Trivago NV (TRVG) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the trivago Q4 Earnings Call 2022. (Operator Instructions) I must advise you the call is being recorded today, Wednesday, the 8th of February 2023.

女士們先生們，美好的一天。感謝您的支持，歡迎來到 trivago 2022 年第 4 季度收益電話會議。（操作員說明）我必須通知您，今天，即 2023 年 2 月 8 日，星期三，電話正在錄音。

We are pleased to be joined on the call today by Axel Hefer, trivago's CEO and Managing Director; and Matthias Tillmann, trivago's CFO and Managing Director.

我們很高興 trivago 的首席執行官兼董事總經理 Axel Hefer 今天加入電話會議；以及 trivago 的首席財務官兼董事總經理 Matthias Tillmann。

The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflect management's views as of today, Wednesday, February 8, 2023 only. trivago does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information. As always, some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking, typically preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. Please refer to the Q4 2022 operating and financial review and the company's other filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause trivago's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

以下討論，包括對您問題的回答，僅反映截至今天，即 2023 年 2 月 8 日，星期三，管理層的觀點。 trivago 不承擔任何更新或修改這些信息的義務。與往常一樣，在今天的電話會議上發表的一些聲明是前瞻性的，通常以我們期望、我們相信、我們預期或類似的聲明開頭。有關可能導致 trivago 的實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的信息，請參閱 2022 年第四季度運營和財務審查以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件。

You will find recognitions of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed in today's -- in trivago's operating and financial review, which is posted on the company's IR website at ir.trivago.com. You are encouraged to periodically visit trivago's Investor Relations site for important content. Finally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons on this call will be against the results of the comparable period of 2021.

在 trivago 的運營和財務審查中，您會發現非 GAAP 措施與今天討論的最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的認可，該報告發佈在公司的 IR 網站 ir.trivago.com 上。我們鼓勵您定期訪問 trivago 的投資者關係網站以獲取重要內容。最後，除非另有說明，否則本次電話會議的所有比較都將與 2021 年同期的結果進行比較。

With that, let me turn the call over to Axel.

有了這個，讓我把電話轉給阿克塞爾。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us for our Q4 earnings call today. 2022 was a very strong year for trivago. We saw leisure travel bouncing back as COVID restrictions were lifted around the globe. The pent-up demand was fueled by consumer savings during the pandemic and a strong desire to travel.

感謝大家今天加入我們的第四季度財報電話會議。 2022 年對 trivago 來說是非常強勁的一年。隨著 COVID 限制在全球範圍內的解除，我們看到休閒旅行出現反彈。大流行期間消費者的儲蓄和強烈的旅行願望推動了被壓抑的需求。

As prices for accommodation continue to rise, consumers need to compare prices more to maximize their savings. We are therefore confident that the role of metasearch will become even more relevant this year.

隨著住宿價格持續上漲，消費者需要更多地比較價格以最大限度地節省開支。因此，我們相信今年元搜索的作用將變得更加重要。

Moving forward, we are further developing and strengthening our core product and unique brand positioning. We're leveraging growth opportunities by offering travelers more direct access to hotels in addition to our traditional online travel agency offering.

展望未來，我們將進一步發展和加強我們的核心產品和獨特的品牌定位。除了我們傳統的在線旅行社服務之外，我們還通過為旅行者提供更直接的酒店訪問來利用增長機會。

In Q4, we've run a new product design in 5 test markets, allowing us to generate valuable learnings in how to expose travelers to more prices and qualify their intent further before passing them on to our advertisers. In addition, we have established the building blocks of our direct hotel strategy, and we will build up on those in 2023. And now more than 50% of direct hotel rate coverage, we are getting close to the next phase of our strategy, launching consumer-facing features around direct hotel access.

在第 4 季度，我們在 5 個測試市場進行了新產品設計，使我們能夠在如何向旅行者展示更多價格並在將其傳遞給我們的廣告商之前進一步確定他們的意圖方面產生寶貴的經驗。此外，我們已經建立了直接酒店戰略的基石，我們將在 2023 年的基礎上再接再厲。現在超過 50% 的直接酒店房價覆蓋率，我們接近我們戰略的下一階段，推出圍繞直接進入酒店的面向消費者的功能。

Thank you, Axel, and good morning, everyone. As Axel said, we are very pleased with our Q4 and full year 2022 financial results.

謝謝你，阿克塞爾，大家早上好。正如 Axel 所說，我們對第四季度和 2022 年全年的財務業績感到非常滿意。

Last year, our revenue increased by 48% year-over-year to EUR 535 million, while our marketing efficiency measured as return on advertising spend, improved 8 percentage points to 164.4%. Due to the impairment charges recorded in the second and third quarters of 2022 totaling EUR 184.6 million, we had a net loss of EUR 127.2 million.

去年，我們的收入同比增長 48% 至 5.35 億歐元，而我們以廣告支出回報率衡量的營銷效率提高了 8 個百分點，達到 164.4%。由於 2022 年第二和第三季度記錄的總計 1.846 億歐元的減值費用，我們的淨虧損為 1.272 億歐元。

The combination of greater marketing efficiency and continued cost discipline led to an increase in adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the effect of the impairment charge of 210% year-over-year, reaching a full year record for the company of EUR 107.5 million. This is an increase of more than 50% relative to our most profitable year before the pandemic in 2019. And for the first time, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of over 20%.

更高的營銷效率和持續的成本控制相結合導致調整後的 EBITDA 增加，其中不包括減值費用同比增長 210% 的影響，達到公司全年創紀錄的 1.075 億歐元。與我們在 2019 年大流行之前最賺錢的一年相比，增長了 50% 以上。而且我們首次實現了超過 20% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。

Now looking at the fourth quarter. Our referral revenue grew 21% year-on-year, driven by continued higher ADRs, which led to an increase in overall average booking value. Other revenue declined by EUR 2 million year-on-year to EUR 3.4 million as we stopped certain B2B products like white label solutions and display ads as we mentioned during the summer.

現在看第四季度。我們的推薦收入同比增長 21%，這得益於 ADR 持續走高，這導致整體平均預訂價值增加。其他收入同比下降 200 萬歐元至 340 萬歐元，因為我們停止了某些 B2B 產品，如我們在夏季提到的白標解決方案和展示廣告。

Net income decreased year-on-year by EUR 4.8 million to EUR 10.4 million. The decrease was mainly driven by the nonrecurrence of a EUR 12 million COVID-19 subsidy that we had received from the German government in the fourth quarter of 2021 and recognized as other income. Excluding this onetime subsidy payment, our net income increased by EUR 7.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA also increased by 15% year-on-year to EUR 22.6 million.

淨收入同比減少 480 萬歐元至 1040 萬歐元。減少的主要原因是我們在 2021 年第四季度從德國政府收到並確認為其他收入的 1200 萬歐元 COVID-19 補貼不再發生。除去這筆一次性補貼，我們的淨收入增加了 720 萬歐元。調整後的 EBITDA 也同比增長 15% 至 2260 萬歐元。

In the following, I will give a bit more color on the drivers of our referral revenue development relative to 2019 levels for our 3 regional segments in the fourth quarter. Starting with developed Europe. Qualified referrals were at 72% of 2019 levels, roughly at the same level as in the third quarter. Revenue per qualified referral recovered to 102% of 2019 levels as ADRs continue to be above 2019 levels and bidding levels of our partners reflected the increase in traffic quality.

在下文中，我將詳細介紹第四季度我們 3 個區域細分市場相對於 2019 年水平的推薦收入發展的驅動因素。從發達的歐洲開始。合格轉診為 2019 年水平的 72%，與第三季度大致持平。每個合格推薦的收入恢復到 2019 年水平的 102%，因為 ADR 繼續高於 2019 年水平，並且我們合作夥伴的出價水平反映了流量質量的提高。

In Americas, qualified referrals relative to 2019 levels decreased slightly sequentially from 59% in the third quarter to 56% in the fourth quarter, primarily driven by qualified referral declines in Latin America, resulting mainly from a large-scale market test in Brazil that led to a significant decline in qualified referrals in that country. However, on the flip side, the click-to-book conversion increased significantly in Brazil, which had a positive impact on our revenue per qualified referral.

在美洲，合格轉介相對於 2019 年水平略有下降，從第三季度的 59% 下降到第四季度的 56%，這主要是由於拉丁美洲的合格轉介下降，這主要是由於在巴西進行的大規模市場測試導致到該國合格轉介的顯著下降。然而，另一方面，巴西的點擊預訂轉化率顯著增加，這對我們每個合格推薦的收入產生了積極影響。

Similar to Europe, revenue per qualified referral in Americas also benefited from continued high ADRs relative to 2019 levels. In addition, positive ForEx exchange and country mix effect were similar to what we already observed in the third quarter, leading to an overall increase of revenue per qualified referrals in America of 33% relative to 2019.

與歐洲類似，美洲每個合格推薦人的收入也受益於相對於 2019 年水平持續較高的 ADR。此外，積極的外匯交易和國家組合效應與我們在第三季度觀察到的情況相似，導緻美國每名合格推薦人的總收入較 2019 年增長 33%。

Lastly, our segment Rest of World continues to be impacted by the war in Ukraine and the fact that China was still mostly closed during the quarter. Consequently, our qualified referrals remain significantly below 2019 levels at 47%. While we do not operate a Chinese platform, we believe that the opening of China will have a positive impact on many agent platforms for us as it will be possible again to travel to China and Chinese travelers will increase the demand for hotel rooms in the region which we expect will be positive for ADRs. We already observed a positive impact from increasing ADRs in the fourth quarter and revenue per qualified referral improved sequentially from 91% of 2019 levels in Q3 to 94% in Q4.

最後，我們的世界其他地區繼續受到烏克蘭戰爭以及中國在本季度仍然大部分關閉的事實的影響。因此，我們的合格推薦仍顯著低於 2019 年的水平，為 47%。雖然我們不運營中國平台，但我們相信中國的開放將對我們的許多代理平台產生積極影響，因為將有可能再次前往中國旅行，中國遊客將增加對該地區酒店客房的需求我們預計這將對 ADR 產生積極影響。我們已經觀察到第四季度 ADR 增加帶來的積極影響，每個合格推薦人的收入從第三季度的 2019 年水平的 91% 連續提高到第四季度的 94%。

Moving on to advertising expenses. As we entered our low season quarter, we pulled back on advertising expenses in the fourth quarter relative to the third quarter as we have always done historically. Advertising expenses were 55.4% of referral revenue in the fourth quarter compared to 63.1% in the same period in 2019 as we continue to be disciplined with our marketing ROI targets and improved our marketing efficiency. Consequently, our return on advertising spend improved 22 percentage points in the fourth quarter relative to 2019 levels. However, contrary to last year, we started to run some brand TV campaigns in selected markets at the end of the quarter in anticipation of higher travel demand going into the new year and we continue to expect to increase our brand marketing investments in 2023 relative to 2022.

繼續廣告費用。隨著我們進入淡季季度，我們在第四季度相對於第三季度縮減了廣告費用，這與我們以往一直所做的一樣。第四季度廣告費用佔推薦收入的 55.4%，而 2019 年同期為 63.1%，因為我們繼續遵守營銷投資回報率目標並提高營銷效率。因此，與 2019 年的水平相比，第四季度我們的廣告支出回報率提高了 22 個百分點。然而，與去年相反，我們在本季度末開始在特定市場開展一些品牌電視宣傳活動，因為預計進入新的一年會有更高的旅遊需求，我們繼續預計 2023 年將增加我們的品牌營銷投資2022.

I will now discuss our operational expenses, excluding advertising expenses relative to last year. In the fourth quarter, our operational expenses, including share-based compensation, decreased by EUR 2.9 million by 8.6% compared to the same period in 2021. The main drivers for the decrease were lower other marketing expenses, lower share-based compensation expenses and a decrease in depreciation. Other marketing expenses decreased as a result of lower TV production costs and lower commission fees for acquiring traffic as we started to sunset our white label product.

我現在將討論我們的運營費用，不包括與去年相關的廣告費用。第四季度，我們的運營費用（包括股權激勵費用）與 2021 年同期相比減少 290 萬歐元，下降 8.6%。減少的主要原因是其他營銷費用減少、股權激勵費用減少以及折舊減少。由於我們開始淘汰我們的白標產品，電視製作成本降低和獲取流量的佣金費用減少，其他營銷費用也有所減少。

The decrease in expenses was partly offset by an increase in IT-related costs, mainly due to setup fees for the onboarding of independent hotels and an increase in cloud costs as we made progress with our migration from data center to the cloud. As we have mentioned before, we expect to reduce our operating expenses in 2023 relative to 2022 despite the inflationary pressure, mainly through the headcount reduction we have done in the second half of 2022.

費用的減少部分被 IT 相關成本的增加所抵消，這主要是由於獨立酒店的入職設置費以及隨著我們從數據中心到雲的遷移取得進展而增加的云成本。正如我們之前提到的，儘管存在通脹壓力，但我們預計 2023 年的運營費用將比 2022 年減少，主要是通過我們在 2022 年下半年所做的裁員。

We expect our quarterly operational expenses, excluding advertising expenses and excluding share-based compensation going forward to be roughly in line with what we have reported for this quarter. The strong operational performance in 2022 led to a significant increase in our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investment position to EUR 293.9 million as of December 31, 2022, compared to EUR 256.4 million at the beginning of the year. The increase of EUR 37.5 million was mainly driven by strong operational results which more than offset financing activities resulting from the repurchase of shares and penalty payments from the litigation Australia.

我們預計我們的季度運營費用（不包括廣告費用和基於股份的薪酬）將與我們本季度報告的大致一致。 2022 年強勁的運營業績導致截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金、現金等價物和短期投資頭寸大幅增加至 2.939 億歐元，而年初為 2.564 億歐元。增加 3750 萬歐元的主要原因是強勁的經營業績抵消了股份回購和訴訟澳大利亞的罰金所產生的融資活動。

Our liquidity position is stronger than ever, and we continue to be debt-free. As we expect to continue to generate positive free cash flows, we will continue to look at different ways to return capital to our shareholders in the future.

我們的流動性狀況比以往任何時候都強，而且我們繼續沒有債務。由於我們預計將繼續產生正的自由現金流，因此我們將繼續尋找未來向股東返還資本的不同方式。

Now moving on to trends in January. As expected, year-on-year referral revenue growth was strong in January at over 30% as a result of continued robust travel demand trends and favorable comps due to corporate-related travel restrictions in January 2021. As in prior years, monetization levels decreased sequentially in January relative to December. And overall, we were at similar monetization levels as last year in January. However, as ADRs continue to be strong and booking conversions improved, our revenue per qualified referral increased year-over-year in January, more than qualified referrals.

現在轉到 1 月份的趨勢。正如預期的那樣，由於旅行需求趨勢持續強勁以及 2021 年 1 月與公司相關的旅行限制導致的有利補償，1 月份推薦收入同比增長強勁，超過 30%。與往年一樣，貨幣化水平有所下降相對於 12 月依次為 1 月和 12 月。總體而言，我們的貨幣化水平與去年 1 月份相似。然而，由於 ADR 繼續強勁且預訂轉化率提高，我們在 1 月份每個合格推薦人的收入同比增長，超過合格推薦人。

Developed Europe, in particular, benefiting from easier comps in Q1. And consequently, we saw a healthy increase in both qualified referrals and revenue per qualified referrals in January. We started to invest opportunistically in brand marketing, also beyond TV advertisement. For example, we were the main partner of the Handball World Cup in Sweden and Poland, which we believe had a positive impact on our branded traffic in the Nordic region as well as core European markets like Germany, France or Spain. We will continue to invest in brand activities and expect to be able to increase our brand marketing expenses in the coming months.

尤其是發達的歐洲，受益於第一季度更輕鬆的競爭。因此，我們看到 1 月份合格推薦人和每個合格推薦人的收入都有健康增長。我們開始機會主義地投資於品牌營銷，也超越了電視廣告。例如，我們是瑞典和波蘭手球世界杯的主要合作夥伴，我們認為這對我們在北歐地區以及德國、法國或西班牙等核心歐洲市場的品牌流量產生了積極影響。我們將繼續投資於品牌活動，並期望能夠在未來幾個月增加我們的品牌營銷費用。

In Americas, qualified referrals continue to be negatively impacted by the large-scale market test in Brazil. In Latin America, qualified referrals were down low double digits, which was partly offset by a single-digit qualified referral increase in North America. Revenue per qualified referrals increased around 20% year-on-year in the segment, decelerating from the 44% year-on-year increase in the fourth quarter as positive foreign exchange and country mix effect and/or monetization were lower compared to Q4.

在美洲，合格的推薦繼續受到巴西大規模市場測試的負面影響。在拉丁美洲，合格推薦下降了兩位數，部分被北美個位數的合格推薦增加所抵消。該部門每名合格推薦人的收入同比增長約 20%，低於第四季度 44% 的同比增幅，這是因為積極的外彙和國家組合效應和/或貨幣化低於第四季度。

In Rest of World, we have a single-digit increase in qualified referrals in January year-over-year, while revenue per qualified referrals increased significantly, driven by strong increases in booking conversion, average booking values and positive country mix effect. Consequently, referral revenue increased around 60% year-on-year.

在世界其他地區，我們在 1 月份的合格推薦人數同比增長個位數，而每個合格推薦人的收入顯著增加，這得益於預訂轉化率、平均預訂價值和積極的國家組合效應的強勁增長。因此，推薦收入同比增長約 60%。

While the near-term macro outlook is still uncertain, the underlying trends remain unchanged. Travel demand continues to be robust, while ADRs continue to be at elevated levels. While we continue to see some changes in consumer behavior like shorter length of stay, more interest in cheaper destinations or more clicks on lower hotel offers, we do not believe these trends change the overall picture. We believe that metasearch is well positioned in this environment as consumers shift their focus to cost savings, and we will focus on improving the user experience and make it even easier for travelers to find great deals on our platforms.

雖然近期宏觀前景仍不明朗，但基本趨勢仍未改變。旅行需求繼續強勁，而 ADR 繼續處於較高水平。雖然我們繼續看到消費者行為發生一些變化，例如停留時間更短、對更便宜的目的地更感興趣或對更低價酒店優惠的點擊次數更多，但我們認為這些趨勢不會改變整體情況。我們相信，隨著消費者將注意力轉移到節省成本上，元搜索在這種環境中處於有利地位，我們將專注於改善用戶體驗，讓旅行者更容易在我們的平台上找到超值優惠。

In summary, we are very pleased with our financial results in 2022 and the progress we have made with key strategic initiatives. We believe that we are well positioned to increase our investments into brand marketing, thereby driving further branded traffic growth and to execute on key strategic projects like increasing the coverage of independent hotels, while still expecting our full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA to exceed our pre-COVID adjusted EBITDA in 2019.

總而言之，我們對 2022 年的財務業績以及我們在關鍵戰略舉措方面取得的進展感到非常滿意。我們相信，我們有能力增加對品牌營銷的投資，從而進一步推動品牌流量增長，並執行關鍵戰略項目，例如增加獨立酒店的覆蓋範圍，同時仍預計我們 2023 年全年調整後的 EBITDA 將超過我們之前的預測COVID 在 2019 年調整了 EBITDA。

With that, let's open the line for questions. Operator, we are now ready to take the first question, please.

有了這個，讓我們打開問題熱線。接線員，我們現在準備好回答第一個問題了。

(Operator Instructions) The first question today comes from the line of Tom White from D.A. Davidson.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Tom White。戴維森。

This is [Wyatt] following on for Tom. My first one is you mentioned the opportunity you see in operating travelers direct access to the hotel in addition to the traditional online travel agency offering. Can you talk a bit about what level of incremental investment might be required to roll this out globally in all your markets? Or is it more about just leveraging and deepening the existing relationships that trivago already has with the properties listed on your platform?

這是 [懷亞特] 繼湯姆之後。我的第一個問題是你提到了除了傳統的在線旅行社服務之外，你還看到了運營旅客直接進入酒店的機會。您能否談談在全球所有市場推廣這項技術可能需要多大程度的增量投資？或者更多的是利用和深化 trivago 已經與您平台上列出的屬性建立的現有關係？

Sure. So there are basically -- basically 2 ways to connect an additional hotels. One is where we do have an existing connectivity, so where we pay basically for the infrastructure already and where we need to onboard the hotels to the platform. So that does not come at additional technology costs.

當然。所以基本上 - 基本上有兩種方法可以連接其他酒店。一個是我們確實有現有連接的地方，所以我們基本上已經為基礎設施付費，我們需要將酒店加入平台。因此，這不會帶來額外的技術成本。

The other one is what Matthias was talking about, our partnership with UBIO, where we do have ramp-up costs, and we do expect the cost to stay in line with what we have spent in Q4. And that investment will allow us to get to 80% coverage by end of the year.

另一個是 Matthias 所說的，我們與 UBIO 的合作夥伴關係，我們確實有增加成本，我們確實希望成本與我們在第四季度的支出保持一致。這筆投資將使我們在年底前達到 80% 的覆蓋率。

Great. And then my second one. In terms of the significant decreases in qualified referrals in Americas, can you provide a bit more detail on the full market test in Brazil? What exactly were the changes you tested? Is the test going into full production? And will this drag on Americas QRs going forward?

偉大的。然後是我的第二個。就美洲合格推薦人的顯著減少而言，您能否提供更多有關巴西全面市場測試的詳細信息？您測試的更改到底是什麼？測試是否進入全面生產階段？這會拖累美洲 QR 的發展嗎？

Yes. So basically, we have done something that we have not done that often in the past. We've taken 5 markets and 1 of those markets being Brazil and rolled out a very different flow -- user flow in those markets to get learnings from more long-term user behavior.

是的。所以基本上，我們做了一些我們過去沒有經常做的事情。我們已經採用了 5 個市場，其中 1 個市場是巴西，並推出了一個非常不同的流程——這些市場中的用戶流程，以從更長期的用戶行為中學習。

And what you see there is basically we are exposing users to a lot more different rate options. And by doing that, we qualify the users further, which basically means that they are not clicking out as quickly. But when they click out, that they are more ready to book. And that's what we're saying so that has a negative impact on QRs and a positive impact on RPQRs, which is what you see on the overall Americas numbers.

你所看到的基本上是我們讓用戶接觸到更多不同的費率選項。通過這樣做，我們進一步限定了用戶，這基本上意味著他們不會很快點擊退出。但是當他們點擊退出時，他們更願意預訂。這就是我們所說的，這對 QRs 有負面影響，對 RPQRs 有積極影響，這就是你在整個美洲數字上看到的。

And just to add to that, in terms of impact on qualified referrals, I mean, I gave a bit color on January, where we did have a similar impact. But going forward, we might change the design of the test, et cetera. So there might be a few changes, and that could lead to a change in clicker distribution again. So it's not clear at this point how this will impact qualified referrals going forward in those test markets.

除此之外，就對合格推薦的影響而言，我的意思是，我在 1 月份給出了一些顏色，我們確實產生了類似的影響。但展望未來，我們可能會改變測試的設計，等等。所以可能會有一些變化，這可能會導致答題器分佈再次發生變化。因此，目前尚不清楚這將如何影響這些測試市場中未來的合格推薦。

The next question today comes from the line of [Jeremy Leung] from UBS.

今天的下一個問題來自瑞銀的[Jeremy Leung]。

I have 2 questions. The first is what impact might we see from the European DMA gatekeeper rule coming into effect this year? Do you have any early indications of how this will impact Google travel or how it might impact trivago? And the second is, is the consumer trade-down behavior widening out, I believe you called out Europe specifically at our conference in December and in the 3Q call.

我有兩個問題。首先是今年生效的歐洲 DMA 看門人規則對我們有何影響？您是否有任何早期跡象表明這將如何影響 Google travel 或者它可能如何影響 trivago？第二個是，消費者的降價行為是否在擴大，我相信你在我們 12 月的會議和第三季度的電話會議上特別提到了歐洲。

Yes. On the DMA, it's a bit too early to tell, to be honest. We do expect first effects in 2024, and it will depend very, very much on the approach of the commission and also then the reaction by Google. And -- yes. So we don't really have a good prediction of what exactly the solution will be. What is clear is that it will lead to a more favorable competitive environment for us. How much better, again, is impossible to predict.

是的。在 DMA 上，老實說，現在下結論還為時過早。我們確實預計 2024 年會產生初步影響，這在很大程度上取決於委員會的方法以及谷歌隨後的反應。是的。因此，我們並不能很好地預測解決方案到底是什麼。顯而易見的是，這將為我們帶來更有利的競爭環境。同樣，無法預測好多少。

And then on your second question, I mean, first of all, ADRs remain strong with click prices on our platform in all segments being roughly 20% higher than in 2019 in the fourth quarter. But as we mentioned last quarter, we are seeing signs of consumer trading down by reducing the length of stay. We have seen that in all segments. In the fourth quarter, length of stay was roughly 5% below 2019 levels, which is an improvement in Europe compared to the third quarter, where that drop was higher, while length of stay was roughly flat relative to 2019 levels in Americas in Q3. So they are we now saw in Q4 that the number also dropped slightly.

然後關於你的第二個問題，我的意思是，首先，ADR 仍然強勁，我們平台上所有細分市場的點擊價格在第四季度比 2019 年高出約 20%。但正如我們上個季度提到的那樣，我們看到消費者通過縮短停留時間進行交易的跡象。我們在所有領域都看到了這一點。第四季度，逗留時間比 2019 年的水平低約 5%，與第三季度相比，歐洲有所改善，第三季度的降幅更大，而美洲第三季度的逗留時間與 2019 年的水平相比大致持平。所以他們是我們現在在第四季度看到的數字也略有下降。

We also see that the typical seasonal increase in click prices towards the end of the year was less pronounced in Europe last year compared to 2019. And in all regions, the click-out share on our platform for 4- and 5-star hotels decreased slightly year-over-year. So I guess, while we expect ADRs to remain strong, we are seeing some offsetting effect presumably as consumers are becoming more price conscious.

我們還看到，與 2019 年相比，歐洲去年年底點擊價格的典型季節性上漲並不明顯。在所有地區，我們平台上四星級和五星級酒店的點擊率份額均有所下降略有同比。所以我想，雖然我們預計 ADR 將保持強勁，但我們可能會看到一些抵消效應，因為消費者對價格的意識越來越強。

The next question today comes from the line of Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan.

今天的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

Great. This is Dae Lee on for Doug. I have 2. So the first one, I mean, you're able to drive strong improvement in margins over the years. And it seems further expansion in margins is possible to in your comments around OpEx. So with that said, could you share your thoughts on where margins could go from here in the near term? And then is the 25% the right long-term target? And I have a follow-up.

偉大的。這是道格的大李。我有 2 個。所以第一個，我的意思是，多年來你能夠推動利潤率的強勁增長。在您對 OpEx 的評論中，利潤率似乎有可能進一步擴大。話雖如此，您能否分享您對近期利潤率的看法？那麼 25% 是正確的長期目標嗎？我有一個後續行動。

Yes, sure. Dae, so we mentioned in the past that our long-term EBITDA margin goal is to reach at least 20%, and we did reach that in 2022. And our goal is to grow the business sustainably from our post-pandemic revenue baseline, focusing on high-quality and repeat traffic. And that is more important to us than hitting 2019 revenue levels. And consequently, we will be -- but we will continue to be disciplined with our marketing investments.

是的，當然。 Dae，所以我們過去提到我們的長期 EBITDA 利潤率目標是至少達到 20%，我們確實在 2022 年達到了這一目標。我們的目標是從大流行後的收入基線開始可持續地發展業務，重點是高質量和重複流量。這對我們來說比達到 2019 年的收入水平更重要。因此，我們將 - 但我們將繼續對我們的營銷投資進行紀律處分。

However, if we do see opportunities to invest to accelerate our growth profitably at the expense of short-term contribution, we will do that even if it means that our margin would temporarily go down. For 2023, we do expect to increase our brand marketing investments. With the benefit of hindsight, we believe we could have invested more last year, in particular during the peak summer period and also because our own auction was strong. Having said that, while we do plan to ramp up our investments, we do not expect to go back to 2019 margins level, which were below 10% EBITDA margin.

然而，如果我們確實看到投資機會以犧牲短期貢獻為代價來加速我們的盈利增長，我們會這樣做，即使這意味著我們的利潤率會暫時下降。到 2023 年，我們確實希望增加品牌營銷投資。事後看來，我們認為我們去年可以投資更多，特別是在夏季高峰期，而且我們自己的拍賣很強勁。話雖如此，雖然我們確實計劃增加投資，但我們預計不會回到 2019 年的利潤率水平，該水平低於 10% 的 EBITDA 利潤率。

Got it. Okay. And then, I guess, as a follow-up. In terms of ADR, you talked about growth there still being strong. So are you seeing any signs of that slowing down? And then -- and I guess with that, how do you think about ADRs going from here? Do you think this level of ADR is...

知道了。好的。然後，我想，作為後續行動。就 ADR 而言，您談到那裡的增長仍然強勁。那麼，您是否看到任何放緩的跡象？然後 - 我猜你如何看待 ADR 從這裡開始？你認為這種水平的 ADR 是......

You were breaking up a little bit, but I think I got most of your questions. So the question is if ADRs can be sustained at these levels. Obviously, it's difficult to say, and I'm speculating. But at least looking at the underlying dynamics, why ADRs are up? I think that there are good reasons why they will stay at current or similar levels. In particular, last year, in summer and the peak season, we have seen that supply was tight in certain destinations, in particular, popular holiday destinations.

你分手了一點，但我想我得到了你的大部分問題。所以問題是 ADR 是否可以維持在這些水平。顯然，這很難說，我只是在猜測。但至少看看潛在的動態，為什麼 ADR 上升？我認為它們將保持在當前或類似水平是有充分理由的。特別是去年，在夏季和旺季，我們看到某些目的地供應緊張，特別是熱門度假目的地。

And the reason for the increase in ADRs were driven by a cost increase, and we still continue to see that there's labor shortage, energy prices are still higher than they were a year ago. And these cost drivers, I mean, if you can -- or if hoteliers can, they pass it on to the consumer. And I would expect that to be the case going forward as well.

ADR 增加的原因是成本增加，我們仍然看到勞動力短缺，能源價格仍高於一年前。而這些成本驅動因素，我的意思是，如果你可以——或者如果酒店經營者可以的話，他們會將其轉嫁給消費者。我希望未來也會如此。

So -- the -- then related question is, will that drive a change in consumer behavior? And again, I cannot predict the future. But given what we have seen last year and also what we are seeing now in January, we do not see that overall demand is coming down. We do see some signs that people try to mitigate the effect, as we called out, but it's not that overall demand levels are lower because of that, at least from what we can see in our numbers. Does that answer your question?

那麼 - 那麼 - 那麼相關的問題是，這會推動消費者行為的改變嗎？再一次，我無法預測未來。但鑑於我們去年所看到的情況以及我們目前在 1 月份所看到的情況，我們認為整體需求並未下降。正如我們所說，我們確實看到一些跡象表明人們試圖減輕這種影響，但這並不是說整體需求水平因此而降低，至少從我們的數字中可以看出。這是否回答你的問題？

Yes. Great.

是的。偉大的。

The next question today comes from the line of Ron Josey from Citigroup.

今天的下一個問題來自花旗集團的Ron Josey。

This is [Mike Trevino] on for Ron. You mentioned potential uplift from the reopening in China. Can you maybe talk about any early benefits you might be seeing now that COVID restrictions have been lifted there? And could you maybe frame the size of the potential impact there as the recovery accelerates?

這是羅恩的[邁克特雷維諾]。您提到了中國重新開放帶來的潛在提升。您能否談談現在取消 COVID 限制後您可能會看到的任何早期好處？隨著復甦的加速，您能否描述一下潛在影響的大小？

So yes, absolutely. We don't operate a platform in China. So the benefits that we are seeing and expecting are twofold. One is obviously more travel into China and particularly from Asia. And the other one is higher ADRs in Asia and in big Western cities from outbound Chinese travelers. The latter we have not seen yet. But we have seen a significant increase in searches and also bookings into China.

所以是的，絕對。我們不在中國運營平台。因此，我們看到和期待的好處是雙重的。一個顯然是更多的中國遊客，尤其是來自亞洲的遊客。另一個是中國出境游客在亞洲和西方大城市的更高 ADR。後者我們還沒有看到。但我們已經看到對中國的搜索和預訂量顯著增加。

The overall impact is difficult to quantify. We have still some travel restrictions in place in some markets into China. So we do expect that trend to accelerate. But it is too early to tell and to quantify the exact effect for this year.

總體影響難以量化。我們在某些市場對進入中國仍有一些旅行限制。所以我們確實預計這種趨勢會加速。但現在判斷和量化今年的確切影響還為時過早。

The next question today comes from the line of Kevin Kopelman from Cowen.

今天的下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Kevin Kopelman。

Great. So a couple of questions. First one, on the January metrics you gave, can you give us a sense of what those look like relative to 2019 -- for revenue specifically?

偉大的。所以有幾個問題。第一個，關於您提供的 1 月份指標，您能否讓我們了解一下這些指標相對於 2019 年的情況——特別是收入方面？

Kevin, yes -- yes. I can give you a bit more color. However, I deliberately not comment on 2019 levels as it's been 4 years now, and we have re-based our revenue and trading at a different gross margin profile than before the pandemic. So we think the year-over-year comparison is more meaningful, and that is how we look at our business now. But let me be a bit more specific with what we see year-over-year.

凱文，是的——是的。我可以給你多一點顏色。但是，我故意不對 2019 年的水平發表評論，因為現在已經 4 年了，我們已經根據與大流行之前不同的毛利率狀況重新確定了我們的收入和交易。所以我們認為同比比較更有意義，這就是我們現在看待我們業務的方式。但是，讓我更具體地說明我們每年看到的情況。

As I said, demand continues to be robust. Qualified referrals increased by more than 10% year-on-year in Europe and around 5% in Rest of World, while qualified referrals decreased slightly year-on-year in Americas due to the decline in Latin America, which more than offset the increase in North America. Revenue per qualified referrals in Europe and Americas were up around 20% and slightly more in Europe than Americas and around 50% in Rest of World.

正如我所說，需求繼續強勁。歐洲的合格推薦人同比增長超過 10%，世界其他地區增加約 5%，而由於拉丁美洲的下降，美洲的合格推薦人同比略有下降，這抵消了增長在北美。歐洲和美洲每個合格推薦人的收入增長了約 20%，歐洲略高於美洲，世界其他地區增長了約 50%。

And then one other thing to call out. I mean I mentioned that referral revenue was up more than 30% year-on-year globally. You should keep in mind that January was lower relative to February and March as a percentage of 2019 levels in 2021. So everything else being equal, year-over-year revenue numbers for the quarter will be lower than the January figure just due to this comp effect. I hope this gives you a bit more color and helps to model the quarter for you.

然後是另一件事。我的意思是我提到過全球推薦收入同比增長超過 30%。您應該記住，2021 年 1 月相對於 2 月和 3 月占 2019 年水平的百分比較低。因此，在其他條件相同的情況下，由於這個原因，本季度的同比收入數字將低於 1 月的數字補償效果。我希望這能給您帶來更多色彩，並有助於為您打造季度模型。

Yes, for sure. And then just a different question. Could you talk about how bid intensity has trended on the platform, on average over kind of Q4, Q1 quarter-to-date?

是肯定的。然後只是一個不同的問題。你能談談平台上的出價強度趨勢如何，平均超過第四季度，第一季度至今嗎？

Yes, sure. So Q4 was very strong. I mean, so we've seen a high level of competition both on our platform but also on other performance marketing platforms and channels that we engage in. And we've seen a seasonal decline in bid intensity, which is quite common from December into January. So the current bidding -- current bid intensity is lower in January compared to what we've seen in Q4.

是的，當然。所以第四季度非常強勁。我的意思是，所以我們在我們的平台以及我們參與的其他績效營銷平台和渠道上都看到了激烈的競爭。而且我們看到出價強度出現季節性下降，這從 12 月到 12 月很常見一月。因此，與我們在第四季度看到的相比，1 月份當前的出價——當前的出價強度較低。

(Operator Instructions) The next question today comes from the line of Brian Fitzgerald from Wells Fargo.

（操作員說明）今天的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Brian Fitzgerald。

This is Stan Velikov for Brian. On your platform, we have a good mix of hotels and alternative accommodations. So my question is, have you seen any divergence in the trends for traditional versus alternative so far in Q4 and -- in January this year?

這是 Brian 的 Stan Velikov。在您的平台上，我們有很好的酒店和替代住宿組合。所以我的問題是，到目前為止，在第四季度和今年 1 月，您是否看到傳統趨勢與替代趨勢有任何差異？

Sure. Yes. So the click-out share of alternative accommodation had increased during the pandemic on our platform. But we called out already last quarter, and I think even before that it trended back to our mix that we had pre-pandemic. So right now, it's roughly flat with 2019 levels, as city trip approach pre-pandemic levels as well in our travel type mix. And with travel recovering and in particular, city trips and international travel coming back, we have seen a reversal of the trend towards hotel, and that is not unexpected, to be honest.

當然。是的。因此，在我們平台上的大流行期間，替代住宿的點擊份額有所增加。但是我們已經在上個季度發出了呼籲，我認為甚至在此之前它就已經回到了我們在大流行前的組合。所以現在，它與 2019 年的水平大致持平，因為城市旅行接近大流行前的水平以及我們的旅行類型組合。隨著旅行的複蘇，尤其是城市旅行和國際旅行的回歸，我們看到了酒店趨勢的逆轉，老實說，這並不意外。

So I think alternative accommodation has a meaningful share in our traffic mix and will stay relevant for our users going forward. However, key value proposition is the hotel price comparison and has a significantly higher share than alternative accommodation for us.

因此，我認為替代住宿在我們的交通組合中佔有重要份額，並將與我們的用戶保持相關性。然而，關鍵價值主張是酒店價格比較，對我們而言，其份額明顯高於其他住宿。

There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So I'd like to pass the conference back over to Axel Hefer for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

目前沒有其他問題等待您回答。因此，我想將會議轉回給 Axel Hefer，聽取任何閉幕詞。請繼續。

Thank you for taking the time to participate in today's earnings call. We appreciate your continued interest. We are very proud of the operational results achieved this year, and we are very excited by the year to come. Our continuous focus on price, combined with the positive start of our Hotel Direct strategy, is giving us confidence that we can better serve our users and reach more travelers in the years to come. Thank you very much, and see you next quarter.

感謝您抽出寶貴時間參加今天的財報電話會議。感謝您一直以來的關注。我們對今年取得的經營成果感到非常自豪，我們對來年感到非常興奮。我們對價格的持續關注，加上我們酒店直達戰略的積極開端，讓我們相信我們可以在未來幾年更好地服務於我們的用戶並吸引更多的旅行者。非常感謝，下個季度見。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。