Trivago NV (TRVG) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the trivago Q1 Earnings Call 2022. (Operator Instructions) I must advise you that the call is being recorded today, Wednesday, the 4th of May 2022. 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.

女士們先生們，美好的一天，感謝您的支持，歡迎來到 trivago 2022 年第一季度收益電話會議。（操作員說明）我必須通知您，今天，即 2022 年 5 月 4 日，星期三，我們正在錄製電話會議。很高興今天 trivago 的首席執行官兼董事總經理 Axel Hefer 加入了電話會議；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, reflects management's views as of today, Wednesday, May the 4th, 2022 only.

以下討論，包括對您問題的回答，僅反映了截至今天，即 2022 年 5 月 4 日，星期三，管理層的觀點。

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 Q1 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.

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 年第一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 reconciliations for non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed today in trivago's operation 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 results for the comparable period of 2021.

您會在 trivago 的運營和財務審查中找到非 GAAP 措施與今天討論的最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的對賬，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 Q1 2022 earnings call today. We're living in turbulent times and the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and sufferings of millions of people in the past few months have shocked all of us. Our teams have supported refugees whenever possible, and we are all hoping for the conflict to end soon.

感謝大家今天加入我們的 2022 年第一季度財報電話會議。我們生活在動蕩的時代，過去幾個月烏克蘭衝突的升級和數百萬人的苦難震驚了我們所有人。我們的團隊盡可能地支持難民，我們都希望衝突盡快結束。

As a business, we experienced a temporary drop in travel activity across many European countries at the end of February. But since then, we have seen a continuation of the strong improvement in travel sentiment and activity. We continue to expect a very strong summer and believe that autumn and winter will see significantly higher travel activity than the last 2 years.

作為一家企業，我們在 2 月底經歷了許多歐洲國家/地區的旅行活動暫時下降。但從那以後，我們看到旅遊情緒和活動繼續強勁改善。我們繼續期待一個非常強勁的夏季，並相信秋季和冬季的旅遊活動將比過去兩年明顯增加。

Two years of pandemic and lockdowns have led to significant staffing shortages in the industry, contributing to rising hotel prices. We believe that the effect of this increase, combined with inflation, more generally, will increase the value of price comparison that we can bring to our users in the months and potentially years to come.

兩年的大流行和封鎖導致該行業嚴重的人員短缺，導致酒店價格上漲。我們相信，這種增長的影響，再加上通貨膨脹，更普遍地說，將增加我們可以在未來幾個月甚至幾年內為用戶帶來的價格比較價值。

We are, therefore, continuing to focus both our messaging and product development on price comparison as we believe that our core value proposition is more relevant than ever. Our teams have worked intensively on developing our core product and relevant price features that will be tested and implemented as we head into the summer season.

因此，我們繼續將我們的消息傳遞和產品開發重點放在價格比較上，因為我們相信我們的核心價值主張比以往任何時候都更相關。我們的團隊一直致力於開發我們的核心產品和相關價格功能，這些功能將在我們進入夏季時進行測試和實施。

As we have historically relied very heavily on brand marketing, we believe that the market will be ready this year to ramp up our brand marketing spending again across many markets. After very limited branding activities in the last 2 years, we are confident that we will be able to rebuild our branded baseline over the years to come. We believe that our investment into our brand will be supported by an increasing relevance of metasearch in the future.

由於我們歷來非常依賴品牌營銷，我們相信今年市場將準備好再次增加我們在許多市場的品牌營銷支出。在過去 2 年非常有限的品牌活動之後，我們有信心在未來幾年重建我們的品牌基線。我們相信，我們對品牌的投資將得到未來元搜索日益相關的支持。

Another potential tailwind that we are anticipating over the next few years is the increasing regulation of mega platforms and the resulting improvement in free and innovation-based competition. The Digital Markets Act in the European Union is setting new standards and clearly states that self-preferencing of own products will be restricted, particularly for accommodation metasearches, we believe that this will make it much more difficult for search engines to steer traffic into their own metasearch products.

我們預計未來幾年的另一個潛在推動因素是對大型平台的監管不斷加強，以及由此帶來的基於自由和創新的競爭的改善。歐盟的數字市場法案正在製定新的標準，並明確規定將限制自選產品，特別是住宿元搜索，我們認為這將使搜索引擎更難將流量引導至自己的產品元搜索產品。

To summarize, we believe that we are in a strong position to meet travelers' increasing need to compare prices and find great deals this summer and beyond. And that competitive dynamics will be in favor of pure-play meta players.

總而言之，我們相信我們有能力滿足旅行者在今年夏天及以後不斷增長的比較價格和尋找超值優惠的需求。這種競爭動態將有利於純粹的元玩家。

Thank you, Axel, and good morning, everyone. Before I discuss our numbers in detail and talk about trends, I would like to highlight that we are very happy with our financial performance in our underlying business. In the first quarter, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 21.1 million, which is the highest since the start of the pandemic and only slightly below the EUR 21.4 million in the comparable period in 2019.

謝謝你，阿克塞爾，大家早上好。在我詳細討論我們的數字和談論趨勢之前，我想強調我們對我們基礎業務的財務表現非常滿意。第一季度，我們實現了 2110 萬歐元的調整後 EBITDA，這是自大流行開始以來的最高水平，僅略低於 2019 年同期的 2140 萬歐元。

On April 22, the Australian Federal Court issued a judgment in the proceeding brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission against us ordering us to pay a penalty of AUD 44.7 million. We had recorded a provision of AUD 15 million, which we had estimated for the probable and estimable loss.

4 月 22 日，澳大利亞聯邦法院在澳大利亞競爭和消費者委員會對我們提起的訴訟中作出判決，要求我們支付 4470 萬澳元的罰款。我們已經記錄了 1500 萬澳元的準備金，這是我們為可能和可估計的損失而估計的。

The additional accrual in excess of previously established provisions had a negative impact of EUR 21.1 million on our operating expenses, leading to a net loss of EUR 10.7 million in the first quarter. While we are disappointed with the outcome of the judgment, we are very encouraged by the current trends in our underlying business, even though you cannot see that in our net income in the first quarter for the reasons just mentioned.

超出先前規定撥備的額外應計費用對我們的運營費用產生了 2110 萬歐元的負面影響，導致第一季度淨虧損 1070 萬歐元。雖然我們對判決結果感到失望，但我們對基礎業務的當前趨勢感到非常鼓舞，儘管由於剛才提到的原因，您在第一季度的淨收入中看不到這一點。

With that out of the way, let me give you a bit more color on some of the trends in the different regions. Macro trends continue to have a significant impact on the travel recovery in the first quarter. In particular, in Europe, the spread of Omicron and the war in Ukraine impacted traffic volumes on our platforms. However, as many countries started to lift travel related and other restrictions during the quarter, our qualified referrals relative to 2019 levels reached 53% on a global level.

順便說一句，讓我給你更多關於不同地區的一些趨勢的顏色。宏觀趨勢繼續對第一季度的旅遊復甦產生重大影響。特別是在歐洲，Omicron 的傳播和烏克蘭戰爭影響了我們平台上的流量。然而，由於許多國家在本季度開始取消與旅行相關的限制和其他限制，我們的合格推薦相對於 2019 年的水平在全球範圍內達到了 53%。

In our segment Developed Europe, we saw steady improvement every week since the beginning of the year when qualified referrals were at approximately 50% of 2019 levels until the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which led to a temporary decrease in traffic volumes in our core European markets in the weeks following the invasion. Since then, we have seen a gradual recovery from post-invasion levels. And as of beginning of April, traffic volumes fully recovered to pre-conflict levels.

在我們的發達歐洲部分，自年初以來，我們每週都看到穩步改善，當時合格的轉介率約為 2019 年水平的 50%，直到俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭，這導致我們核心歐洲的交通量暫時下降入侵後幾週的市場。從那以後，我們看到了入侵後水平的逐漸恢復。截至 4 月初，交通量已完全恢復到衝突前的水平。

In the last week of March, qualified referrals were around 65% of 2019 levels in Developed Europe. Revenue per qualified referral also steadily improved during the quarter, and we did not observe a notable change since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. In the first quarter, our revenue per qualified referral in Developed Europe was approximately 20% lower compared to the same period in 2019.

在 3 月的最後一周，歐洲發達地區的合格推薦人數約為 2019 年水平的 65%。每個合格推薦人的收入在本季度也穩步提高，我們沒有觀察到自烏克蘭衝突開始以來的顯著變化。第一季度，我們在發達歐洲每個合格推薦人的收入與 2019 年同期相比下降了約 20%。

In Americas, traffic volumes during the first quarter were relatively stable with qualified referrals at 60% of 2019 levels. Revenue per qualified referral reached pre-COVID levels, mainly driven by an improvement in our monetization year-over-year in the largest market in that segment, the U.S. There was still no notable improvement in our segment Rest of World. Qualified referrals remain significantly below 2019 levels at 39%.

在美洲，第一季度的流量相對穩定，合格推薦為 2019 年水平的 60%。每個合格推薦人的收入達到了 COVID 之前的水平，這主要是由於我們在該細分市場最大市場美國的貨幣化同比有所改善。我們在世界其他地區的細分市場仍然沒有顯著改善。合格的轉介率仍顯著低於 2019 年的水平，為 39%。

We have seen new COVID-related lockdowns in some Asian countries during the first quarter, and the war in Ukraine had a significant negative impact on our Eastern European platforms, which are part of our Rest of World segment. This was partly offset by signs of recovery in countries like Australia or Japan.

第一季度，我們在一些亞洲國家看到了新的與 COVID 相關的封鎖，烏克蘭的戰爭對我們的東歐平台產生了重大的負面影響，這些平台是我們世界其他地區的一部分。這在一定程度上被澳大利亞或日本等國家的複蘇跡象所抵消。

As qualified referrals recovered from Omicron and auction dynamics continue to be healthy across many of our core markets, our global referral revenue increased significantly year-over-year and was at around 50% of 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2022. Other revenue increased to EUR 3.2 million or by 52% year-on-year, mainly driven by revenues from new B2B offerings.

隨著從 Omicron 恢復的合格推薦和我們許多核心市場的拍賣動態繼續保持健康，我們的全球推薦收入同比大幅增長，到 2022 年第一季度約為 2019 年水平的 50%。其他收入增加增至 320 萬歐元，同比增長 52%，主要受新 B2B 產品收入的推動。

We have onboarded a few more partners since the beginning of the year and we are happy with the progress so far as we continue scaling up their offering.

自今年年初以來，我們又加入了幾個合作夥伴，我們對目前的進展感到滿意，因為我們繼續擴大他們的產品。

Moving on to advertising expenses. With the increase in travel demand in most of our core markets, we ramped up our marketing expenses by 187% in the first quarter year-over-year. As we have improved our marketing efficiency and performance marketing channels, and were still cautious with brand marketing campaigns in the first quarter, advertising expenses were still significantly below pre-pandemic levels at around 35% of 2019 levels for the same period.

繼續廣告費用。隨著我們大部分核心市場的旅遊需求增加，我們第一季度的營銷費用同比增長了 187%。由於我們提高了營銷效率和效果營銷渠道，並且在第一季度對品牌營銷活動仍然持謹慎態度，廣告費用仍大大低於大流行前的水平，約為 2019 年同期水平的 35%。

Consequently, our return on advertising spend increased by 47 percentage points to 184% compared to the same period in 2019. In the following discussion of our operational expenses, excluding advertising expenses, I will exclude also the penalty imposed by the Australian Federal Court, which led to an increase of EUR 21.1 million in our G&A category as we consider this charge to have a distorting effect on the understanding of our underlying cost structure.

因此，與 2019 年同期相比，我們的廣告支出回報率增加了 47 個百分點，達到 184%。在下面對我們的運營費用的討論中，不包括廣告費用，我還將排除澳大利亞聯邦法院施加的罰款，導致我們的 G&A 類別增加了 2110 萬歐元，因為我們認為這項費用對我們的基本成本結構的理解產生扭曲影響。

Excluding advertising expenses and the penalty, our operational expenses increased EUR 3.4 million or by 11.8% compared to the first quarter in 2021. The increase was mostly driven by items that scale with the traffic on our platforms like cloud-related costs or digital sales taxes, expenses incurred to acquire traffic in connection with our B2B solutions that we did not incur in the same period in 2021 and the nonrecurrence of a gain realized in the first quarter of 2021 on the modification of the lease for our Dusseldorf campus.

不包括廣告費用和罰款，與 2021 年第一季度相比，我們的運營費用增加了 340 萬歐元或 11.8%。增加的主要原因是與我們平台上的流量相關的項目，例如雲相關成本或數字銷售稅，為獲得與我們的 B2B 解決方案相關的流量而產生的費用，我們在 2021 年同期沒有發生，以及在 2021 年第一季度因修改杜塞爾多夫校區的租約而實現的收益不再發生。

Our operating expenses, excluding advertising spend and the penalty imposed by the Australian Federal Court, remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels. We expect to continue to benefit from most of the cost savings resulting from our restructuring that we conducted in the second quarter of 2020. We further improved our cash position, remain well capitalized with a cash position of EUR 269 million and continue to be debt free.

我們的運營費用（不包括廣告支出和澳大利亞聯邦法院判處的罰款）仍遠低於大流行前的水平。我們預計將繼續受益於我們在 2020 年第二季度進行的重組所節省的大部分成本。我們進一步改善了現金狀況，保持充足的資本，現金狀況為 2.69 億歐元，並繼續保持無債務狀態.

Our net loss increased from EUR 6.7 million in the first quarter of 2021 to EUR 10.7 million in the first quarter of 2022 due to the negative impact of the penalty. The penalty is excluded in our adjusted EBITDA due to its size and unusual nature, and hence, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.8%.

由於罰款的負面影響，我們的淨虧損從 2021 年第一季度的 670 萬歐元增加到 2022 年第一季度的 1070 萬歐元。由於罰款的規模和不尋常的性質，該罰款被排除在我們調整後的 EBITDA 中，因此，我們實現了 20.8% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。

Looking at recent trends, in April, qualified referrals continue to improve and were around 60% of 2019 levels. Referral revenue was also around 60% of 2019 levels as our revenue per qualified referrals approach 2019 levels again. We are seeing the strongest recovery in Europe, where qualified referrals were above 70% of 2019 levels in April, closely followed by Americas at around 65%, while rest of the world recovered to around 45%.

從最近的趨勢來看，4 月份，合格推薦繼續改善，約為 2019 年水平的 60%。推薦收入也約為 2019 年水平的 60%，因為我們每個合格推薦的收入再次接近 2019 年水平。我們看到歐洲的複蘇最為強勁，4 月份符合條件的轉介超過 2019 年水平的 70%，緊隨其後的是美洲，約為 65%，而世界其他地區則恢復至 45% 左右。

Europe continues to improve nicely and we are excited to launch first TV campaigns in May in some of our core markets. We also plan to air campaigns in the U.S. and Canada soon. While the recovery is still muted in most of the countries in rest of world, we started to see a nice recovery in Japan mid of April, ahead of the Golden Week. We ran a regional TV campaign, the first time since the start of the pandemic in that country with very encouraging results.

歐洲繼續取得良好進展，我們很高興能在 5 月份在我們的一些核心市場推出首個電視廣告活動。我們還計劃很快在美國和加拿大開展宣傳活動。儘管世界其他大部分國家/地區的複蘇仍然乏力，但我們在黃金周之前的 4 月中旬開始看到日本出現了良好的複蘇。我們開展了區域性電視宣傳活動，這是該國疫情爆發以來的首次宣傳活動，取得了非常令人鼓舞的結果。

Historically, we have invested significantly into our brand and benefited from high-quality brand traffic in subsequent periods. Since the start of pandemic, we cut our brand marketing spend significantly and only invested selectively in a few markets at reduced levels. Consequently, we will not benefit from prior year's marketing investments in 2022 to the same extent as in pre-pandemic years.

從歷史上看，我們對我們的品牌進行了大量投資，並在隨後的時期受益於高質量的品牌流量。自大流行開始以來，我們大幅削減了品牌營銷支出，並且只在少數市場上有選擇地以較低的水平進行投資。因此，我們在 2022 年不會像大流行前幾年那樣從前一年的營銷投資中受益。

As mentioned before, we are confident that we can rebuild our brand baseline. However, it will take time and requires us to invest. We plan to ramp up our brand marketing investments in the following months in markets where we expect the travel recovery to continue going into the peak summer season.

如前所述，我們有信心重建我們的品牌基線。但是，這需要時間，需要我們進行投資。我們計劃在接下來的幾個月裡加大對市場的品牌營銷投資，我們預計旅遊復甦將繼續進入夏季旺季。

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

有了這個，讓我們打開問題熱線。接線員，我們準備好回答第一個問題。

(Operator Instructions) And the first question comes from the line of Naved Khan from Truist.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Truist 的 Naved Khan。

Yes. A couple of questions. So maybe just on the outlook for this year. I know you're not guiding for a specific number, but should we expect EBITDA to be positive for the year given that you're going to be spending more into brand spending, which you have not done in the last few years or you're not going to be spending at the same level, you're going to be spending at a higher level.

是的。幾個問題。所以也許只是今年的前景。我知道你沒有給出具體數字的指導，但我們是否應該期望今年的 EBITDA 為正，因為你將在品牌支出上投入更多，這是你在過去幾年沒有做過的，或者你'你不會在同一水平上支出，你會在更高的水平上支出。

The other question I had is just on the performance ad efficiency that you called out in your shareholder letter and versus 2019, I think you said you saw more efficiencies. What's the driver of that?

我的另一個問題是關於你在股東信中提到的效果廣告效率，與 2019 年相比，我想你說你看到了更高的效率。那是什麼驅動因素？

Yes. Sure, Naved. So on the outlook of EBITDA, yes, we do not give specific guidance. I mean you have seen the strong EBITDA in Q1, which was similar to Q4. When you think about 2022, I would say our historical seasonality is a good starting point. And there, you have seen that normally EBITDA went down in the second and third quarter as we in the second quarter start to invest prior to the summer season. And then during Q3, the biggest quarter for us and everybody in the industry, we continue to push, in particular, on the brand marketing side and then cut back in Q4. So that will not change. So our approach to that will not change. and what I mentioned is in Q1, if you just look at the EBITDA, it looks better than what you have seen historically relative to other quarters because we did not invest significantly into brand given at the start of the year, we had the impact from Omicron in most European countries. Then mid-quarter, we had the impact of the war in Europe. So that's why we did not push our marketing activities to levels that we had anticipated before.

是的。當然，納維德。所以關於 EBITDA 的前景，是的，我們沒有給出具體的指導。我的意思是你已經看到第一季度的強勁 EBITDA，這與第四季度相似。當你想到 2022 年時，我會說我們的歷史季節性是一個很好的起點。在那裡，你已經看到通常 EBITDA 在第二和第三季度下降，因為我們在第二季度開始在夏季之前進行投資。然後在第三季度，對我們和行業中的每個人來說都是最大的季度，我們繼續推動，特別是在品牌營銷方面，然後在第四季度削減。所以這不會改變。因此，我們的做法不會改變。我提到的是在第一季度，如果你只看 EBITDA，它看起來比你在歷史上看到的相對於其他季度要好，因為我們在年初沒有對品牌進行大量投資，我們受到了影響大多數歐洲國家使用 Omicron。然後在季度中期，我們受到了歐洲戰爭的影響。所以這就是為什麼我們沒有將我們的營銷活動推到我們之前預期的水平。

So now everything that I said on trends in April and what we expect for the summer, we've seen an improvement in Europe, we are back to pre-conflict levels, and we saw a continuous improvement in April. And now with the summer in front of us, we plan to change that. In May, we will start with the first TV campaign in selective markets and then plan to ramp up our investment significantly. So that will push down ROAS and EBITDA compared to Q1 in Q2 and Q3 and you won't see the positive effect of that brand campaign immediately given the long-term nature of it. But obviously, we do that because we do expect a positive long-term return from that. So I hope that gives you a bit of an idea how we think about the cadence for the rest of the year.

因此，現在我所說的關於 4 月份趨勢的所有內容以及我們對夏季的預期，我們已經看到歐洲有所改善，我們回到了衝突前的水平，並且我們在 4 月份看到了持續改善。現在夏天就在我們面前，我們計劃改變這種狀況。 5 月，我們將首先在特定市場開展電視宣傳活動，然後計劃大幅增加投資。因此，與第二季度和第三季度的第一季度相比，這將降低 ROAS 和 EBITDA，並且鑑於該品牌活動的長期性質，您不會立即看到該品牌活動的積極影響。但顯然，我們這樣做是因為我們確實期望從中獲得積極的長期回報。所以我希望這能讓你對我們如何看待今年剩餘時間的節奏有所了解。

And then on your second question, what was driving the efficiency in marketing. So there I would distinguish between performance and brand marketing. So if I start with performance marketing, it always depends what you compare it to, right? If you look at 2019 that was a year where we were pushing more aggressively, pushing more for top line growth and we're not as much focused on margins. And what we have done now already last year in performance channels, actually great teamwork from the performance marketing team over the past 2 years since the start of the pandemic, is looking for pockets changing our way how we look at different segments and markets finding high traffic quality and focus on that, and that is paying off.

然後關於你的第二個問題，是什麼推動了營銷效率。所以我會區分性能和品牌營銷。所以如果我從績效營銷開始，它總是取決於你將它與什麼進行比較，對吧？如果你看看 2019 年，那是我們更積極地推動的一年，更多地推動收入增長，而我們並沒有那麼關注利潤率。我們去年已經在績效渠道中所做的事情，實際上是自大流行開始以來過去兩年中績效營銷團隊的出色團隊合作，正在尋找改變我們看待不同細分市場和市場的方式的口袋尋找高交通質量並專注於此，這是有回報的。

So when I say efficiency is higher, then if I look at the return on advertising spend numbers, that is up compared to 2019. And I think that is in performance marketing because of the work that the team is putting in there. On the brand marketing side we have some data points from summer last year when we ran first campaigns. I mean in Q1, as I said, we didn't spend as much but the past 2 years, again, were very insightful for us in terms of learning given that we had to cut back then started in some countries to invest again. And that gave us valuable learnings in how we spend, what we spend and where we spend and those learnings, we will now take for the next couple of months and optimize our brand marketing campaigns. And from that, we expect higher efficiency, obviously, at a lower absolute level of spend compared to 2019, but at higher ROAS efficiency than what we have seen before.

因此，當我說效率更高時，如果我看一下廣告支出回報率數字，它與 2019 年相比有所上升。而且我認為這是在績效營銷中，因為團隊正在那裡開展工作。在品牌營銷方面，我們有去年夏天首次開展活動時的一些數據點。我的意思是，正如我所說，在第一季度，我們沒有花那麼多錢，但過去兩年在學習方面再次對我們很有洞察力，因為我們不得不削減開支，然後又開始在一些國家重新投資。這讓我們在如何花錢、花什麼錢、花在哪里以及這些學習方面學到了寶貴的知識，我們現在將在接下來的幾個月裡利用這些知識來優化我們的品牌營銷活動。由此，我們預計效率會更高，顯然，與 2019 年相比，支出的絕對水平較低，但 ROAS 效率高於我們之前看到的。

Got it. And a quick clarification, if I may. So I think you said you reached pre-pandemic levels subsequently in Europe after we saw the dip. So the improvement you're seeing is without the new ad campaigns and without the benefit of the campaign. So is it fair to assume that your traffic would actually be exceeding those levels when you have your campaigns out for the peak summer season?

知道了。如果可以的話，快速澄清一下。所以我想你說你在我們看到下降之後隨後在歐洲達到了大流行前的水平。所以你看到的改進是沒有新的廣告活動，也沒有從活動中受益的。那麼，當您在夏季高峰期開展活動時，假設您的流量實際上會超過這些水平是否公平？

So what I said is in Developed Europe that beginning of April, we reached pre-conflict levels again. So we saw an improvement at the beginning of the year as countries in Europe were lifting restrictions. So week by week, relative to 2019 levels, our qualified referrals were improving. And then we saw the dip from the impact of the war. And then it took a couple of weeks until we saw an improvement again. And yes, at the beginning of the second quarter, we basically recovered from that dip. And then I gave you a data point in April. So for the full month, we were at 70% of 2019 levels. So that was not driven by brand marketing spend. That is correct. So now that we are ramping up, I would expect that this will further drive volumes to our platforms, how much to be seen, to be honest. But yes, we expect obviously a further improvement from our marketing activities.

所以我說的是 4 月初在發達歐洲，我們再次達到衝突前的水平。因此，隨著歐洲國家取消限制，我們在年初看到了改善。因此，相對於 2019 年的水平，我們合格的推薦人每週都在改善。然後我們看到了戰爭影響的下降。然後花了幾週時間，我們才再次看到改善。是的，在第二季度初，我們基本上從下滑中恢復過來。然後我在四月份給了你一個數據點。因此，對於整個月，我們處於 2019 年水平的 70%。所以這不是由品牌營銷支出驅動的。那是對的。因此，既然我們正在加速發展，老實說，我希望這將進一步推動我們平台的銷量，有多少值得一看。但是，是的，我們顯然希望我們的營銷活動能有進一步的改善。

Next question comes from the line of Shyam Patil from Susquehanna.

下一個問題來自 Susquehanna 的 Shyam Patil。

It's Ryan on for Shyam. So you guys talked about inflation and rising hotel prices and driving more customers to Meta for price comparison. So just generally, do you view that as a tailwind for your business because of that dynamic? Or could it be a bit of a headwind as well because it might reduce demand at prices become too expensive?

瑞安代替夏姆上場。所以你們談到了通貨膨脹和酒店價格上漲，以及吸引更多客戶到 Meta 進行價格比較。所以一般來說，您是否認為這是因為這種動態而對您的業務有利？或者它也可能有點不利，因為它可能會在價格變得太貴時減少需求？

Yes, sure. So it is a very good question. And the way we are looking at, it, and we've also done quite a bit of market research there. So our view is that general inflation, even outside of travel is leading to more cost consciousness overall. So because you can feel that prices are going up pretty much in your daily life. And cost consciousness is something that is very, very positive for us. And we've also seen it in previous recessions, where people are more price conscious and then obviously, the value that we contribute to the search process is going up. So that we see as a big opportunity. And that, as I said, that's also the focus of our brand communication and also for our product development.

是的，當然。所以這是一個很好的問題。而我們看待它的方式，我們也在那裡做了相當多的市場研究。因此，我們的觀點是，普遍的通貨膨脹，即使是旅行之外的通貨膨脹，也在整體上導致更多的成本意識。所以因為你可以感覺到日常生活中的價格正在上漲。成本意識對我們來說是非常非常積極的。我們在以前的經濟衰退中也看到過，人們對價格更加敏感，然後很明顯，我們為搜索過程貢獻的價值正在上升。所以我們認為這是一個巨大的機會。正如我所說，這也是我們品牌傳播和產品開發的重點。

On the volume side, I think you had in principal right, if there is high inflation, if the budgets are getting tighter, then obviously, people cannot spend as much as they've done before. Having said that, we are right now coming out of pandemic and there is still a big backlog in a way of experiences and spending time with friends and spending time with families and really doing the trip that you wanted to do now for a few years. So we don't think that it would have an impact on the volumes for this year. For the years to come and the trajectory, I guess that's a bit too early to tell, but we think that overall, it is in our favor and it will be in our favor for quite a while.

在數量方面，我認為原則上你是對的，如果通貨膨脹率高，如果預算越來越緊，那麼很明顯，人們不能像以前那樣花錢了。話雖如此，我們現在正從大流行中走出來，但在體驗和與朋友共度時光、與家人共度時光以及真正做你現在想做的幾年旅行方面仍然有大量積壓。所以我們認為這不會對今年的銷量產生影響。對於未來幾年和發展軌跡，我想現在下結論還為時過早，但我們認為總體而言，這對我們有利，而且將在相當長一段時間內對我們有利。

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

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。

This is Dae Lee on for Doug. I have 2. So a number of large OTAs have talked about increasing spend into the recovery. I was curious if you're seeing this increased activity on your platform and how the bidding intensity looks like relative to pre-pandemic levels right now?

這是道格的大李。我有 2 個。因此，許多大型 OTA 都在談論增加對複甦的支出。我很好奇您是否在您的平台上看到這種活動的增加，以及與大流行前水平相比，目前的出價強度如何？

And then secondly, could you elaborate on what kind of or what level of marketing efficiency you're targeting in 2Q or 2022 as you significantly (inaudible) marketing investments if there's a kind of ROI level that you guys are targeting?

然後，您能否詳細說明您在第二季度或 2022 年的營銷效率目標是什麼類型或什麼水平，因為如果你們的目標是某種投資回報率水平，那麼您將進行大量（聽不清）營銷投資？

Yes. Sure. So on your first question, so it's something we talked about last quarter as well. We have seen that the competition in our auction increased as large advertisers, but other advertisers as well became more active and increased their bids. So auction dynamics from our perspective are very healthy. If we compare to 2019, we are roughly on similar levels. And that was very different at the beginning of the pandemic. We talked about that. You could see that in our revenue per qualified referral they dropped quite significantly because many advertisers were cutting back and then were slow to recover or to come back to the auction. And that has changed and in Q1, when I look at RPQR, I mentioned or you can see that it's close to 2019 levels again. Looking at April, we approached 2019 levels again as well. And part of that is because our monetization levels, which is a result of the auction is back to those levels.

是的。當然。所以關於你的第一個問題，這也是我們上個季度談到的事情。我們已經看到，隨著大型廣告商的出現，我們拍賣中的競爭加劇了，但其他廣告商也變得更加活躍並提高了出價。因此，從我們的角度來看，拍賣動態非常健康。如果我們與 2019 年相比，我們大致處於相似的水平。這在大流行開始時非常不同。我們談過那個。你可以看到，在我們的每次合格推薦收入中，它們下降了很多，因為許多廣告商正在削減開支，然後又緩慢地恢復或回到拍賣中。這已經改變了，在第一季度，當我查看 RPQR 時，我提到或者你可以看到它再次接近 2019 年的水平。看看 4 月份，我們也再次接近 2019 年的水平。部分原因是我們的貨幣化水平，這是拍賣的結果，又回到了那些水平。

So on your second question in terms of targeting, we do have certain targets for our performance channels. We executed against that in a disciplined way for the last couple of quarters. It's not a fix target though, we obviously always look at the elasticity, we look at the traffic quality. And based on that, we change and make decisions. But obviously, we want to invest at profitable levels. With regards to brand marketing, it's slightly different. So there, obviously, the first dollar you invest is at sub-100 ROAS. So it's paying back over time. And we have our models where we estimate the payback period, how long that is. It's different by market. And based on that, we determine the short-term ROAS. So let's say, in campaign for the period we are on the campaign, what we like to see in terms of returns so that we think it's long-term profitable for us.

因此，關於目標方面的第二個問題，我們確實為我們的績效渠道設定了某些目標。在過去的幾個季度裡，我們以一種有紀律的方式來反對這一點。雖然這不是一個固定目標，但我們顯然總是關注彈性，我們關注流量質量。並基於此，我們改變並做出決定。但顯然，我們希望在盈利水平上進行投資。關於品牌營銷，它略有不同。因此，很明顯，您投資的第一美元的投資回報率低於 100。所以它會隨著時間的推移而得到回報。我們有我們的模型來估計投資回收期，即多長時間。因市場而異。並基於此，我們確定短期 ROAS。因此，讓我們說，在我們參加競選期間的競選活動中，我們希望在回報方面看到什麼，以便我們認為這對我們來說是長期有利可圖的。

So there, we have targets and then on a global level, we don't have a specific target, but we want to rebuild our brand baseline, as I said. And as long as we see opportunities, we are happy to invest and we'll push forward.

因此，我們有目標，然後在全球範圍內，我們沒有具體目標，但正如我所說，我們希望重建我們的品牌基線。只要我們看到機會，我們就會樂於投資並向前推進。

Thank you. There are no more questions at this time. I would like to hand back over to the speakers.

謝謝。目前沒有其他問題。我想交回發言者。

Yes. Thank you for taking the time to participate in today's earnings call. We believe that in the months to come, we will see strong demand for accommodation and an increasing need to compare prices, to save money and to find good alternatives. We're excited about this outlook and are very much looking forward to the summer. Take care, and see you next quarter.

是的。感謝您抽出寶貴時間參加今天的財報電話會議。我們相信，在接下來的幾個月裡，我們將看到對住宿的強勁需求，以及越來越需要比較價格、省錢和尋找好的替代方案。我們對這一前景感到興奮，並非常期待夏天的到來。保重，下個季度見。

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

我們今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。你們都可以斷開連接。