System1 Inc (SST) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call for System1. Joining me today to discuss System1's business and financial results are Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Blend; and Chief Financial Officer, Tridivesh Kidambi.

感謝您的支持，歡迎參加 System1 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。今天與我一起討論 System1 的業務和財務業績的有聯合創始人兼執行長 Michael Blend 和財務長 Tridivesh Kidambi。

A recording of this conference call will be available on our Investor Relations website shortly after this call has ended. I'd 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.

本次電話會議的錄音將在會議結束後不久在我們的投資者關係網站上發布。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的陳述。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聲明。

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 2024 filed on March 10, 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。這些聲明受到已知和未知的風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致我們的實際結果與本次電話會議中預測或暗示的結果存在重大差異，特別是我們在 3 月 10 日提交的 2024 財年 10-K 表年度報告中所述的風險因素，以及我們業務、市場和全球經濟中當前的不確定性和不可預測性。

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 of the date hereof, and System1 disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross profit.

您不應依賴我們的前瞻性陳述來預測未來事件。我們在本次電話會議上所做的所有前瞻性陳述均基於管理層截至本電話會議之日的假設和信念，System1 不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務，除非法律要求。我們今天的討論將包括非公認會計準則財務指標，包括調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的毛利。

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.

這些非 GAAP 指標應被視為對我們的 GAAP 結果的補充，而不是替代或孤立於我們的 GAAP 結果。本次電話會議中提供的歷史績效和未來預測不包括 Total Security 的結果。有關我們的非公認會計準則財務指標的信息，包括我們的非公認會計準則財務指標與我們最具可比性的歷史公認會計準則財務指標的對賬，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 System1's Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Blend.

現在，我想將電話會議交給 System1 的共同創辦人兼執行長 Michael Blend。

Thanks, Kyle. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining System1 on our Q1 earnings call. I'm happy to share that our team executed really well in Q1 and delivered another solid quarter. Revenue as well as our key operating metrics, gross profit and EBITDA were all above the high end of our guidance range. First quarter revenue was approximately $75 million and adjusted gross profit was $41.5 million, which is a 33% year-over-year increase.

謝謝，凱爾。大家下午好，感謝您參加 System1 的第一季財報電話會議。我很高興地告訴大家，我們的團隊在第一季表現非常出色，又交出了穩健的季度業績。營收以及我們的關鍵營運指標、毛利和 EBITDA 均高於我們的指導範圍的高端。第一季營收約 7,500 萬美元，調整後毛利為 4,150 萬美元，年增 33%。

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $12.1 million, up from just $400,000 in the prior year quarter. These year-over-year comps are good indicators of the progress we have made over the last year, driven by strong execution and a lot of very hard work by our team. Our owned and operated products continue to perform well with revenue increasing 51% year-over-year.

調整後的 EBITDA 為 1,210 萬美元，高於去年同期的 40 萬美元。這些同比業績很好地表明了我們在過去一年中取得的進步，這得益於我們團隊的強大執行力和辛勤工作。我們自有和經營的產品持續表現良好，營收年增 51%。

As a reminder, our primary O&O products include CouponFollow in the discount shopping vertical, Startpage in private search and MapQuest in mapping. Each of these are among the leaders in their respective category, and we have good momentum across our entire portfolio.

提醒一下，我們的主要 O&O 產品包括折扣購物垂直領域的 CouponFollow、私人搜尋領域的 Startpage 和地圖領域的 MapQuest。這些公司都是各自領域的佼佼者，而且我們的整個投資組合都呈現良好的發展勢頭。

Our marketing-driven businesses continue to be impacted by the Google-related product changes we mentioned last quarter. Although so far, we have done a very good job navigating the ongoing volatility. While overall marketing-driven revenue is down on an annual basis, margins are up significantly and our network business, in particular, continues to do well.

我們以行銷為導向的業務繼續受到我們上個季度提到的與Google相關的產品變化的影響。儘管到目前為止，我們在應對持續的波動方面做得非常好。雖然整體行銷驅動的營收年減，但利潤率卻大幅上升，尤其是我們的網路業務持續表現良好。

On the technology front at System1, we continue to lean in heavily on AI-powered automation driven by Agentic coding. We are incorporating Agentic coding across the entire company and are using it to increase scale, accelerate product development and streamline many of our business operations.

在 System1 的技術方面，我們繼續大力依賴由 Agentic 編碼驅動的人工智慧自動化。我們正在整個公司範圍內採用 Agentic 編碼，並利用它來擴大規模、加速產品開發和簡化我們的許多業務營運。

Overall, it's a really exciting time to be in technology if you're pushing heavily into Agentic coding as System1 is. If you had asked me 18 months ago what our biggest obstacle to growth was, I would have said the difficulty of finding enough engineering and product resources to develop our technology.

總的來說，如果您像 System1 一樣大力推進 Agentic 編碼，現在是技術領域令人興奮的時刻。如果你 18 個月前問我，我們發展的最大障礙是什麼，我會說很難找到足夠的工程和產品資源來開發我們的技術。

Now with Agentic coding, productivity is through the roof and the biggest challenge is picking the right ideas to go after. Let's go into more detail on our owned and operated segment, which includes both our marketing-driven businesses and our owned and operated products. Total owned and operated revenue came in at $58 million, reflecting a 16% year-over-year decline and a 10% decrease sequentially.

現在，透過 Agentic 編碼，生產力得到了極大的提升，而最大的挑戰就是選擇正確的想法去實現它。讓我們更詳細地了解我們的自有和經營部門，其中包括我們的行銷驅動業務以及我們自有和經營的產品。總自有及經營收入為 5,800 萬美元，年減 16%，季減 10%。

This decline was driven by a 34% annual revenue decrease in our marketing businesses, which was primarily due to a decline in a noncore, low gross margin business segment. The marketing decline was partially offset by a 51% increase in our owned and operated products line.

這一下降是由於我們的行銷業務年收入下降了 34%，這主要是由於非核心、低毛利率業務部門的下滑。我們自有和經營的產品線成長了 51%，部分抵消了行銷業務的下滑。

Adjusted gross profit was $28 million, up 24% year-over-year and down 13% sequentially from Q4. The sequential decline primarily was driven by seasonality coming off a seasonally strong fourth quarter for shopping. Sessions across our O&O properties totaled $1.3 billion, down 32% from Q4, but up 6% year-over-year.

調整後毛利為 2,800 萬美元，年增 24%，季減 13%。環比下降主要是由於第四季購物旺季來臨導致的季節性因素。我們的 O&O 物業的交易總額為 13 億美元，較第四季下降 32%，但年增 6%。

Our year-over-year growth reflects increased scale of marketing campaigns running through our RAMP platform as well as growth in our owned and operated properties. International markets remain a key focus for us with international revenue representing 30% of total owned and operated revenue, up slightly from 29% in Q1 of 2024. A bright spot in our marketing-driven business is the increased scale of our marketing campaigns. In Q1, we launched over 41,000 marketing campaigns, up 5 times year-over-year and up from 22,000 in Q4. We continue to make large strides on advertising campaign automation, and we're focused on leveraging AI to dramatically increase the scale we operate on in the marketing side.

我們的同比成長反映了透過 RAMP 平台進行的行銷活動規模的擴大以及我們擁有和經營的資產的成長。國際市場仍然是我們關注的重點，國際收入佔總自有和營運收入的 30%，略高於 2024 年第一季的 29%。我們行銷驅動型業務的一個亮點是行銷活動規模的擴大。第一季度，我們開展了超過 41,000 個行銷活動，比去年同期成長了 5 倍，比第四季度的 22,000 個有所增加。我們持續在廣告活動自動化方面取得長足進步，並專注於利用人工智慧大幅擴大我們在行銷方面的營運規模。

Moving on to our O&O products. The group continues to perform well and is heavily focused on expanding the reach of our couponing, mapping and private search services. Let's move on to some highlights in those products. I'll start with CouponFollow, which continues to be a top couponing and promo code service in Google's organic rankings. In the first quarter, CouponFollows' user sessions were up over 160% year-over-year, driven by our best-in-class experience for both consumers and merchants.

繼續介紹我們的 O&O 產品。該集團繼續表現良好，並專注於擴大我們的優惠券、地圖和私人搜尋服務的覆蓋範圍。讓我們繼續了解這些產品的一些亮點。我將從 CouponFollow 開始，它仍然是 Google 自然排名中頂級的優惠券和促銷代碼服務。第一季度，CouponFollows 的用戶會話年增超過 160%，這得益於我們為消費者和商家提供的一流體驗。

We have a great flywheel going on with CouponFollow. As traffic ramps on CouponFollow, we're able to capture more data on consumer demand. We then leverage that data into better merchant deals that in turn improve the overall consumer experience the next time our customers come back. Now let's turn to Startpage, which, as a reminder, is our privacy-centric search engine that competes with DuckDuckGo. In Q1, Startpage user sessions grew 11% year-over-year and 7% sequentially as we ride increased consumer demand for greater privacy.

我們與 CouponFollow 合作，打造出一個強大的飛輪。隨著 CouponFollow 流量的增加，我們能夠獲得更多有關消費者需求的數據。然後，我們利用這些數據來為商家提供更好的交易，從而改善客戶下次回來時的整體消費者體驗。現在讓我們轉到 Startpage，提醒一下，它是我們的以隱私為中心的搜尋引擎，與 DuckDuckGo 競爭。在第一季度，隨著消費者對更高隱私權保護的需求不斷增長，Startpage 用戶會話較去年同期成長 11%，較上季成長 7%。

The private browser apps we launched in late 2024 continue to gain traction as we integrate search widgets like mapping that improve the overall search experience. And lastly, let's talk about MapQuest, which is having a brand and business resurgence. MapQuest has had some really fun viral moments recently with mentions on CNN and the Stephen Colbert, driven by our Gulf of Mexico naming generator. MapQuest continues to grow user sessions with Q1 sessions up over 30% year-over-year. The MapQuest team has been focused on enhancing our mobile apps, adding new mapping functionality and introducing new products.

我們在 2024 年底推出的私人瀏覽器應用程式繼續獲得關注，因為我們整合了地圖等搜尋小工具來改善整體搜尋體驗。最後，讓我們來談談 MapQuest，它的品牌和業務正在復甦。最近，MapQuest 經歷了一些非常有趣的病毒式傳播時刻，被 CNN 和 Stephen Colbert 提及，這要歸功於我們的墨西哥灣命名產生器。MapQuest 的使用者會話持續成長，第一季的會話年增超過 30%。MapQuest 團隊一直致力於增強我們的行動應用程式、增加新的地圖功能和推出新產品。

Now let's switch gears to our Partner Network. Partner Network revenue was $70 million, up 4% year-over-year and 1% sequentially after adjusting for the out-of-period revenue adjustments made last quarter. Adjusted gross profit was $15 million, up 37% year-over-year and 4% sequentially. Partner Network results were positively impacted by the in-period recognition of some previously withheld being partner revenue related to invalid traffic that our partners sent to us. In Q1, total active partners decreased 14% from Q4 to around 265 partners.

現在讓我們轉到我們的合作夥伴網路。合作夥伴網路營收為 7,000 萬美元，在調整上季的非期間營收調整後，年增 4%，季增 1%。調整後毛利為 1,500 萬美元，較去年同期成長 37%，較上季成長 4%。合作夥伴網路的績效受到期內確認的正面影響，這些收入之前被扣留，與我們的合作夥伴發送給我們的無效流量有關。第一季度，活躍合作夥伴總數較第四季下降 14% 至約 265 個合作夥伴。

The total number of partners was partially offset by a 7% quarter-over-quarter increase in average revenue per partner. In Q4, we had 54 scale partners, a 17% decrease from the fourth quarter. We consider a platform customer to be a scale partner when they are generating at least $550,000 of revenue per quarter on ramp. The sequential decrease in active partners was impacted by our push to move partners to Google's new RSOC product for monetization. And on this front, the team did a great job in Q1, significantly increasing the number of partners monetizing with RSOC.

合作夥伴總數部分被每個合作夥伴平均收入環比 7% 的成長所抵消。第四季度，我們擁有54家規模合作夥伴，較第四季減少了17%。當平台客戶每季至少創造 55 萬美元的收入時，我們就會將其視為規模合作夥伴。活躍合作夥伴數量的連續下降是由於我們推動合作夥伴轉向 Google 的新 RSOC 產品以實現貨幣化所致。在這方面，團隊在第一季表現出色，顯著增加了透過 RSOC 獲利的合作夥伴數量。

Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, we remain cautiously optimistic. Our owned and operated products continue to show strong fundamentals. We've been making large strides on the AI technology front, and we're putting ourselves in a position to capitalize on the marketing side as we begin to see a little more stability.

展望 2025 年剩餘時間，我們仍保持謹慎樂觀。我們擁有和經營的產品持續展現出強勁的基本面。我們在人工智慧技術領域取得了長足的進步，隨著我們開始看到更多的穩定性，我們正處於可以利用行銷方面的優勢。

Our biggest challenge over the next couple of quarters continues to be related to volatility with Google, which, as you know, is our biggest revenue partner. Last quarter, we announced that Google informed us of their plan to automatically opt out advertisers from AdSense for domains monetization, which is known as AFD.

我們在未來幾季面臨的最大挑戰仍然與Google的波動有關，正如你所知，Google是我們最大的收入合作夥伴。上個季度，我們宣布穀歌告知我們，他們計劃自動選擇廣告商退出 AdSense 網域貨幣化（即 AFD）。

While this has created some uncertainty for us, we have not yet seen material impact to our performance or revenue from that policy change. That being said, we do anticipate Google's continued shift away from AFD to their newer RSOC product is going to continue to cause volatility that we'll have to manage and navigate over the next few quarters.

雖然這給我們帶來了一些不確定性，但我們尚未看到該政策變化對我們的業績或收入產生重大影響。話雖如此，我們確實預計谷歌繼續從 AFD 轉向其較新的 RSOC 產品將繼續造成波動，我們必須在接下來的幾個季度內管理和應對這種波動。

As a result of this uncertainty as well as broader volatility in online advertising demand and the potential impact of evolving tariff policies, we do not plan to provide financial guidance for the second quarter of 2025. But most importantly, we remain well positioned regardless of how these shifts evolve. We're continuing to benefit from our long-standing AFD partnership while also leaning into the momentum behind RSOC.

由於這種不確定性以及在線廣告需求的更大波動和不斷變化的關稅政策的潛在影響，我們不打算為 2025 年第二季度提供財務指導。但最重要的是，無論這些轉變如何發展，我們仍處於有利地位。我們將繼續受益於與 AFD 的長期合作關係，同時也依靠 RSOC 背後的動力。

As RSOC continues to gain traction, we're seeing new opportunities to diversify and grow alongside Google with their evolving monetization strategy. Overall, I would say our System1 team is executing very well across the board. We have quickly made the transition to become an AI-first product and engineering organization, and we can see this paying off in faster execution that is also beginning to show up in our financials.

隨著 RSOC 繼續獲得關注，我們看到了與 Google 及其不斷發展的貨幣化策略一起實現多元化和成長的新機會。整體而言，我想說我們的 System1 團隊在各方面表現都非常出色。我們已快速轉型為以人工智慧為先的產品和工程組織，我們可以看到，這項轉型在更快的執行速度中獲得了回報，而這也開始體現在我們的財務狀況中。

As Tridi will detail below, we aren't yet prepared to give full year guidance as we plan to wait to see how the Google product transition shakes out. That being said, once we get through the Google volatility over the next couple of quarters, I believe we're really well positioned for the medium and long term here at System1.

正如 Tridi 在下面詳細說明的那樣，我們尚未準備好提供全年指導，因為我們計劃等待觀察 Google 產品轉型如何進行。話雖如此，一旦我們度過未來幾季的Google波動，我相信我們在 System1 的中長期內將處於非常有利的地位。

To close, I want to reiterate, as I always do, System1s leadership team remains fully aligned with our shareholders. And as a group, we remain one of the company's largest shareholder bases. As one example, I, through my family foundation, recently purchased 4.5 million shares of SST, and I believe strongly in the company's future. As System1 continues our transition back to growth mode, we appreciate your continued support, and we look forward to delivering long-term value to our shareholders. With that, I'll hand things over to Tridi to go over our financials.

最後，我想重申，正如我一直以來所做的那樣，System1 的領導團隊始終與我們的股東保持一致。作為一個集團，我們仍然是公司最大的股東群體之一。舉個例子，我最近透過我的家族基金會購買了 450 萬股 SST 股票，我對該公司的未來充滿信心。隨著 System1 繼續向成長模式轉型，我們感謝您的持續支持，並期待為股東帶來長期價值。有了這些，我會把事情交給 Tridi 來處理我們的財務狀況。

Take it away, Tridi.

把它拿走吧，特里迪。

Thanks, Michael. We are pleased with our first quarter financial results as we were above the high range of guidance on revenue, adjusted gross profit and adjusted EBITDA. The $12.1 million of adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter represents significant year-over-year growth and highlights the high level of execution by our team across all of our businesses, which has resulted in both year-over-year gross profit growth and ongoing G&A efficiencies, resulting in reductions to operating expenses. Let's get into the details. Q1 revenue was $74.5 million, representing a 12% year-over-year decrease and a sequential decline of 1%.

謝謝，麥可。我們對第一季的財務表現感到滿意，因為我們的營收、調整後毛利和調整後 EBITDA 都超出了預期的高點。第一季調整後的 EBITDA 為 1,210 萬美元，年成長顯著，凸顯了我們所有業務團隊的高執行力，這不僅帶來了毛利的同比增長，而且帶來了持續的 G&A 效率，從而降低了營運費用。讓我們來了解一下細節。第一季營收為 7,450 萬美元，年減 12%，季減 1%。

Owned and operated advertising revenue was $57.9 million, down 16% year-over-year and 10% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease is driven by a 35% decrease in advertising spend which is a result of a mix shift change between our marketing-driven business lines and our owned and operated product lines.

自有和營運廣告收入為 5,790 萬美元，年減 16%，季減 10%。年比下降的原因是廣告支出減少了 35%，這是由於我們的行銷驅動業務線和我們自有和經營的產品線之間的組合轉變造成的。

Owned and operated product revenue was $22.3 million, representing 38% of total owned and operated advertising revenue compared to 21% of total revenue in Q1 of 2024. The sequential decline is largely attributable to an expected decrease on an operated product revenue, as Q4 is a seasonally strong quarter for our owned and operated product businesses.

自有和營運產品收入為 2,230 萬美元，佔自有和經營廣告總收入的 38%，而 2024 年第一季佔總收入的 21%。連續下降主要歸因於營運產品收入的預期下降，因為第四季度是我們自有和經營產品業務的季節性強勁季度。

Network revenue was $16.6 million and was buttressed by the benefit of a contra revenue charge related to the reversal of certain prior period network partner rev share payments that was related to invalid traffic sent by some of our network partners in Q2 of '24.

網路收入為 1,660 萬美元，得益於與某些前期網路合作夥伴收入分成付款逆轉相關的抵銷收入費用，這些付款與我們的部分網路合作夥伴在 2024 年第二季發送的無效流量有關。

Revenue was up 1% sequentially, excluding the gross to net accounting revenue adjustment made in Q4. Adjusted gross profit was $41.5 million, up 33% year-over-year and down 7% sequentially, primarily due to typical Q4 to Q1 seasonality. Revenue less ad spend for our owned and operated advertising segment was $27.8 million, representing a 24% year-over-year increase and a 13% decline sequentially.

不包括第四季做出的毛收入至淨收入調整，營收季增 1%。調整後毛利為 4,150 萬美元，年增 33%，季減 7%，主要原因是第四季至第一季的典型季節性因素。我們自有和經營的廣告部門的收入減去廣告支出為 2780 萬美元，年增 24%，環比下降 13%。

Revenue less ad spend for our owned and operated products was $21 million, up 53% year-over-year and down 18% sequentially with the quarter-over-quarter decline driven by seasonality. Network revenue less agency fees was $15 million, up 37% year-over-year and up 4% sequentially.

我們自有和經營產品的收入減去廣告支出為 2,100 萬美元，年增 53%，環比下降 18%，環比下降受季節性影響。網路收入減去代理費為 1,500 萬美元，較去年同期成長 37%，較上季成長 4%。

First quarter owned and operated advertising sessions were $1.3 billion, up 6% year-over-year and down 32% sequentially. RPS was [$0.045], an increase of 32% from the fourth quarter and CPS was [$0.023], up 36% sequentially, with the sequential increase resulting largely from a combination of mix shift changes in our percentage of international traffic and the networks we advertise on.

第一季自有和經營廣告業務價值 13 億美元，年增 6%，季減 32%。RPS 為 [$0.045]，較第四季度增長 32%，CPS 為 [$0.023]，較上一季度增長 36%，環比增長主要是由於我們的國際流量百分比和我們投放廣告的網絡的組合變化所致。

The spread between RPS and CPS was 92% compared to 98% in Q4 and 48% in Q1 of '24. Network partner sessions were $1.7 billion, up 11% year-over-year and down 8% sequentially. Partner Network RPS decreased 6% year-over-year and increased 10% sequentially after adjusting for the out-of-period revenue adjustment in Q4.

RPS 和 CPS 之間的差距為 92%，而 2024 年第四季為 98%，第一季為 48%。網路合作夥伴會話金額為 17 億美元，較去年同期成長 11%，較上季下降 8%。合作夥伴網路 RPS 年減 6%，經第四季期外收入調整後季增 10%。

Total sessions processed by RAMP in the most recent quarter was $3 billion, up 9% year-over-year and down 20% sequentially. On to operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA. In Q1, OpEx net of add-backs were $29.4 million, down 5% year-over-year and up 10% sequentially. The quarter-over-quarter increase was expected and was impacted by non-wage-related employee costs. Q1 of ' 25 marks the seventh straight quarter of year-over-year declines in OpEx, and we will continue to focus on reducing costs in order to create greater operating leverage.

RAMP 最近一個季度處理的總會話數為 30 億美元，較去年同期成長 9%，較上季下降 20%。關於營運費用和調整後的 EBITDA。第一季度，扣除附加費用後的營運支出為 2,940 萬美元，年減 5%，較上季增加 10%。季度環比成長在意料之中，並受到與薪資無關的員工成本的影響。2025 年第一季是營運支出連續第七個季度同比下降，我們將繼續致力於降低成本，以創造更大的營運槓桿。

Adjusted EBITDA was $12.1 million in Q1 versus just $400,000 in the same quarter last year. Q1 represented the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year increases in adjusted EBITDA. With respect to liquidity, we ended the quarter with $43.9 million of unrestricted cash on our balance sheet. Our $20 million use of cash in the quarter was primarily driven by a $13 million cash payment related to the CouponFollow acquisition earn-out as well as a $4.4 million outflow related to the payment of our 2024 annual bonuses, which were approved and paid in Q1 of this year. As of March 31, we had an outstanding balance of $275 million of term loan debt under our credit agreement, and our net consolidated leverage at quarter end was approximately 4.6 times.

第一季調整後的 EBITDA 為 1,210 萬美元，而去年同期僅為 40 萬美元。第一季是調整後 EBITDA 連續第四個季度年增。就流動性而言，本季末我們的資產負債表上有 4,390 萬美元的非限制現金。我們本季使用 2,000 萬美元的現金，主要來自與 CouponFollow 收購收益相關的 1,300 萬美元現金支付，以及與支付 2024 年年度獎金相關的 440 萬美元流出，這些獎金已於今年第一季獲得批准和支付。截至 3 月 31 日，我們的信貸協議下的定期貸款債務未償還餘額為 2.75 億美元，季末的淨合併槓桿率約為 4.6 倍。

We also have $50 million of availability under our revolver as of the end of Q1. As Michael mentioned, due to evolving dynamics and announced changes in Google's absence for Domain's marketplace, along with the broader market uncertainty tied to advertising demand and other potential macro headwinds.

截至第一季末，我們的循環信貸額度還有 5,000 萬美元可用。正如邁克爾所提到的，由於不斷變化的動態和谷歌宣布退出域名市場的變化，以及與廣告需求和其他潛在宏觀不利因素相關的更廣泛的市場不確定性。

We are currently not in a position to provide financial guidance for Q2 of '25 or the balance of the year. We believe it is prudent at this time to wait for greater clarity on these items before offering financial projections. But in the interim, we remain focused on executing efficiently in this dynamic environment.

我們目前無法為 25 年第二季或全年餘額提供財務指引。我們認為，目前明智的做法是等待這些項目的進一步明朗化，然後再提供財務預測。但在此期間，我們仍將專注於在這種動態環境中有效執行。

We remain confident in the fundamentals of our overall business. Owned and operated products are performing well and provide a strong financial foundation. Our focus on cost reduction is evident in the numbers, and we remain focused on driving OpEx savings.

我們對整體業務的基本面仍然充滿信心。自有和經營的產品表現良好，並提供了強大的財務基礎。我們對降低成本的關注從數字上就可以看出來，而且我們仍然致力於推動營運支出的節省。

The volatility in our marketing-driven businesses has hindered our ability in the near term to sustainably grow those businesses. However, we are confident in the power of our RAMP platform and our ability to leverage new technologies such as AI and Agentic coding to create a long-term competitive advantage.

我們的行銷驅動型業務的波動性阻礙了我們在短期內可持續成長這些業務的能力。然而，我們對 RAMP 平台的強大功能以及利用 AI 和 Agentic 編碼等新技術創造長期競爭優勢的能力充滿信心。

Thanks for joining us today.

感謝您今天加入我們。

(Operator Instructions) Tom Forte, Maxim Group.

（操作員指示）湯姆·福特（Tom Forte），馬克西姆集團（Maxim Group）。

Okay. Now I'm unmuted. Okay. So Michael, Tridi, congrats on the quarter. I have two questions.

好的。現在我已取消靜音。好的。所以 Michael、Tridi，恭喜本季取得的成績。我有兩個問題。

So first off, can you hear me?

首先，你聽得到我說話嗎？

We can hear you fine.

我們能聽清楚您的聲音。

We can hear you.

我們能聽到你的聲音。

All right. So I recognize you're not providing guidance on the second quarter given the current uncertainty. But as longtime participants in the digital ad market, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the following.

好的。因此，我知道鑑於當前的不確定性，您不會提供第二季的指導。但作為數位廣告市場的長期參與者，我很感激您對以下內容的看法。

So it seems like digital advertising is holding up, including your own performance and having a lot more resiliency in the current challenging macro when you compare with prior periods of weakness where digital advertising seemed to weaken first. So to what you attribute the change?

因此，與數位廣告似乎首先走弱的先前疲軟時期相比，數位廣告似乎正在保持堅挺，包括您自己的表現，並且在當前充滿挑戰的宏觀環境中具有更大的彈性。那麼，您認為這種變化的原因是什麼？

Well, I would say, first of all, you're right. We're not seeing any wonkiness yet in our numbers, which is nice. What I would say is that typically, in a downturn, I think a leading indicator is going to be more on the branded advertising side than performance marketing. We're much more performance marketers. So if there is going to end up being any kind of macro downturn and really affecting digital marketing, I think we will be the last to see it.

嗯，首先我想說，你是對的。我們還沒有從數據中發現任何異常，這很好。我想說的是，通常，在經濟低迷時期，領先指標將更多地集中在品牌廣告方面，而不是績效行銷方面。我們更多的是績效行銷者。因此，如果最終出現任何形式的宏觀經濟衰退並真正影響數位行銷，我認為我們將是最後一個看到它的人。

And as you know, Tom, from the past, sometimes when we do see some wonkiness in performance marketing, it can benefit us as well because it drives down our buy-side pricing. But I would say that it's probably a little early in any cycle for us to see any issues.

如你所知，湯姆，從過去的情況來看，有時我們確實會看到績效行銷中出現一些異常情況，但這也能為我們帶來好處，因為它會降低買方定價。但我想說，在任何週期中，我們可能都還太早才發現任何問題。

Excellent. All right. So the second and final question, can you discuss and compare what you're seeing in advertiser verticals that are likely less directly impacted by tariffs such as health and finance and then how that compares with those that are much more impacted like autos?

出色的。好的。那麼第二個也是最後一個問題，您能否討論和比較一下受關稅直接影響較小的廣告商垂直行業（例如醫療和金融）的情況，然後與受關稅影響更大的廣告商垂直行業（例如汽車）相比如何？

Sure. Really, like I said, we haven't -- we're just not seeing the big effects yet in really any verticals that you would expect would be affected by tariffs. Some of those we're not big players in, like some of the -- of the world and kind of the shopping for products that are coming directly from China. We just -- that's not a big vertical for us. But across our range of verticals, we're just not seeing any big movement yet.

當然。真的，就像我說的，我們還沒有——我們只是還沒有看到任何你預期會受到關稅影響的垂直行業的巨大影響。在某些領域我們並不是大玩家，例如世界上一些直接從中國進口的產品的購買。我們只是——這對我們來說不是一個很大的垂直領域。但在我們的垂直領域中，我們還沒有看到任何重大的動作。

That's not to say it's not going to come. That is one of the reasons why we're declining to provide guidance for the quarter as we're waiting to see how the economy plays out and what consumer demand and also advertisers look like. But so far, we're just not seeing things shift around much. Tridi, do you want to comment on that anymore?

這並不是說它不會發生。這就是我們拒絕提供本季業績指引的原因之一，因為我們正在等待經濟狀況以及消費者需求和廣告商的狀況。但到目前為止，我們還沒有看到情況有太大的變化。Tridi，你還想對此發表評論嗎？

Yes. No, I think that's right. I mean -- and that definitely was the lesson. Last time there was a major disruption both in '22 and 2000 around COVID was in -- specifically ad formats where there's a very high measurable return on ad spend and specifically how we partner, for example, with Google, that tends to be the last advertising channel that marketers will pull because they can definitively track the ROI on that spend.

是的。不，我認為是這樣。我的意思是——這絕對是一個教訓。上一次在 2022 年和 2000 年 COVID 期間出現的重大中斷是——特別是廣告格式，其廣告支出具有非常高的可衡量回報率，特別是我們如何與谷歌合作，這往往是營銷人員會採用的最後一個廣告渠道，因為他們可以明確地跟踪該支出的投資回報率。

Daniel Kurnos, Benchmark. Dan?

丹尼爾·庫爾諾斯（Daniel Kurnos），Benchmark。擔？

Sorry, can you hear me also like Tom, we'll start off with the [Tom question]. Michael, look, obviously, I'm going to ask you about Google. So we've got remedies, plans, potential breakup of [GAM]. You guys are super levered through the Google network. It's probably going to give you guys a good opportunity because it's going to cause some disruption, but just love to hear your thoughts on if it starts playing out, what it means for kind of you and the ecosystem.

抱歉，你聽得到我的聲音嗎？就像湯姆一樣，我們先從[湯姆的問題]。邁克爾，你看，顯然我要問你關於谷歌的問題。所以我們有補救措施、計劃，以及可能的分手[GAM]。你們透過 Google 網路獲得了超強的槓桿作用。這可能會給你們帶來一個很好的機會，因為它會造成一些混亂，但我還是想聽聽你們的想法，如果它開始發揮作用，它對你和生態系統意味著什麼。

Well, there's a lot going on in the Google side as far as regulatory issues go. As you know, there are several trials and they're starting to hit the damages phase. And I think as probably most of the people listening in know as well, any major dramatic things that would be negative for Google are probably going to be years in the future as appeals go through.

嗯，就監管問題而言，谷歌方面發生了很多事情。如您所知，已經有幾起審判正在進行，並且即將進入損害賠償階段。我想，可能大多數聽眾也都知道，任何對谷歌不利的重大事件都可能要等到上訴進行到幾年後才會發生。

What I would say is that we would welcome the more that Google -- if Google does end up being split up in any way, what we would guess is that each of those businesses probably get a little bit more competitive. And that most likely is going to be good for us in terms of if we think that Google were to lose any market share, for instance, and likely their search partner network that we are a major part of, would be looking for more revenue.

我想說的是，我們更加歡迎谷歌——如果谷歌最終以任何方式被拆分，我們猜測，每個業務部門的競爭力可能會變得更強一些。如果我們認為谷歌失去任何市場份額，那麼這對我們而言很可能是件好事，而我們作為其中主要組成部分的搜尋合作夥伴網絡可能會尋求更多的收入。

Google as a whole is going to be looking for search revenue. So if you recall what our relationship with Google looks like is we're essentially manufacturing demand for them. When someone goes to Google and types in something they're searching for, that's just their organic traffic.

谷歌整體上將尋求搜尋收入。所以，如果你還記得我們與Google的關係，你就會知道我們本質上是在為他們製造需求。當有人去 Google 並輸入他們正在搜尋的內容時，這只是他們的自然流量。

What we're doing is we're manufacturing very similar types of demand by going on to other networks, encouraging consumers to click on ads and then ultimately expressing their demand by clicking on Google Ads. So if that part of the business were to come under increasing regulatory pressure, we would expect that Google would become a little bit more dependent and hungry for revenue from its partner base, which would help us quite a bit.

我們所做的是，透過進入其他網路來製造非常相似的需求，鼓勵消費者點擊廣告，然後最終透過點擊Google廣告來表達他們的需求。因此，如果該部分業務面臨越來越大的監管壓力，我們預計谷歌將變得更加依賴並渴望從其合作夥伴那裡獲得收入，這將對我們有很大幫助。

Probably similar things on the display side. A little bit hard to tell how that would play out in terms of pricing on the buy and sell side, for instance, the Google Display inventory. I don't really feel like I can make a good judgment call if that would help us or hurt us. But if it helps us on the buy side, it's going to hurt us on the sell side and vice versa. If we get hurt on the sell side, it's going to help on the buy side because we play with Google on both sides of that market.

顯示器方面可能也有類似情況。很難說這會對買賣雙方的定價產生什麼影響，例如 Google Display 庫存。我真的不覺得我可以做出正確的判斷，知道這是否會對我們有幫助或有害。但如果這對買方有利，那麼對賣方就會有害，反之亦然。如果我們在賣方方面受到損害，那麼這將對買方有所幫助，因為我們與Google在該市場的兩端都有合作。

So we don't really expect anything negative to come out of regulatory issues and one thing to keep in mind is we do have an independent search engine, Startpage, which is competitive with the big players out there with the [beans] and the Googles of the world. And anything that would allow some of the independent search engines to gain a little bit of market share, we think would directly flow through to Startpage. So all in all, we think it's probably be a net positive for us. But obviously, we don't welcome any regulatory issues related to Google at this point.

因此，我們並不真的期望監管問題會帶來任何負面影響，而且要記住的一點是，我們確實有一個獨立的搜尋引擎 Startpage，它可以與世界上的大型公司（如 [beans] 和 Google）競爭。我們認為，任何可以讓一些獨立搜尋引擎獲得一點市場份額的舉措都會直接影響到 Startpage。總而言之，我們認為這對我們來說可能是一件好事。但顯然，我們目前不歡迎任何與Google有關的監管問題。

And like, obviously, given the other kind of broader pressure that I think we're seeing on the market and perhaps from the top down. We've had -- exit the market. I know you commented on that a second ago, but it's kind of left a vacuum, particularly in the social space, which has been plugged pretty well. We haven't seen any real challenges in PLA. It looks like eCPMs in general have been holding up in the programmatic space.

顯然，考慮到我們在市場上看到的另一種更廣泛的壓力，也許是自上而下的。我們已經退出市場。我知道您剛才對此發表了評論，但它似乎留下了一個真空，特別是在社交空間，而這個空間已經被很好地填補了。我們尚未看到解放軍面臨任何真正的挑戰。看起來，eCPM 在程序化領域整體上一直保持穩定。

But is the disruption creating any opportunity for you to go after incremental market share domestically? And then internationally, the alternative is TikTok has been -- after having kind of left the U.S., TikTok has been a great international opportunity. It's something you and I have talked about. It feels like a great platform over there. You guys have been growing international exposure.

但這種混亂是否為你創造了在國內擴大市場佔有率的機會？然後在國際上，替代方案是 TikTok——在離開美國後，TikTok 成為了一個很好的國際機會。這是你和我談論過的事情。感覺那裡有一個很棒的平台。你們的國際知名度越來越高。

So kind of just talk about the two different shots on goal, I think, that you have domestic versus international given some of the disruptions.

因此，我認為，考慮到一些幹擾，我們可以談談國內和國際兩種不同的射門方式。

Well, certainly, we welcome lower pricing on the buy side. So if you have some of the big Chinese app advertisers pulling out of market, particularly in the social space, if I recall correctly, I think that just those two companies alone were north of 10% of the meta advertising revenue. So as there's more advertisers pulling out internationally, that should help us domestically. We are seeing some, I would say, green shoots on social right now, which has been favorable. So we would, in many ways, welcome fewer advertisers on the social side.

嗯，當然，我們歡迎買方降低價格。因此，如果一些中國大型應用廣告商退出市場，特別是在社交領域，如果我沒記錯的話，我認為光是這兩家公司就佔據了元廣告收入的 10% 以上。因此，隨著越來越多的廣告商退出國際市場，這應該會對我們的國內業務有所幫助。我想說，我們現在在社交媒體上看到了一些積極的跡象。因此，從許多方面來說，我們都歡迎社交方面減少廣告商的數量。

Same thing internationally. TikTok, as you mentioned, and they've got an audience network as well, has been a really good source of traffic for us. We continue to lean in pretty heavily on that. We're seeing some good results internationally. I know that Tridi mentioned, it's still a big part of our business and a growing part of our business.

國際上也同樣如此。正如您所提到的，TikTok 也擁有受眾網絡，對我們來說是一個非常好的流量來源。我們將繼續大力支持這一點。我們在國際上看到了一些好的成果。我知道 Tridi 提到過，它仍然是我們業務的重要組成部分，並且是我們業務中不斷成長的一部分。

And so we don't really see any issues on -- any negatives in terms of both those areas that you talked about. And as we mentioned before, we're not really heavily leveraged on TikTok in the United States. We would -- we're kind of agnostic as to whether TikTok remains in the U.S. or not. I think at this point, people are, I believe, generally feeling that TikTok will remain an app that's available for usage in the U.S.

因此，我們確實沒有看到您談到的這兩個領域有任何問題。正如我們之前提到的，我們在美國對 TikTok 的依賴程度並不高。我們不太清楚 TikTok 是否會留在美國。我認為目前人們普遍認為 TikTok 仍將是一款可在美國使用的應用程式。

If so, we'll be buying and put more of an effort behind that. But if it's not, it's not really going to help hurt us in any material way.

如果是這樣，我們將會購買並付出更多努力。但如果不是這樣，它實際上不會為我們帶來任何物質上的幫助。

And look, I mean, the question was definitely framed in a benefit to you, not as a disruptor to you, Michael, just given what's going in the marketplace. Can you just a little bit?

瞧，我的意思是，這個問題肯定是為了給你帶來好處，而不是為了擾亂你，邁克爾，只是考慮到市場上的情況。你能稍微一點嗎？

Go ahead.

前進。

Maybe just double-click a little bit on the productivity gains from shifting to Agentic. And look, obviously, you and I could have a lengthy conversation about that here, but we won't for the sake of everybody on this call. So maybe just like dumb it down for people and help people understand kind of what that means? Can you more shots on goal, cheaper to produce products, either cheaper to produce creative? Anything that you want to give more color so that people can understand exactly what it means to kind of the platform.

也許只要雙擊一下，就能了解轉向 Agentic 所帶來的生產力提升。顯然，你和我可以就此進行長時間的對話，但為了這次通話中每個人的利益，我們不會這樣做。所以也許只是為了讓人們理解它並幫助人們理解這意味著什麼？你能更瞄準目標，更便宜生產產品，還是更便宜生產創意？任何你想賦予其更多色彩的東西，都是為了讓人們能夠準確地理解它對於平台的意義。

Sure. I mean it's kind of a cliche at this point. I think everybody is talking about AI and using Agentic coding to be more efficient in their business. I can tell you, we've been very fortunate given the size of our company and our engineering and product teams. We've made some pretty aggressive moves to move the entire company heavily into Agentic coding.

當然。我的意思是，現在看來這有點陳腔濫調了。我認為每個人都在談論人工智慧並使用 Agentic 編碼來提高業務效率。我可以告訴你，考慮到我們公司的規模以及我們的工程和產品團隊，我們非常幸運。我們已採取一些非常積極的舉措，讓整個公司大力採用 Agentic 程式設計。

And both on the business side and on the product and engineering side. So I'll start with the business side first. It's pretty remarkable. Like I don't want to -- it's hard to overstate the effects that this is having on not only our company, but I think a lot of companies in the space that are really leaning in heavily into Agentic coding. On the business side, we're seeing things like business processes related to things like signing partners up to contracts and mocking up new product ideas that business leaders may have.

無論是在業務方面還是在產品和工程方面。因此我將首先從業務方面開始。這真是太了不起了。就像我不想那樣——很難誇大這不僅對我們公司的影響，而且我認為該領域的許多公司都非常依賴 Agentic 編碼。在業務方面，我們看到了與合作夥伴簽訂合約以及模擬業務領導者可能有的新產品想法等相關的業務流程。

In the past, for something related to putting together like an automated contract sign-up form, for instance, someone on the business side would have had to go to an engineer, go to a product designer and actually have that built. And now at this point, what we're seeing our business people building that on their own. So they're going on and just using things like Claude to build their own products that speed up their business processes. And it's pretty amazing, like if you walk around our company right now and you're looking at the screens of some of our business leaders, you're going to see them actually developing products on their own. And that's something really amazing.

例如，在過去，對於與自動合約註冊表單等組合相關的東西，業務方面的人員必須去找工程師，去找產品設計師，然後才能真正建立它。現在，我們看到我們的商務人士正在自己建立這個體系。因此，他們繼續使用像 Claude 這樣的東西來建立自己的產品，以加快業務流程。這真是太神奇了，如果你現在走在我們公司，看看我們一些業務領導的螢幕，你會看到他們實際上正在自己開發產品。這真是令人驚奇的事。

I know Tridi can talk to you about we're starting to lean in on the finance and legal areas as well. But as far as the product and engineering teams go, what we did is we made a decision, it was really the -- about two generations ago of some of the Agentic coding tools got to be good enough where we decided that we would take a lot of our engineers and just stop them developing on our core platform and really come up to speed very quickly on using these new coding tools.

我知道 Tridi 可以和你談談我們也開始傾向於金融和法律領域。但就產品和工程團隊而言，我們所做的就是做出了一個決定，大約兩代之前，一些 Agentic 編碼工具已經足夠好了，我們決定讓我們的許多工程師停止在我們的核心平台上進行開發，並真正快速地掌握使用這些新編碼工具的技巧。

And what we're seeing is, in many cases, a 3 times to 5 times increase in productivity on product development. And what that's allowing us to do is move much more quickly in terms of getting products to market. It's allowing us to come up with more ideas and get more products to market.

我們看到，在許多情況下，產品開發的生產力提高了 3 倍到 5 倍。這使我們能夠更快地將產品推向市場。它使我們能夠提出更多的想法並將更多的產品推向市場。

So the productivity increase is real to the point where if people are not -- if companies are kind of not leaning into this new way of developing products, they're going to be left behind quite quickly. And what's been nice at System1 is we were fairly early in the process of really moving to this new way of product development. We're doing things like we're -- our headquarters in Los Angeles.

因此，生產率的提高是真實的，如果人們不這樣做——如果公司不傾向於這種開發產品的新方法，他們很快就會落後。System1 的優點在於，我們很早就開始採用這種新的產品開發方式。我們正在做的事情就像我們在洛杉磯的總部一樣。

We host like the kind of Southern California AI meet up, those kind of things where we've got kind of the leading developers and leading product people that are kind of at the forefront of this -- of Agentic coding, and these meetings are happening at our offices. And so I'm pretty amazed how quickly our company has transformed.

我們主辦了類似南加州人工智慧聚會的活動，這類活動邀請了 Agentic 編碼領域的頂尖開發人員和頂尖產品人員參加，這些會議都在我們的辦公室舉行。所以我對我們公司轉變的速度感到非常驚訝。

And I think you're going to see that only accelerating as more and more people company-wide are using these tools, but also the tools themselves are getting much better. You got anything to add to that, Tridi?

我認為，隨著全公司越來越多的人使用這些工具，你會看到這一進程只會加速，而且工具本身也會變得越來越好。您還有什麼要補充的嗎，Tridi？

Yes. I mean I think just specifically our ability to test new ideas and new initiatives, it's so much faster and not having to make an investment decision early. Do we need to allocate three, four, five heads or design resources, engineering resources to test something. It just allows us to innovate much quicker, too, which is where I've definitely seen it just in the last 1.5 quarters, two quarters here.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們測試新想法和新措施的能力要快得多，而且不必事先做出投資決策。我們是否需要分配三、四、五個主管或設計資源、工程資源來測試某些東西？它也使我們能夠更快地進行創新，這正是我在過去 1.5 個季度、兩個季度中看到的。

That ends our questions. Now we're going to turn it over to Michael Blend for closing remarks.

我們的問題到此結束。現在我們將把時間交給邁克爾·布蘭德 (Michael Blend) 作結束語。

All right. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us on our Q1 earnings call. So [we're nice] to have a little bit of momentum here. We're glad we put up a nice -- (technical difficulty)

好的。好吧，感謝大家參加我們的第一季財報電話會議。因此，我們很高興能在這裡取得一點進展。我們很高興我們提出了一個很好的—（技術難題）