Snap Inc (SNAP) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Snap Inc.'s Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to David Ometer, Head of Investor Relations.

各位下午好，歡迎參加 Snap Inc. 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。（接線員指示）現在我想把電話交給投資人關係主管 David Ometer。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Snap's Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Evan Spiegel, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder; and Derek Andersen, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝，各位下午好。歡迎參加 Snap 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。今天與會者包括共同創辦人兼執行長 Evan Spiegel，以及財務長 Derek Andersen。

Please refer to our Investor Relations website at investor.snap.com to find today's press release, slides, investor letter and investor presentation. This conference call includes forward-looking statements, which are based on our assumptions as of today. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and we make no obligation to update our disclosures.

請造訪我們的投資人關係網站 investor.snap.com 以取得今日的新聞稿、投影片、致投資人信與投資人簡報。本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，係基於我們截至今日的假設。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述所表達者有重大差異，我們不承擔更新揭露內容之義務。

For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, please refer to the press release we issued today as well as risks described in our most recent Form 10-Q, particularly in the section titled Risk Factors. Today's call will include both GAAP and non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations between the two can be found in today's press release.

如需了解可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述有重大差異的因素，請參閱我們今日發布的新聞稿，以及我們最近一期 Form 10-Q 中所描述的風險，特別是「風險因素」一節。今天的電話會議將同時包含 GAAP 與非 GAAP 指標。兩者之間的調節表可在今日新聞稿中找到。

Please note that when we discuss all of our expense figures, they will exclude stock-based compensation and related payroll taxes, as well as depreciation and amortization and certain other items. Please refer to our filings with the SEC to understand how we calculate any of the metrics discussed on today's call.

請注意，當我們討論所有費用數字時，將排除以股份為基礎之薪酬及相關薪資稅，以及折舊與攤銷和其他若干項目。請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解我們如何計算今日電話會議中討論的任何指標。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Evan.

接下來，我想把電話交給 Evan。

Hi, everyone, and thank you all for joining us. In Q4, we continued to make progress on our core priorities of growing our community and improving depth of engagement, driving top line growth and diversifying our revenue sources and carving a path to adjusted EBITDA profitability and positive free cash flow.

各位好，感謝大家加入我們。第四季，我們持續在核心優先事項上取得進展：擴大社群規模並提升互動深度、推動營收成長並使收入來源多元化，以及開闢通往調整後 EBITDA 獲利與正向自由現金流的道路。

Monthly active users increased more than 8% year-over-year and surpassed the 800 million milestone in Q4, demonstrating progress towards our goal of 1 billion monthly active users. Daily active users reached 414 million in Q4, an increase of 10% year-over-year, and we continue to deepen engagement with our content platform, with the number of viewers and total time spent watching content growing year-over-year.

月活躍用戶數年增超過 8%，並在第四季突破 8 億里程碑，顯示我們朝向 10 億月活躍用戶目標的進展。第四季日活躍用戶達到 4.14 億，年增 10%；我們也持續加深內容平台的互動，觀看內容的觀眾數與總觀看時長皆呈現年增。

Revenue grew 5% year-over-year in Q4 to reach $1.361 billion as we remain focused on investing in our Direct Response business to deliver increased return on ad spend for our advertising partners. Adjusted gross margins expanded 1 percentage point quarter-over-quarter, adjusted operating expenses declined by 2% year-over-year and we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $159 million and free cash flow of $111 million in Q4.

第四季營收年增 5% 至 13.61 億美元；我們仍專注於投資直接回應（Direct Response）業務，為廣告合作夥伴帶來更高的廣告投放報酬率。調整後毛利率較前一季擴張 1 個百分點，調整後營運費用年減 2%；第四季我們實現調整後 EBITDA 1.59 億美元，自由現金流 1.11 億美元。

2023 was a pivotal year for Snap as we focused relentlessly on adding value to our communities while evolving our business for long-term growth. Last year, we made transformative changes to our business by shifting to a more customer-centric approach, investing heavily in our ML platform to drive improved performance for our advertising partners and better leveraging privacy-safe signals for ranking and optimization. We also transformed our go-to-market efforts with new regional leadership and a renewed focus on customer-oriented advertising solutions.

2023 年對 Snap 而言是關鍵的一年，我們不懈地專注於為社群創造價值，同時為長期成長演進我們的業務。去年，我們透過轉向更以客戶為中心的方法，對業務做出具變革性的調整；我們也大幅投資機器學習（ML）平台，以提升廣告合作夥伴的成效，並更有效運用隱私安全（privacy-safe）的訊號進行排序與最佳化。我們也透過新的區域領導架構與重新聚焦以客戶為導向的廣告解決方案，改造了我們的市場推進（go-to-market）工作。

We began 2024 with a focus on 3 initiatives that we believe are essential for Snapchat's long-term success. First, we are continuing to evolve our machine learning models to drive more ad interactions across our platform. Second, we are working to unify the content experience across Spotlight and Stories to improve the user experience and deepen engagement.

我們在 2024 年初聚焦於 3 項我們認為對 Snapchat 長期成功至關重要的倡議。第一，我們將持續演進機器學習模型，以在整個平台上帶動更多廣告互動。第二，我們正致力於整合 Spotlight 與 Stories 的內容體驗，以改善使用者體驗並加深互動。

Lastly, we are shifting more of our focus towards user growth and deepening engagement in our most highly monetizable geographies, including North America and Europe. We believe that focusing on these initiatives will help us to increase daily active usage of Snapchat, deepen content engagement, improve performance for advertisers and ultimately accelerate revenue growth and drive increased free cash flow.

最後，我們將把更多重心轉向在最具變現能力的地區推動用戶成長並加深互動，包括北美與歐洲。我們相信，聚焦這些倡議將有助於提升 Snapchat 的日活躍使用、加深內容互動、改善廣告主成效，最終加速營收成長並帶來更高的自由現金流。

In order to best position our business to execute on these priorities and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our team while continuing our investments in our highest priorities, including improved top line growth.

為了讓我們的業務能以最佳狀態執行這些優先事項，並確保我們具備隨時間推進而逐步加碼投資以支持成長的能力，我們做出了艱難的決定：在持續投資於最高優先事項（包括改善營收成長）的同時，對團隊進行重整。

We will reduce layers of management and concentrate our team members in major hub locations to support in-person collaboration, resulting in a reduction in our full-time workforce of approximately 10% in Q1 of 2024. The team members impacted by these changes are kind, smart and creative colleagues who have been important contributors to our business during this challenging time, and we are committed to supporting them in their transition.

我們將減少管理層級，並將團隊成員集中於主要樞紐據點以支持面對面協作，這將在 2024 年第一季使我們的全職人力約減少 10%。受影響的團隊成員都是善良、聰明且富有創意的同事，在這段充滿挑戰的期間對我們的業務做出了重要貢獻；我們承諾將支持他們完成轉職過渡。

Thank you. And with that, we will begin our Q&A session.

謝謝。接下來我們將開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Ross Sandler with Barclays.

（接線員指示）第一個問題來自 Barclays 的 Ross Sandler。

Evan, question on the DR side of the ad business. So growth was comparable at 3% for the fourth quarter, about the same as the third quarter. So I guess why aren't we seeing more progress in getting that growth rate up to the levels of the broader digital ad industry? Like what's holding us back right now?

Evan，關於廣告業務中直接回應（DR）這一塊的問題。第四季成長約為 3%，與第三季差不多。所以我想問，為什麼我們還沒有看到更多進展，讓成長率提升到更廣泛的數位廣告產業水準？目前是什麼在拖累我們？

And then your guidance for 1Q assumes that the trends accelerate upwards to low double digits to mid-teens, depending on the range. So what kind of acceleration are you seeing in DR thus far in 1Q? And what does that mean for the rest of 2024?

另外，你們對第一季的指引假設趨勢加速上行，依區間不同大約是低雙位數到中十幾%。那麼第一季迄今你們在 DR 看到什麼樣的加速？這對 2024 年其餘時間意味著什麼？

Thanks, Ross. We're really excited about the progress we're seeing, especially in our lower funnel business and with small- and medium-sized advertisers. Purchase-related conversions grew 90% year-over-year in Q4. And we saw small- and medium-sized -- the number of small- and medium-sized advertisers grow 20% year-over-year.

謝謝你，Ross。我們對目前看到的進展感到非常振奮，特別是在我們的下漏斗（lower funnel）業務以及中小型廣告主方面。第四季與購買相關的轉換年增 90%。而且我們看到中小型廣告主——中小型廣告主的數量年增 20%。

We really think this reflects more resilient revenue as well, because as we've navigated some of these external challenges over the last couple of years, we found that those lower funnel dollars are just more resilient. I think looking ahead at Q1, the top end of the guidance range reflects a 10-point acceleration. So we are making progress here. Obviously, we wish we were moving faster, but we're working as hard as we can and pleased by what we're seeing in the Direct Response business.

我們確實認為這也反映出更具韌性的營收，因為在過去幾年我們應對一些外部挑戰時發現，那些下漏斗的預算就是更具韌性。我認為展望第一季，指引區間上緣反映了 10 個百分點的加速。因此我們正在取得進展。當然，我們希望能更快，但我們正盡最大努力，也對直接回應業務所看到的表現感到滿意。

Our next question comes from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自 JPMorgan 的 Doug Anmuth。

Evan, you've talked a little bit about introducing a universal feed on the platform, perhaps unifying Stories and Spotlight content. Can you just talk about the opportunity here and how you could do this in a privacy- and brand-safe manner? And then what it would mean for ad inventory and perhaps revenue?

Evan，你提到過在平台上引入通用資訊流（universal feed），可能會整合 Stories 與 Spotlight 的內容。你能談談這裡的機會，以及你們如何以兼顧隱私安全與品牌安全的方式來做嗎？另外，這對廣告庫存以及可能的營收意味著什麼？

Yes. When we set out to build Spotlight, we actually built it on a totally separate stack. So meaning, the ranking was separate stack, the inventory was separate from our Stories' inventory and the user experience itself as well was different. We've really seen a lot of opportunity in bringing some of those improvements to Stories. Our Stories inventory is more constrained than Spotlight, for example. It doesn't leverage some of the ranking improvements and model improvements we've made on Spotlight.

是的。當我們著手打造 Spotlight 時，實際上是建立在一個完全獨立的技術堆疊上。也就是說，排序是獨立的堆疊，庫存也與我們 Stories 的庫存分開，使用者體驗本身也不同。我們確實看到很大的機會，能把其中一些改進帶到 Stories。舉例來說，我們的 Stories 庫存比 Spotlight 更受限；它也沒有運用我們在 Spotlight 上所做的一些排序改進與模型改進。

And so we think unifying the Stories and Spotlight experience will bring a lot of the benefits we've seen on the Spotlight side in terms of personalization and the user experience to Stories as well. So we're definitely excited about that. A lot of the sort of under-the-hood work is well underway, and we have some tests rolling out throughout the year that should get us closer to that unified experience.

因此我們認為，整合 Stories 與 Spotlight 的體驗，將把我們在 Spotlight 端看到的許多好處——包括個人化與使用者體驗——也帶到 Stories。我們對此非常期待。許多底層的工作已在積極進行中，我們也會在全年推出一些測試，讓我們更接近那種整合後的體驗。

In terms of brand safety, we just completed a third-party audit on brand safety. I think we're close to 99% of brand-safe content on Spotlight and close to 100% actually in terms of creator content, Snap Stars and the like. So I think one of the really unique things about Snapchat is that advertisers can get a brand-safe experience without paying a premium for it, like they have to do on other platforms to avoid harmful content.

就品牌安全而言，我們剛完成一項第三方的品牌安全稽核。我認為 Spotlight 上接近 99% 的內容是品牌安全的，而在創作者內容、Snap Stars 等方面，實際上接近 100%。因此我認為 Snapchat 非常獨特的一點是，廣告主可以在不需要支付溢價的情況下獲得品牌安全的體驗；在其他平台上，為了避免有害內容，他們往往必須付出額外成本。

So I do think we'll be able to continue to extend those benefits to advertisers in this unified experience. And our very high levels of brand safety, I think, are a real differentiator for us.

所以我確實認為，在這個整合後的體驗中，我們將能持續把這些好處延伸給廣告主。而我們非常高的品牌安全水準，我認為是我們真正的差異化優勢。

Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自 Goldman Sachs 的 Eric Sheridan。

Evan, maybe if I could stick with the big-picture themes that you introduced in your introductory remarks. When you look across the competitive landscape of sort of social media, media consumption and the potential for rising utility around apps like yourself, how do you identify what you see as sort of the opportunity set and the potential challenges you're trying to navigate around to sort of reposition the business for growth in users, engagement and monetization over the long term?

Evan，也許我可以延續你在開場談到的宏觀主題。當你觀察社群媒體、媒體消費的競爭格局，以及像你們這樣的 App 可能帶來更高使用效用的趨勢時，你如何界定你所看到的機會集合，以及你正在努力因應的潛在挑戰，以便在長期重新定位業務，推動用戶、互動與變現的成長？

Yes. Thanks for the question. As we've designed Snapchat and really architected the product, we thought about building it around some of the core ways that people use their smartphones. So things like talking with friends, taking pictures, watching content, these are the things that people do most often and really engage with the most on their phones.

是的，謝謝你的問題。在我們設計 Snapchat、並真正架構這個產品時，我們思考的是圍繞人們使用智慧型手機的一些核心方式來打造它。比如和朋友聊天、拍照、看內容——這些是人們在手機上最常做、也最投入互動的事情。

And I think as we look at Snapchat, one of our biggest opportunities is actually the way the relationship between these different services. That's been a strategic advantage for us. If you think about growth of our Content business, what we've seen is we can grow the top of funnel, as friends share content with each other, that brings more people into our content experience.

而我認為，當我們看 Snapchat 時，我們最大的機會之一其實在於這些不同服務之間的關係運作方式。這一直是我們的策略優勢。如果你想想我們內容業務的成長，我們看到的是：當朋友彼此分享內容時，我們可以擴大漏斗頂端，進而把更多人帶入我們的內容體驗。

Or when we launched Spotlight, we leveraged the fact that so many people use our camera every day to create videos that we could generate a lot of inventory for our Spotlight product very, very quickly.

或者當我們推出 Spotlight 時，我們運用了一個事實：每天有非常多人使用我們的相機來製作影片，因此我們能在非常、非常短的時間內，為 Spotlight 產品快速產生大量庫存。

So I think this relationship between our camera, our messaging service and, of course, our content platform is really a key strategic advantage for us. And as we continue to focus on helping close friends and family stay in touch and communicate visually with one another, I think there's a lot more opportunity for us ahead.

所以我認為，我們的相機、訊息服務，當然還有內容平台之間的這種關係，確實是我們的一項關鍵策略優勢。隨著我們持續專注於協助親密好友與家人保持聯繫、以視覺方式彼此溝通，我認為我們未來還有更多機會。

Our next question comes from Mark Shmulik with Bernstein.

下一題來自 Bernstein 的 Mark Shmulik。

I noticed in the investor letter that there's -- one of the priorities is to focus on North America and Europe, growing users and deepening engagement. We saw a little bit of softness in North America DAU. Can you just share a little color as to why and, perhaps below the surface, kind of some of the changes you're doing as you think about focusing on growing engagement in these markets?

我注意到投資人信中提到——其中一項優先事項是聚焦北美與歐洲，提升用戶成長並加深互動。我們看到北美 DAU 有一點走弱。你能否分享一些原因，以及或許在表面之下，當你們思考在這些市場提升互動成長時，正在做哪些改變？

Yes. Thanks for the question. As we look at North America, in the fourth quarter, that decline was mostly an artifact of rounding. We're not expecting a further decline in North America in Q1. I do think overall, though, there is an opportunity for us to invest more in growth in North America and Europe. Over the past 5 to 7 years, we've really focused on our Android product and growth in emerging markets. That's really about attracting a large volume of new users.

好的，謝謝你的問題。就北美而言，在第四季，那個下滑主要是四捨五入造成的表象。我們不預期北美在第一季會進一步下滑。不過整體來看，我確實認為我們有機會在北美與歐洲投入更多成長資源。過去 5 到 7 年，我們主要聚焦在 Android 產品以及新興市場的成長，那主要是為了吸引大量新用戶。

I think in places like North America and Europe, we can do a better job on iOS and really on resurrecting people who tried Snapchat or who aren't coming into the service as often, or when they come back to receive a message from their friends, helping them onboard to our other different features.

我認為在北美與歐洲這些地方，我們可以在 iOS 上做得更好，也可以更著力於喚回那些曾經嘗試過 Snapchat、或是不那麼常使用服務的人；或者當他們回來只是為了收朋友訊息時，協助他們導入我們其他不同的功能。

So that's going to be an increasing focus for us, and we'll be investing more there over the coming years. We're kind of currently just really sizing that opportunity and really understanding it. We obviously reach a very large number, I think, more than 75% of 13- to 34-year olds in over 20 countries. But I do think there is some headroom to continue to grow our business in Europe and North America in terms of users.

因此，這將會成為我們日益重要的重點，我們也會在未來幾年加大投資。我們目前正在評估這個機會的規模並深入理解它。顯然，我們觸及的人數非常龐大——我想在超過 20 個國家中，我們觸及了超過 75% 的 13 到 34 歲族群。但我確實認為，就用戶面而言，我們在歐洲與北美仍有一些空間可以持續成長。

Our next question comes from Rich Greenfield with LightShed Partners.

下一題來自 LightShed Partners 的 Rich Greenfield。

Evan, I guess, this all kind of comes down to the investor questions are tied to scale. And the Snap's smaller scale relative to Meta, is that just sort of a fundamental long-term issue? Because I think people are looking at Meta growing 30% at a tremendous underlying scale and certainly spending very, very aggressively on AI and ML. And is that the limiting factor on your growth?

Evan，我想這一切歸根究柢都回到投資人對規模的疑問。Snap 相對於 Meta 的規模較小，這是否就是一個根本性的長期問題？因為我想大家看到 Meta 在非常龐大的基礎規模上仍能成長 30%，而且在 AI 與 ML 上投入得非常、非常積極。這是否就是限制你們成長的因素？

I mean 10% to 15%, as you noted, is obviously a pretty nice acceleration from where you were this quarter at 5%. But backing out subscription, you're probably -- you could, at the bottom end, still grow below 10% ad only.

也就是說，如你所提，10% 到 15% 顯然是相較於你們本季 5% 的不錯加速。但若扣除訂閱，你們可能——在低端，僅靠廣告的成長仍可能低於 10%。

So just as we think about sort of 2024, is Q1 the low point? Meaning, is there a dramatic acceleration that you see possible throughout the whole year as you lean into DR and the ML investments pay off? Or are you just sort of fundamentally disadvantaged? I think that's what investors who are obviously seeing what's happened to the stock overnight are trying to struggle with and understand.

所以當我們思考 2024 年時，第一季是否是低點？也就是說，當你們加大 DR（直接回應）並且 ML 投資開始見效時，你們是否可能在全年看到顯著加速？還是你們在根本上就處於劣勢？我想這正是投資人——尤其看到股價隔夜的表現——正在努力理解的問題。

Yes. Thanks, Rich. I think as a platform that serves over 800 million people around the world, we're certainly one of the largest Internet services. We aren't as large as some players, but I think there's enormous opportunity for us to continue to grow business.

好的，謝謝你，Rich。作為一個服務全球超過 8 億人的平台，我們當然是最大的網際網路服務之一。我們的規模不如某些玩家，但我認為我們仍有巨大的機會持續推動業務成長。

I think as you look at sort of the overall revenue resilience, one of the things we've really focused on in the last couple of years is pivoting to lower funnel objectives for advertising partners and especially small- and medium-sized businesses. We historically had more of a brand-focused advertising business. And it's taken quite a lot of work and investment. We're certainly trying to play catch-up here on the Direct Response side, but we are seeing evidence that, that's working.

我認為，若看整體營收的韌性，我們過去幾年真正聚焦的一件事，是把重心轉向更偏漏斗下層的廣告主目標，特別是中小企業。我們過去的廣告業務更偏品牌導向。這需要相當多的工作與投資。我們在直接回應（Direct Response）方面確實是在追趕，但我們也看到一些證據顯示這正在奏效。

So I think as we look at our 7/0 product, for example, in the way that that's really driving purchases for advertisers, that tells me that as we apply those learnings to other categories like apps, for example, that we'll be able to see more momentum and progress there.

因此我認為，舉例來說，當我們看 7/0 產品，以及它如何真正為廣告主帶來購買，這讓我相信：當我們把這些學習應用到其他類別（例如 App）時，我們將能在那裡看到更多動能與進展。

So it certainly has been a difficult transition from a more brand-oriented business to Direct Response, but we are making a lot of progress. And when I look at the work we've done just on the modeling side and the scale of our models now and our ability to utilize -- pressure more real-time signals in a privacy-safe way across our platform, I do think we're making significant progress. And we're optimistic that we can continue to accelerate.

所以，從較偏品牌導向的業務轉型到直接回應，確實是一個艱難的轉變，但我們正在取得很大進展。當我看我們在建模方面所做的工作、我們現在模型的規模，以及我們能夠以符合隱私安全的方式，在整個平台上運用——並更倚重——更多即時訊號的能力時，我確實認為我們正在取得顯著進展。我們也樂觀認為可以持續加速。

Our next question comes from James Heaney with Jefferies.

下一題來自 Jefferies 的 James Heaney。

Derek, can you just give a little bit more detail about what you're seeing so far in? Q1, whether that's January or early February, the guide implies a pretty decent acceleration in revenue growth. So just curious, what's specifically giving you that confidence to get back into the mid-teens at the high point?

Derek，你能否再多提供一些細節，談談你們目前在第一季看到的情況？不論是 1 月或 2 月初。你們的指引暗示營收成長會有相當不錯的加速。所以我很好奇，具體是什麼讓你們有信心在高端情境下回到年增中段十幾%的水準？

Hey, it's Derek. Thanks for the question. I think at a very high level, we're off to a good start. It's early in the quarter, we're only about a month in, but we're off to a good start. And as Evan said, we've made a lot of progress with the ad platform in the trailing year.

嗨，我是 Derek。謝謝你的問題。我想從很高層次來看，我們開局不錯。現在還在季度初期，我們大概才進入一個月，但我們的起步表現良好。正如 Evan 所說，我們在過去一年裡在廣告平台方面取得了很大進展。

And I think what we're really looking for here is sort of four high-level things. One is significant improvement to the ad platform fundamentally, then improvements to our go-to-market, then delivering better rollout to advertisers and then that translating into budgets, moving over and advertisers growing. And then we made a lot of fundamental improvements to the ad platform and our go-to-market last year.

而我認為我們在這裡真正關注的是四個高層次的面向。第一是廣告平台本質上的重大改善；接著是我們的 go-to-market（市場進入/商業化）改善；再來是為廣告主提供更好的上線推廣（rollout）；最後是這些改善能轉化為預算移轉、以及廣告主成長。去年我們在廣告平台與 go-to-market 上做了許多根本性的改善。

Evan touched on a lot of that and how that started showing up in improved ROAS in Q4, whether that was the more than 90% growth in purchase-related conversions in Q4, and also early input signs in advertiser growth, with the more than 20% growth in small- and medium-sized customers in Q4. So you're seeing that those fundamental improvements to the platform and our go-to-market efforts starting to translate into results for advertisers and then us seeing that in some of our outputs with a good start here and then reflected in the guide that we've provided.

Evan 提到了其中很多內容，以及這些改善如何在第四季反映為 ROAS 的提升——不論是第四季與購買相關的轉換成長超過 90%，以及廣告主成長的早期投入指標，例如第四季中小型客戶成長超過 20%。所以你可以看到，平台與 go-to-market 的那些根本性改善，開始為廣告主帶來成果，而我們也在一些輸出指標上看到這點：我們在本季有個不錯的開局，並且反映在我們提供的指引中。

So we're definitely seeing progress there and pleased with the start that we're off to. And that's reflected in the guide. And as you noted, at the high end of the guide, we'd be looking at a 10 percentage point acceleration in the year-over-year growth rate, which would certainly be good progress in a single quarter and we look to build from there. So look, thanks for the question. And hopefully, you're seeing the progress that we are.

所以我們確實看到進展，也對目前的開局感到滿意，而這也反映在指引裡。正如你所提，在指引的高端，我們會看到年對年成長率加速 10 個百分點，這在單一季度內會是相當不錯的進展，而我們希望在此基礎上繼續推進。總之，謝謝你的問題，也希望你能看到我們所看到的進展。

Our next question today comes from Justin Post with Bank of America.

今天下一題來自美國銀行（Bank of America）的 Justin Post。

Great. Maybe one for Evan. Just on the cost side, a pretty big change you made in January or planned in January but made recently. Can you talk about the motivation for that? And then, Derek, maybe explain when the benefit of that will hit? I'm assuming 2Q, but maybe you could outline how much cost savings and when we'll see it hit the model.

很好。也許先問 Evan 一題。就成本面而言，你們在 1 月做了（或計畫在 1 月做、但最近才落實的）一個相當大的改變。你能談談背後的動機嗎？然後 Derek，也許你可以說明這個改變的效益何時會反映出來？我猜是第二季，但也許你可以概述節省多少成本，以及我們何時會在模型中看到它的影響。

Yes. Thanks for the question. It's always painful and difficult to make these sorts of changes with our team. We're really motivated by trying to move faster. Last year, towards the end of the year, we made a rather large change to our product team and restructured the team to just drive a lot more accountability and focus. And in doing so, we removed a number of layers of management. We saw the impact that, that had just in terms of the clarity and focus and the ability for people to collaborate and work together.

好的，謝謝你的問題。對團隊做這類改變總是令人痛苦且艱難。我們的主要動機是希望能更快行動。去年接近年底時，我們對產品團隊做了一個相當大的調整，並重組團隊，以推動更高的責任歸屬與聚焦。在這個過程中，我們移除了若干管理層級。我們看到這帶來的影響——就清晰度與聚焦，以及人們協作與共同工作的能力而言。

And I think as well, we're seeing a lot of benefits from getting folks together in the office and the sort of problem solving and creativity that comes out of that. So I think putting a real focus on reducing hierarchy and really an emphasis on bringing people together to solve problems has made a big difference for the business recently. And I think these changes will allow us to do more of that.

同時，我們也看到把大家聚在辦公室所帶來的許多好處，以及由此產生的問題解決與創意。我認為，真正聚焦於降低層級、並強調把人聚在一起解決問題，最近對業務帶來了很大差異。我也認為這些改變將讓我們能做得更多。

On the cost structure side, I think a few things to walk through here, just looking at their cost structure generally. One, we're trying to make sure that we've got a really clear path to be generating meaningful adjusted EBITDA and positive free cash flow. And that's really defining our investment levels, and then we're prioritizing within that.

在成本結構方面，我想這裡有幾點可以帶大家梳理一下，先從他們整體的成本結構來看。第一，我們正努力確保自己有一條非常清晰的路徑，能夠產生具實質意義的調整後 EBITDA 以及正向自由現金流。這也真正界定了我們的投資水位，然後我們會在這個框架內進行優先排序。

As I look forward to Q1, number one, we've seen a big increase in infrastructure costs in 2023, on the order of magnitude of about $100 million of quarterly run rate of higher infrastructure costs, and that's led to the rather significant increases on infra per DAU.

展望第一季，第一點，我們在 2023 年看到基礎設施成本大幅上升，量級大約是每季 run rate 增加約 1 億美元的基礎設施成本，這也導致每 DAU 的基礎設施成本出現相當顯著的上升。

You saw that start to slow down as we went through the back half of 2023 and into Q4 of 2023 in terms of the sequential increase in the infrastructure per DAU and really look for that to continue to slow down or level off here as we move into Q1. And that's going to give us the opportunity to make progress against our medium- and long-term margin targets, given infrastructure is the biggest element of the cost of revenue side of things.

你們也看到，隨著 2023 年下半年一路到 2023 年第四季，每 DAU 的基礎設施成本在「逐季增加」的幅度開始放緩；我們也預期在進入第一季時，這個放緩會持續，甚至趨於持平。鑑於基礎設施是營收成本中最大的構成要素，這將讓我們有機會朝中長期的利潤率目標取得進展。

As I look down to the OpEx side, just a couple of things to note. One, we had a really good outcome on Q4 adjusted EBITDA. Part of that was being at the higher end of our internal range we shared with you on revenue, but part of that was about better flow-through. And we had lower-than-expected marketing costs, for example, in Q4. And timing-wise, you're going to see some of those marketing costs in Q1 this year with the campaign that we've kicked off. And so you're seeing a little bit of that as a onetime item flowing through the Q1 costs that, of course, are impacting the adjusted EBITDA guide in Q1.

再看營業費用（OpEx）端，有幾點值得注意。第一，我們第四季的調整後 EBITDA 表現非常好。其中一部分原因是營收落在我們先前與各位分享的內部區間的高端，但另一部分則是因為更好的流量轉換（flow-through）。例如，我們第四季的行銷成本低於預期。而在時點上，你們會在今年第一季看到其中一些行銷成本，因為我們已啟動相關活動。因此，你們會看到有一點像一次性項目流入第一季成本，當然也會影響第一季的調整後 EBITDA 指引。

From an ongoing cost structure perspective, though, to your question, yes, we made a very difficult decision earlier this week to restructure our team. That impacted about 10% of the team. So about 60% to 2/3 of our OpEx is people or people related, so we would expect to see that help us on the OpEx side. But you probably will not expect to see that really fully reflected in the cost structure until Q2 and beyond.

不過，從持續性的成本結構角度來回應你的問題，是的，我們在本週稍早做出了一個非常艱難的決定，對團隊進行重組。這影響了約 10% 的團隊人員。由於我們約 60% 到 2/3 的 OpEx 來自人員或與人員相關的成本，因此我們預期這會在 OpEx 端帶來幫助。但你可能不會預期這會在成本結構上於第一季就完全反映出來；要到第二季及之後才會更完整呈現。

In Q2, we'll be going through that transition, and we'll actually be incurring between $55 million and $75 million of restructuring costs in -- largely in Q1 that will put downward pressure on net income in the quarter. So a lot of the cost structure benefits that you would expect to see there will show up in Q2 from an adjusted EBITDA perspective.

在第二季，我們會經歷這段轉換期；而我們也將產生 5,500 萬至 7,500 萬美元的重組成本——主要會在第一季入帳——這會對當季淨利造成下行壓力。因此，你所期待看到的許多成本結構效益，會在第二季以調整後 EBITDA 的角度顯現。

So if you're sort of following through each of those pieces, then you've got a path here to a structure change in how to think about infrastructure and cost of revenue, where the lion's share of the increase in infrastructure costs in 2023 are best thought of as fixed. And therefore, that gives us the ability to flow through at a really good rate as we have incremental revenue growth. You saw that in Q3 and Q4, where we flowed through more than 2/3 of incremental revenue to the adjusted EBITDA line. So that's sort of an indication of how we can scale well on the gross margin line.

所以，如果你把這些部分逐一串起來看，我們就有一條路徑，去理解在基礎設施與營收成本的思考方式上所發生的結構性變化：2023 年基礎設施成本增加的大部分，最適合被視為固定成本。因此，當我們有增量營收成長時，就能以非常好的比率把效益流入（flow through）。你們在第三季與第四季已看到，我們把超過 2/3 的增量營收流入到調整後 EBITDA 這一行。這某種程度上也顯示了我們在毛利率端具備良好的規模化能力。

And then from here, after restructuring on the OpEx side and getting to a good size on our overall fixed cost, cash cost structure, it's about being disciplined from here, which we expect to be able to do. And the changes we make give us room to invest to support our growth if we -- if and when we accelerate revenue.

接下來，在 OpEx 端完成重組，並讓我們整體固定成本、現金成本結構達到合適規模之後，重點就是從這裡開始保持紀律，而我們預期能做到。我們所做的改變，也讓我們在需要時有空間投資以支持成長——如果、以及當我們加速營收時。

The last thing I'd just touch on here, below the adjusted EBITDA line, SBC has been a real focus for us in trying to get to a sustainable level of SBC. The restructuring changes that we made earlier this week are going to help us significantly with making progress on that. The other is that we've been talking a lot throughout 2023 about SBC being elevated as a result of refresh grants to the team and how that flows through GAAP measurement of SBC.

最後我想補充一點，在調整後 EBITDA 之下，股份基礎給付（SBC）一直是我們的重點，目標是讓 SBC 回到可持續的水準。本週稍早我們所做的重組調整，將在這方面大幅幫助我們取得進展。另一點是，我們在 2023 年一整年也談了很多：由於對團隊進行 refresh grants，SBC 會偏高，以及這如何透過 GAAP 的 SBC 衡量方式反映出來。

We saw that impact begin to dissipate in Q4 of '23. 24% year-over-year decline or $110 million year-over-year decline in SBC, largely driven by that impact rolling off. We'll see that further dissipate into Q1 and later this year. So really getting the cost structure in a much better place here to carve a path to profitability, sustained free cash flow and sustainable rates of SBC and dilution. So hopefully, that helps.

我們在 2023 年第四季看到這個影響開始消退。SBC 年減 24%，或年減 1.10 億美元，主要是因為該影響逐步到期（rolling off）所致。我們會在第一季以及今年稍晚看到它進一步消退。因此，我們正把成本結構調整到更好的位置，以開闢通往獲利、持續自由現金流，以及可持續的 SBC 與稀釋率的路徑。希望這能有所幫助。

And look, I know it's a long answer to a short question, but the last thing I'd add is just on managing the SBC, it's been a real focus to get the share count right. We bought back nearly $1.2 billion of our shares over the last 18 months at prices below $10. That's really helped us here to get through this period of transition with the business with a level of share count growth, it's more sustainable.

另外，我知道這是對一個簡短問題的長回答，但我最後想補充的是，在管理 SBC 方面，我們一直非常專注於把股數控制在合理水準。過去 18 個月，我們以低於 10 美元的價格回購了將近 12 億美元的自家股票。這確實幫助我們在業務轉型期間，把股數成長控制在更可持續的水準。

Since IPO, we've kept that number at around 3.6% CAGR. So hopefully, you can see the discipline in the cost structure with the changes we've made, and you'll see us level out at a cost structure that scales well to produce profitability and free cash flow. So thanks for the question and bearing with the long answer.

自 IPO 以來，我們把這個數字維持在約 3.6% 的年複合成長率（CAGR）。希望你能看到我們在成本結構上的紀律與所做的改變；你也會看到我們的成本結構趨於穩定，並能良好地隨規模擴張，以產生獲利與自由現金流。謝謝你的提問，也謝謝你耐心聽完這個長回答。

Our next question today comes from Stephen Ju with UBS.

我們今天的下一個問題來自 UBS 的 Stephen Ju。

Aside from what sounds like benefit to engagement, I think you've previously talked about how My AI has been helping you gather more [intent] data. So we're wondering if you can help draw the line from that as a concept to revenue benefit as you continue to underwrite the incremental cost to serve?

除了聽起來對互動度有幫助之外，我記得你們之前也談過 My AI 如何協助你們蒐集更多的 [intent] 資料。因此我們想請你們協助說明，從這個概念如何連結到營收效益，尤其是在你們持續承擔（underwrite）額外服務成本的情況下？

Yes. Thanks for the question. We certainly do think that, that signal can be another input into our models to help deliver more relevant and engaging advertising. We made a lot of progress on the cost-to-serve side in terms of My AI, and we've been testing routing queries to different models and whatnot to help reduce cost, depending on the complexity of the query.

是的，謝謝你的問題。我們確實認為，這個訊號可以成為我們模型的另一個輸入，幫助投放更相關、更具吸引力的廣告。在 My AI 的服務成本（cost-to-serve）方面，我們已取得很大進展；我們也在測試把查詢路由到不同模型等方式，以便依查詢複雜度來降低成本。

I'd say, overall, our generative AI efforts have been much more focused on image and video models and helping people edit their Snaps or generate Snaps in new and entertaining ways, and really using that as an on-ramp to Snapchat+. We're really excited that we reached more than 7 million Snapchat+ subscribers in Q4. And I do think that Snapchat+ will be a way to monetize some of these more intensive image and video offerings that we're rolling out.

我會說，整體而言，我們的生成式 AI 工作更聚焦在影像與影片模型上，協助人們編輯他們的 Snaps，或以新的、有趣的方式生成 Snaps，並真正把這當作導入 Snapchat+ 的入口。我們非常興奮，因為我們在第四季的 Snapchat+ 訂閱者已超過 700 萬。我也確實認為，Snapchat+ 會是我們將這些更高強度的影像與影片功能（我們正在推出）變現的一種方式。

Our last question comes from Mark Mahaney with Evercore.

我們最後一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Mark Mahaney。

Evan, you talked about unifying the content experience across Stories and Spotlight. Could you talk about the degree of difficulty in doing that? Do you find use cases are such that people just pick one -- users pick 1 or 2 -- one of those and silo off there and it's going to be hard to unify that experience? And if it is hard, how do you plan to do that? Just any more color on how you unify the content experience.

Evan，你談到要在 Stories 與 Spotlight 之間統一內容體驗。你能談談做到這件事的難度有多高嗎？你是否發現使用情境使得人們只會選其中一個——使用者只選 1 或 2 個——其中之一，然後就各自分流，導致很難把體驗統一？如果很難，你們打算怎麼做？能否再多分享一些你們如何統一內容體驗的細節。

Yes. Thanks, Mark. I'd say, overall, anytime you're asking people to change their behavior, that can be difficult. That's why we're really trying to be thoughtful about it. I think one of the most frustrating things from a user experience perspective is that the UI and navigation for Spotlight is different than the UI and navigation for Stories. So the initial steps here are really trying to unify the UI and then unify the navigation, and make sure there aren't any negative secondary impacts to various parts of our business.

是的，謝謝你，Mark。我會說，整體而言，只要你要求人們改變行為，那就可能很困難。這也是為什麼我們會非常謹慎地處理。我認為從使用者體驗角度來看，最令人挫折的一件事是：Spotlight 的 UI 與導覽方式，和 Stories 的 UI 與導覽方式不同。因此，我們的初步步驟就是先把 UI 統一，再把導覽統一，並確保不會對我們業務的各個部分造成任何負面的次級影響。

But I think overall, as we look at the way that Spotlight has been able to drive some really significant engagement growth and really the opportunity to broaden out our inventory pool and (inaudible) to our ranking models in a holistic way, I think those benefits will outweigh whatever disruptions we have to navigate as we unify that user interface and navigation.

但我認為整體來看，當我們觀察 Spotlight 如何帶動相當顯著的互動成長，以及它在擴大我們的庫存池並以整體方式（inaudible）到我們的排序模型方面所帶來的機會時，我認為這些好處將會大於我們在統一使用者介面與導覽時必須克服的任何干擾。

This concludes our Q&A session as well as Snap Inc. Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you all for attending today's session. You may now disconnect.

以上為我們的問答環節，以及 Snap Inc. 2023 年第四季財報電話會議的全部內容。感謝各位參與今天的會議。您現在可以掛線。