System1 Inc (SST) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the third quarter, 2024 conference call for System1. Joining me today to discuss System 1's business and financial results are Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Blend and our Chief Financial Officer Tridivesh Kidambi. The recording of this conference call will be available on our investor relations website shortly after this call has ended.

感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加 System1 2024 年第三季電話會議。今天與我一起討論 System 1 的業務和財務業績的是聯合創始人兼執行長 Michael Blend 和我們的財務長 Tridivesh Kidambi。本次電話會議的錄音將在本次電話會議結束後不久在我們的投資者關係網站上提供。

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that during the call we will be making certain forward-looking statements. This includes statements relating to the operating performance of our business, future financial results and guidance strategy, long term growth and overall future prospects.

我想藉此機會提醒您，在電話會議期間我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述。這包括與我們業務的經營業績、未來財務業績和指導策略、長期成長和整體未來前景有關的報表。

We may also make statements regarding regulatory or compliance matters. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied during this call in particular those described in our risk factors included in our annual report on form 10-K for fiscal year 2023 filed on March 15, as well as the current uncertainty and unpredictability in our business. The markets and the global economy generally.

我們也可能就監管或合規事宜發表聲明。這些陳述受到已知和未知的風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致我們的實際結果與本次電話會議期間預測或暗示的結果存在重大差異，特別是2023 財年10-K 表格年度報告中包含的風險因素中所述的風險和不確定性3 月 15 日提交，以及我們業務當前的不確定性和不可預測性。市場和全球經濟總體情況。

You should not rely on our forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. All forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on management's assumptions and beliefs as the date hereof and system one disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

您不應依賴我們的前瞻性陳述作為未來事件的預測。我們在本次電話會議中所做的所有前瞻性陳述均基於管理層截至本新聞稿發布之日的假設和信念，除法律要求外，System One 不承擔任何更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross profit. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from our GAAP results, historical performance and future estimates provided during this call exclude results from total security information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures, including a reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures to our most comparable historical GAAP financial measures may be found on our investor relations website.

我們今天的討論將包括非公認會計原則財務指標，包括調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的毛利。這些非公認會計原則措施應被視為補充，而不是替代或孤立於我們的公認會計原則結果，本次電話會議期間提供的歷史業績和未來估計排除了有關我們非公認會計原則財務措施的總體安全資訊的結果，包括我們的非 GAAP 財務指標與最具可比性的歷史 GAAP 財務指標的調整表可在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。

I would now like to turn the conference call over to System 1's Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Blend.

我現在想將電話會議轉給 System 1 聯合創辦人兼執行長 Michael Blend。

Thanks Kyle. Good afternoon everyone and thanks for joining us on our Q3 2024 System1 earnings call. Despite a mixed quarter with respect to the overall advertising marketplace. We delivered a strong quarter with many positives including exceeding the high end of guidance on EBITDA.

謝謝凱爾。大家下午好，感謝您參加我們的 2024 年第三季 System1 財報電話會議。儘管整個廣告市場的季度表現好壞參半。我們的季度表現強勁，有許多積極因素，包括超過 EBITDA 指導的上限。

System 1 delivered almost $89 million of revenue and $38 million dollars of gross profit adjusted EBITDA came in at $10.3 million these results were driven by the continuation of the trends we discussed last quarter. Our owned and operated products continued to perform well with revenue up 16% sequentially from the second quarter as a reminder, our owned and operated products are our, are our businesses which have organic users and they are not heavily reliant on system one spending marketing dollars for their growth.

System 1 實現了近 8900 萬美元的收入和 3800 萬美元的毛利，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1030 萬美元，這些結果是由我們上季度討論的趨勢的持續推動的。我們擁有和經營的產品繼續表現良好，收入較第二季度連續增長 16%，提醒我們，我們擁有和經營的產品是我們擁有有機用戶的企業，他們並不嚴重依賴系統一支出營銷資金為了他們的成長。

Our largest owned and operated products are Start page, our Private search engine, MapQuest, our mapping solution that competes with Google and Apple maps and coupon follow our promo code website that enables consumers to get great deals while they shop.

我們擁有和經營的最大的產品是Start page、我們的私人搜尋引擎、MapQuest、我們的地圖解決方案，可與Google 和Apple 地圖競爭，優惠券遵循我們的促銷代碼網站，使消費者在購物時能夠獲得超值優惠。

Now in contrast to the growth in these products, our marketing driven business lines continue to see the effects of significant choppiness with our largest advertising partner which is Google. Now, while Google's overall advertising business is doing fine, the specific area of Google we partner with which is called their search partner network has underperformed the rest of the Google business.

現在，與這些產品的成長形成鮮明對比的是，我們的行銷驅動型業務線繼續受到我們最大的廣告合作夥伴Google的嚴重波動的影響。現在，雖然Google的整體廣告業務表現良好，但我們與之合作的Google特定領域（稱為搜尋合作夥伴網路）的表現卻落後於Google業務的其他部分。

Because we are closely tied to the search partner network choppiness within this business line at Google has translated into underperformance on our marketing driven businesses that said and I'll go into this later. We are optimistic that our businesses tied to Google will return to growth in 2025.

因為我們與搜尋合作夥伴網路密切相關，所以Google這條業務線的不穩定性已經轉化為我們行銷驅動業務的表現不佳，我稍後會對此進行討論。我們樂觀地認為，我們與 Google 相關的業務將在 2025 年恢復成長。

On the technology side, we continue to see returns from our continued investment in our ramp platform as we integrate AI deeply into ramp we were able to create and launch new marketing campaigns faster and more efficiently and our product and engineering teams are moving faster than ever.

在技​​術方面，我們繼續從對坡道平台的持續投資中看到回報，因為我們將人工智慧深入整合到坡道中，我們能夠更快、更有效地創建和啟動新的行銷活動，並且我們的產品和工程團隊比以往任何時候都更快採取行動。

And on our expense side, our focus on reducing OpEx continues and we are having a positive impact with OpEx decreasing 5% sequentially. All right, let's get into some of the business details starting with our owned and operated businesses. Total owned and operated revenue was $71 million up 7% year over year, but down 9% from last quarter.

在我們的費用方面，我們繼續致力於降低營運支出，並且我們正在產生積極的影響，營運支出環比下降了 5%。好吧，讓我們從我們擁有和經營的業務開始，了解一些業務細節。自有和營運總收入為 7,100 萬美元，年增 7%，但較上季下降 9%。

Adjusted gross profit was $26 million up 11% year over year and down 4% from last quarter. The sequential revenue and gross profit declines were caused by a decrease in advertising spend of approximately $5.5 million. Although advertising has been declined session on our operated properties were up were over $2 billion up 125% year over year and up 3% from last quarter.

調整後毛利為 2,600 萬美元，較去年同期成長 11%，較上季下降 4%。收入和毛利環比下降是由於廣告支出減少約 550 萬美元造成的。儘管廣告已被拒絕，但我們經營的物業的廣告費用卻增加了超過 20 億美元，年增 125%，比上季度增長 3%。

RPS and CPS both decreased from the second quarter making it the third consecutive quarter of declines in these metrics. This trend is driven by lower cost per click rates in the United States as well as a mix shift towards international markets which also have lower monetization rates than the US.

RPS 和 CPS 都較第二季下降，這已是這些指標連續第三個季度下降。這一趨勢是由美國較低的每次點擊成本以及向國際市場的混合轉變所推動的，國際市場的貨幣化率也低於美國。

In Q3 international revenue represented 35% of owned and operated revenue compared to 24% in Q3 of 2023, the spread between RPS and CPS in Q3 is $0.13 or 59% compared to $0.14 or 55% in Q2. Overall I am pleased that we have been able to scale our international efforts quite a bit. But unfortunately, this was offset by a decline in our domestic marketing driven businesses.

第三季度，國際營收佔自有和經營收入的35%，而2023 年第三季為24%，第三季RPS 和CPS 之間的價差為0.13 美元或59%，而第二季為0.14 美元或55%。總的來說，我很高興我們能夠大幅擴大我們的國際努力。但不幸的是，這被我們國內行銷驅動業務的下滑所抵消。

In Q3, we launched over12,000 new marketing campaigns and over 50% increase from Q1 of this year. The investments and ramp are paying off and enabling us to greatly increase our launch throughout with campaign launches increasing every quarter this year.

第三季度，我們推出了超過 12,000 個新的行銷活動，比今年第一季成長了 50% 以上。這些投資和成長正在得到回報，使我們能夠大幅增加整個產品的推出量，今年每季的活動推出量都會增加。

As I mentioned, our O&O products continue to perform really well and in Q3 generate approximately 29% of total O&O revenue and 75% of our O&O gross profit coupon follow has continued to have a strong year following a series of Google search algorithm updates that started in May and that benefited the promo code and couponing sites with the best technology.

正如我所提到的，我們的O&O 產品繼續表現出色，在第三季度約佔O&O 總收入的29%，我們的O&O 毛利的75% 優惠券跟隨在一系列Google 搜尋演算法更新開始後繼續保持強勁的一年五月，這使擁有最好技術的促銷代碼和優惠券網站受益。

In Q3 coupon follow experienced a 47% sequential and 100 8% year over year increase in organic sessions to its website and the number of users of our promo code browser extension has more than doubled. Start page ,our private search engine continues to execute well and grew user sessions 22% year over year.

在第三季度，coupon follow 的網站自然會話量較上季成長 47%，較去年同期成長 100 個，較去年同期成長 8%，我們的促銷代碼瀏覽器擴充功能的使用者數量增加了一倍多。起始頁，我們的私人搜尋引擎持續運作良好，使用者會話量較去年同期成長 22%。

In addition, we recently completed the rollout of our pop private browser app by launching the Android version, which joins our OS version, our IOS version, we rolled out in Q2. So far, we have seen significant downloads and engagement with more than 200,000 downloads across Android and Ios and on MapQuest we saw 15% growth year over year in user sessions and recently have seen the highest usage of our MapQuest mapping service since we acquired the business in 2019.

此外，我們最近透過推出 Android 版本完成了流行的私人瀏覽器應用程式的推出，該版本加入了我們的作業系統版本、IOS 版本，我們在第二季度推出了。到目前為止，我們在Android 和Ios 上的下載量和參與度已超過200,000 次，在MapQuest 上，我們的用戶會話量同比增長了15%，並且最近我們看到了自我們收購該業務以來MapQuest 地圖服務的最高使用率2019年。

I should add a little perspective to this accomplishment. When we acquired MapQuest from Verizon in 2019, it was a 23 year old brand in serious decline and on the internet, it is highly unusual and very difficult to resuscitate a brand and bring it back to life.

我應該為這項成就添加一些觀點。當我們在 2019 年從 Verizon 收購 MapQuest 時，它是一個有 23 年歷史的品牌，正在嚴重衰退，在互聯網上，復興一個品牌並使其起死回生是非常不尋常的，也是非常困難的。

Our MapQuest team has not only injecting new life back into MapQuest we are seeing record usage days and are rolling out new innovative products such as our new private maps app. Overall, our organic products give us a significant hedge against the recent volatility we have seen in our marketing driven O&O business.

我們的 MapQuest 團隊不僅為 MapQuest 注入了新的活力，我們還看到了創紀錄的使用天數，並且正在推出新的創新產品，例如我們新的私人地圖應用程式。總體而言，我們的有機產品為我們提供了重要的對沖手段，以應對近期行銷驅動的 O&O 業務的波動。

Because this business has been so choppy. The last several quarters, I thought it would be useful to get into more detail about as to the causes at the highest level our marketing driven businesses are driven by two factors.

因為這個生意實在太坎坷了。在過去的幾個季度中，我認為更詳細地了解最高層的原因是有用的，我們的行銷驅動型業務是由兩個因素驅動的。

The cost of buying traffic on our buy side and the amounts we receive for monetizing that traffic with advertisers on our sell side for the last four quarters or so our buyside cost at our traffic sources like Meta, Google and Programmatic display networks.

在過去四個季度左右的時間裡，我們買方購買流量的成本以及我們透過賣方廣告商透過流量貨幣化而獲得的金額，以及我們在 Meta、Google 和程式化展示網路等流量來源上的買方成本。

Have been relatively stable and in some cases, increasing is the overall marketing is the overall advertising market rebounds. Our integration of AI into our ramp platform has enabled us to scale our campaign launches on the buy side and our bidding algorithms have become increasingly sophisticated.

一直相對穩定，在某些情況下，整體行銷的增加就是整體廣告市場的反彈。我們將人工智慧整合到我們的斜坡平台中，使我們能夠擴大在買方的活動啟動規模，並且我們的出價演算法變得越來越複雜。

I'm really pleased with all the work we have done to scale our buyside efforts now in contrast. The sell side has been the root of almost all of our marketing business related issues to understand those issues. It is important to remember that much of our sales our revenues is derived from Google and specifically the Google search partner network. I refer to as SPN.

相比之下，我對我們現在為擴大買方努力所做的所有工作感到非常滿意。賣方幾乎是我們所有行銷業務相關問題的根源，以了解這些問題。重要的是要記住，我們的大部分銷售收入都來自 Google，特別是 Google 搜尋合作夥伴網路。我稱之為 SPN。

The SPN is comprised of non Google owned websites and search and search engines that show Google advertising and it is distinct from Google.com or Youtube or other Google properties, google specifically calls out the SPN segment in its earnings.

SPN 由非 Google 擁有的網站以及顯示 Google 廣告的搜尋和搜尋引擎組成，它與 Google.com 或 Youtube 或其他 Google 資產不同，Google 在其收益中特別提到了 SPN 部分。

And if you look at the Google's financial results, which I'm sure many of you do, you will see that SPN has remained largely flat while the rest of the Google business has climbed. System 1 is a very large participant in the SPN via our publishing network and much of our marketing revenue is generated by purchasing advertising on ad networks like meta and sending that traffic to advertisers via the SPN.

如果你看看 Google 的財務表現（我相信你們很多人都會這樣做），你會發現 SPN 基本上持平，而 Google 的其他業務卻在攀升。系統 1 透過我們的發佈網路成為 SPN 的一個非常大的參與者，我們的大部分行銷收入是透過在元等廣告網路上購買廣告並透過 SPN 將該流量發送給廣告商來產生的。

Our core issue related to the SPN is that we have seen large fluctuations in what Google pays us for traffic we send to the SPN. Now there are several reasons for this but the most important one is that Google has been making significant efforts to improve conversions for advertisers who advertise on the SPN.

我們與 SPN 相關的核心問題是，我們發現 Google 為發送到 SPN 的流量向我們支付的費用有很大波動。造成這種情況的原因有很多，但最重要的一個是 Google 一直在努力提高在 SPN 上做廣告的廣告商的轉換率。

These efforts include policy changes, improved screening of traffic quality and significant product improvements. The efforts are critical to maintaining the health of the ecosystem because the traffic that flows through SPN has to convert for advertisers who advertise on the network.

這些努力包括政策變化、改善流量品質篩選以及重大產品改進。這些努力對於維持生態系統的健康至關重要，因為流經 SPN 的流量必須轉換為在網路上做廣告的廣告商。

While Google regularly makes pricing adjustments and product changes to ensure high qual high traffic quality. It's efforts are ramped up considerably in the past year. Our System 1 applauds Google's efforts and as one of Google's largest and highest quality partners, we have been at the forefront of working with Google to improve the quality of the SPN. Unfortunately, as Google rolls out product updates designed to improve the overall network quality the immediate effect is volatility that impacts all partners including System 1 now as the cadence of the product updates has increased.

而Google會定期進行定價調整和產品變更，以確保高品質的高流量品質。去年，它的努力顯著加大。我們的 System 1 對 Google 的努力表示讚賞，作為 Google 最大、品質最高的合作夥伴之一，我們一直走在與 Google 合作提高 SPN 品質的最前線。不幸的是，隨著 Google 推出旨在提高整體網路品質的產品更新，其直接影響是波動性，隨著產品更新頻率的增加，現在會影響包括 System 1 在內的所有合作夥伴。

It has been challenging even for the higher quality partners like system one to keep pace and adjust now, fortunately, all these efforts appear to be having the desired effect of increasing traffic quality which in turn means that advertisers will benefit more, which ultimately will increase advertising rates paid by advertisers in the long term.

即使對於像系統一這樣的高品質合作夥伴來說，現在要跟上並進行調整也是一項挑戰，幸運的是，所有這些努力似乎都達到了提高流量品質的預期效果，這反過來意味著廣告商將受益更多，最終將增加廣告商長期支付的廣告費率。

As the Google search partner network rebounds, we believe System 1 is well positioned to benefit. We have invested heavily in ramp including leveraging AI machine learning processes for real time traffic quality detection. In addition, we have always worked closely with our network partners to make sure that we are preserving advertiser Trust while maintaining a quality user experience.

隨著 Google 搜尋合作夥伴網路的反彈，我們相信 System 1 已經做好了受益的準備。我們在坡道方面投入了大量資金，包括利用人工智慧機器學習流程進行即時交通品質檢測。此外，我們始終與網路合作夥伴密切合作，以確保我們在保持優質用戶體驗的同時維護廣告商的信任。

In short, the more Google focuses on its efforts to maximize value to consumers and advertisers. The more System 1 will benefit now, moving on to our partner network business partner network revenues was $18 million dollars and adjusted gross profit was $13 million revenue decreased 17% year over year but was up 5% sequentially adjusted gross profit decreased 5% year over year and 3%.

簡而言之，谷歌越注重為消費者和廣告商創造價值最大化的努力。系統1 現在將受益更多，轉向我們的合作夥伴網路業務合作夥伴網路收入為1800 萬美元，調整後毛利為1300 萬美元收入同比下降17%，但環比增長5% 調整後毛利同比下降5 %年和 3%。

Sequentially, total sessions were $2.3 billion up 159% year over year and up 13% sequentially partner. Network RPS declined 68% year over year and 7% quarter over quarter. The higher sessions and lower RPS were driven by the same trends that we saw in our O&O marketing business.

隨後，會議總金額達 23 億美元，年增 159%，比上一季成長 13%。網路 RPS 年減 68%，季減 7%。更高的會話數和更低的 RPS 是由我們在 O&O 行銷業務中看到的相同趨勢推動的。

Lower domestic pricing and a bigger mix shift to international markets. In Q3, average revenue per partner increased 7%versus the second quarter. Total active partners decreased slightly from Q2 to approximately 290 partners. At the end of Q3, we had 58 skilled partners in line with second quarter, we consider a platform customer to be a scaled partner when they are generating at least $50,000 of revenue per quarter on ramp.

較低的國內定價和更大的產品組合轉向國際市場。第三季度，每位合作夥伴的平均收入較第二季度成長了 7%。活躍夥伴總數較第二季略有下降，至約 290 名合作夥伴。截至第三季末，我們擁有 58 個熟練合作夥伴，與第二季持平。

Now, like our O&O marketing business, our partner network is dependent on the strength and steadiness of the Google search partner network and therefore is subject to the same dynamics I outlined above similar to our O&O marketing business as the SPN rebounds and pricing increases. We expect that growth in our partner network will follow overall. I'm really pleased with our performance in the third quarter. Our team has been executing well certain parts of our business are exceeding our expectations.

現在，就像我們的O&O 行銷業務一樣，我們的合作夥伴網路依賴Google 搜尋合作夥伴網路的實力和穩定性，因此隨著SPN 反彈和價格上漲，我們的合作夥伴網路也會受到我上面概述的與O&O 行銷業務類似的動態影響。我們預計我們的合作夥伴網路將隨之整體成長。我對我們第三季的表現非常滿意。我們的團隊一直執行得很好，我們業務的某些部分超出了我們的預期。

And we are well positioned for growth in the areas that remain challenged. Once ESPN studies, our product and engineering teams are executing well, we are doing more with fewer people and we remain tightly focused on controlling OpEx.

我們已做好充分準備，在仍面臨挑戰的領域中實現成長。ESPN 研究後發現，我們的產品和工程團隊執行得很好，我們可以用更少的人員做更多的事情，我們仍然緊緊專注於控制營運支出。

We are not yet where we want to be but things are moving in the right direction in light of the ongoing volatility in the marketplace that I highlighted earlier. In my comments, we have decided to not provide guidance for Q4 at this time. If we see improvements in stability, we may revisit the possibility of offering guidance later in the quarter.

我們尚未達到我們想要的目標，但鑑於我之前強調的市場持續波動，事情正在朝著正確的方向發展。在我的評論中，我們決定目前不提供第四季的指導。如果我們看到穩定性有所改善，我們可能會在本季度稍後重新考慮提供指導的可能性。

Now to close my section of the call, as always I would like to remind you that management is the largest shareholder group in System 1 and our interests are very aligned with yours as our business. Get back into growth mode. We are excited to have you along for the ride and now have things out the treaty to discuss our quarterly results in more detail.

現在結束我的電話會議，一如既往，我想提醒您，管理層是系統 1 中最大的股東群體，我們的利益與您作為我們業務的利益非常一致。回到成長模式。我們很高興您能參與其中，現在我們已經達成協議，可以更詳細地討論我們的季度業績。

Thanks a lot. Treaty. Take it away.

多謝。條約。把它拿走。

Thanks Michael. Overall we are very pleased with our third quarter financial results where we came in at or above the high end of our guidance for all of our key financial metrics. With the highlight being our $10.3 million of adjusted EBITDA representing year over year growth of 28% and quarter over quarter growth of 4%.

謝謝邁克爾。整體而言，我們對第三季的財務表現感到非常滿意，我們所有關鍵財務指標的業績均達到或高於指導上限。其中最引人注目的是我們 1,030 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA，年增 28%，環比成長 4%。

Now on to our operating results. Q3 revenue was $88.8 million representing a 1% year over year increase. A sequential decline of 6% revenue was $800,000. Above the high end of our Q3 revenue guidance range that we provided in August owned and operated advertising revenue was $70.8 million up 7% year over year but down 9% sequentially, our own and operated results were primarily driven by our products businesses which generated $20.7 million in revenue up 31% year over year and 16%.

現在談談我們的經營績效。第三季營收為 8,880 萬美元，年增 1%。營收季減 6%，為 80 萬美元。我們在8 月份提供的第三季度收入指導範圍的上限之上，我們擁有和運營的廣告收入為7080 萬美元，同比增長7%，但環比下降9%，我們自己和運營的業績主要由我們的產品業務推動，該業務產生了20.7 美元的收入億元營收年增31%和16%。

Sequentially, network revenue was $18 million down 17% year over year, but up 5% sequentially adjusted gross profit was $37.7 million up 1% year over year and down 3% sequentially adjusted gross profit was above the midpoint of guidance by 700,000 revenue, less advertising spend for our owned and operated advertising segment declined 4% sequentially to $26.4 million specifically for our owned and operated product businesses revenue less advertising spend was $20 million up 35% year over year and 16% sequentially.

網路營收為1,800 萬美元，年減17%，但季增5%，調整後毛利為3,770 萬美元，年增1%，較上季下降3%，較上季調整後毛利高於指引中位數700,000 收入，減去我們自有和經營的廣告部門的廣告支出比上一季下降了4%，至2,640 萬美元，特別是我們自有和經營的產品業務收入減去廣告支出為2,000 萬美元，同比增長35 %，較上一季成長16%。

Network revenue less agency fees was $13.1 million down 3% from Q2 and down 15% sequentially owned and operated cost per session and revenue per session were both down sequentially to $0.2 and $0.3 respectively.

扣除代理費用後的網路收入為 1,310 萬美元，較第二季下降 3%，每個會話的擁有和營運成本下降 15%，每個會話的收入均分別下降至 0.2 美元和 0.3 美元。

On the network advertising business RPS was a penny per session. Most importantly, total sessions processed by ramp in the most recent quarter was $4.4 billion. Up 142% year over year and 8%. Sequentially in general, this quarter made it apparent how the diversity of our business lines are a real asset to the overall business.

在網路廣告業務中，RPS 是每個會話 1 美分。最重要的是，最近一個季度透過 Ramp 處理的會話總數為 44 億美元。年增142%和8%。總的來說，本季清楚地表明了我們業務線的多樣性對於整體業務來說是一項真正的資產。

As the organic nature of our products businesses served as a strong bulwark against the choppiness of the paid advertising markets. While we have seen significant volatility on our marketing driven businesses resulting from sell side product and policy updates.

由於我們產品的有機性質，業務成為抵禦付費廣告市場波動的強大堡壘。雖然我們看到行銷驅動型業務因賣方產品和政策更新而出現顯著波動。

Our core product utilities such as mapping, private search and coupons of promo codes, provide us the opportunity to sidestep this volatility and continue to attract users that we can then monetize, which also allows our ramp platform to continue to generate gross profit and adjusted EBITDA for the company.

我們的核心產品實用程序，例如地圖、私人搜尋和促銷代碼優惠券，為我們提供了規避這種波動性並繼續吸引用戶的機會，然後我們可以將其貨幣化，這也使我們的斜坡平台能夠繼續產生毛利和調整後的EBITDA為公司。

On the operating expenses and EBITDA in Q3 operating expenses net of a backs were $27.3 million down $1.5 million quarter over quarter and down $1.8 million year over year. As I have stated continuously throughout this year, we have been working hard to reduce our operating expense structure over the last year and we expect to continue to drive sequential cost savings on a quarterly basis for the foreseeable future adjusted EBITDA was $10.3 million in Q3 versus $8.1 million in the same quarter Last year

在營運費用和 EBITDA 方面，第三季扣除費用後的營運費用為 2,730 萬美元，季減 150 萬美元，年減 180 萬美元。正如我今年不斷指出的那樣，我們去年一直在努力減少營運費用結構，我們預計將繼續按季度推動連續成本節約，在可預見的未來，調整後的EBITDA 為1030 萬美元，而第三季度為1030萬美元。

Adjusted EBITDA came in above the high end of our Q3 guidance range by 300,000 we are extremely proud of our ability to generate sequential growth in adjusted EBITDA despite a slight sequential decline in adjusted gross profit.

調整後的 EBITDA 比我們第三季指導範圍的上限高出 300,000，儘管調整後的毛利環比略有下降，但我們對調整後的 EBITDA 環比增長的能力感到非常自豪。

With respect to liquidity we ended the quarter with $69.1 million of unrestricted cash on our balance sheet and an outstanding balance of $285 million of term loan debt under our credit agreement. Our net leverage at quarter end was approximately seven times per Michael's earlier comments given the current volatility in the marketplace, we have decided not to provide financial guidance for the quarter at this time.

就流動性而言，本季結束時，我們的資產負債表上有 6,910 萬美元的不受限制的現金，根據我們的信貸協議，未償還的定期貸款債務餘額為 2.85 億美元。鑑於當前市場的波動，我們在季度末的淨槓桿率約為邁克爾先前評論的七倍，我們決定目前不提供本季的財務指導。

The uncertainty in market conditions makes it challenging to offer an accurate outlook especially during the seasonally strong Q4. However, should we observe a stabilization in the overall market environment? And pricing dynamics. We may consider issuing guidance at a later time during the quarter.

市場狀況的不確定性使得提供準確的前景變得具有挑戰性，尤其是在季節性強勁的第四季。然而，我們是否應該看到整體市場環境趨於穩定呢？以及定價動態。我們可能會考慮在本季稍後發布指導意見。

While we remain focused on navigating these conditions in the short term and remain confident in our ability to seize on our long term opportunities. We are committed to achieving financial outcomes that demonstrate our operational success.

雖然我們仍然專注於在短期內應對這些情況，並對我們抓住長期機會的能力充滿信心。我們致力於實現能夠證明我們營運成功的財務成果。

Thank you for joining us today.

感謝您今天加入我們。

Thank you, treaty. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你，條約。（操作員說明）

Tom Forte, Maxim Group.

湯姆福特，馬克西姆集團。

Great. Thanks. So Michael, you did an amazing job explaining a lot of the things that are going on so let's start with MapQuest. What have you done that is enabled you to essentially resurrect the brand and what gives you confidence that you can continue to grow it on a go forward basis?

偉大的。謝謝。Michael，您出色地解釋了許多正在發生的事情，所以讓我們從 MapQuest 開始。您做了哪些工作使您能夠從根本上復活該品牌？

Yeah, thanks Tom. Thanks for joining. So on MapQuest when we took it over, God must have been more than four or five years ago from Verizon. It was really a brand in decline. Verizon wasn't investing in. It was not adding features to. It was not making the mapping better.

是的，謝謝湯姆。感謝您的加入。因此，當我們接手 MapQuest 時，上帝一定是在四、五年前從 Verizon 手中接手的。這確實是一個正在衰落的品牌。Verizon 沒有投資。它沒有添加功能。它並沒有使映射變得更好。

All the kind of, you know, nuts and bolts, blocking and tackling. You need to keep a consumer brand going when we took it over, we essentially took over. The technology. It took us a couple of years to move it on to our technology stack and then really basically just started adding features to it that we thought.

所有這些，你知道，具體細節、阻擋和解決。當我們接手時，你需要讓一個消費品牌繼續發展，我們基本上接手了。技術。我們花了幾年的時間將其轉移到我們的技術堆疊中，然後基本上才開始向其添加我們認為的功能。

Customers would like we added a lot more weather called points of interest. So a lot more descriptions about, about places people are trying to travel to and we switched technology providers. Over to here, we have got a lot of other data sources that we have been adding to it. We have been improving the mobile apps that people use.

客戶希望我們添加更多稱為興趣點的天氣資訊。因此，關於人們試圖去的地方的更多描述，以及我們更換了技術提供者。到這裡，我們已經添加了許多其他資料來源。我們一直在改進人們使用的行動應用程式。

Surely all the things that will bring customers on board and a lot of that has resulted in more direct users coming but also more people finding us through search engines as well and people are going and typing in addresses and [Mact] is showing up because it is such a well known brand and such a good experience.

當然，所有能夠吸引客戶的事情，其中​​很多都導致了更多直接用戶的到來，但也有更多的人透過搜尋引擎找到了我們，人們會去輸入地址，[Mact] 就會出現，因為它是一個如此知名的品牌和如此好的體驗。

Going forward time. We like we just said, we just launched a new private mapping app. So you can now like unlike using things like Google Maps and apple maps that gather a lot of your data. You can now drive to the places you want in privacy and no one will know where you're going. But things like that where we are going to start rolling out subscription products related to MapQuest.

時間往前走。正如我們剛才所說，我們剛剛推出了一款新的私人地圖應用程式。因此，您現在可以像使用谷歌地圖和蘋果地圖這樣收集大量數據的東西不同。現在，您可以私密地開車前往您想去的地方，沒有人會知道您要去哪裡。但類似的事情我們將開始推出與 MapQuest 相關的訂閱產品。

You know, and it is all paying off this quarter, we have had a few weeks ago, our highest traffic day ever since we acquired the brand from Verizon. So, you know I guess just to summarize, we are just doing what we always do when we buy companies, which is make the products better.

你知道，這一切都在本季得到了回報，幾週前我們經歷了自 Verizon 收購品牌以來流量最高的一天。所以，我想總結一下，我們只是在做我們收購公司時一直在做的事情，那就是讓產品變得更好。

Then my next question is on the industry itself. You did a wonderful job explaining what's going on with kind of a specific Google product. But does it help you essentially that the digital advertising market, there should be a lot less emphasis now that the election is behind us and that sort of thing.

那麼我的下一個問題是關於產業本身的。您出色地解釋了特定 Google 產品的情況。但它對你有本質上的幫助嗎，數位廣告市場，現在應該不再那麼強調選舉之類的事情了。

So I know that you are withholding guidance due to a lack of visibility in the ad market. But is it beneficial to you that advertisers are essentially focus more on goods and services and less on candidates?

所以我知道由於廣告市場缺乏可見性，您拒絕提供指導。但是，廣告商本質上更專注於商品和服務而不是候選人，這對您有利嗎？

Yeah, so specifically where the election being over should help us is on the buy side. So when we are buying ads on places like Facebook. We are competing with every advertiser out there and the more, you know, election focused advertising spin that comes on board, it's just more advertising competition when that pulls back, it will kind of look like a more normal marketplace.

是的，所以具體而言，選舉結束後對我們有幫助的是買方。所以當我們在 Facebook 等地方購買廣告時。我們正在與那裡的每一個廣告商競爭，你知道，隨著越來越多的以選舉為中心的廣告出現，當這種競爭退出時，廣告競爭就會更加激烈，它看起來會像一個更正常的市場。

And so we would expect to, you know, pay a little bit lower pricing. We have not seen it I have not looked at the data in the last day or so. So I can't tell you for sure, but I would suspect that we will see pricing kind of normalize a little bit from the burst over the last, 4 to 6 weeks.

因此，我們希望支付稍微低一點的價格。我們還沒有看到它，我沒有查看最後一天左右的數據。所以我不能肯定地告訴你，但我懷疑我們會看到價格從過去 4 到 6 週的爆發中稍微趨於正常化。

The specific reason why we are withholding guidance is not really volatility in the, in the overall advertising market but specifically the next 6 to 7 weeks are really where you would expect to see a couple of things happen, the buy side will go up. So our costs on buying traffic should go up because people, there's a burst of advertising activity related to the holiday season and then on the sell side. So we are pretty confident we will see.

我們保留指導的具體原因並不是整個廣告市場的真正波動，而是具體而言，在接下來的 6 到 7 週內，您確實會期望看到一些事情發生，買方將會上漲。因此，我們購買流量的成本應該會上升，因為人們會出現大量與假期相關的廣告活動，然後在賣方方面。所以我們非常有信心我們會看到。

Some increased costs on the buy side typically, what would happen is we will offset that with increased better pricing on the sell side when we are selling to Google because the Google search partner network has been pretty volatile as I outlined in my remarks. We are not, you know, we don't have 100% confidence that we will see that increase that we would expect.

通常情況下，買方的成本會增加，但當我們向谷歌銷售產品時，我們會透過賣方更好的定價來抵消這一成本，因為正如我在評論中概述的那樣，谷歌搜尋合作夥伴網絡一直相當不穩定。你知道，我們並沒有 100% 的信心看到我們所期望的成長。

So far everything looks okay. But because the next six weeks are so important we thought it would be more prudent to kind of not promise any numbers until we, we had a pretty good idea where they were going to be.

到目前為止，一切看起來都還不錯。但由於接下來的六週非常重要，我們認為在我們非常清楚這些數字將在哪裡之前，不承諾任何數字會更為謹慎。

All right. So then last one for me and then I'm going to hand it off to Dan. So ramp is an amazing technology. You are early in leveraging artificial intelligence. I was curious if you have made adjustments to ramp that make it more effective today than maybe it was last quarter or last year.

好的。那麼最後一個是我的，然後我將把它交給丹。所以斜坡是一項了不起的技術。您在利用人工智慧方面還處於早期階段。我很好奇你們是否對斜坡進行了調整，使其今天比上個季度或去年更有效。

So the pace of product improvements we are making to ramp is pretty remarkable. I know that a lot of companies have been talking about AI, it is really been the buzzword for the past year and a half. As I mentioned the early some of the early use cases for AI have that have been really effective and have been in the advertising space.

因此，我們的產品改進速度非常驚人。我知道很多公司一直在談論人工智慧，它確實是過去一年半的流行詞。正如我所提到的，人工智慧的一些早期用例確實非常有效，並且已經出現在廣告領域。

So we talk a lot about being able to create better content using AI which we have been able to do. We are using, are using it to create our content within, with editors looking over the results and making sure that, you know what we are publishing is truthful and authentic.

因此，我們經常談論如何使用人工智慧創建更好的內容，而我們已經做到了。我們正在使用它來創建我們的內容，編輯人員會檢查結果並確保您知道我們發布的內容是真實可靠的。

But then on the advertising, creative side the ability to produce entertaining, engaging ads that people will click on has gone up dramatically by at least an order of magnitude on our side.

但在廣告創意方面，製作人們會點擊的娛樂性、引人入勝的廣告的能力已經大幅提高了至少一個數量級。

In terms of ease of producing those and, you know, I think it's going to end up being a couple orders of magnitude. So yeah, the to answer your question since last quarter.

就生產這些產品的難易度而言，我認為最終會提高幾個數量級。是的，從上個季度開始回答你的問題。

Yeah, we have been making, you know, continual improvements in the, in the platform and I expect every quarter over the next, year or two, we are going to see dramatic improvements. So our platform is much better, more automated, much more scalable.

是的，我們一直在平台上進行持續改進，我預計未來、一兩年的每個季度，我們都會看到巨大的改進。所以我們的平台更好、更自動化、更具可擴展性。

You are not yet seeing in our numbers primarily because of the reasons I outlined in the earlier remarks.

您還沒有在我們的數字中看到，主要是因為我在之前的評論中概述的原因。

Great. Thanks Michael. Thanks Treaty. Good luck in the fourth quarter.

偉大的。謝謝邁克爾。感謝條約。祝第四季好運。

Thank you. Thanks for joining.

謝謝。感謝您的加入。

Dan Kernels, Benchmark company.

Dan Kernels，基準公司。

I hope you guys can hear me. Are you guys doing obviously crazy night tonight? So I'm going to try Michael to ask my best here and hopefully not go over something you have already said a couple of things I wanted to actually follow up on one of Tom's questions.

我希望你們能聽到我的聲音。你們今晚顯然是在經歷瘋狂的夜晚嗎？因此，我將盡力讓邁克爾在這裡盡我所能，希望不要重複你已經說過的一些事情，我想真正跟進湯姆的一個問題。

Just given the change in administration. I'm curious if you have an opinion on there have not been remedies yet in the Adtech trial, but I'm curious what you think that might mean for kind of Google and the ecosystem. And then secondarily, you know, I think there is a view that there might be, I don't know, let's call it a reinvigorated lower end of the consumer, given the recent change administration as well. And so what that might mean either for ad spend and or for kind of couponing as we head into the holiday period.

剛剛考慮到行政管理的變化。我很好奇您是否對 Adtech 試驗中尚未找到補救措施有什麼看法，但我很好奇您認為這對谷歌和生態系統可能意味著什麼。其次，你知道，我認為有一種觀點認為，考慮到最近的變革管理，我不知道，我們可以稱之為重振的低端消費者。那麼，當我們進入假期時，這對於廣告支出和/或優惠券可能意味著什麼。

So, okay, a few questions in there for all. Thanks for joining. Appreciate it always good to talk with you. So I can't really speak to what would happen, what is going to happen on consumer spending. It is kind of hard to tell, I don't really know. I don't think anybody knows what will happen with the potential change in administration. I have seen a lot of speculation, what could happen to interest rates going up or down but I don't want to speculate anything.

那麼，好吧，有幾個問題想問大家。感謝您的加入。很高興與你交談總是好的。所以我無法真正談論將會發生什麼，消費者支出將會發生什麼。這很難說，我真的不知道。我認為沒有人知道政府的潛在變化會發生什麼。我看到了很多猜測，利率上升或下降會發生什麼，但我不想猜測任何事情。

There specifically as related to kind of a lot of the ongoing antirust trials that the change in administration could have a pretty big effect on that. You know, I'm not an expert in this area. But my understanding is that a lot of the groups which are bought the antitrust trials against Google and some of the other large technology companies, potentially.

特別是與許多正在進行的防銹試驗有關，政府的變化可能會對此產生相當大的影響。你知道，我不是這方面的專家。但我的理解是，許多團體可能會參與針對Google和其他一些大型科技公司的反壟斷審判。

You are going to see a less focus on antitrust. I know there is been some speculation on that as well as far as it relates to Google specifically again I don't really know what is going on behind the scenes. I don't think anybody does.

你將會看到人們對反壟斷的關注減少。我知道有人對此進行了一些猜測，就其與谷歌的具體情況而言，我真的不知道幕後發生了什麼。我認為沒有人這樣做。

I guess my understanding was that the new administration has been a little bit antagonistic to Google. So, you know might expect that Google won't get a lot of relief there. But on the flip side, you know for all I know there could be plans to even drop cases against Google.

我想我的理解是，新政府對谷歌有點敵對。所以，你可能會認為谷歌不會在這方面得到太多緩解。但另一方面，據我所知，甚至可能有計劃撤銷針對Google的案件。

So I think until that becomes a little bit more clear, it is a little tough to speculate. I would say that with the change of administration, it does seem pretty, it does not seem like a bad thing for Google on the antitrust front. I am on the trial side the one area that you and I have talked about, which I'm wildly curious to see what happens is I believe the TikTok ban is coming up here in like 23 months and my understanding is that at least within the new administration, there is some conflicting views on whether that should take effect now, if I recall correctly, that was a law that is passed.

所以我認為，在這一點變得更加清晰之前，很難進行推測。我想說，隨著政府的更迭，這確實看起來很美好，對於谷歌在反壟斷方面來說似乎並不是一件壞事。我正在試驗方面，這是你和我討論過的一個領域，我非常好奇會發生什麼，我相信 TikTok 禁令將在大約 23 個月內出台，我的理解是，至少在新一屆政府，對於該法案是否應該立即生效存在一些相互矛盾的觀點，如果我沒記錯的話，那是一項已通過的法律。

So I don't actually know if you know the law can be ignored, but I will be wildly curious to see what happens really to TikTok because that would have a pretty dramatic effect on the not really on our business. We don't do a ton of business with TikTok domestically.

所以我其實不知道你是否知道法律可以被忽略，但我非常好奇 TikTok 到底會發生什麼，因為這會對我們的業務產生相當大的影響。我們在國內並沒有與 TikTok 進行大量業務。

But on the overall advertising marketplace. If TikTok either stays in or goes out, you are going to see some pretty dramatic changes.

但就整個廣告市場而言。如果 TikTok 要么繼續存在，要么退出，你將會看到一些相當戲劇性的變化。

Yeah, I mean, I just look and I know it seems kind of higher level but I just bring it up because you guys tend to thrive in sort of disrupted marketplaces and so to the extent, like if we get into December and all of a sudden there is just a vacuum because we are post political and nobody has any idea how much to spend or what to spend it on or if we end up having kind of changes to the ecosystem, I'm just, you know, how ready you guys to capitalize on that kind of stuff, you know, do you anticipate disruption and frankly Michael?

是的，我的意思是，我只是看了一下，我知道這似乎有點更高的水平，但我只是提出來，因為你們往往會在某種混亂的市場中蓬勃發展，所以在某種程度上，就像我們進入12 月，所有的突然之間就出現了真空，因為我們是後政治的，沒有人知道要花多少錢或花在什麼上，或者我們最終會對生態系統進行某種改變，我只是，你知道，你準備好了嗎夥計們，利用這種東西，你知道，你預計會出現混亂嗎？

I mean, you gave me the good segue to the question. I always ask you every call, which is, that is true. You don't do TikTok domestically, but you do it very well internationally and we continue to hear kind of a recovery abroad and so just curious, what you are seeing there and how that is impacting the business.

我的意思是，你讓我很好地解決了這個問題。每次打電話我都會問你，這是真的。你不在國內做 TikTok，但你在國際上做得很好，我們繼續聽到國外的復甦，所以很好奇你在那裡看到了什麼以及這對業務有何影響。

Yeah. So to your first question, absolutely when there is disruption in markets that is where we thrive and so we would welcome disruption. We would welcome advertiser, pullback, advertising, spin pullback from the rest of the advertisers will for sure, step in and take advantage of that if it happens.

是的。所以，對於你的第一個問題，絕對當市場出現混亂時，我們才能蓬勃發展，因此我們歡迎這種混亂。我們歡迎廣告商、撤回、廣告、其他廣告商的撤回，如果發生這種情況，其他廣告商肯定會介入並利用這一點。

On the TikTok side now we are seeing continued strength internationally, working with them, been impressed with the team that we work with there. We are big enough advertisers at this point where we have, you know large team from the TikTok, we working with us.

現在，在 TikTok 方面，我們在國際上看到了持續的實力，與他們合作，我們在那裡合作的團隊給我們留下了深刻的印象。目前，我們已經是足夠大的廣告商了，我們擁有 TikTok 的龐大團隊，與我們合作。

And we will do all day meetings with them. They have been quite responsive on the product side to you know in some cases we need some bespoke technology built for us and they have been great at doing that. So we are seeing continued strength there and I don't expect that to change internationally via TikTok.

我們將與他們進行全天會議。他們在產品方面反應非常靈敏，你知道在某些情況下我們需要一些為我們建造的客製化技術，他們非常擅長做到這一點。因此，我們看到該領域持續強勁，我預計這種情況不會透過 TikTok 在國際上改變。

Yeah and Dan, this is treating it nice to talk to you international remains a bright spot for us as well. So you know, Michael mentioned in his remarks, you know, 35% of own and operated revenue in Q3 versus 23% or 24% last year. So again to your point, an area of real growth for us, I be it at kind of lower RPS is just given rates internationally versus domestic.

是的，丹，很高興能與您交談，國際仍然是我們的亮點。所以你知道，麥可在他的演講中提到，你知道，第三季自有和營運收入的 35%，而去年為 23% 或 24%。因此，再次回到您的觀點，對於我們來說，一個真正成長的領域，我認為，相對於國內而言，RPS 較低，只是考慮到了國際利率。

I think Dan, you mentioned promo codes and coupon. Yeah we would expect that as we see every year, holiday season is going to be a strong one for coupon follow. You know, we for sure see a burst of activity that pretty closely mirrors shopping trends, domestically where you know, our strength on coupon follow is domestic.

我想丹，你提到了促銷代碼和優惠券。是的，我們預計，正如我們每年看到的那樣，假期將成為優惠券的強勁季節。你知道，我們肯定會看到一系列與國內購物趨勢非常接近的活動，你知道，我們在優惠券追蹤方面的優勢是國內的。

Yeah, we are hearing about a pull forward and the shift to e-commerce this year. So I think that would probably benefit you guys. I guess we will see how that plays out. I guess I will probably leave it there. I would love to ask you guys about new product launches and what they are going to contribute to the P&L but since we don't have Q4 guide, I don't think I will get much of an answer at this point.

是的，我們聽說今年會向前推進並轉向電子商務。所以我認為這可能會讓你們受益。我想我們會看看結果如何。我想我可能會把它留在那裡。我很想向你們詢問有關新產品發布的信息以及它們將對損益表做出哪些貢獻，但由於我們沒有第四季度的指南，我認為目前我不會得到太多答案。

So, I appreciate it. Thanks for all the color guys and good luck and good job on Q3.

所以，我很感激。感謝所有顏色人員，祝您好運，第三季工作順利。

Thanks for joining appreciate it. Always good to talk with you.

感謝您的加入，非常感謝。與你交談總是很高興。

We now going to turn it back to Michael Blend for closing remarks.

現在我們將把它轉回 Michael Blend 進行閉幕致詞。

Okay. Thanks Kyle. Thanks everybody for joining. Happy that we had a quarter in which we could fulfill our guidance for all your, all the Investors out there. Thanks for following us and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Thanks again.

好的。謝謝凱爾。感謝大家的加入。很高興我們有一個季度可以實現對所有投資者的指導。感謝您關注我們，我們期待下個季度與您交談。再次感謝。