team in 2022 that are starting to deliver. Currently, our organic search nonbrand channel is performing above plan. Our emphasis on optimizing our paid channel is paying off with better-than-expected ROI in the first quarter year-to-date. As a result, we expect marketing spend as a percentage of revenue to decline throughout 2023.

我們預計我們的上市會發生變化，更加關注自動化以及有機渠道和付費渠道之間更平衡的營銷支出。我們在 2022 年對開始交付的自然搜索團隊進行了投資。目前，我們的有機搜索非品牌渠道正在執行上述計劃。我們對優化付費渠道的重視得到了回報，今年第一季度的投資回報率好於預期。因此，我們預計營銷支出佔收入的百分比將在 2023 年全年下降。

In our sales teams, especially in expansion and retention, we are testing automated ways to grow and retain customer accounts at scale. Sales efforts will focus on expansion and increased sales team productivity to drive improved average check growth. Our view right now is we'll invest in efficiency in 2023 to yield even better performance in 2024. Combined, these actions should deliver better sales efficiency and enable us to grow our reach.

在我們的銷售團隊中，尤其是在擴展和保留方面，我們正在測試自動化的方法來大規模增加和保留客戶帳戶。銷售工作將側重於擴張和提高銷售團隊的生產力，以推動平均支票增長的改善。我們目前的觀點是，我們將在 2023 年投資提高效率，以便在 2024 年取得更好的業績。這些行動結合起來應該會帶來更好的銷售效率，並使我們能夠擴大影響力。

We will continue to manage expenses as this is the most prudent way for us to run the business in the current environment. We believe we are staffed appropriately for the current demand environment and expect headcount growth for the remainder of 2023 to be modest and lower than in 2022.

我們將繼續管理開支，因為這是我們在當前環境下經營業務的最謹慎方式。我們認為，我們的人員配備適合當前的需求環境，並預計 2023 年剩餘時間的員工人數增長將溫和且低於 2022 年。

And finally, we are focused on delivering positive free cash flow. Efficiency and agility are the core of how Semrush operates. We have historically been very good stewards of capital, and we'll continue to pursue a growth strategy with a set path to profitability.

最後，我們專注於提供正的自由現金流。效率和敏捷性是 Semrush 運作方式的核心。從歷史上看，我們一直是非常出色的資本管理者，我們將繼續奉行具有既定盈利路徑的增長戰略。

I will now turn the call over to Evgeny for a more detailed discussion of our financial performance.

我現在將把電話轉給 Evgeny，以便更詳細地討論我們的財務業績。

Thank you, Eugene. And many thanks to Oleg and the Semrush team. I have certainly enjoyed my time working together. It has been an incredible journey in preparing our company to go public, and we achieve tremendous results together both IPO and on our path to growth.

謝謝你，尤金。非常感謝 Oleg 和 Semrush 團隊。我當然很享受一起工作的時光。在我們公司上市的準備過程中，這是一段不可思議的旅程，我們在 IPO 和發展道路上共同取得了巨大的成果。

Now turning to our Q4 and full year 2022 results. Q4 revenue of $68.8 million was up 28% year-over-year and up 5% sequentially. Turning to full year revenue of $254.3 million was up 35% year-over-year. Growth was driven by higher average revenue per customer and growth in paying customers.

現在轉向我們的第四季度和 2022 年全年業績。第四季度收入為 6880 萬美元，同比增長 28%，環比增長 5%。全年收入為 2.543 億美元，同比增長 35%。增長是由更高的每位客戶平均收入和付費客戶的增長推動的。

Compared to a year ago, we have seen an increase in revenue from the higher priced core customers in place of lower paying product customers. Our dollar-based net revenue retention for the fourth quarter was 118%, down from 126% in the year ago period, consistent with our prior expectations. We continue to believe the net revenue retention will settle at mid-teens over the long term.

與一年前相比，我們看到來自價格較高的核心客戶的收入有所增加，而不是來自支付較低的產品客戶。我們第四季度基於美元的淨收入保留率為 118%，低於去年同期的 126%，與我們之前的預期一致。我們仍然相信，從長遠來看，淨收入保留將穩定在十幾歲左右。

ARR was $275 million as of December 31, 2022, up 28% from the previous year. As a reminder, December is seasonally soft, given the timing in holidays and I fully expect sequential acceleration in ARR in the first quarter. In 2022, margins reflected brand marketing campaigns, and higher personnel costs in new locations as our operating expenses grew faster than revenue, largely due to our education program, which cost approximately $11.3 million.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，ARR 為 2.75 億美元，比上年增長 28%。提醒一下，考慮到假期的時間，12 月季節性疲軟，我完全預計第一季度 ARR 將連續加速。 2022 年，利潤率反映了品牌營銷活動以及新地點人員成本的增加，因為我們的運營支出增長快於收入增長，這主要是由於我們的教育計劃，該計劃耗資約 1,130 萬美元。

Fourth quarter gross margin of 82.6% was up over 400 basis points from a year ago. Gross margin benefited from higher revenue and lower cost for hosting and third-party services. This lower cost should persist, and as a result, I expect gross margin will remain above 80% throughout 2023. Operating expenses, excluding equity costs, were $70.2 million in the quarter, up 53% year-over-year and up 22% from the previous quarter. The year-over-year increase was driven by growth in headcount as we ended the year with 1,503 employees, including 214 contractors, which is up 25% from a year ago as well as with the cost associated with operating in high-cost locations.

第四季度的毛利率為 82.6%，比一年前上升了 400 多個基點。毛利率受益於更高的收入和更低的託管和第三方服務成本。這種較低的成本應該會持續下去，因此，我預計整個 2023 年毛利率將保持在 80% 以上。本季度的運營費用（不包括股權成本）為 7020 萬美元，同比增長 53%，比去年同期增長 22%。上個季度。同比增長是由員工人數增長推動的，因為我們在年底擁有 1,503 名員工，其中包括 214 名承包商，比去年同期增長 25% 以及與在高成本地區運營相關的成本。

Sales and marketing expense was $39.6 million in the fourth quarter, up 54% year-over-year and up 30% from the previous quarter. The increase largely reflects high headcount as well as increased spending on brand and performance marketing programs.

第四季度銷售和營銷費用為 3960 萬美元，同比增長 54%，環比增長 30%。這一增長主要反映了高員工人數以及品牌和績效營銷計劃支出的增加。

I would also note that the sequential and year-over-year increase was partly a function of a pre-classification of costs from G&A into sales and marketing as previous to the fourth quarter, sales and marketing leadership expenses were recognized in G&A.

我還要指出，連續和同比增長部分是由於在第四季度之前將 G&A 成本預先分類到銷售和營銷中，銷售和營銷領導費用在 G&A 中確認。

We expect sales and marketing expense as a percentage of revenue to be lower in 2023 as we drive great efficiency in our spend. Research and development expense was $13.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 94% year-over-year and 31% from the previous quarter. The year-over-year and sequential increase reflects higher headcount as well as an increased compensation expense related to operating in higher-cost geographies.

隨著我們提高支出效率，我們預計 2023 年銷售和營銷費用佔收入的百分比將會降低。第四季度研發費用為 1330 萬美元，同比增長 94%，環比增長 31%。同比和環比增長反映了員工人數增加以及與在成本較高地區運營相關的薪酬費用增加。

I expect R&D spending to be relatively in line with the fourth quarter as a percent of revenue as we continue to build our platform and deliver new products and functionality. G&A expense of $17.4 million was approximately 31% year-over-year, but essentially flat from the previous quarter.

隨著我們繼續構建平台並提供新產品和功能，我預計研發支出佔收入的百分比將與第四季度保持一致。 G&A 費用為 1740 萬美元，同比增長約 31%，但與上一季度基本持平。

The year-over-year increase reflects higher public company costs, costs related to new locations and investments in systems and people. The sequential comparison benefited from allocating executive costs to separate functions as they referenced it earlier.

同比增長反映了更高的上市公司成本、與新地點相關的成本以及對系統和人員的投資。順序比較受益於將執行成本分配給單獨的功能，因為他們之前引用了它。

In 2023, our expontaneous spending will grow on an absolute basis, but below the pace of revenue growth. During the quarter, solid revenue growth and higher gross margins were more than offset by higher expenses, including nearly $2 million of exit costs and contributed to a non-GAAP net loss of $11.6 million compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $2.9 million a year ago. Also to note, we have relatively low shareholder dilution as a result of stock-based compensation due in part to a large portion of our workforce being located outside of the U.S., where stock-based compensation is less prevalent.

到 2023 年，我們的自發支出將在絕對基礎上增長，但低於收入增長的速度。在本季度，穩健的收入增長和更高的毛利率被更高的費用所抵消，包括近 200 萬美元的退出成本，並導致非 GAAP 淨虧損 1160 萬美元，而非 GAAP 淨虧損為 290 萬美元一年前。還要注意的是，由於基於股票的薪酬，我們的股東稀釋相對較低，部分原因是我們的大部分員工位於美國以外，而基於股票的薪酬不太普遍。

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of $237.5 million, down from $246.6 million in the previous quarter. Our cash flow from operations in the current fiscal year was negative $9.6 million, and we incurred approximately $4.2 million of capital expenditures and capitalized $1.7 million of software development costs.

轉向資產負債表。本季度末，我們的現金和現金等價物以及短期投資為 2.375 億美元，低於上一季度的 2.466 億美元。我們在當前財政年度的運營現金流為負 960 萬美元，我們發生了大約 420 萬美元的資本支出，並將 170 萬美元的軟件開發成本資本化。

In summary, we continue to execute well despite a more uncertain economic environment. Looking ahead to 2023, I believe we have solid visibility to deliver another year of growth, while also improving margins.

總而言之，儘管經濟環境更加不確定，我們仍然表現良好。展望 2023 年，我相信我們有充分的預見力來實現又一年的增長，同時提高利潤率。

With that, we're happy to take any of your questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.

有了這個，我們很樂意回答您的任何問題。接線員，請打開問題線路。

(Operator Instructions) We'll go first to Elizabeth Porter at Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們將首先聯繫摩根士丹利的伊麗莎白波特。

I wanted to ask on the demand environment. Net adds softened in Q4 after being fairly robust for the last couple of quarters. And I recognized you called out some higher churn. So were the softer adds in Q4 fully attributable to churn? Or were there any changes in the new demand environment that started to emerge in Q4 versus what you saw in Q3? And then any sort of color on -- if so, what the changes were and kind of when those occurred? And any customer segments would be very helpful.

我想問一下需求環境。在過去幾個季度相當強勁之後，第四季度的淨增幅有所放緩。我認識到你提出了一些更高的流失率。那麼，第四季度的疲軟增長是否完全歸因於客戶流失？或者與您在第三季度看到的情況相比，第四季度開始出現的新需求環境是否有任何變化？然後是任何一種顏色——如果是這樣，變化是什麼，發生的時間是什麼？任何客戶群都會非常有幫助。

Thank you very much for the question. This is Andrew. So I would say that the net customer adds have been well within our guidance. Like everyone else, we are seeing an impact from the macroeconomic environment on our overall customer base. But I want to make sure to mention that we've added a record number of customer additions in Q4, and this growth continues through Q1 of this year so far. We're seeing the outcome of the brand marketing campaigns we ran in 2022, carrying us into 2023.

非常感謝你的提問。這是安德魯。所以我想說淨客戶增加一直在我們的指導範圍內。與其他所有人一樣，我們看到宏觀經濟環境對我們整體客戶群的影響。但我想確保提及的是，我們在第四季度增加了創紀錄的客戶數量，並且這種增長一直持續到今年第一季度。我們正在看到我們在 2022 年開展的品牌營銷活動的成果，將我們帶入 2023 年。

Great. And then on the -- you guys highlighted there was an increased sales focus and just growing average check size going forward. And just given the NRR softness, which you've seen across many other companies, how should we think about the growth in ARR per customer into 2023? And can that sustain double-digit growth?

偉大的。然後 - 你們強調了銷售重點的增加以及未來平均支票規模的增長。鑑於您在許多其他公司看到的 NRR 疲軟，我們應該如何考慮到 2023 年每個客戶的 ARR 增長？這能維持兩位數的增長嗎？

Elizabeth, this is Evgeny. I think we should be expecting the average check to grow, I would say, in line with what we saw in Q3, Q4. I mean there will be an impact from the macro, I guess. But as we get back to the more normal environment, we'll expect this -- the average to slight -- average growth to slightly accelerate.

伊麗莎白，這是葉夫根尼。我認為我們應該期待平均支票增長，我想說，與我們在第三季度、第四季度看到的情況一致。我的意思是我猜宏觀會有影響。但隨著我們回到更正常的環境，我們預計這種——平均略微——平均增長會略有加速。

We'll move next to Parker Lane at Stifel.

我們將搬到 Stifel 的 Parker Lane 旁邊。

You alluded to supporting being on top of the Google use case that many of your customers are embracing today. Have you already started to see the benefits of that, either through new customer acquisition or expansion? Or are you viewing that as more of a long-term benefit to the business?

您提到支持在您的許多客戶今天所接受的 Google 用例之上。您是否已經開始通過新客戶獲取或擴展看到這樣做的好處？還是您認為這更像是對企業的長期利益？

Thank you for the question. This is Eugene. To be honest, right now, we're actually not seeing a lot of demand for this feature. Our reference was about potential of being -- gaining market share and how that would be beneficial for our business, not necessarily something that customers are asking today.

感謝你的提問。這是尤金。老實說，目前，我們實際上並沒有看到對此功能的大量需求。我們的參考是關於獲得市場份額的潛力以及這對我們的業務有何好處，不一定是客戶今天要求的東西。

Also on top of this, we have competitive intelligence products that show us how much actual usage of these new features have been gained. And while we saw initial spike, we're actually not seeing a lot of growth right now. It's sort of stabilized. So we're monitoring situation.

除此之外，我們還有競爭情報產品，可以向我們展示這些新功能的實際使用量。雖然我們看到了最初的飆升，但實際上我們現在並沒有看到太多的增長。它有點穩定。所以我們正在監視情況。

I just wanted to highlight that Eve Bing becomes a real player in search engine space, we absolutely would be delighted to provide features -- new features to our customers.

我只是想強調 Eve Bing 成為搜索引擎領域的真正參與者，我們絕對樂意為我們的客戶提供新功能。

Understood. And then on the generative AI front, I was just curious, did you develop those solutions in-house for writing assistance and the tracking? Or were those some tools that you contracted a third party for?

明白了。然後在生成 AI 方面，我很好奇，您是否在內部開發了這些解決方案來協助寫作和跟踪？或者那些是你與第三方簽約的工具？

So of course, we're using GPT a lot. But on top of that, we also use our own models. First of all, the trick is that you need to give GPT algorithm right input. So our algorithms define what is this right input, what will make content perform well. And then, of course, we use pure generative capabilities of GPT.

當然，我們經常使用 GPT。但除此之外，我們還使用自己的模型。首先，訣竅是您需要為 GPT 算法提供正確的輸入。所以我們的算法定義了什麼是正確的輸入，什麼會讓內容表現良好。然後，當然，我們使用 GPT 的純生成功能。

We'll go next to Scott Berg at Needham.

我們將在 Needham 的 Scott Berg 旁邊。

I guess I have a couple here. I wanted to start on the churn comment. I appreciate that 30% of your customers that churn returned to the platform. But how should we think about the elevated churn in the quarter? Are you able to maybe isolate small customers versus large customers? Any particular region or vertical that maybe you saw some higher churn rate in particular?

我想我這裡有一對。我想從流失評論開始。我很感激 30% 的流失客戶返回了該平台。但是我們應該如何看待本季度的高流失率呢？您是否能夠將小客戶與大客戶區分開來？您可能特別看到了更高的流失率的任何特定區域或垂直領域？

Yes. So in Q4, actually, I think there is no particular region or segment that did stand out. I would highlight that a lot of customers who were on the larger end in churn in Q4 actually getting back right now in January and February. That was really more of a long renewal rather than real churn. Even though in December, they were telling us that they're not sure.

是的。所以在第四季度，實際上，我認為沒有特定的地區或細分市場脫穎而出。我要強調的是，很多在第四季度流失較多的客戶實際上在 1 月和 2 月就回來了。這實際上更像是一次長期的更新，而不是真正的流失。儘管在 12 月，他們告訴我們他們不確定。

But a lot of them actually got back, so we're already seeing them. And I think that's in line with commentary that Oleg have provided. On the lower end, unfortunately, we don't see that yet. But we're optimistic based on what we've seen historically.

但是他們中的很多人實際上已經回來了，所以我們已經看到了他們。我認為這與 Oleg 提供的評論一致。不幸的是，在低端，我們還沒有看到。但我們根據歷史所見持樂觀態度。

Got it. Helpful. And then from the profitability comments, trying to help understand where the leverage in the model comes from this year, the GAAP net loss in Q1 has been flicked fairly significantly in the back half of the year to drive your guided profitability for the year.

知道了。有幫助。然後從盈利能力評論中，試圖幫助理解今年模型中的槓桿來自哪裡，第一季度的 GAAP 淨虧損在今年下半年已經相當顯著地輕彈，以推動你今年的指導盈利能力。

Does most of that come from -- that leverage come from G&A? Or is there just something in cost you goods? You made some comments on the sales and marketing expense, maybe just trying to understand where that leverage will come from in the second half.

其中大部分來自——槓桿來自 G&A 嗎？或者只是有一些東西在成本你的商品？你對銷售和營銷費用發表了一些評論，也許只是想了解下半年這種影響力的來源。

Scott, this is Evgeny. So the flexibility will be driven by, I would say, three main factors: One, the gross margin will be, I would say, like solidly above 80%; second, marketing spend will go down substantially as a percentage of revenue. And then the rest of the cost will, I would say, will also go down as a percentage revenue as well.

斯科特，這是葉夫根尼。因此，靈活性將由三個主要因素驅動：第一，毛利率將穩定在 80% 以上；其次，營銷支出佔收入的百分比將大幅下降。然後我會說，其餘成本也將作為收入的百分比下降。

So G&A will be lower and then -- G&A will be lower and sales costs will be lower as a percentage of revenue. The only I would say -- It would probably be R&D, which will go up slightly and then stay there, I would say, up slightly above 20%.

所以 G&A 會降低，然後——G&A 會降低，銷售成本佔收入的百分比也會降低。我唯一要說的是——可能是研發，它會略有上升，然後保持在那裡，我會說略高於 20%。

(Operator Instructions) We'll go next to Michael Turits at KeyBanc.

（操作員說明）我們將去 KeyBanc 的 Michael Turits 旁邊。

I've got a couple of questions. First of all, just in terms of relocation costs, where are we in terms of having an apples-to-apples comparison in the sense that you had the relocation costs this year? But you were fully operating this year in a -- in the higher expense region.

我有幾個問題。首先，就搬遷成本而言，就您今年的搬遷成本而言，我們在哪裡進行同類比較？但是你今年在一個費用較高的地區全面運營。

So how much of a headwind do we have this year? And then obviously, as we go into '24, that seems to be completely apples-to-apples, but -- and therefore, no longer a headwind. So how much of an incremental headwind this year, how much of that goes away in the following year?

那麼今年我們有多大的逆風？然後很明顯，當我們進入 24 世紀時，這似乎完全是蘋果對蘋果，但是——因此，不再是逆風。那麼今年有多少逆風增加，有多少會在下一年消失？

Michael, thank you for the question. I guess the -- I would split it in two parts. There are onetime costs, which we clearly like separate and talk about $11.3 million -- $11-plus million in 2022. And we expect about $1.3 million in 2023, majority of that in Q1, right?

邁克爾，謝謝你的提問。我想——我會把它分成兩部分。有一次性成本，我們顯然喜歡分開討論 1130 萬美元——到 2022 年將超過 1100 萬美元。我們預計 2023 年約為 130 萬美元，其中大部分在第一季度，對吧？

So -- and then we expect that will be over. Now -- and then there will be the higher cost of planning the business since we are relocated to more expensive locations. We believe that Q4 is a very solid base of which you can model our business going forward. And as I mentioned, we plan on improving profitability every quarter as we go through 2023, improving margins and again, I probably won't be repeating myself, but I guess the efficiency. We expect efficiency to be following through every quarter.

所以 - 然後我們預計這將結束。現在 - 由於我們搬遷到更昂貴的地點，因此規劃業務的成本將會更高。我們相信第四季度是一個非常堅實的基礎，您可以在此基礎上模擬我們未來的業務。正如我所提到的，我們計劃在 2023 年每個季度提高盈利能力，提高利潤率，我可能不會重複自己的話，但我猜是效率。我們希望每個季度都能提高效率。

Congratulations having made this transition of the operations of the business. On generative AI, I guess -- the simple question is -- as a company in search engine optimization to the extent that use -- that search broadly put shifts over to a chat functionality as opposed to a listed search functionality. How does your ability to add value and optimize people's moves to certain websites change when that is a chat function versus a listed search function?

祝賀您完成了業務運營的轉變。關於生成人工智能，我想——一個簡單的問題是——作為一家在搜索引擎優化方面使用的公司——搜索廣泛地轉移到聊天功能，而不是列出的搜索功能。當聊天功能與列出的搜索功能相比時，您增加價值和優化人們訪問某些網站的能力有何變化？

And this is definitely something we're spending a lot of time discussing internally. I think from -- at this point, we don't know what the final implementation is going to be. We have only seen a couple of examples being implemented their approach to this, which is, I think, very user-friendly.

這絕對是我們花了很多時間在內部討論的事情。我認為——在這一點上，我們不知道最終的實施會是什麼。我們只看到了幾個實施他們方法的例子，我認為這是非常用戶友好的。

We don't know what Google is going to do. But I think from what we've seen so far, the outputs of this model are actually very similar to what happens if you try to produce feature snippet based on a couple of top articles. So it's really more of an answer that takes more real estate and provides combination from several sources. And in most examples, we've seen so far provide station to those sources.

我們不知道谷歌要做什麼。但我認為，從目前我們所看到的情況來看，該模型的輸出實際上與您嘗試根據幾篇熱門文章生成特徵片段時發生的情況非常相似。所以它實際上更像是一個需要更多空間並提供來自多個來源的組合的答案。在大多數示例中，到目前為止，我們已經看到為這些來源提供站點。

So -- in -- from a technical point of view, optimizing for this is very similar to optimizing for future snippet, which we helped people to do for a very long time. And actually, we've seen a lot of demand for those features and support of our tracking feature snippets as well as proactive recommendations about how people can rent and be mentioned in those features snippets.

所以 - 從技術角度來看，為此進行優化與為未來片段進行優化非常相似，我們幫助人們做了很長時間。實際上，我們已經看到對這些功能的大量需求和對我們跟踪功能片段的支持，以及關於人們如何出租和在這些功能片段中被提及的主動建議。

So from a technical point of view, if things go the way that we are seeing them now, this is very similar to what we already have. With minor fine-tuning, we should be able to help our customers to get mentioned in those answers. But like I said, it's a little bit hard to sell until -- tell until we see the actual implementation. But we are very positive about our ability to serve our customers when they have those needs.

所以從技術的角度來看，如果事情按照我們現在看到的方式發展，這與我們已經擁有的非常相似。通過微小的微調，我們應該能夠幫助我們的客戶在這些答案中被提及。但就像我說的，在我們看到實際實施之前，它有點難以銷售。但我們對我們在有這些需求時為客戶提供服務的能力非常樂觀。

And that does conclude the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

這確實結束了問答環節和今天的電話會議。我們感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。