Upwork Inc (UPWK) 2018 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Upwork Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call may be recorded.

女士們、先生們，美好的一天，歡迎參加 Upwork 2018 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）謹此提醒，此通話可能會被錄音。

I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Palmira Gerlach, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在我想介紹一下今天會議的主持人，投資者關係總監 Palmira Gerlach。你可以開始了。

Hi, and welcome to Upwork's discussion of its fourth quarter and full year 2018 financial results. Leading the discussion today are Stephane Kasriel, Upwork's Chief Executive Officer; and Brian Kinion, Upwork's Chief Financial Officer.

大家好，歡迎參加 Upwork 對其 2018 年第四季和全年財務業績的討論。今天主持討論的是 Upwork 執行長 Stephane Kasriel； Upwork 財務長 Brian Kinion。

Following management's prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. But first, let me review the safe harbor statement.

在管理層準備好的發言之後，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。但首先，讓我回顧一下安全港聲明。

During this call, we may make statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under the federal securities laws. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but rather are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC's website and on our Investor Relations website as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's press release.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會根據聯邦證券法做出與我們業務相關的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述並不是對未來績效的保證，而是受到各種風險、不確定性和假設的影響。我們的實際結果可能與任何前瞻性陳述中反映的預期有重大差異。有關可能影響我們實際業績的重大風險和其他重要因素的討論，請參閱 SEC 網站和投資者關係網站上提供的 SEC 文件，以及今天新聞稿中討論的風險和其他重要因素。

In addition, references will be made to non-GAAP financial measures. Information regarding reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our Investor Relations website. Please note that the prepared remarks corresponding to the information reviewed on today's conference call will also be available on our Investor Relations website at investors.upwork.com shortly after this call has concluded.

此外，也將參考非公認會計準則財務指標。有關非公認會計準則與公認會計準則措施調節的信息，請參閱今天下午在我們的投資者關係網站上發布的新聞稿。請注意，與今天電話會議上審查的資訊相對應的準備好的評論也將在本次電話會議結束後不久在我們的投資者關係網站 Investors.upwork.com 上提供。

Now I'll turn the call over to Stephane.

現在我將把電話轉給史蒂芬。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2018 results. We are excited to have finished the year with a solid performance. I want to thank our employees and incredible community of skilled freelancers and clients, working together at the Upwork. Your loyalty and forward thinking is at the core of everything Upwork has accomplished to date. Together, we are fueling our vision of work without limits. We are truly grateful for your role in our journey as Upwork drives positive change.

下午好，感謝您加入我們討論我們的 2018 年第四季和全年業績。我們很高興以出色的表現結束了這一年。我要感謝我們的員工以及由熟練的自由工作者和客戶組成的令人難以置信的社區，他們在 Upwork 一起工作。您的忠誠和前瞻性思維是 Upwork 迄今為止所取得的一切成就的核心。我們共同推動我們的工作願景不受限制。我們衷心感謝您在 Upwork 推動積極變革的過程中所扮演的角色。

Successfully completing our IPO and transitioning to being a public company was, obviously, a highlight of 2018. We graduated from our chapter as a private company to the next level and gained more momentum than ever to lead our industry forward. We closed a pivotal year for Upwork, punctuated by exceeding our fourth quarter expectations for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. I'm proud to have met our objectives for both the quarter and the year.

成功完成 IPO 並轉型為上市公司顯然是 2018 年的一大亮點。我們從私人公司的地位上升到了一個新的水平，並獲得了比以往任何時候都更大的動力來引領我們的行業向前發展。Upwork 迎來了關鍵的一年，第四季的營收和調整後 EBITDA 都超出了我們的預期。我很自豪能夠實現本季和年度的目標。

We continue to invest in our platform to add innovative and dynamic options for our users. With a guiding principle of driving long-term growth with sound unit economics, we are committed to executing on our strategic priorities to better capture our large market opportunity. Upwork continually seeks to enhance the customer experience for both the freelancers and the clients that use our platform. The partnerships and product updates we have implemented and those that we will continue to roll out to support this goal.

我們繼續投資我們的平台，為我們的用戶添加創新和動態的選項。本著以良好的單位經濟效益推動長期成長的指導原則，我們致力於執行我們的策略重點，以更好地抓住我們巨大的市場機會。Upwork 不斷尋求增強自由工作者和使用我們平台的客戶的客戶體驗。我們已經實施的合作夥伴關係和產品更新，以及我們將繼續推出的合作夥伴關係和產品更新，以支持這一目標。

I want to take a moment to highlight some of our accomplishments in 2018 that I believe will contribute to our future growth. In December 2018, we announced the partnership with Microsoft to empower enterprises to embrace flexible teams. For context, enterprises increasingly recognize the need to transform the way they work to compete in a global economy. While enterprises today spend an estimated $3.5 trillion on contingent labor, the model for working with external talent is restrictive. Together with Microsoft, Upwork is empowering organizations to adopt a more flexible workforce model that delivers better visibility, greater access to skills, and richer reporting capabilities than can be gained through traditional workforce models. The Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit provides built-in product integrations between Upwork and Microsoft products such as Power BI, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Flow. These integrations guide enterprises through the freelance engagement process. The toolkit also includes templates and best practices to help organizations effectively launch and scale an enterprise-wide freelance program. We will offer the toolkit to Upwork Enterprise customers and Microsoft will promote Upwork Enterprise to its customers of these products.

我想花點時間強調我們在 2018 年取得的一些成就，我相信這些成就將為我們未來的成長做出貢獻。2018 年 12 月，我們宣布與微軟合作，賦能企業擁抱靈活的團隊。就背景而言，企業越來越意識到需要改變其工作方式以在全球經濟中競爭。儘管如今企業在臨時勞動力上花費了約 3.5 兆美元，但與外部人才合作的模式卻受到限制。Upwork 與 Microsoft 合作，使組織能夠採用更靈活的勞動力模型，與傳統勞動力模型相比，該模型可提供更好的可見性、更廣泛的技能獲取和更豐富的報告功能。Microsoft 365 自由工具包提供 Upwork 與 Microsoft 產品（例如 Power BI、Microsoft Teams、SharePoint 和 Flow）之間的內建產品整合。這些整合指導企業完成自由職業參與流程。該工具包還包括模板和最佳實踐，可幫助組織有效啟動和擴展企業範圍的自由職業計劃。我們將向 Upwork Enterprise 客戶提供該工具包，微軟將向這些產品的客戶推廣 Upwork Enterprise。

I'd also like to highlight additional features we launched in 2018 that leveraged the virality so innate in our products. On our prior earnings call, we discussed the feature called Help Me Hire. Since then, we have expanded this capability within the product to encourage current users to invite a coworker. These features allow current account administrators to invite and engage other hiring managers within their company with only one click. We have driven over 10,000 hiring manager sign-ups within existing accounts thus far. And we plan to continue to invest in these features in 2019. Without the need to deploy any Upwork sales or support functions, these features allow us to expand our SMB self-service clients' engagements.

我還想強調我們在 2018 年推出的其他功能，這些功能充分利用了我們產品與生俱來的病毒式傳播能力。在先前的財報電話會議上，我們討論了名為「Help Me Hire」的功能。從那時起，我們在產品中擴展了此功能，以鼓勵當前用戶邀請同事。這些功能允許當前帳戶管理員只需單擊即可邀請並參與公司內的其他招聘經理。到目前為止，我們已在現有帳戶中吸引了超過 10,000 名招募經理註冊。我們計劃在 2019 年繼續投資這些功能。無需部署任何 Upwork 銷售或支援功能，這些功能使我們能夠擴大 SMB 自助服務客戶的參與範圍。

In our last earnings calls, I also discussed our mobile transformation. By the end of 2018, we largely completed the optimization of our mobile web experience, making the experience via mobile browser, the same as it is via desktop browser. In early 2019, we took that a step further relaunching our mobile iOS app for freelancers, which takes all current functionality beyond the confines of the desktop and mobile browser and into a mobile app. As part of this, we also plan to relaunch our Android app for freelancers as well as relaunch both our iOS and Android apps for clients using this new architecture.

在我們上次的財報電話會議中，我還討論了我們的行動轉型。到2018年底，我們基本上完成了行動網頁體驗的優化，使行動瀏覽器的體驗與桌面瀏覽器的體驗相同。2019 年初，我們進一步為自由工作者重新推出了我們的行動 iOS 應用程序，該應用程式將所有當前功能超越了桌面和行動瀏覽器的限制，並融入到行動應用程式中。作為其中的一部分，我們還計劃為自由工作者重新啟動 Android 應用程序，並為使用這種新架構的客戶重新啟動 iOS 和 Android 應用程式。

Mobile will be a co-part of the way we develop our platform and innovate going forward, and I command the team for executing well on this huge undertaking.

移動將成為我們開發平台和未來創新方式的重要組成部分，我指揮團隊在這項艱鉅的任務上表現出色。

As we enter 2019, we continue to benefit from macro-level tailwinds. New research shows the demand for more flexible work models continues to grow. Our future workforce reports, which will be released next week, provides insight into how the world of work is evolving as millennials and Gen Zs ascend to managerial roles and have more hiring and decision-making authority. The research has positive implications for Upwork from both perspectives. On the workers' side, younger generations are more likely to choose to freelance. And on the hiring side, younger generations are more than twice as likely to engage freelancers as older generations.

進入2019年，我們持續受益於宏觀層面的利多因素。新的研究表明，對更靈活的工作模式的需求持續增長。我們的未來勞動力報告將於下週發布，它將深入了解隨著千禧世代和 Z 世代晉升到管理職位並擁有更多招聘和決策權，工作世界將如何演變。從兩個角度來看，這項研究都對 Upwork 產生了正面的影響。在工人方面，年輕一代更有可能選擇自由職業。在招募方面，年輕一代僱用自由工作者的可能性是老一代的兩倍多。

Freelancers also serve an invaluable role as businesses attempt to bridge the skills GAAP. According to the future workforce reports, 60% of hiring managers in October 2018 said that talent scarcity is the biggest hiring challenge. And businesses are not the only ones being held back by the skill gap. According to a new report from the staffing industry analysts, staffing firms believe that talent scarcity is the biggest inhibitor to their business today and will continue to be 10 years from now.

當企業試圖彌合公認會計準則技能時，自由工作者也發揮著寶貴的作用。根據未來勞動力報告，2018 年 10 月，60% 的招募經理表示，人才稀缺是最大的招募挑戰。企業並不是唯一受到技能差距阻礙的企業。根據人力資源產業分析師的一份新報告，人力資源公司認為，人才稀缺是他們目前業務的最大障礙，並且在 10 年後仍將如此。

With freelancers engaging in skills training more frequently, they are more likely to possess the emerging skills businesses need. Earlier this month, we released our latest quarterly skills index ranking the 20 fastest growing skills on Upwork. Our index represents the hottest skills among the knowledge work being performed via our site. From cutting-edge skills, such as Hadoop and Kubernetes to security skills like Certified Information Systems Security Professional as well as more traditional work, such as app store optimization and even employee training. The dynamic nature of this quarterly index shows how businesses are tapping freelancers to help upscale their workforce in real time.

隨著自由工作者更頻繁地參與技能培訓，他們更有可能擁有企業所需的新興技能。本月早些時候，我們發布了最新的季度技能指數，對 Upwork 上成長最快的 20 項技能進行了排名。我們的索引代表了透過我們網站進行的知識工作中最熱門的技能。從尖端技能（如 Hadoop 和 Kubernetes）到安全技能（如認證資訊系統安全專家）以及更傳統的工作（如應用程式商店優化，甚至員工培訓）。該季度指數的動態性質顯示了企業如何利用自由工作者來幫助即時擴大勞動力規模。

As these tailwinds continue to gain momentum, we are finding more and more that many of the people working in the Upwork have chosen to leave full-time employments and become independent professionals to increase their freedom and flexibility as well as their earnings. For example, J is a marketing executive who left a Fortune 500 company after nearly a decade rising through the ranks to regain control over his time and work. Choosing to freelance through Upwork, J focuses on presentation design, working with companies of all sizes, from entrepreneurs needing pitch tags to major international brands needing specialized assistants for product launches, internal training programs and major marketing launch presentations. J sees freelancing and running his own business as the way of the future and is preparing his own children to be their own boss when the time comes.

隨著這些有利因素繼續增強，我們發現越來越多在 Upwork 工作的人選擇辭去全職工作，成為獨立的專業人士，以增加他們的自由和靈活性以及收入。例如，J 是一名行銷主管，他在晉升近十年後離開了一家財富 500 強公司，重新掌控了自己的時間和工作。J 選擇透過 Upwork 從事自由職業，專注於演示設計，與各種規模的公司合作，從需要宣傳標籤的企業家到需要產品發布、內部培訓計劃和主要營銷發布演示的專業助理的主要國際品牌。J 認為自由職業和經營自己的企業是未來的發展方向，並正在準備讓自己的孩子在時機成熟時成為自己的老闆。

On the client side, we've also seen compelling engagement as companies look to augment and upscale their current teams. For example, CompuVision, a lean managed IT services organization that strives to be at the forefront of offering its clients cutting-edge technology recently started hiring freelancers to support its marketing team of 1. Its marketing director quickly saw the opportunity to increase their impact with expert freelancers from graphic designers, writers, video editors, voiceover artists and e-mail marketers to web developers. And has tripled output with the cost savings of $0.70 per marketing dollar. What is even more powerful is how the marketing director's example is paying off for the company, inspiring other departments to leverage freelancers and freeing up more time to focus on strategic partnerships and new business opportunities.

在客戶方面，隨著公司尋求擴大和升級現有團隊，我們也看到了引人注目的參與。例如，CompuVision 是一家精實管理IT 服務組織，致力於走在為客戶提供尖端技術的最前沿，最近開始僱用自由工作者來支援其1 人的行銷團隊。其行銷總監很快就看到了透過以下方式提高其影響力的機會：專業自由工作者，從平面設計師、作家、影片編輯、配音藝術家、電子郵件行銷人員到網頁開發人員。產量增加了兩倍，每行銷一美元可節省 0.70 美元的成本。更重要的是，行銷總監的榜樣如何為公司帶來回報，激勵其他部門利用自由工作者，並騰出更多時間專注於策略夥伴關係和新的商業機會。

This positive macro trends will continue to shape our priorities in 2019, along with our core mission to improve the future of work. These priorities fall into 4 key areas: one, vertical category extension; two, self-service SMB customer opportunities; three, growth in our domestic marketplace offering; and four, our enterprise business.

這種積極的宏觀趨勢將繼續影響我們 2019 年的優先事項以及改善未來工作的核心使命。這些重點分為4個重點領域：一是垂直品類延伸；二、自助服務中小企業客戶機會；三、我們國內市場產品的成長；第四，我們的企業業務。

First, we are focused on deepening the category-specific experience on our sites. The horizontal nature of our platform is one of our greatest strength and we continue to invest in making each category more rich with category-specific capabilities. For example, in design, we are working to enhance the job post and the search experience. Clients in the design category more often use a freelancer's portfolio of prior work to make their hiring decisions. And as such, we will be making these portfolios more prominent in search results. As we tackle further verticalization of our product, we believe this will improve matching and the client experience in finding the best freelancers for their projects.

首先，我們專注於深化網站上特定類別的體驗。我們平台的橫向性質是我們最大的優勢之一，我們將繼續投資，使每個類別更加豐富，具有特定於類別的功能。例如，在設計方面，我們正在努力增強職缺發布和搜尋體驗。設計類別的客戶更常使用自由工作者先前的工作組合來做出招募決定。因此，我們將使這些投資組合在搜尋結果中更加突出。當我們解決產品的進一步垂直化問題時，我們相信這將改善配對和客戶為其專案尋找最佳自由工作者的體驗。

Furthermore, Upwork will deliver additional features to enable freelancers to provide a crucial specialized storefront to market their business.

此外，Upwork 將提供額外的功能，使自由工作者能夠提供一個重要的專業店面來行銷他們的業務。

Second, we will continue to build product features so that our self-service SMB clients can easily invite colleagues to bring their jobs to Upwork. We will add features that businesses need to be successful in managing their remote workforce.

其次，我們將繼續建立產品功能，以便我們的自助服務中小企業客戶可以輕鬆邀請同事將他們的工作帶到Upwork。我們將新增企業成功管理遠端員工所需的功能。

Third, we are investing in our domestic marketplace offering. The U.S. to U.S. domestic marketplace is the fastest growing corridor in our business. For some clients, location is an indicator of familiarity, trust; and for some projects, a necessity. Given that this dynamic is meaningful for a portion of the marketplace, we will be investing in features that amplify location, drive local freelancer supply and encourage clients to use local features to adopt Upwork.

第三，我們正在投資國內市場產品。美國到美國國內市場是我們業務中成長最快的走廊。對某些客戶來說，位置是熟悉、信任的指標；對於某些項目來說，這是必要的。鑑於這種動態對部分市場有意義，我們將投資於擴大地理位置、推動本地自由工作者供應並鼓勵客戶使用本地功能來採用 Upwork 的功能。

And fourth, we believe our enterprise product and sales efforts will be an important growth driver in 2019 and beyond. The team is focused on building product features that will add larger more complex projects on the platform. One lever for this is continued and enhanced support for agencies on the platform to shift spend from existing statement of work providers to Upwork.

第四，我們相信我們的企業產品和銷售努力將成為 2019 年及以後的重要成長動力。該團隊專注於建立產品功能，以在平台上添加更大、更複雜的專案。實現這一目標的槓桿之一是繼續加強對平台上機構的支持，將支出從現有的工作說明書提供者轉移到 Upwork。

As you may have already seen, underpinning our initiatives for 2019 is our continuous strategy around multichannel marketing and advertising. On January 15, we launched a major ad campaign called This Is Happening, which raises awareness of Upwork and the innovative ability to hire high-quality talent remotely and for enduring projects. As a result of this ad campaign, there have been over 60 million impressions across channels, including terrestrial radio, digital radio, television and professional sports' integrations. With the foundation of 2018 and the power of our 4 key priorities I noted, we look forward to making 2019 another strong step forward into the future of Upwork.

正如您可能已經看到的，我們圍繞多通路行銷和廣告的持續策略是我們 2019 年舉措的基礎。1 月 15 日，我們發起了一場名為「This Is Happening」的大型廣告活動，旨在提高 Upwork 的知名度以及遠端聘用高素質人才和開展持久項目的創新能力。這次廣告活動的結果是，包括地面廣播、數位廣播、電視和職業體育整合在內的各個管道的曝光量超過了 6000 萬次。憑藉 2018 年的基礎和我提到的 4 個關鍵優先事項的力量，我們期待 2019 年為 Upwork 的未來又邁出堅實的一步。

Now Brian will provide greater detail around the quarter and year, and our outlook for 2019.

現在，Brian 將提供有關季度和年度的更多詳細信息，以及我們對 2019 年的展望。

Thank you, Stephane, and good afternoon, everyone. My remarks today will start with a brief update on our key operating metrics. Then turn to the financial results and our guidance for the first quarter and full year 2019, which we provided in our earnings release filed earlier today. Numbers are rounded for the sake of convenience. And unless noted otherwise, comparisons for the full year 2018 are on a year-over-year basis, while comparisons to the fourth quarter of 2018 are to the fourth quarter of 2017. I'll be referring to GAAP measures unless explicitly cited as a non-GAAP measure.

謝謝史蒂芬，大家下午好。我今天的演講將首先簡要介紹我們的關鍵營運指標。然後轉向我們在今天早些時候提交的收益報告中提供的 2019 年第一季和全年的財務業績和指引。為了方便起見，數字被四捨五入。除非另有說明，2018 年全年的比較是同比，而 2018 年第四季的比較是與 2017 年第四季的比較。除非明確引用為非 GAAP 衡量標準，否則我將指的是 GAAP 衡量標準。

We monitor and measure our business performance using the following key operating metrics: gross services volume or GSV, core clients, and client spend retention. We believe these metrics are key indicators of our growth and the overall health of our business. GSV, which includes both client spend and additional fees we charge for other value-added services, increased by 25% in the fourth quarter to $472 million, an increase of 28% year-over-year to $1.76 billion. Growth in GSV was driven by an increase in both core clients and an increase in our client spend retention.

我們使用以下關鍵營運指標來監控和衡量我們的業務績效：總服務量或 GSV、核心客戶和客戶支出保留率。我們相信這些指標是我們業務成長和整體健康狀況的關鍵指標。GSV（包括客戶支出和我們對其他增值服務收取的額外費用）在第四季度增長了 25%，達到 4.72 億美元，同比增長 28%，達到 17.6 億美元。GSV 的成長是由核心客戶的增加和客戶支出保留率的增加所推動的。

Core clients defined as a client that has spent in aggregate at least $5,000 in their lifetime on our platform, and their spend in the last 12 months increased by 22% to over $105,000 as of December 31, 2018. Client spend retention was 108% on a trailing 12-month basis at December 31, 2018, compared to 99% at December 31, 2017. Based upon our analysis of our current cohorts, we continue to expect client spend retention to stabilize in the 106% to 108% range for the near term.

核心客戶定義為一生中在我們的平台上總共花費至少 5,000 美元的客戶，截至 2018 年 12 月 31 日，他們在過去 12 個月的支出增加了 22%，達到超過 105,000 美元。截至 2018 年 12 月 31 日，過去 12 個月的客戶支出保留率為 108%，而 2017 年 12 月 31 日為 99%。根據我們對目前群體的分析，我們繼續預期近期客戶支出保留率將穩定在 106% 至 108% 的範圍內。

With these key operational metrics in mind, I will now turn to our financial results. Total revenue increased by 23% to $67.3 million in the fourth quarter, an increase by 25% to $253.4 million for the full year 2018. Marketplace revenue increased by 24% to $59.7 million, representing 89% of our total revenue for the fourth quarter, and increased by 26% to $223.8 million for the full year.

考慮到這些關鍵營運指標，我現在將轉向我們的財務表現。第四季總營收成長 23% 至 6,730 萬美元，2018 年全年總營收成長 25% 至 2.534 億美元。市場收入成長 24% 至 5,970 萬美元，佔第四季總營收的 89%，全年成長 26% 至 2.238 億美元。

Growth in marketplace revenue was driven by an increase in the number of core clients and higher client spend retention, evidenced by strength from our small business customers, growth on our U.S. to U.S. domestic marketplace offering and an increase in direct sales from enterprise offering. We also benefited from better timing of our weekly billing cycle in the fourth quarter as our business results are impacted in part by the number of Mondays in a given quarter. The most work in a given week is typically completed on a Monday, which is also the day we recognize our client payment and administration fee each week. There were 14 Mondays in the fourth quarter, while the first quarter of 2019 has 12.

市場收入的成長是由核心客戶數量的增加和客戶支出保留率的提高所推動的，我們的小型企業客戶的實力、美國到美國國內市場產品的增長以及企業產品直接銷售的增加證明了這一點。我們也受惠於第四季每週計費週期的更好時機，因為我們的業務業績部分受到特定季度週一數量的影響。一週內的大部分工作通常在周一完成，這也是我們每週確認客戶付款和管理費的日子。第四季有 14 個週一，而 2019 年第一季有 12 個。

Managed services revenue increased by 12% to $7.7 million in the fourth quarter and by 20% to $29.5 million for the full year 2018. Managed services revenue is growing as expected at a slower rate than our marketplace revenue and we anticipate this trend to continue.

第四季託管服務營收成長 12% 至 770 萬美元，2018 年全年成長 20% 至 2,950 萬美元。託管服務收入的成長速度低於我們的市場收入的預期，我們預計這種趨勢將持續下去。

Our take rate, which we define as revenue divided by GSV, was 14.3% in the fourth quarter, consistent with the third quarter of 2018, but down slightly from 14.5% in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year of 2018, our take rate was 14.4% compared to 14.8% in 2017. This deceleration in take rate was expected and reflects our long-term strategy to align our incentives with both one, the freelancers that have longer term client relationships and now bill at the 5% fee tier; and two, the clients that continue to adopt ACH as a payment method, which waves the 2.75% payment processing and administration fee. We believe these are both beneficial for the business in the long-term as it encourages larger and longer projects and lowers the overall cost of working with Upwork, which in turn encourages additional project work and recurring spend on our platform.

我們的採用率（我們定義為營收除以 GSV）在第四季為 14.3%，與 2018 年第三季一致，但比 2017 年第四季的 14.5% 略有下降。2018 年全年，我們的錄取率為 14.4%，而 2017 年為 14.8%。採取率的下降是預料之中的，反映了我們的長期策略，即與擁有長期客戶關係且現在按 5% 收費等級計費的自由工作者保持激勵措施相一致。二是繼續採用 ACH 作為付款方式的客戶，這會徵收 2.75% 的付款處理和管理費。我們相信，從長遠來看，這些都對業務有利，因為它鼓勵更大、更長的項目，並降低與 Upwork 合作的總體成本，從而鼓勵額外的項目工作和在我們平台上的經常性支出。

In 2019, we plan to launch additional value-added products and features to offset some of the take rate decline.

2019 年，我們計劃推出額外的加值產品和功能，以抵消部分採用率下降的影響。

Non-GAAP gross profit in the fourth quarter increased by 25% to $46.6 million and non-GAAP gross margin was 69%, slightly up from 68% in both the third quarter of 2018 and the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year 2018, non-GAAP gross profit increased by 25% to $172.2 million and non-GAAP gross margin was 68%, which was the same as the prior year.

第四季非 GAAP 毛利成長 25%，達到 4,660 萬美元，非 GAAP 毛利率為 69%，略高於 2018 年第三季和 2017 年第四季的 68%。2018 年全年，非 GAAP 毛利成長 25%，達到 1.722 億美元，非 GAAP 毛利率為 68%，與前一年持平。

Gross margins are influenced by multiple factors. First, the mix of revenue between our marketplace and managed services offerings. Second, payment processing costs, which is our primary component of cost of revenue increased by 21% in the fourth quarter and increased by 23% for the full year 2018. We are seeing more customers adopt ACH as a payment method, which reduces our take rate and revenue, but is beneficial to gross margins. Third, the cost of revenue for freelancer services to deliver managed services increased by 17% in the fourth quarter and increased by 23% for the full year 2018. This is mostly due to an increase in spend from a client and, to a lesser extent, the use of more costly service providers. And fourth, our spend on Amazon Web Services, which as of the fourth quarter was growing slower than revenue compared to a year ago.

毛利率受多種因素影響。首先，我們的市場和託管服務產品之間的收入組合。其次，支付處理成本是我們收入成本的主要組成部分，第四季度增長了 21%，2018 年全年增長了 23%。我們看到越來越多的客戶採用 ACH 作為支付方式，這降低了我們的接受率和收入，但有利於毛利率。第三，提供託管服務的自由工作者服務的收入成本在第四季度增加了 17%，2018 年全年增長了 23%。這主要是由於客戶支出的增加，以及較小程度使用成本較高的服務提供者所造成的。第四，我們在亞馬遜網路服務的支出，截至第四季度，與一年前相比，其成長速度低於收入。

We are focused on driving gross margin leverage. We continue to see more ACH adoption and are focused on managing our AWS costs to grow at a slower rate than revenue growth in the near term. In future periods, we expect cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars, although the level and timing of revenue and cost of revenue items could fluctuate, and therefore affect our cost of revenue and gross profit in the future. We expect our gross profit to grow at a faster rate than revenue in the near term.

我們專注於提高毛利率槓桿率。我們繼續看到越來越多的 ACH 採用，並專注於管理我們的 AWS 成本，使其在短期內以低於收入成長的速度成長。在未來時期，我們預計收入成本以絕對美元計算將會增加，儘管收入的水平和時間以及收入項目的成本可能會波動，從而影響我們未來的收入成本和毛利。我們預計短期內毛利的成長速度將快於收入的成長速度。

Turning to operating expenses. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses increased by 12% to $17.3 million in the fourth quarter, representing 26% of total revenue compared to 28% in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year of 2018, non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses increased by 38% to $71.3 million, representing 28% of total revenue compared to 26% last year. These increases were driven by investments to build out our enterprise sales team, online marketing and off-line advertising activities to drive brand awareness and attract new users. We intend to continue to invest in sales and marketing with a focus on sound unit economics to drive a long-term profitable growth. We've also made a decision to smooth our online performance marketing investment throughout 2019 versus spending a larger share of it in the first quarter as we've done in the past. This could have a short-term impact on GSV in revenue, but we believe it will allow us to acquire customers at a lower cost.

轉向營運費用。第四季非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用成長 12%，達到 1,730 萬美元，佔總營收的 26%，而 2017 年第四季為 28%。2018 年全年，非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用成長 38%，達到 7,130 萬美元，佔總收入的 28%，而去年為 26%。這些成長是由投資建立我們的企業銷售團隊、線上行銷和線下廣告活動推動的，以提高品牌知名度並吸引新用戶。我們打算繼續投資銷售和行銷，並專注於良好的單位經濟效益，以推動長期獲利成長。我們還決定在 2019 年全年平滑我們的線上效果行銷投資，而不是像過去那樣在第一季度花費更大的份額。這可能會對 GSV 的收入產生短期影響，但我們相信這將使我們能夠以更低的成本獲得客戶。

Non-GAAP R&D expenses in the fourth quarter increased by 6% to $13.3 million, representing 20% of total revenue compared to 23% in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year 2018, non-GAAP R&D expenses increased 19% to $52.2 million representing 21% of total revenue compared to 22% last year.

第四季非 GAAP 研發費用成長 6%，達到 1,330 萬美元，佔總營收的 20%，而 2017 年第四季為 23%。2018 年全年，非 GAAP 研發費用成長 19%，達到 5,220 萬美元，佔總營收的 21%，去年為 22%。

Our R&D spend in 2018 was focused on efforts to develop new products and features as well as our mobile-first transformation. The absolute spend on R&D was relatively consistent throughout 2018 and grew relatively in line with the revenue growth. Our R&D team worked on more capitalizable projects in 2018 than in prior years, such as our mobile-first transformation, which will benefit the platform over the long run. We believe continued investment in R&D is important to further our long-term strategic objectives.

2018 年我們的研發支出主要致力於開發新產品和功能以及行動優先轉型。2018 年研發的絕對支出相對穩定，並且與收入成長相對一致。我們的研發團隊在 2018 年開展了比往年更多的資本化項目，例如我們的行動優先轉型，從長遠來看，這將使平台受益。我們相信，持續投資研發對於推動我們的長期策略目標非常重要。

Non-GAAP G&A expenses in the fourth quarter increased by 18% to $11.9 million representing 18% of total revenue, which is consistent with the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year non-GAAP G&A expenses increased by 32% to $41.3 million, representing 16% of total revenue compared to 15% last year. These increases were primarily due to our efforts to support being a public company. We expect sales and marketing, R&D, and G&A expenses to increase in absolute dollars, otherwise our percentage of total revenue, they may fluctuate from period to period. Our provision for transaction losses in the fourth quarter decreased by 13% to $1.2 million, representing approximately 2% of total revenue and increased by 37% to $5.8 million representing approximately 2% of total revenue for the full year of 2018.

第四季非 GAAP G&A 費用成長 18%，達到 1,190 萬美元，佔總營收的 18%，與 2017 年第四季一致。全年非 GAAP G&A 費用增加 32%，達到 4,130 萬美元，佔總收入的 16%，去年為 15%。這些成長主要是由於我們努力支持成為一家上市公司。我們預計銷售和行銷、研發和一般行政費用的絕對金額將會增加，否則我們佔總收入的百分比可能會隨著時間的推移而波動。我們第四季的交易損失準備金減少了 13%，至 120 萬美元，約佔總收入的 2%；增加了 37%，至 580 萬美元，約佔 2018 年全年總收入的 2%。

These results are within our normal range of 2% to 3% of total revenue and we expect the reserves to increase proportionally in this range as our GSV grows.

這些結果在我們佔總收入 2% 至 3% 的正常範圍內，我們預計隨著我們 GSV 的增長，儲備金將在此範圍內按比例增加。

I also like to note the accounting for 2 common stock warrants. First, in connection with the establishment of Upwork Foundation initiative in May of 2018, we issued a common stock warrant to purchase 500,000 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.01 per share. This warrant becomes exercisable for 1/10 of these shares on each anniversary of the IPO. We incurred a charge of approximately $225,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018 related to this warrant. We expect a noncash charge recorded in G&A related to this warrant of approximately $900,000 during 2019. We plan to exclude this expense in deriving our adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income on a go forward basis.

我還想指出 2 張普通股認股權證的會計處理。首先，隨著 2018 年 5 月成立 Upwork 基金會計劃，我們發行了普通股認股權證，以每股 0.01 美元的行使價購買 500,000 股普通股。該認股權證可在 IPO 的每個週年紀念日行使這些股份的 1/10。2018 年第四季度，我們因該認股權證產生了約 225,000 美元的費用。我們預計 2019 年與該認股權證相關的一般管理費用中記錄的非現金費用約為 90 萬美元。我們計劃在未來計算調整後 EBITDA 和非 GAAP 淨利潤時排除這筆費用。

Second, as we noted on our third quarter earnings call, we had a preferred stock warrant that was converted to a common stock warrant upon our IPO. As a result, we incurred a noncash expense of approximately $2.4 million in the fourth quarter. This expense will not recur in future periods.

其次，正如我們在第三季財報電話會議上指出的那樣，我們擁有優先股認股權證，並在首次公開發行時將其轉換為普通股認股權證。因此，我們在第四季度產生了約 240 萬美元的非現金費用。該費用在以後期間不會再發生。

Net loss was $5.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to a net loss of $5.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our basic and diluted net loss per share in the fourth quarter was $0.05 on 103.4 million shares -- common shares outstanding. For the full year, we incurred a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $19.9 million compared to a net loss of $10.6 million in 2017. Our basic and diluted net loss per share for the full year was $0.38 on 52.3 million weighted average common shares outstanding.

2018 年第四季的淨虧損為 540 萬美元，而 2017 年第四季的淨虧損為 520 萬美元。第四季我們的基本和攤薄每股淨虧損為 0.05 美元，共有 1.034 億股已發行普通股。全年，我們普通股股東應佔淨虧損 1,990 萬美元，而 2017 年淨虧損為 1,060 萬美元。我們全年已發行普通股加權平均數為 5,230 萬股，基本及稀釋後每股淨虧損為 0.38 美元。

Non-GAAP net income was $2.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $8.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our basic and diluted non-GAAP net income per share in the fourth quarter of 2018 was $0.03 compared to a net loss per share of $0.27 in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year in 2018, we incurred a non-GAAP net loss of $600,000 compared to non-GAAP net loss of $900,000 in 2017. Our basic and diluted non-GAAP net loss was $0.01 per share for 2018 and $0.03 per share for 2017.

2018 年第四季非 GAAP 淨利潤為 270 萬美元，而 2017 年第四季非 GAAP 淨虧損為 890 萬美元。2018 年第四季我們的基本和稀釋非 GAAP 每股淨利潤為 0.03 美元，而 2017 年第四季每股淨虧損為 0.27 美元。2018 年全年，我們的非 GAAP 淨虧損為 60 萬美元，而 2017 年的非 GAAP 淨虧損為 90 萬美元。2018 年我們的基本和稀釋非 GAAP 淨虧損為每股 0.01 美元，2017 年為每股 0.03 美元。

Adjusted EBITDA, a key metric for us in the operating the business was positive $3.6 million in the fourth quarter as compared to a negative $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year 2018, adjusted EBITDA was positive $3.8 million compared to positive $7.9 million in the prior year. We exceeded our prior guidance due to better-than-expected revenue and lower transaction losses. We continue to take a long-term view and balance investing in sustainable profitable growth, while expanding our leadership position of this very large and expanding adjustable market opportunity.

調整後的 EBITDA（我們經營業務的關鍵指標）在第四季為正 360 萬美元，而 2017 年第四季為負 190 萬美元。2018 年全年，調整後 EBITDA 為正 380 萬美元，而前一年為正 790 萬美元。由於收入優於預期且交易損失較低，我們超出了先前的指導。我們繼續著眼長遠，平衡投資於永續獲利成長，同時擴大我們在這個龐大且不斷擴大的可調整市場機會中的領導地位。

Moving to the balance sheet and cash flows. We ended the year with $129.1 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to $21.6 million at both September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017. As of December 31, 2018, we had $24 million in debt outstanding from our 2 term loans. During the fourth quarter, we repaid $10 million that we have used to repurchase shares in 2017. We also repaid during the fourth quarter $15 million on the revolving line of credit that we had drawn at the end of the third quarter to provide working capital to fund our marketplace accounts receivable, due to September 30, 2018, being a Sunday. Please note that the quarters ending March 31, 2019 and June 30, 2019, both end on a Sunday. Therefore, you should expect a similar impact on our balance sheet and cash flow from operations to fund our escrow accounts and for us to use the revolving line of credit in a similar fashion as we did at September 30, 2018.

轉向資產負債表和現金流量。截至年底，我們的現金和現金等價物為 1.291 億美元，而 2018 年 9 月 30 日和 2017 年 12 月 31 日的現金和現金等價物均為 2,160 萬美元。截至 2018 年 12 月 31 日，我們的 2 期貸款未償還債務為 2,400 萬美元。第四季度，我們償還了 2017 年回購股票的 1,000 萬美元。我們也在第四季度償還了第三季末提取的 1,500 萬美元循環信貸額度，為我們的市場應收帳款提供營運資金，截止日期為 2018 年 9 月 30 日（週日）。請注意，截至2019年3月31日和2019年6月30日的季度均於星期日結束。因此，您應該預期我們的資產負債表和營運現金流會受到類似的影響，為我們的託管帳戶提供資金，並以與 2018 年 9 月 30 日類似的方式使用循環信貸額度。

Looking forward, just to note, our first principal payments to pay down the term loans began in April 2019. Operating activities provided $21.9 million in the fourth quarter, which was largely driven by the return of operating cash from escrow related to the Sunday effect. We used $2.9 million in investing activities of the fourth quarter primarily related to the build-out of our new Chicago office, and capitalized software for the mobile-first transformation project. Cash provided by financing activities for the fourth quarter was $83.1 million primarily driven by the completion of our IPO from which we raised $109.4 million net of underwriting discounts, and partially offset by $25 million in debt repayments.

展望未來，需要注意的是，我們用於償還定期貸款的第一筆本金支付始於 2019 年 4 月。第四季營運活動提供了 2,190 萬美元，這主要是由於與週日效應相關的託管業務現金回饋所致。我們在第四季度的投資活動中使用了 290 萬美元，主要與擴大我們的芝加哥新辦事處以及用於行動優先轉型專案的軟體資本化有關。第四季融資活動提供的現金為 8,310 萬美元，主要是由於 IPO 的完成，扣除承銷折扣後我們籌集了 1.094 億美元，部分被 2,500 萬美元的債務償還所抵消。

Looking forward, we have some onetime expected capital expenditures coming up in the next 6 months. We just signed a lease for a new office in Santa Clara due to our Mountain View lease expiring in the second quarter. We anticipate spending approximately $7.5 million to build the site out to our needs over the next 2 quarters.

展望未來，我們預計未來 6 個月將出現一些一次性資本支出。由於我們的山景城租約將於第二季到期，我們剛剛簽署了聖克拉拉新辦公室的租約。我們預計在接下來的兩個季度將花費約 750 萬美元來建立滿足我們需求的網站。

Turning to guidance. For the first quarter of 2019, we expect revenue in the range of $68 million to $69 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of negative 2% to negative 1% of revenue. We expect weighted average common shares outstanding to be in the range of $106.5 million to $108 million for the first quarter. For the full year, we expect revenue in the range of $298 million to $304 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of breakeven to approximately 1% of revenue. We expect gross profit to grow faster -- grow at a faster rate than revenue as our mix shifts more towards marketplace revenue and additional clients adopt ACH. We expect weighted average common shares outstanding to be in the range of 109 million to 114 million.

轉向指導。對於 2019 年第一季度，我們預計營收在 6,800 萬美元至 6,900 萬美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 在營收的負 2% 至負 1% 範圍內。我們預計第一季加權平均已發行普通股將在 1.065 億美元至 1.08 億美元之間。我們預計全年營收將在 2.98 億美元至 3.04 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 將在盈虧平衡點至營收的 1% 左右。我們預計毛利將成長得更快——隨著我們的組合更多地轉向市場收入以及更多客戶採用 ACH，其成長速度將快於收入。我們預計加權平均已發行普通股將介於 1.09 億至 1.14 億股之間。

As a reminder, our first and second quarter 2019 are lapping the first year of our U.S. to U.S. domestic marketplace. As noted earlier, the number of Mondays in a given quarter impacts our revenue growth when comparing sequential and year-over-year. We are still assessing our transition to the new revenue standard recognition -- new revenue recognition standard or 606 as we'll adopt the standard at the end of 2019.

提醒一下，我們的 2019 年第一季和第二季是我們在美國國內市場的第一年。如前所述，與環比和同比相比，特定季度的周一數量會影響我們的收入成長。我們仍在評估向新收入確認標準（新收入確認標準或 606）的過渡，因為我們將在 2019 年底採用該標準。

And now I'll turn it to Stephane for closing comments.

現在我將把它轉給 Stephane 以供結束評論。

Thank you, Brian. We are really excited about our 2019 outlook and strategy. Our marketplace is truly a place where high quality work is done and freelancers can earn a meaningful living. At Upwork, we ourselves practice a work without limits model that includes a distributed team of on-site and remote employees and we also engage with over 1,000 freelancers all over the world for our own specialized projects. It is amazing to have access to this highly skilled global workforce, which we believe to be a key component of our business success.

謝謝你，布萊恩。我們對 2019 年的展望和策略感到非常興奮。我們的市場確實是一個可以完成高品質工作、讓自由工作者過著有意義的生活的地方。在 Upwork，我們自己實踐一種無限制的工作模式，包括由現場和遠端員工組成的分散式團隊，我們也與世界各地 1,000 多名自由工作者合作開展我們自己的專業專案。能夠接觸到這些高技能的全球員工隊伍真是太棒了，我們相信他們是我們業務成功的關鍵組成部分。

With macro trends at our back, we're investing in our products, our brand and our sales capabilities to go after our long-term addressable markets. Again, thank you to our employees, the freelancers who provide services to us, the freelancers and clients who use our platform, our partners and our investors. We are looking forward to success in 2019 to build a company for the ages.

在宏觀趨勢的支持下，我們正在投資我們的產品、我們的品牌和我們的銷售能力，以追求我們的長期目標市場。再次感謝我們的員工、為我們提供服務的自由工作者、使用我們平台的自由工作者和客戶、我們的合作夥伴和投資者。我們期待2019年取得成功，打造百年企業。

With that, we will be happy to take your questions.

這樣，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 RBC 資本市場的 Mark Mahaney。

Okay. Great. Two questions, please. The partnership with Microsoft, Stephane, you started off the call talking about and you announced in December, could you help us think through the -- how to -- the financial implications of that? That's obviously a very large potential partner or current partner now. So just help us to think through the implications there. And then on the domestic marketplace, I don't think -- could you quantify the contribution? And I think you are also expanding that to other international markets, I believe, the U.K. Just talk about the success you've seen with that here in the U.S., it looks promising. How much potential do you think that has in some of your international markets?

好的。偉大的。請教兩個問題。Stephane，您在電話會議一開始就談到了與微軟的合作夥伴關係，您在 12 月宣布了這一合作夥伴關係，您能否幫助我們思考一下——如何——其財務影響？這顯然是一個非常大的潛在合作夥伴或當前合作夥伴。因此，請幫助我們思考其中的意義。然後在國內市場上，我認為──你能量化貢獻嗎？我認為你們也在將其擴展到其他國際市場，我相信，英國。只要談談你們在美國看到的成功，它看起來很有希望。您認為這在您的一些國際市場上有多大潛力？

Sure. So I would say the answers to the first question is, it is very early days with Microsoft. We have very ambitious goals I would say to integrate further our product suites with Microsoft and would say more generally we want to be available wherever people use the types of services that Upwork provides. So think of, you're inside of Microsoft SharePoint, you need help to build a SharePoint website. Historically, the experience would have been that you needed to think, "Ooh, there's this thing called Upwork." You go to upwork.com, you post a job, hire a freelancer, you may not know how to hire freelancers through a SharePoint, that's why you need the help. Then you need to give them access to the SharePoint sites, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a very disjointed experience. The idea here is to build integration so that you can have access to preapproved veteran freelancers that in this case would have been preapproved by Microsoft. And you can hire them on the spot, while using the tool. What we've announced to date is a, I would say, an early phase of this integration, which is mostly targeted at allowing other enterprises to use Upwork the same way Microsoft has been using Upwork internally. So Microsoft has been using Upwork, obviously, also using their own products for a while and they wanted to document the types of technical integrations they have done between our 2 different products as well as the work process itself. How do they use Flow, SharePoint, Teams, GitHub and a bunch of other pieces of software with external freelancers that they hire through Upwork and make that available to large enterprise customers that may already be using Upwork today, but typically already using Microsoft today.

當然。所以我想說第一個問題的答案是，微軟現在還處於早期階段。我們有非常雄心勃勃的目標，我想說的是，我們的產品套件與 Microsoft 進一步集成，更廣泛地說，我們希望在人們使用 Upwork 提供的服務類型的任何地方都可用。想一想，您在 Microsoft SharePoint 中，您需要協助建立 SharePoint 網站。從歷史上看，經驗是你需要思考，“哦，有一種叫做 Upwork 的東西。”您造訪 upwork.com，發布職位，僱用自由工作者，您可能不知道如何透過 SharePoint 僱用自由工作者，這就是您需要幫助的原因。然後您需要授予他們對 SharePoint 網站等的存取權限。所以這是一次非常脫節的經驗。這裡的想法是建立集成，以便您可以接觸到預先批准的資深自由工作者，在這種情況下，這些自由工作者將獲得 Microsoft 的預先批准。您可以在使用該工具的同時當場僱用他們。我想說，我們迄今為止所宣布的是這種整合的早期階段，其主要目標是允許其他企業使用 Upwork，就像微軟在內部使用 Upwork 一樣。顯然，微軟一直在使用 Upwork，也使用他們自己的產品一段時間，他們希望記錄他們在我們的 2 種不同產品之間所做的技術整合類型以及工作流程本身。他們如何與透過 Upwork 僱用的外部自由工作者一起使用 Flow、SharePoint、Teams、GitHub 和其他一些軟體，並將其提供給目前可能已經在使用 Upwork、但通常已經在使用 Microsoft 的大型企業客戶。

To the second question about domestic marketplaces, we -- what I announced last quarter is that, in addition to our U.S. domestic website, which has been a phenomenal success over the last 12 to 18 months, we continue to invest there and continue to see plenty of additional momentum. In addition to that, we launched 2 very small experiments, one was in the U.K. where the idea would be to allow U.K. businesses to hire U.K.-based freelancers. And the second one, which was further localization within the U.S. itself and we launched a pilot in New York and launched a pilot in San Francisco with the idea again of, you have a small business in San Francisco and you want to hire designers preferably in the Bay Area and not so much in the rest of the U.S., making the geolocation happen. And I would say, it's early days. We don't have enough data at this stage to really claim victory. But it seems like these 2 locales are showing a lot of promise. They're going to grow faster than the rest of the business. But you have to remember they start from a very, very small base. And so these are really long-term bets for the company, but we think that multiple years out, there will be a huge engine of growth for the business moving forward.

關於國內市場的第二個問題，我上個季度宣布的是，除了我們的美國國內網站（在過去12 到18 個月中取得了巨大成功）之外，我們還將繼續在那裡投資，並繼續看到充足的額外動力。除此之外，我們還發起了兩項非常小的實驗，其中一項是在英國，其想法是允許英國企業僱用英國的自由工作者。第二個是在美國本土進一步本地化，我們在紐約啟動了一個試點，並在舊金山啟動了一個試點，同樣的想法是，你在舊金山有一家小企業，你想僱用設計師最好在灣區而不是美國其他地區，使得地理定位得以實現。我想說，現在還為時過早。現階段我們還沒有足夠的數據來真正宣告勝利。但這兩個地方似乎顯示出了很大的希望。他們將比其他企業成長得更快。但你必須記住，他們的基礎非常非常小。因此，這些對公司來說確實是長期的賭注，但我們認為，多年後，業務的發展將會有一個巨大的成長引擎。

Our next question comes from Mark May with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的馬克‧梅。

I had a couple, please cut me off if I ask too many, but actually following up on Mark's question about domestic-to-domestic. When you first launched the domestic marketplace, you saw a nice bump in the business it seems, and now you're talking about what seems to be some new initiatives to further enhance growth from the domestic marketplace. Should we think of those as potentially pretty meaningful incremental drivers of growth for the business? Or just more kind of incremental type of things that you're doing there? Just trying to get a sense of how excited or the magnitude of some of the things that you have on the plate for this year. I had a couple of others, but maybe just not to want too many at once. But next question would be on take rate. You talked about why the reported take rate, which is obviously a blend is declining. Is there more clients at freelancer repeat business that kind of drives that takes it down, but how much will that continue to weigh on the average take rate, like the mix shift there driven by repeat business? Or will -- like new features in the Enterprise segment and other things that are offsetting, are those things enough to kind of fully offset that mix shift? Just trying to get a sense of the mix dynamics you see going forward.

我有幾個問題，如果我問太多，請打斷我，但實際上是在跟進馬克關於國內到國內的問題。當您第一次推出國內市場時，您似乎看到了業務的良好成長，現在您正在談論一些似乎是進一步促進國內市場成長的新舉措。我們是否應該將這些視為業務成長的潛在相當有意義的增量驅動力？或者只是你在那裡做的更多增量類型的事情？只是想了解今年你要做的一些事情有多令人興奮或有多重要。我還有其他幾個，但也許只是不想一次想要太多。但下一個問題是關於採納率。您談到了為什麼報告的採用率（顯然是混合物）正在下降。是否有更多的自由工作者重複業務客戶會導致其下降，但這會繼續對平均接受率產生多大影響，就像重複業務驅動的混合轉變一樣？或者像企業領域的新功能和其他正在抵消的東西一樣，這些東西是否足以完全抵消這種混合轉變？只是想了解你所看到的未來​​的混合動態。

Sure. So like the question on domestic, I think the way I would look at it is to look at S curves, right. So we have this core business today, which is mostly SMB, mostly cross-border and a big part of it in IT. And we are building these long-term S curves that are enterprise, that are non-IT, that's what this category expansion and verticalization is about and domestic, right. So these are 3 different directions that the business is going into. In the long run, each of these will be bigger than the core marketplace that we have today. But they start from different sizes initially, right. So if you think about U.S. as an example, I think we disclosed this in our S-1, right. The U.S. was already the #1 source of clients and the #1 source of freelancers. So we are starting from a base that is substantial, when we launched the domestic marketplace, we got an instant bump. If you look at the U.K., U.K. to U.K. is a lot smaller than U.S. to U.S. was. And so while it's a nice bump, it's not a meaningful bump from the standpoint of the overall business. However, if you think about the underlying addressable markets, right, I mean, if you think about the larger staffing firms in the world do revenue in the U.K., that is similar in absolute terms to what they do in the U.S., right. So there's a really big underlying market but because we're starting from a smaller base, the impact in 2019 will be lesser and you'll start seeing some of these impacts in 2020 and beyond. Your question about take rate. I would say, we really tried to focus on building long-term sustainable growth for this business. There's a ton of things that we could do to increase take rate in the short-term, but we think that the compounding effect of higher client spend retention in the long-term completely dwarfs the amount of monetization we could be doing in the short term. So we used to have -- as Brian mentioned, we used to have 99% client spend retention like a year ago. We're now at 108%. Compound that for multiple years compared to an extra X basis points of take rate, we really believe it's the right thing to do. So ACH drives take rate down, but by reducing the cost in the system, it increases stickiness. Similarly, the 5% tier, obviously, drives take rate down, but it also increases retention for large ongoing staff augmentation type of projects, both of which will compound for years to come. Now that being said, I think something that we've talked about a little bit earlier in this call, we are looking to introduce new product offerings, targeting medium-size businesses that are sitting in between Upwork's standard, which is our very small business offering and Upwork Enterprise, which is really designed for extremely large companies. And those in the middle will help with new ways of monetizing, with new additional functionality, which should help stabilize the take rate. But the way, I would say, the way we look at it is create new value and then monetize the value as opposed to monetize more for the existing value that we already generate.

當然。所以就像國內的問題一樣，我想我看這個問題的方式是看S曲線，對吧。所以我們今天的核心業務主要是中小企業，主要是跨國業務，其中很大一部分是IT業務。我們正在建構這些長期的 S 曲線，這些曲線是企業的、非 IT 的，這就是品類擴張和垂直化的意義所在，也是國內的，對吧。所以這是企業正在進入的三個不同的方向。從長遠來看，這些市場中的每一個都將比我們今天擁有的核心市場更大。但它們最初的尺寸是不同的，對吧。因此，如果您以美國為例，我認為我們在 S-1 中披露了這一點，對吧。美國已經是第一大客戶來源國和第一大自由工作者來源國。因此，我們從一個堅實的基礎開始，當我們推出國內市場時，我們立即得到了提升。如果你看看英國，英國到英國的距離比美國到美國的距離小得多。因此，雖然這是一個不錯的提升，但從整體業務的角度來看，這並不是一個有意義的提升。然而，如果你考慮潛在的潛在市場，對吧，我的意思是，如果你考慮一下世界上較大的人力資源公司在英國的收入，那麼從絕對意義上講，這與他們在美國的收入相似，對吧。因此，存在一個非常大的基礎市場，但由於我們是從較小的基數開始的，因此 2019 年的影響將會較小，您將在 2020 年及以後開始看到其中一些影響。你關於採取率的問題。我想說，我們確實努力專注於為這項業務建立長期可持續成長。我們可以做很多事情來提高短期內的轉換率，但我們認為，從長遠來看，更高的客戶支出保留率的複合效應完全使我們在短期內可以做的貨幣化量相形見絀。 。因此，正如布萊恩所提到的，我們曾經有 99% 的客戶支出保留率，就像一年前一樣。我們現在是 108%。多年來，與額外 X 個基點的採用率相比，我們確實相信這是正確的做法。因此，ACH 驅動器降低了速率，但透過降低系統成本，它增加了黏性。同樣，5% 的層級顯然會降低使用率，但它也增加了大型正在進行的人員擴充類型專案的保留率，這兩者都將在未來幾年內復合。話雖這麼說，我認為我們在本次電話會議早些時候討論過的事情是，我們正在尋求推出新產品，針對介於 Upwork 標準之間的中型企業，這是我們非常小的企業產品和Upwork Enterprise，它確實是為超大型公司設計的。中間的人將透過新的附加功能來幫助實現新的貨幣化方式，這應該有助於穩定採用率。但我想說的是，我們看待它的方式是創造新的價值，然後將價值貨幣化，而不是為我們已經產生的現有價值更多地貨幣化。

Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thill with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自布倫特·希爾和傑弗里斯的對話。

Stephane, I'm curious if you could just talk a little bit about some attraction with the larger enterprises? And as you progress through '18 and '19, did you notice any interesting trends that maybe you had seen historically that you think carry into '19? And I had a quick follow-up for Brian.

Stephane，我很好奇你能否簡單談談大型企業的吸引力？當您經歷“18”和“19”時，您是否注意到您可能在歷史上看到的任何有趣的趨勢，您認為這些趨勢會延續到“19”？我對布萊恩進行了快速跟進。

Yes. I mean, I think what we're seeing is, increasingly people considering this as a normal way of conducting business. When we started talking to very large companies 2 or 3 years ago, obviously, the first question they would ask is, who else is using it. And the answer at that time was, well, not a ton of people. Now we're getting to the stage where a lot of the people we talk to came from other companies that were already using Upwork or other similar platforms come from a generation in the workforce for whom this is totally obvious and totally logical thing to do. And generally, they read reports online from various research firms that are saying that they're not alone and other companies are doing this. And so I would say increasingly people are excited to start proofs of concepts and pilots with us. And some of the ones that started pilots 2 or 3 years ago are starting to spend meaningful amounts of money on the site. It's still very early days, right. Our enterprise business remains in the 15%, 20% range of our business as we disclosed during the IPO. And even though I fully expect it to grow faster than the rest of the business, it's going to be many, many years before it's more than 50% of the business.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們看到的是，越來越多的人認為這是開展業務的正常方式。當我們兩三年前開始與非常大的公司交談時，顯然他們會問的第一個問題是，還有誰在使用它。當時的答案是，沒有很多人。現在我們正處於這樣一個階段，我們採訪的許多人來自已經使用 Upwork 或其他類似平台的其他公司，他們的一代勞動力對他們來說這是完全顯而易見、完全合乎邏輯的事情。一般來說，他們會在網路上閱讀各種研究公司的報告，這些報告稱他們並不孤單，其他公司也在這樣做。因此，我想說，越來越多的人很高興與我們一起開始概念驗證和試點。一些在兩三年前開始試點的公司已經開始在網站上投入大量資金。現在還為時過早，對吧。正如我們在 IPO 期間所揭露的那樣，我們的企業業務仍保持在我們業務的 15%、20% 範圍內。儘管我完全預計它會比其他業務成長得更快，但它還需要很多很多年才能占到業務的 50% 以上。

Okay, great. And Brian, you grew 25% in '18, you're guiding 18% to 20% growth in '19. Can you just walk through a bit of the assumption of the deceleration, obviously, coming off larger numbers. But is there anything that's different as you go into this year that would point to that deceleration?

好的，太好了。Brian，你在 18 年成長了 25%，你指導在 19 年成長 18% 到 20%。您能否簡單介紹一下減速的假設，顯然，是從較大的數字中得出的。但進入今年是否有任何不同之處表明經濟減速？

Well, I think we've been consistent since the IPO when we talked to you when we were on the roadshow and things like that. We're confident in the long-term and the full year we're guiding to. In the first quarter what you're seeing is, the lapping of the U.S. to U.S. marketplace, which we had known about. You're seeing more ACH adoption and that's part of what we're seeing in the business now few months in, which is -- obviously, helps our gross profit, but does take -- effect our take rate as well as revenue growth. And then what you're seeing also is the impact of this cyclicality in our business cycle, where the number of Mondays impacts our business. And so for instance, in Q4, there was 14, in Q1 there'll be 12, Q2 they'll be 13 and Q3 will be 14. So there's a little bit about that goes for the year. And as we guided during the roadshow is that we would see a little bit deceleration in the first half of the year because of the lapping and then we will see acceleration in the back half of the year as we continue to grow the business.

嗯，我認為自首次公開募股以來，當我們在路演等活動中與您交談時，我們一直保持一致。我們對長期和全年的目標充滿信心。在第一季度，你看到的是美國市場對美國市場的衝擊，這是我們所知道的。您會看到越來越多的 ACH 採用，這是我們幾個月來在業務中看到的一部分，這顯然有助於我們的毛利，但確實會影響我們的採用率和收入成長。然後您還會看到這種週期性對我們的商業週期的影響，其中星期一的數量會影響我們的業務。例如，在第 4 季度，有 14 個，在第 1 季將有 12 個，在第 2 季將有 13 個，在第 3 季將有 14 個。所以今年有一些事情要發生。正如我們在巡迴演出期間所指導的那樣，由於研磨，我們將在上半年看到一點減速，然後隨著我們繼續發展業務，我們將在下半年看到加速。

Another thing I'd add -- sorry, I'll add, Brent sorry. The one thing I did mention on the call was we did smooth out our online performance marketing investment throughout 2019. In the past, we had spent most of this in the first quarter and we felt like it was prudent for us, one is, to smooth out our EBITDA, but also to smooth our acquisition cost at a lower cost.

我要補充的另一件事 - 抱歉，我要補充一點，布倫特，抱歉。我在電話會議上提到的一件事是，我們在 2019 年確實平滑了線上效果行銷投資。過去，我們在第一季度花費了大部分資金，我們覺得這對我們來說是謹慎的，一方面是為了平滑我們的 EBITDA，另一方面是為了以較低的成本平滑我們的收購成本。

And our next question comes from Ron Josey with JMP.

我們的下一個問題來自 JMP 的 Ron Josey。

This is David, on for Ron. I wanted to follow up on client retention, I thought it was pretty good this quarter at 108%. Can you talk about what's driving that? And how sustainable is it going forward? And number two, on enterprise sales build-out. Can you talk about where you are in terms of hiring relative to expectations? And how is the ramp going to do a full productivity?

這是大衛，替榮恩發言。我想跟進客戶保留率，我認為本季的客戶保留率非常好，為 108%。您能談談是什麼推動了這個趨勢嗎？未來的可持續性如何？第二，關於企業銷售的擴展。您能談談您在招募方面相對於期望的情況嗎？坡道如何充分發揮生產力？

I'll take client spend retention, and then Stephane can talk a little about the sales. I mean, as I mentioned on the call, based on our current cohort analysis, we expect that to be in the range of 106% to 108% for the near term. We are focused on increasing our client spend retention from existing clients, by building these new features and functionality in products. So based upon what we can see, it's sort of that 106% to 108% range.

我將討論客戶支出保留情況，然後史蒂芬可以談談銷售情況。我的意思是，正如我在電話會議中提到的，根據我們目前的隊列分析，我們預計近期這一比例將在 106% 至 108% 之間。我們致力於透過在產品中建立這些新特性和功能來提高現有客戶的客戶支出保留率。因此，根據我們所看到的情況，範圍約為 106% 到 108%。

Yes. And then, your question about sales. As I think I may have alluded to in the last call, we just signed a lease for a new office in Chicago that is designed to, at full rollout, host about 500 people, not all of whom will be in sales, but many will. And so we are continuing to aggressively hire. We are very comfortable with the sales productivity numbers. People are hitting numbers that we are comfortable with. And in terms of actual headcounts, we've tried to hire as aggressively as we could absorb in the team. I would say we've been a little bit slower than what we expected, but nonetheless, we are doing good compared to what we were expecting for the overall revenue from the business.

是的。然後是關於銷售的問題。我想我可能在上次電話中提到過，我們剛剛在芝加哥簽署了一份新辦公室的租約，該辦公室的設計是在全面推出時容納約500 人，其中並非所有人都會從事銷售工作，但許多人會從事銷售工作。 。因此，我們將繼續積極招募。我們對銷售生產力數字非常滿意。人們正在達到我們滿意的數字。就實際員工人數而言，我們已盡力積極招募團隊成員。我想說，我們的速度比我們的預期要慢一些，但儘管如此，與我們對業務整體收入的預期相比，我們的表現還是不錯的。

Our next question comes from Scott Devitt with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Scott Devitt。

Two questions, if I could. There was minimal GSV deceleration in the quarter and the comp was considerably more difficult. So I was wondering if you could just provide any detail in terms of maybe verticals or GOs that you'd call out in the quarter? And then secondly, Stephane, you mentioned the 4 key product investments for 2019. Just wondering if you could talk through potential contributions from the introductions of those product offerings throughout '19 that you think could potentially benefit either GSV or monetization?

如果可以的話，有兩個問題。本季 GSV 減速幅度很小，而且競爭要困難得多。所以我想知道您是否可以提供您在本季度提到的垂直行業或目標方面的任何細節？其次，Stephane，您提到了 2019 年的 4 項關鍵產品投資。只是想知道您是否可以談談 19 年期間推出的這些產品的潛在貢獻，您認為這些產品可能有利於 GSV 或貨幣化？

Sure. I'll take the first one? All right. Well, so I think like, I mean, ultimately, we did better than I think we had expected in both spend retention. If you remember, we had said it's 108% last quarter, but we think it's going to go down to 106% and it stayed at 108%, so that naturally creates more GSV. And then our core clients' spend was pretty strong. And I would say, some of the features that I highlighted during the call, the Help Me Hire, when I said we added more than 10,000 hiring managers, that goes to both of these numbers, right. When you have additional hiring managers on a given account, the account is more likely to hit that $5,000 threshold mark faster and, therefore, become a core client earlier as well as it obviously increases client spend retention, a client that might have spent X with 1 hiring manager, when there's 2 hiring managers might be spending 2x. So that's what's been driving it. And then the second question was?

當然。我要拿第一個嗎？好的。嗯，所以我認為，我的意思是，最終，我們在支出保留方面的表現比我預期的要好。如果你還記得的話，我們曾說過上個季度是 108%，但我們認為它會下降到 106%，並且保持在 108%，這樣自然會產生更多的 GSV。然後我們的核心客戶的支出非常強勁。我想說的是，我在電話中強調的一些功能，即幫助我僱用，當我說我們增加了 10,000 多名招聘經理時，這兩個數字都適用，對吧。當您在給定帳戶上有其他招聘經理時，該帳戶更有可能更快地達到5,000 美元的閾值，因此更早地成為核心客戶，並且它顯然會增加客戶支出保留率，即可能已花費X的客戶1 位招募經理，當有 2 位招募經理時可能會花費 2 倍。這就是推動它的原因。然後第二個問題是？

Relating to just the product initiatives in 2019.

僅涉及 2019 年的產品計劃。

Right. Related to contribution?

正確的。與貢獻有關？

Yes.

是的。

Well, I think, in 2019, I would say, the way we tend to look at it is, these features rollout through the year and they impact -- the ability to have a major impact in the year itself is somewhat tied to when in the year they launch. And so I would look at it more as on a multiyear cycle, if you will. Typically, things that are driving more acquisition will take longer to mature, right. So things that would make it easier for us to sign up new enterprise clients as an example are long-term bets for the business. Whereas things that helped increase the spend of existing clients tend to be a faster impact to the business. So to give you an example, when we talk about category experience optimization, we already do a lot of work in graphic design. We think that the new experiences that we're building will make those transactions convert at a higher rate. And so because this is not net new acquisition, this is just changing the existing behavior that happens on the site. Those tend to have a faster payouts than things that might be more about customers that we don't have yet. So I would look at it as -- and that's how we look at it internally as the portfolio of bets, some of which are more incremental and with a more certain faster payback and others that are more experimental and may have higher impact overall, but might be taking longer to mature.

嗯，我認為，在2019 年，我們傾向於看待它的方式是，這些功能在這一年中推出，它們產生影響——在這一年本身產生重大影響的能力在某種程度上與何時出現相關。他們推出的那一年。因此，如果你願意的話，我會更多地將其視為多年周期。通常情況下，推動更多收購的事物需要更長的時間才能成熟，對吧。因此，讓我們更容易簽約新企業客戶的事情是對企業的長期賭注。而有助於增加現有客戶支出的事情往往會對業務產生更快的影響。舉個例子，當我們談論品類體驗優化時，我們在平面設計方面已經做了很多工作。我們認為我們正在建立的新體驗將使這些交易以更高的速度轉換。因此，因為這不是淨新收購，這只是改變網站上發生的現有行為。與我們尚未擁有的更多關於客戶的東西相比，這些東西的支付速度往往更快。因此，我將其視為- 這就是我們在內部將其視為賭注組合的方式，其中一些更具增量性並且具有更確定的更快回報，而另一些則更具實驗性並且可能會產生更大的整體影響，但是可能需要更長的時間才能成熟。

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time.

謝謝。我目前沒有提出任何進一步的問題。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。程式到此結束。你們都可以斷開連線。大家，祝你有美好的一天。