(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.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 Snap Inc. 的 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）我現在想將電話轉給投資者關係主管 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.

謝謝大家，大家下午好。歡迎參加 Snap 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。今天與我們在一起的有執行長兼聯合創始人埃文·斯皮格爾 (Evan Spiegel)；和首席財務官德里克·安德森(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.

請參閱我們的投資者關係網站 Investor.snap.com，尋找今天的新聞稿、投影片、投資者信函和投資者簡報。本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述基於我們今天的假設。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中表達的結果有重大差異，我們沒有義務更新我們的揭露。

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.

有關可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的更多信息，請參閱我們今天發布的新聞稿以及我們最新的10-Q 表格中描述的風險，特別是標題為“風險因素”的部分。

Today's call will include both GAAP and non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations between the two can be found in today's press release. 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.

今天的電話會議將包括公認會計原則和非公認會計原則措施。兩者之間的和解可以在今天的新聞稿中找到。請注意，當我們討論所有費用數據時，它們將不包括基於股票的薪酬和相關工資稅以及折舊和攤提以及某些其他項目。請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解我們如何計算今天電話會議中討論的任何指標。

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

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給埃文。

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.

大家好，感謝大家加入我們。第四季度，我們繼續在發展社區、提高參與深度、推動營收成長、實現收入來源多元化以及調整後 EBITDA 盈利能力和正自由現金流等核心優先事項上取得進展。

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.

月活躍用戶年增超過 8%，並在第四季度突破 8 億大關，顯示我們在實現 10 億月活躍用戶的目標方面取得了進展。第四季每日活躍用戶達到 4.14 億，年成長 10%，我們持續深化與內容平台的互動，觀看內容的觀眾數量和觀看內容的總時間逐年增長。

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%，達到 13.61 億美元，我們繼續專注於直接回應業務的投資，為廣告合作夥伴帶來更高的廣告支出回報。調整後毛利率季增 1 個百分點。調整後營運費用較去年同期下降 2%。第四季度，我們實現了 1.59 億美元的調整後 EBITDA 和 1.11 億美元的自由現金流。

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.

2023 年對 Snap 來說是關鍵的一年，因為我們堅持不懈地致力於為社群增加價值，同時發展我們的業務以實現長期成長。

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.

去年，我們轉向更以客戶為中心的方法，對我們的業務進行了變革，大力投資我們的機器學習平台，以提高廣告合作夥伴的績效，並更好地利用隱私安全信號進行排名和優化。我們也透過新的區域領導力和重新關注以客戶為導向的廣告解決方案來改變我們的市場推廣工作。

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.

2024 年伊始，我們將重點放在 3 項舉措，我們認為這些舉措對於 Snapchat 的長期成功至關重要。首先，我們正在繼續發展我們的機器學習模型，以推動我們平台上更多的廣告互動。其次，我們正在努力統一 Spotlight 和 Stories 的內容體驗，以改善使用者體驗並加深參與度。

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，我們正在將更多的重點轉向用戶成長和加深對我們最具獲利能力的地區（包括北美和歐洲）的參與。我們相信，專注於這些舉措將有助於我們增加 Snapchat 的日常活躍使用量，加深內容參與度，提高廣告商的業績，並最終加速收入成長並推動自由現金流的增加。

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.

為了使我們的業務能夠最好地執行這些優先事項，並確保我們有能力逐步投資以支持我們隨著時間的推移而成長，我們做出了重組團隊的艱難決定，同時繼續對我們的最高優先事項進行投資，包括改善營收成長。

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，並將團隊成員集中在主要樞紐地點，以支持面對面協作，從而在 2024 年第一季將我們的全職員工人數減少約 10%。受這些變化影響的團隊成員是友善的，聰明而富有創造力的同事，他們在這個充滿挑戰的時期為我們的業務做出了重要貢獻，我們致力於支持他們的過渡。

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.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的羅斯桑德勒。

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，廣告業務 DR 的問題。因此，第四季的成長率為 3%，與第三季大致相同。所以我想，為什麼我們沒有看到更多進展，使成長率達到更廣泛的數位廣告產業的水平？就像現在是什麼阻礙了我們？

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?

然後，您對第一季的指導假設趨勢向上加速至兩位數到十幾歲左右，具體取決於範圍。那麼，到目前為止，第一季 DR 的加速程度如何？這對 2024 年剩餘時間意味著什麼？

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 -- a number of small and medium-sized advertisers grow 20% year-over-year.

謝謝，羅斯。我們對所看到的進展感到非常興奮，特別是在我們的下漏斗業務以及中小型廣告商方面。第四季與購買相關的轉換較去年同期成長 90%。我們看到中小型廣告商的數量年增了 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.

我們確實認為這也反映了更具彈性的收入，因為在過去幾年中我們應對了一些外部挑戰，我們發現那些較低的漏斗美元更具彈性。我認為展望第一季度，指導範圍的上限反映了 10 個百分點的加速。所以我們在這裡取得了進展。

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.

顯然，我們希望行動更快，但我們正在盡最大努力工作，並對我們在直接回應業務中看到的情況感到高興。

Our next question comes from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

Evan, you've talked a little bit about introducing a universal [fee] 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?

埃文（Evan），您已經談到了在平台上引入通用[費用]，也許可以統一故事和聚光燈內容。您能否談談這裡的機會以及如何以隱私和品牌安全的方式做到這一點？那麼，這對廣告庫存和收入意味著什麼？

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.

是的。當我們開始建立 Spotlight 時，我們實際上將其建立在一個完全獨立的堆疊上，因此這意味著排名是單獨的堆疊，庫存與我們的故事庫存是分開的，並且用戶體驗本身也不同。

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. 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.

我們確實看到了很多為故事帶來這些改進的機會。例如，我們的故事庫存比聚光燈更有限。它沒有利用我們在 Spotlight 上所做的一些排名改進和模型改進。因此，我們認為統一 Stories 和 Spotlight 體驗將為我們在 Spotlight 方面看到的個人化和 Stories 的使用者體驗帶來許多好處。

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.

所以我們對此感到非常興奮。許多這類幕後工作正在順利進行，我們全年都會推出一些測試，這應該會讓我們更接近統一的體驗。

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.

在品牌安全方面，我們剛完成了品牌安全的第三方審核。我認為我們在 Spotlight 上接近 99% 的品牌安全內容，並且在創作者內容、Snap Stars 等方面實際上接近 100%。因此，我認為 Snapchat 真正獨特的事情之一是，廣告商無需支付額外費用即可獲得品牌安全的體驗，就像他們在其他平台上必須做的那樣，以避免有害內容。

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.

因此，我確實認為我們將能夠透過這種統一的體驗繼續為廣告商帶來這些好處。我認為，我們的品牌安全水平非常高，這對我們來說是一個真正的差異化因素。

Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的艾瑞克·謝裡丹。

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?

埃文，也許我可以堅持您在介紹性發言中介紹的大局主題。當您縱觀社交媒體、媒體消費以及像您這樣的應用程式的實用性上升潛力的競爭格局時，您如何識別您所看到的機會集和您試圖應對的潛在挑戰重新定位業務以實現長期用戶、參與度和貨幣化的成長？

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。謝謝你的提問。當我們設計 Snapchat 並真正建立該產品時，我們考慮圍繞人們使用智慧型手機的一些核心方式來建立它。因此，與朋友聊天、拍照、觀看內容等都是人們在手機上最常做的事情，也是最常做的事情。

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.

我認為，當我們審視 Snapchat 時，我們最大的機會之一實際上是這些不同服務之間的關係方式，這對我們來說是一種策略優勢。如果您考慮我們內容業務的成長，我們看到的是，隨著朋友彼此分享內容，我們可以擴大漏斗的頂部，從而讓更多的人參與我們的內容體驗。

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，我們利用了這樣一個事實：每天都有很多人使用我們的相機來製作視頻，因此我們可以非常非常快地為 Spotlight 產品生成大量庫存。

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，當然還有我們的內容平台之間的關係對我們來說確實是一個關鍵的策略優勢。隨著我們繼續專注於幫助親密的朋友和家人保持聯繫並相互視覺交流，我認為我們未來將有更多的機會。

Our next question comes from Mark Shmulik with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自伯恩斯坦的馬克·什穆里克。

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?

我在投資者的信中註意到，優先事項之一是專注於北美和歐洲，增加用戶並加深參與度。我們看到北美 DAU 略有疲軟。您能否分享一些關於原因的信息，也許在表面之下，當您考慮專注於提高這些市場的參與度時，您正在做的一些改變？

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. 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.

是的。謝謝你的提問。當我們觀察北美地區時，第四季的下降主要是四捨五入造成的。我們預計第一季北美市場不會進一步下滑。不過，我確實認為整體而言，我們有機會增加對北美和歐洲成長的投資。在過去的 5 到 7 年裡，我們真正專注於我們的 Android 產品和新興市場的成長。這實際上是為了吸引大量新用戶。我認為在北美和歐洲等地，我們可以在 iOS 上做得更好，真正讓那些嘗試過 Snapchat 或不經常使用該服務或回來接收朋友訊息的人復活，幫助他們了解我們的其他不同功能。

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，這將成為我們越來越關注的焦點，未來幾年我們將在這方面投入更多。我們目前正在真正評估這個機會並真正理解它。顯然，我們涵蓋了 20 多個國家 13 至 34 歲的大量人群，我認為超過 75%。但我確實認為，就使用者而言，我們在歐洲和北美的業務還有繼續發展的空間。

Our next question comes from Rich Greenfield with LightShed Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自 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?

埃文，我想，這一切都歸結為投資者的問題與[規模]有關。 Snap 相對於 Meta 的規模較小，這只是一個根本性的長期問題嗎？因為我認為人們正在關注 Meta 以巨大的基礎規模增長 30%，並且肯定會在 AI 和 ML 上投入非常非常積極的資金。這是你成長的限制因素嗎？

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 [years] probably, you could, at the bottom end, still grow below 10% ad only.

我的意思是，正如您所指出的，從本季度5 的水平來看，10 到15 顯然是一個相當不錯的加速。但如果取消訂閱[年]，您可能在最低端仍會僅以低於10% 的廣告成長率成長。

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.

那麼，正如我們思考 2024 年一樣，第一季是低點嗎？意思是，當您傾向於災難復原並且機器學習投資得到回報時，您認為全年可能會出現戲劇性的加速嗎？還是你只是從根本上處於劣勢？我認為這就是投資者正在努力解決和理解的問題，他們顯然已經看到了[股票]一夜之間發生的事情。

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.

是的。謝謝，里奇。我認為，作為一個為全球超過 8 億人提供服務的平台，我們無疑是最大的網路服務商之一。我們的規模不如一些參與者，但我認為我們有巨大的機會繼續發展業務。

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.

我認為，當你審視整體收入彈性時，我們在過去幾年真正關注的事情之一就是轉向廣告合作夥伴，尤其是中小型企業的較低漏斗目標。

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.

從歷史上看，我們更多的是以品牌為中心的廣告業務。這需要大量的工作和投資。我們當然正在努力在直接回應方面追趕，但我們看到的證據表明，這是有效的。

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，例如，當我們審視我們的 7-0 產品時，它確實推動了廣告商的購買，這告訴我，當我們將這些知識應用到其他類別（例如應用程式）時，我們將能夠在那裡看到更多的動力和進步。

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.

因此，從更以品牌為導向的業務向直接響應業務的轉變無疑是一個艱難的轉變，但我們正在取得很大進展。當我看到我們在建模方面所做的工作以及我們現在模型的規模以及我們在平台上以隱私安全的方式利用壓力更實時信號的能力時，我確實認為我們正在取得重大進展。我們對能夠繼續加速持樂觀態度。

Our next question comes from James Heaney with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自傑弗里斯的詹姆斯希尼。

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?

德里克（Derek），您能否更詳細地介紹一下您在第一季（無論是一月還是二月初）所看到的情況？該指南意味著收入成長將出現相當可觀的加速。所以我很好奇，是什麼讓你有信心回到十幾歲的巔峰？

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.

嘿，這是德瑞克。謝謝你的提問。我認為在很高的水平上，我們有了一個好的開始。現在還處於本季度初期，距離我們只有一個月左右，但我們已經有了一個很好的開始。正如埃文所說，過去一年我們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.

我認為我們在這裡真正尋找的是四件高層次的事情：一是從根本上對廣告平台進行重大改進，然後是對我們的市場推廣的改進，然後是向廣告商提供更好的推廣，然後是翻譯進入預算，轉移和廣告商成長。

And then we made a lot of fundamental improvements to the ad platform and our go-to-market last year. 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.

去年，我們對廣告平台和上市進行了許多根本性改進。埃文談到了很多這方面的內容，以及如何開始在第四季度的 [ROAS] 改善中體現出來，無論是第四季度購買相關轉化超過 90% 的增長，還是廣告商增長的早期投入跡象，第第四季中小型客戶成長20%。

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.

因此，您會看到平台的這些根本性改進以及我們的市場推廣努力開始轉化為廣告商的成果，然後我們在一些產出中看到這一點，這裡有一個良好的開端，然後反映在我們的指南中已提供。

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 with the potential question, hopefully, you're seeing the progress that we are.

因此，我們確實看到了進展，並對我們即將開始的工作感到滿意。這也反映在指南中。正如您在指南的高端所指出的，我們預計同比增長率將加快 10 個百分點，這在一個季度內肯定會取得良好進展，我們希望從那裡。因此，對於潛在的問題，希望您能看到我們所取得的進展。

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

今天我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的賈斯汀·波斯特。

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?

偉大的。也許是埃文的一個。僅在成本方面，您在一月份做出了相當大的改變，或者在一月份計劃但最近做了一個相當大的改變。能談談這樣做的動機嗎？然後，Derek，也許可以解釋一下何時會帶來好處，我假設是第二季度，但也許您可以概述一下節省了多少成本，以及我們何時會看到它對模型產生影響？

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.

是的。謝謝你的提問。與我們的團隊一起做出這些改變總是痛苦且困難的。我們的動力來自於努力加快腳步。去年，接近年底，我們對產品團隊進行了相當大的改變，並重組了團隊，以推動更多的責任和關注。在此過程中，我們取消了多個管理階層。我們看到了它的影響，它在清晰度、重點以及人們協作和共同工作的能力方面產生了影響。

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.

我也認為，我們看到了讓人們聚集在辦公室的許多好處，以及由此產生的解決問題和創造力的好處。因此，我認為，真正專注於減少層級結構，並真正強調將人們聚集在一起解決問題，最近對企業產生了很大的影響。我認為這些變化將使我們能夠做得更多。

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，我認為這裡需要討論一些事情，只是總體上看看他們的成本結構。第一，我們正在努力確保我們有一條真正清晰的路徑來產生有意義的調整後 EBITDA 和正的自由現金流。這確實定義了我們的投資水平，然後我們在此範圍內確定優先順序。

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 in [improper] DAU.

正如我對第一季度的展望，第一，我們看到 2023 年基礎設施成本大幅增加，基礎設施成本季度運行率約為 1 億美元，這導致了[不當] DAU。

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 for 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.

隨著我們進入 2023 年下半年並進入 2023 年第四季度，就 DAU 基礎設施的連續增長而言，您看到這種情況開始放緩，並且當我們進入Q1.鑑於基礎設施是收入成本的最大要素，這將使我們有機會在中長期利潤目標方面取得進展。

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.

當我審視營運支出方面時，有幾件事需要注意。第一，我們在第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 上取得了非常好的結果。部分原因是我們與您分享的收入範圍處於我們內部範圍的高端，但部分原因是更好的流通。例如，我們第四季的行銷成本低於預期。

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.

從時間來看，您將在今年第一季透過我們啟動的活動看到一些行銷成本。因此，您會看到其中一部分作為一次性專案流經第一季的成本，這當然會影響第一季調整後的 EBITDA 指南。

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% or 2/3 of our OpEx is people or people related, so we would expect to see that help us on the OpEx side.

不過，從持續成本結構的角度來看，對於你的問題，是的，我們本週早些時候做出了一個非常艱難的決定來重組我們的團隊，這影響了大約 10% 的團隊。因此，我們大約 60% 或 2/3 的營運支出是人或與人相關的，因此我們希望看到這在營運支出方面對我們有所幫助。

But you probably will not expect to see that really fully reflected in the cost structure until Q2 and beyond. 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.

但您可能不會期望在第二季度及以後看到這一點真正完全反映在成本結構中。在第二季度，我們將經歷這一轉變，我們實際上將產生 5,500 萬至 7,500 萬美元的重組成本——主要是在第一季度，這將為該季度的淨利潤帶來下行壓力。

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. 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.

因此，從調整後的 EBITDA 角度來看，您期望看到的許多成本結構優勢將在第二季顯現出來。因此，如果您遵循這些部分中的每一個部分，那麼您就可以在如何考慮基礎設施和收入成本方面進行結構性改變，其中 2023 年基礎設施成本增長的最大份額是最好認為是固定的。

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.

因此，隨著我們收入的增量成長，這使我們能夠以非常好的速度流動。您在第三季和第四季看到了這一點，我們將超過 2/3 的增量收入流向了調整後的 EBITDA 線。因此，這在某種程度上表明我們如何能夠在毛利率線上取得良好的擴展。

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 is if we -- if and when we accelerate revenue.

然後從這裡開始，在營運支出方面進行重組並在我們的整體固定成本、現金成本結構上達到良好的規模之後，我們希望能夠做到這一點，從這裡開始遵守紀律。我們所做的改變為我們提供了投資空間，以支持我們的成長，前提是我們加快收入成長。

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.

我在這裡要談的最後一件事是，在調整後的 EBITDA 線以下，SBC 一直是我們努力達到可持續的 SBC 水平的真正焦點。我們本週早些時候進行的重組變革將極大地幫助我們在這方面取得進展。

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 [gap] measurement of SBC. 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, sustain free cash flow and sustainable rates of SBC and dilution. So hopefully, that helps.

另一個問題是，我們在 2023 年一直在談論很多關於 SBC 由於向團隊提供[刷新]撥款而提升的問題，以及如何透過 SBC 的[差距]衡量來提高 SBC。我們看到這種影響在 23 年第四季開始消散，SBC 年減 24%，即年減 1.1 億美元，這主要是由於這種影響逐漸消失。我們將看到這種情況在第一季和今年晚些時候進一步消散。因此，真正將成本結構置於一個更好的位置，以開闢一條盈利之路，維持自由現金流以及可持續的 SBC 和稀釋率。希望這會有所幫助。

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.

看，我知道這是一個簡短問題的長答案，但我要補充的最後一件事只是管理 SBC，真正關注的是正確計算股票數量。過去 18 個月，我們以低於 10 美元的價格回購了近 12 億美元的股票。這確實幫助我們度過了這段業務轉型期。隨著股票數量的增長，它更具可持續性。

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，我們一直將這一數字保持在 [3.6%] 左右的複合年增長率。因此，希望您能夠透過我們所做的改變看到成本結構的規律，並且您會看到我們的成本結構趨於平穩，可以很好地擴展以產生盈利能力和自由現金流。感謝您提出問題並接受長答案。

Our next question today comes from Stephen Ju with UBS.

今天我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 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?

除了聽起來有利於參與之外，我想您之前已經討論過「我的人工智慧」如何幫助您收集更多[意圖]數據。因此，我們想知道，當您繼續承擔增量服務成本時，您是否可以幫助將其作為一個概念與收入收益劃清界限？

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。謝謝你的提問。我們當然認為，該訊號可以成為我們模型的另一個輸入，以幫助提供更具相關性和吸引力的廣告。我們在「我的人工智慧」方面在服務成本方面取得了很大進展，並且我們一直在測試將查詢路由到不同的模型等，以幫助降低成本，具體取決於查詢的複雜性。

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.

我想說，總的來說，我們的生成式人工智慧工作更加關注圖像和視訊模型，幫助人們以新的、有趣的方式編輯他們的 Snap 或生成 Snap，並真正將其用作 Snapchat+ 的入口。我們非常高興第四季 Snapchat+ 訂閱者數量超過 700 萬。

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.

我確實認為 Snapchat+ 將成為我們推出的一些更密集的圖像和視訊產品貨幣化的一種方式。

Our last question comes from Mark Mahaney with Evercore.

我們的最後一個問題來自 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，您談到了統一 Stories 和 Spotlight 的內容體驗。能談談這樣做的難度嗎？您是否發現用例是這樣的：人們只選擇一個（用戶選擇 1 或 2 個），然後將其孤立起來，很難統一這種體驗？如果這很難，你打算怎麼做？只是關於如何統一內容體驗的更多顏色。

Yes. 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。我想說，總的來說，任何時候你要求人們改變他們的行為，這都可能很困難。這就是為什麼我們真正努力思考這個問題。我認為從使用者體驗的角度來看，最令人沮喪的事情之一是 Spotlight 的 UI 和導航與 Stories 的 UI 和導航不同。因此，這裡的初始步驟實際上是嘗試統一使用者介面，然後統一導航，並確保不會對我們業務的各個部分產生任何負面的次要影響。

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 (technical difficulty) do 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 in navigation.

但我認為總的來說，當我們看到 Spotlight 能夠推動一些真正顯著的參與度成長，以及擴大我們的庫存池和（技術難度）以整體方式建立我們的排名模型的機會時，我認為這些當我們統一導航中的使用者介面時，好處將超過我們必須導航的任何干擾。

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

我們以及 Snap Inc 的問答環節到此結束。 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。感謝大家參加今天的會議。您現在可以斷開連線。