Upwork Inc (UPWK) 2019 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Upwork Q4 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝大家的支持，歡迎參加 Upwork 2019 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Palmira Gerlach, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給東道主投資者關係總監 Palmira Gerlach 女士。請繼續。

Hi, and welcome to Upwork's discussion of its fourth quarter and full year 2019 financial results. Leading the discussion today are Hayden Brown, Upwork's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Brian Kinion, Upwork's Chief Financial Officer. Following management's prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. But first, let me review the safe harbor statement.

大家好，歡迎參加 Upwork 對其 2019 年第四季和全年財務業績的討論。今天主持討論的是 Upwork 總裁兼執行長 Hayden Brown； Upwork 財務長 Brian Kinion。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 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 of the 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 under the SEC 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結果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, reference 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 at investors.upwork.com. As always, reported figures are rounded, unless otherwise noted, comparisons of the fourth quarter of 2019 are to the fourth quarter of 2018, and comparisons for the full year 2019 are to the full year 2018. All measures are GAAP unless cited as non-GAAP.

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 Investors.upwork.com 上發布的新聞稿。與往常一樣，報告的數據都是四捨五入的，除非另有說明，2019 年第四季的比較是與 2018 年第四季的比較，2019 年全年的比較是與 2018 年全年的比較。除非被列為非公認會計準則，否則所有衡量標準均為公認會計準則。

As we have disclosed previously, we adopted the new revenue recognition standard, Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606, ASC 606, on December 31, 2019, on a modified retrospective basis effective January 1, 2019. This primarily affects our tiered pricing program for freelancer services fee, which results in a deferral of revenue.

正如我們先前所揭露的，我們於 2019 年 12 月 31 日採用了新的收入確認準則，即會計準則編纂主題 606、ASC 606，並在修改後的追溯基礎上於 2019 年 1 月 1 日生效。這主要影響我們的自由工作者服務費分級定價計劃，從而導致收入遞延。

Financial results for the reporting period during 2019 are presented in accordance with the new revenue recognition standard. Although for purposes of comparison to our prior guidance and our fiscal year 2018 results, we will also be discussing certain of our 2019 results under ASC 605. Our press release filed today includes, for the first time, the additional information to reconcile the impact of the adoption of this revenue standard on our financial results for reporting periods 2019. Additionally, we have posted a presentation on the Investors section of our Investor Relations website with details regarding the impact of ASC 606 adoption on our reported financial results.

2019年報告期間財務業績依新收入確認準則列示。儘管為了與我們先前的指導和 2018 財年業績進行比較，我們還將根據 ASC 605 討論我們 2019 年的某些業績。我們今天提交的新聞稿首次包含了額外信息，以協調採用該收入標準對我們 2019 年報告期財務業績的影響。此外，我們也在投資者關係網站的投資者部分發布了一份演示文稿，詳細介紹了採用 ASC 606 對我們報告的財務表現的影響。

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 shortly after the call has concluded.

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電話會議結束後不久發佈在我們的投資者關係網站上。

Now I'll turn the call over to Hayden.

現在我將把電話轉給海登。

Thanks, Palmira, and thanks everyone for dialing in today. When I joined Upwork 8 years ago it was clear to me that this company is positioned at the crossroads of 4 major secular trends. First, a planet blanketed by Internet access, offering the potential to connect people across the globe like never before. Second, better and better collaboration tools, making remote work increasingly comparable to being face-to-face. Third, shifting sands in our labor force, in which people increasingly demand to work differently, seeking freedom from the traditional 9 to 5 workplace, and greater autonomy in when and for whom they work. And fourth, an increasing war for talent, with companies running out of options for how to attract and retain the types of workers that they need to be competitive.

謝謝帕爾米拉，也謝謝大家今天撥通電話。當我 8 年前加入 Upwork 時，我很清楚這家公司正處於 4 個主要長期趨勢的十字路口。首先，一個被網路覆蓋的星球，提供了前所未有的連結全球各地人們的潛力。其次，越來越好的協作工具，使遠距工作越來越與面對面工作相提並論。第三，勞動力隊伍中的流沙，人們越來越要求以不同的方式工作，尋求擺脫傳統的朝九晚五工作場所的自由，並在工作時間和為誰工作方面獲得更大的自主權。第四，人才爭奪戰日益激烈，公司在如何吸引和留住具有競爭力的員工方面別無選擇。

This company was founded on a transformational idea that today seems like an inevitability: high-quality work and workers available on demand, at the touch of a button. While this is a future that we have envisioned for quite some time, the signals I see within our business today suggest we're close to reaching a tipping point.

這家公司是基於一個今天看來是不可避免的變革理念而成立的：只需按一下按鈕，即可按需提供高品質的工作和工人。雖然這是我們長期以來所設想的未來，但我今天在我們的業務中看到的信號表明我們已接近達到臨界點。

While demand for our services from small businesses has always been and continues to be strong, today we are seeing the tides turn in larger company contexts. We've gained evangelists at midsize to Fortune 500 companies, 1/3 of whom are our clients. This is igniting new conversations amongst executives in Corporate America about how broken today's models are for sourcing and working with skilled talent. These companies increasingly recognize that the so-called skills gap can be bridged by leveraging talent from beyond their local regions and from sources outside of their traditional staffing vendors. These larger companies now realize that Upwork's on-demand talent solution is a critical pathway for them to not just achieve bottom line objectives, but to exceed top line goals. This is because a dynamic workforce model that leverages Upwork can deliver sought-after innovation and the necessary talent to fuel the digital transformations that so many companies are grappling with.

雖然小型企業對我們服務的需求一直且持續強勁，但今天我們看到大公司環境中的潮流發生了轉變。我們已經獲得了中型到財富 500 強企業的佈道者，其中 1/3 是我們的客戶。這引發了美國企業界高層之間的新對話，討論當今尋找和使用熟練人才的模式是多麼的不完美。這些公司越來越認識到，所謂的技能差距可以透過利用本地地區以外的人才以及傳統人力資源供應商以外的來源來彌補。這些較大的公司現在意識到，Upwork 的按需人才解決方案是他們不僅實現底線目標，而且超越頂線目標的關鍵途徑。這是因為利用 Upwork 的動態勞動力模式可以提供廣受歡迎的創新和必要的人才，以推動許多公司正在努力應對的數位轉型。

Upwork's opportunity is immense. We're pursuing a $560 billion market of professional service jobs that can be performed remotely. We're driving a transformation in the labor market that will be as seismic as the impact of e-commerce on retail and as disruptive as the sharing economy has been on fixed asset industries. We're the largest online talent solution and our suite of product offerings is designed for all companies in need of professional talent. But even though we have been building strong foundations over many years, I believe that we are just getting started. Our goal is to become the world's top provider of flexible talent solutions by attracting the best clients, with the best work opportunities, for the world's best talent. With that in mind, I believe Upwork can be a higher growth business, that we can grow into and sustain a 20%-plus year-over-year growth rate for the long-term. My chief focus is to make that a reality.

Upwork 的機會是巨大的。我們正在尋求價值 5,600 億美元的可遠端執行的專業服務工作市場。我們正在推動勞動市場的變革，這種變革將像電子商務對零售業的影響一樣震撼，像共享經濟對固定資產產業的影響一樣具有顛覆性。我們是最大的線上人才解決方案，我們的產品套件專為所有需要專業人才的公司而設計。但儘管我們多年來一直在打下堅實的基礎，但我相信我們才剛剛開始。我們的目標是透過為世界上最優秀的人才吸引最好的客戶、提供最好的工作機會，成為世界頂級的靈活人才解決方案提供者。考慮到這一點，我相信 Upwork 可以成為一個更高成長的業務，我們可以發展並長期維持 20% 以上的年成長率。我的主要關注點是使之成為現實。

Since becoming CEO on January 1, I have prioritized setting up our teams to execute a focused 2020 growth acceleration plan. Earlier this month, I made significant organizational changes to enable us to streamline the delivery of our end-to-end customer experiences. Given our business model, in which each year's performance is significantly driven by recurring spend from past cohorts of clients, the results of this year's organizational changes and our strategic growth investments may not immediately appear. However, the important growth work we do this year will set us up for accelerating growth towards a 20% target in the years to come.

自 1 月 1 日就任執行長以來，我優先考慮組建我們的團隊來執行重點突出的 2020 年成長加速計畫。本月早些時候，我進行了重大的組織變革，以使我們能夠簡化端到端客戶體驗的交付。鑑於我們的業務模式，每年的業績很大程度上是由過去客戶群的經常性支出推動的，今年的組織變革和我們的策略成長投資的結果可能不會立即顯現。然而，我們今年所做的重要成長工作將為我們在未來幾年加快成長，實現 20% 的目標奠定基礎。

To that end, I've seized the unique opportunity I have right now as the new CEO to step back and take stock of our business relative to its potential. I spent my first 2 months immersed with our clients, our freelancers, our partners, our internal teams, investors and industry leaders, listening closely to their ideas and assessing all aspects of our business. I've set us up to execute on a strong growth plan, while also beginning to evaluate a number of opportunities that will enable Upwork to better fulfill its transformational potential. I'm taking my first 100 days to develop a fresh perspective, and I look forward to sharing specifics on opportunities and key decisions in our future earnings calls and investor updates.

為此，我抓住了作為新任執行長的獨特機會，退後一步，評估我們業務的潛力。在最初的兩個月裡，我與我們的客戶、自由工作者、合作夥伴、內部團隊、投資者和行業領導者打交道，仔細聆聽他們的想法並評估我們業務的各個方面。我已經讓我們執行一項強有力的成長計劃，同時也開始評估一些機會，讓 Upwork 更能發揮其轉型潛力。我將用我的前 100 天來形成新的視角，我期待在未來的財報電話會議和投資者更新中分享有關機會和關鍵決策的細節。

Before I recap our 2019 performance and our outlook for 2020, I want to express my gratitude to Stephane Kasriel, who in December decided to step down from the President and CEO position he held for over 4 years. I had the pleasure of working with Stephane for 7 years, and he was an excellent leader who ushered Upwork from being a small startup into being the largest online talent solution. I was honored to take the baton from Stephane as President and CEO of Upwork last month, and I couldn't be more excited about what's to come.

在回顧我們 2019 年的業績和對 2020 年的展望之前，我想向 Stephane Kasriel 表示感謝，他於 12 月決定辭去擔任了 4 年多的總裁兼執行長職務。我很高興與 Stephane 一起工作了 7 年，他是一位出色的領導者，帶領 Upwork 從一家小型新創公司發展成為最大的線上人才解決方案。上個月，我很榮幸從 Stephane 手中接過 Upwork 總裁兼執行長的接力棒，我對即將發生的事情感到無比興奮。

Within Upwork, I'm known for bold leadership, a long-term strategic focus, and my deep passion for our mission and our business. I spent part of my childhood in Kathmandu, Nepal and have seen firsthand that talent is everywhere but opportunities are not. I'm incredibly proud of the work we do to achieve our mission to create economic opportunities so people have better lives and of our dedicated workforce, both our employees and the talented freelancers who work for us directly. Working together, we have a distinct advantage in our ability to sustainably accelerate Upwork's growth due to our uniquely talented teams, collaborative culture, market know-how, large scale marketplace and our technology leadership.

在 Upwork，我以大膽的領導、長期的策略重點以及對我們的使命和業務的濃厚熱情而聞名。我在尼泊爾加德滿都度過了童年的一段時光，親眼目睹了人才無所不在，但機會卻不多。我對我們為實現創造經濟機會、讓人們過上更好生活的使命所做的工作感到無比自豪，並對我們敬業的員工隊伍（包括我們的員工和直接為我們工作的才華橫溢的自由職業者）感到無比自豪。憑藉我們獨特的人才團隊、協作文化、市場知識、大規模市場和我們的技術領先地位，我們共同努力，在持續加速 Upwork 成長的能力方面擁有明顯的優勢。

I would like to recap 2019, with a focus on fourth quarter performance. I'll also share my perspective on our 2020 expectations and the work already happening to move us to a higher growth trajectory in future years. I'm pleased to report a strong fourth quarter with revenue at $80.7 million, exceeding our previously provided guidance of $79 million to $79.5 million. This brought our full year revenue to $302.6 million, also exceeding our guidance of $301 million to $301.5 million. Please note that these numbers are under the ASC 605 revenue recognition standards, which we'll discuss in more detail later. Our fourth quarter and full year GSV was $549 million and $2.09 billion, respectively.

我想回顧一下 2019 年，重點放在第四季的表現。我還將分享我對 2020 年預期的看法，以及為推動我們在未來幾年邁向更高成長軌道而開展的工作。我很高興地報告第四季度的強勁業績，收入達到 8070 萬美元，超出了我們之前提供的 7900 萬美元至 7950 萬美元的指導。這使我們的全年收入達到 3.026 億美元，也超出了我們 3.01 億美元至 3.015 億美元的指引。請注意，這些數字符合 ASC 605 收入確認標準，我們將在稍後詳細討論。我們第四季和全年的 GSV 分別為 5.49 億美元和 20.9 億美元。

Now let's dive into the drivers of top line performance in 2019. GSV is driven by two factors: spend from our large retained client base and spend from our newly-acquired clients. Our client spend retention rate as of December 31, 2019 was 102%. This is lower than our all-time high of 108% as of December 31, 2018. We have found that the 108% retention rate was driven by the launch of our domestic marketplace in 2017, which led to an increase in hourly rates on the site that was most pronounced in 2018 and started to normalize in 2019. In addition, after the launch, a subset of U.S. clients engaged solely U.S. freelancers and have exhibited lower client spend retention than the rest of our clients. As this dynamic is stabilizing in our marketplace, we are seeing our client spend retention rate revert closer to our historical levels and we expect it to stabilize around 98% to 100%.

現在讓我們深入探討 2019 年營收績效的驅動因素。GSV 由兩個因素驅動：來自我們龐大的保留客戶群的支出和來自我們新獲得的客戶的支出。截至 2019 年 12 月 31 日，我們的客戶支出留任率為 102%。這低於截至 2018 年 12 月 31 日的歷史最高點 108%。我們發現，108% 的留存率是由 2017 年推出國內市場推動的，這導致網站每小時費率的增長，這種增長在 2018 年最為明顯，並在 2019 年開始正常化。此外，在推出後，一部分美國客戶僅聘請美國自由工作者，且客戶支出保留率低於其他客戶。隨著我們市場的這種動態趨於穩定，我們看到我們的客戶支出保留率恢復到接近歷史水平，我們預計它將穩定在 98% 至 100% 左右。

In terms of spend from newly-acquired clients, 2019 largely met our goals with respect to spend per client, but we saw some softness in our Q4 core client additions, adding approximately 4,000 core clients in the fourth quarter. Some of this is a byproduct of our emphasis on the addition of larger client companies and the expansion of our footprint within existing accounts, where we believe we have significant headroom.

就新獲得客戶的支出而言，2019 年基本上實現了我們在每個客戶支出方面的目標，但我們看到第四季度核心客戶的增加有些疲軟，第四季度增加了約 4,000 個核心客戶。其中一些是我們強調增加更大的客戶公司以及擴大我們在現有客戶中的足跡的副產品，我們相信我們在這些客戶中擁有巨大的發展空間。

Our overall take rate in Q4 was 14.6%, up from 14.3% 1 year prior. Our marketplace take rate improved to 13.4% in Q4 compared to 12.8% a year prior. We achieved this take rate improvement by making several changes last year. Number one, we saw good adoption of our new paid client subscription plans, which have higher monetization characteristics both in the subscription fee and take rate. Number two, we also changed both the cost of Connects, which are the virtual tokens used by freelancers when submitting proposals, and the number of Connects required to submit a proposal. This was part of an effort to improve proposal quality, but a byproduct of this was improving monetization in the back half of 2019. Lastly, we increased our client payment fee for Upwork Basic and Plus from 2.75% to 3%.

我們第四季的整體採用率為 14.6%，高於一年前的 14.3%。第四季度，我們的市佔率提高至 13.4%，而去年同期為 12.8%。去年，我們透過做出一些改變來實現了利用率的提高。第一，我們看到新的付費客戶訂閱方案得到了很好的採用，該方案在訂閱費和接受率方面都具有更高的貨幣化特徵。第二，我們也更改了 Connect 的成本（自由工作者在提交提案時使用的虛擬代幣）以及提交提案所需的 Connect 數量。這是提高提案品質的努力的一部分，但其副產品是提高了 2019 年下半年的貨幣化程度。最後，我們將 Upwork Ba​​ric 和 Plus 的客戶付款費用從 2.75% 提高到 3%。

Now, let's talk about our cost structure, where we saw continued improvement in the management of our cloud computing costs, which largely accounted for the improvement in our fourth quarter gross margin to 71% versus 69% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Within operating expenses, we realized leverage in several areas, but namely R&D. Lastly, we achieved success in decreasing transaction losses via ongoing efforts in our trust and safety and our payments programs. As a result, these efforts drove larger-than-expected improvements in our adjusted EBITDA.

現在，讓我們來談談我們的成本結構，我們看到雲端運算成本的管理持續改善，這在很大程度上是我們第四季毛利率從2018 年第四季的69% 提高到71% 的原因。在營運支出中，我們在幾個領域實現了槓桿作用，但即研發。最後，我們透過在信任和安全以及支付計劃方面的持續努力，在減少交易損失方面取得了成功。結果，這些努力推動了我們調整後 EBITDA 的改善超出預期。

Next, I'd like to drill down on our sales team, which is an important part of our long-term strategy. As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing a change in the enterprise market and we're positioning ourselves to take advantage of it. Just a few years ago, the most frequent question our sales team received from prospective clients was about why they should consider a solution like Upwork. Today, the top question we get is how they can use our solution. They recognize the need to evolve their talent strategy, and want to know how to get started. This is a major shift in mindsets, indicating a growing market readiness for our solution.

接下來，我想深入了解我們的銷售團隊，這是我們長期策略的重要組成部分。正如我之前提到的，我們看到企業市場發生了變化，我們正在定位自己以利用它。就在幾年前，我們的銷售團隊從潛在客戶那裡收到的最常見問題是為什麼他們應該考慮像 Upwork 這樣的解決方案。今天，我們遇到的首要問題是他們如何使用我們的解決方案。他們認識到需要發展人才策略，並想知道如何開始。這是思維方式的重大轉變，顯示市場對我們的解決方案的準備程度不斷提高。

Our sales efforts are highly synergistic with our existing self-service marketplace business. One of the great benefits of our business is that we have a strong pipeline of accounts that start on our self-service offerings and are ready to upgrade to Upwork Business and Enterprise as they scale. In 2019 we created specialized roles for our sales reps, with some focusing on landing new accounts and others focused on expanding existing accounts. This specialization was successful, contributing to improved sales force productivity. Given the traction we were seeing with both upgrading existing customers as well as landing new deals and our healthy 18- to 24-month payback period on sales resources, a number we believe we can continue to improve, we substantially increased the size of our sales team over the course of 2019. We ended the year achieving our hiring plan of approximately 90 quota-carrying sales reps, about half of whom were fully ramped.

我們的銷售工作與我們現有的自助服務市場業務高度協同。我們業務的一大優勢是，我們擁有強大的客戶管道，這些客戶從我們的自助服務產品開始，並準備在規模擴大時升級到 Upwork Business 和 Enterprise。2019 年，我們為銷售代表創建了專門的角色，其中一些專注於開拓新客戶，有些則專注於擴大現有客戶。這種專業化是成功的，有助於提高銷售人員的生產力。鑑於我們在升級現有客戶以及達成新交易方面所看到的吸引力，以及我們 18 至 24 個月的銷售資源投資回收期（我們相信我們可以繼續改進這一數字），我們大幅增加了銷售規模2019 年團隊。年底，我們實現了約 90 名配額銷售代表的招聘計劃，其中約一半已滿。

In general, it takes about 6 months for a new rep to ramp to full productivity. Overall, while still relatively small in their contribution to our total business, our sales team achieved strong growth and meaningful traction in 2019, and I see runway to continue investing in our sales model in future quarters. A strong sales team with excellent return economics will be essential to unlocking the giant portion of enterprise spend within the $560 billion market opportunity we are pursuing.

一般來說，新代表大約需要 6 個月的時間才能充分發揮生產力。總體而言，雖然我們的銷售團隊對我們總業務的貢獻仍然相對較小，但我們的銷售團隊在2019 年實現了強勁增長和有意義的牽引力，我認為在未來幾個季度繼續投資我們的銷售模式。擁有出色回報經濟效益的強大銷售團隊對於釋放我們所追求的 5,600 億美元市場機會中的大部分企業支出至關重要。

While 2019 was a solid year, I believe we can grow the business faster in future years. Immediately upon transitioning into this role, I reoriented the company to execute on a simplified strategy focused on 3 objectives that will set us up for growth acceleration in 2021 and beyond. These are: number one, attract more, bigger clients; number two, enable more spend per client; and number three, make more high-quality matches, particularly in our technical categories of web, mobile and software development.

雖然 2019 年是堅實的一年，但我相信我們在未來幾年可以更快地發展業務。在過渡到這一職位後，我立即對公司進行了重新定位，以執行一項簡化的策略，重點關注 3 個目標，這將為我們在 2021 年及以後的加速成長奠定基礎。它們是：第一，吸引更多、更大的客戶；第二，增加每位客戶的支出；第三，進行更多高品質的匹配，特別是在我們的網路、行動和軟體開發技術類別中。

Let me talk about our first priority, which is to attract more, bigger clients. While prospective customers have increasingly heard of Upwork, they often underestimate the strategic advantages we offer. Too many of them think Upwork is simply a site for hiring freelancers for small gigs. In reality, over 85% of our more than $2 billion GSV in 2019 was derived from large engagements and complex projects, not small gig work. Our community of talented professionals receives an average project feedback rating above 90% -- above 90 and our clients rate Upwork with a net promoter score of above 60. By comparison, traditional staffing firms have an average NPS score of 4.

讓我談談我們的首要任務，那就是吸引更多、更大的客戶。雖然潛在客戶越來越多地聽說 Upwork，但他們常常低估我們提供的策略優勢。他們中的太多人認為 Upwork 只是一個僱用自由工作者進行小型工作的網站。事實上，2019 年我們超過 20 億美元的 GSV 中有超過 85% 來自大型項目和複雜項目，而不是小型零工工作。我們的才華洋溢的專業人士社群獲得的平均專案回饋評分高於 90% - 高於 90，我們的客戶對 Upwork 的淨推薦分數高於 60。相較之下，傳統人力資源公司的平均 NPS 得分為 4。

All of this data indicates that there is a major perception versus reality gap about our business, and this year we're working aggressively to close this gap. Last month, we launched a new brand campaign which targets professional staffing buyers and showcases our platform's strengths for longer-term, high-quality work with rated, reviewed talent. To ensure that we're attracting and converting the right clients, we are optimizing our lead funnel for sales as well as innovating our self-service client on-boarding experience.

所有這些數據都表明，我們的業務存在著重大的認知與現實差距，今年我們正在積極努力縮小這一差距。上個月，我們推出了一項新的品牌活動，針對專業人才買家，展示我們平台的優勢，即與經過評級、審查的人才進行長期、高品質的工作。為了確保我們吸引並轉換合適的客戶，我們正在優化我們的銷售線索管道，並創新我們的自助服務客戶加入體驗。

I want to share an example of a client who is starting to tap into the full value we can provide. ElectrifAi is one of the new Upwork Enterprise clients that we acquired in Q4. ElectrifAi is a global AI and machine learning product company based in New Jersey. They're already experiencing 2 to 3 times increased productivity within their product teams by using Upwork. ElectrifAi's product team is forecasting a 25% increase in the number of products they plan to develop and launch in 2020 versus 2019 because by using Upwork, they are able to quickly find and work with experts that meet their exact business needs. We're focused on helping more companies like ElectrifAi realize the tremendous potential that they have to achieve their business goals by using Upwork in more substantial ways.

我想分享一個客戶的例子，他開始充分利用我們所能提供的價值。ElectrifAi 是我們在第四季度收購的新 Upwork Enterprise 客戶之一。ElectrifAi 是一家總部位於新澤西州的全球人工智慧和機器學習產品公司。透過使用 Upwork，他們的產品團隊的生產力已經提高了 2 到 3 倍。ElectrifAi 的產品團隊預計，他們計劃在 2020 年開發和推出的產品數量將比 2019 年增加 25%，因為透過使用 Upwork，他們能夠快速找到滿足其確切業務需求的專家並與之合作。我們致力於幫助更多像 ElectrifAi 這樣的公司認識到透過以更實質的方式使用 Upwork 來實現其業務目標的巨大潛力。

Next, I'd like to talk about our second priority, which is to enable more spend per client. We're working on several initiatives to drive faster and broader adoption of Upwork within organizations that use our platform. Specifically, we're rolling out initiatives to help customers rapidly scale the number of active hiring managers in each account and to increase the size of contracts flowing through our platform. To do this, we are investing in an extensive product road map, from business-friendly capabilities like single sign on to improving our Upwork employer-of-record offering to more quickly scale payrolled relationships on our site. We are also investing in a more robust temp-to-hire offering for full-time work. These and other changes are aimed at enabling more clients to get longer term, larger and more ongoing work done via our site.

接下來，我想談談我們的第二個優先事項，讓每位客戶獲得更多支出。我們正在製定多項舉措，以推動使用我們平台的組織更快、更廣泛地採用 Upwork。具體來說，我們正在推出舉措，幫助客戶快速擴大每個帳戶中活躍招募經理的數量，並增加流經我們平台的合約規模。為此，我們正在投資制定廣泛的產品路線圖，從單一登入等業務友善功能，到改進我們的 Upwork 記錄雇主產品，再到更快地擴大我們網站上的薪資關係。我們也投資於更強大的全職工作臨時僱用服務。這些和其他變化的目的是讓更多的客戶透過我們的網站完成更長期、更大規模和更多持續的工作。

Our third priority is to make more high-quality matches, particularly in our technical categories of web, mobile and software development. Technical categories of work account for a substantial portion of our total GSV, and yet these are not our fastest-growing categories today. We believe these categories can grow significantly faster given our talent supply and the ever-growing demand for quality technical talent in the labor market. To tap into this, we are deploying a similar playbook to the one we successfully built last year to accelerate the design categories.

我們的第三個優先事項是進行更多高品質的比賽，特別是在我們的網路、行動和軟體開發技術類別中。技術工作類別占我們總 GSV 的很大一部分，但這些並不是我們今天成長最快的類別。我們相信，鑑於我們的人才供應以及勞動力市場對優質技術人才不斷增長的需求，這些類別的成長速度將顯著加快。為了利用這一點，我們正在部署一個與我們去年成功建造的類似的劇本，以加速設計類別。

And now that I've discussed our 3 strategic pillars for the year: to attract more, bigger clients; to enable more spend per client; and to make more high-quality tech matches, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, Brian Kinion, for additional details on our financials. After he concludes, I'll wrap up our prepared remarks with some closing thoughts.

現在我已經討論了我們今年的三大策略支柱：吸引更多、更大的客戶；讓每位客戶獲得更多支出；為了進行更多高品質的技術匹配，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長 Brian Kinion，以了解有關我們財務狀況的更多詳細資訊。在他結束後，我將用一些結束語來總結我們準備好的演講。

Thank you, Hayden, and good afternoon, everyone. My remarks today will start with the impact on our financial results from the adoption of 2 accounting standards we were required to adopt in 2019. Then I will discuss our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2019 and provide our revenue guidance for the first quarter and full year 2020, which we included in our earnings release filed earlier today.

謝謝海登，大家下午好。我今天的發言將從 2019 年要求採用的 2 項會計準則的採用對我們財務表現的影響開始。然後我將討論我們 2019 年第四季和全年的財務業績，並提供 2020 年第一季和全年的收入指引，我們將其包含在今天早些時候提交的收益報告中。

We adopted ASC 842, which is the new leasing standard as of January 1, 2019, using the effective method. We recorded a right-of-use asset and corresponding lease liability in our consolidated balance sheet for approximately $22 million. The impact to our consolidated statement of operations was immaterial.

我們採用了自 2019 年 1 月 1 日起生效的新租賃標準 ASC 842，採用有效方法。我們在合併資產負債表中記錄了約 2,200 萬美元的使用權資產和相應的租賃負債。對我們的合併營運報表的影響並不重大。

As we previously disclosed, we were required to adopt ASC 606, which is the new revenue recognition accounting standard. We adopted 606 on December 31, 2019, on a modified retrospective basis effective January 1, 2019. The amount and timing of revenue recognized during 2019 remained largely unchanged across our offerings as a result of this adoption. However, the most notable impact relates to our tiered pricing program for freelancer service fees.

正如我們先前所揭露的，我們需要採用 ASC 606，這是新的收入確認會計準則。我們於 2019 年 12 月 31 日通過了 606 號法案，並在修改後的追溯基礎上於 2019 年 1 月 1 日生效。由於採用了這項措施，我們的產品在 2019 年確認的收入金額和時間基本上保持不變。然而，最顯著的影響與我們的自由工作者服務費分級定價計畫有關。

For freelancers working with clients that are on our Upwork Basic and Plus offerings, we have a tiered freelancer service fee schedule based on cumulative lifetime billings by the freelancer to each client. Under the new standard, we will effectively defer a portion of the higher upfront fee and then recognize it ratably over the estimated time that we receive the lower fee. The impact on the adoption was to record $11.8 million of deferred revenue with a corresponding entry to accumulated deficit, which represents the net impact of our tiered freelancer services schedule from the inception of its implementation in 2016 to the end of 2018. The net impact on our 2019 marketplace revenue was approximately $2.1 million less under 606 versus 605. We will be reporting revenue on a go-forward basis under 606 and we expect the impact of this adoption to impact marketplace revenue that would have been recorded under 605 by approximately $750,000 per quarter or approximately $3 million for the full year 2020.

對於與使用我們的 Upwork Ba​​nk 和 Plus 產品的客戶合作的自由工作者，我們根據自由工作者向每個客戶的累積終身帳單制定了分層自由工作者服務費表。根據新準則，我們將有效地推遲部分較高的預付費用，然後在我們收到較低費用的預計時間內按比例確認。對採用的影響是記錄 1,180 萬美元的遞延收入，並相應記錄累積赤字，這代表了我們的分層自由工作者服務計劃從 2016 年實施開始到 2018 年底的淨影響。606 對我們 2019 年市場收入的淨影響比 605 少約 210 萬美元。我們將在 606 下向前報告收入，我們預計這項採用將對 605 下記錄的市場收入產生每季約 75 萬美元或 2020 年全年約 300 萬美元的影響。

We have included additional information in the press release tables to reconcile the impacts of adopting both 606 and 842 on our financial results for reporting periods in 2019. Additionally, we have posted a presentation on the Investor section of our website at investors.upwork.com with details regarding the impacts of adopting the new 606 revenue standard on our reported financial results.

我們在新聞稿表格中添加了更多信息，以協調採用 606 和 842 對我們 2019 年報告期財務業績的影響。此外，我們也在 Investors.upwork.com 網站的投資者部分發布了一份演示文稿，詳細介紹了採用新 606 收入標準對我們報告的財務業績的影響。

As reported under 606, total revenue increased by 19% year-over-year to $80.3 million in the fourth quarter and by 19% to $300.6 million for the full year. Total revenue that would have been reported under 605 increased by 20% year-over-year to $80.7 million in the fourth quarter and increased to $302.6 million for the full year 2019.

根據 606 報告，第四季總營收年增 19%，達到 8,030 萬美元，全年總營收成長 19%，達到 3.006 億美元。第四季 605 項下報告的總營收年增 20%，達到 8,070 萬美元，2019 年全年則增加到 3.026 億美元。

Marketplace revenue, as reported under 606, increased by 21% year-over-year to $72.2 million in the fourth quarter, representing 90% of our total revenue and increased by 20% year-over-year to $268.3 million for the full year 2019. Marketplace revenue that would have been reported under 605 increased by 22% year-over-year to $72.6 million in the fourth quarter, representing 90% of our total revenue, and to $270.4 million for the full year 2019, which was a 21% increase over the previous year.

根據 606 報告，第四季市場營收年增 21% 至 7,220 萬美元，占我們總營收的 90%，2019 年全年年增 20% 至 2.683 億美元。本應在 605 下報告的市場收入第四季同比增長 22%，達到 7,260 萬美元，占我們總收入的 90%，2019 年全年達到 2.704 億美元，增長 21%比前一年。

Managed services revenue increased in the fourth quarter to $8.1 million, and to $32.3 million for the full year 2019. ASC 606 had no impact on managed services revenue. As reported under 606, non-GAAP gross profit increased in the fourth quarter of 2019 to $57.5 million, representing 72% of revenue, compared with 69% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP gross profit under 606 increased in the full year of 2019 to $212.9 million, representing 71% of revenue.

第四季託管服務收入增至 810 萬美元，2019 年全年增至 3,230 萬美元。ASC 606 對託管服務收入沒有影響。根據 606 報告，2019 年第四季非 GAAP 毛利增至 5,750 萬美元，佔營收的 72%，而 2018 年第四季為 69%。2019 年全年，606 項下的非 GAAP 毛利增加至 2.129 億美元，佔營收的 71%。

Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses were $24.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, representing 31% of revenue compared with 26% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses were $93.3 million for the full year of 2019, representing 31% of revenue compared with 28% for full year of 2018.

2019 年第四季非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用為 2,480 萬美元，佔營收的 31%，而 2018 年第四季為 26%。2019 年全年非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用為 9,330 萬美元，佔收入的 31%，而 2018 年全年為 28%。

Non-GAAP R&D expenses were $14.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, representing 18% of revenue compared with 20% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP R&D expenses were $57.6 million for the full year of 2019, representing 19% of revenue compared with 21% for the full year of 2018.

2019 年第四季非 GAAP 研發費用為 1,440 萬美元，佔營收的 18%，而 2018 年第四季為 20%。2019 年全年非 GAAP 研發費用為 5,760 萬美元，佔營收的 19%，而 2018 年全年為 21%。

Non-GAAP G&A expenses were $15 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, representing 19% of revenue compared with 18% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP G&A expenses were $54.7 million for the full year of 2019, representing 18% of revenue compared with 16% for the full year of 2018.

2019 年第四季非 GAAP 一般管理費用為 1,500 萬美元，佔營收的 19%，而 2018 年第四季為 18%。2019 年全年非 GAAP 一般管理費用為 5,470 萬美元，佔收入的 18%，而 2018 年全年為 16%。

We expect sales and marketing, R&D, and G&A expenses to increase in absolute dollars but fluctuate as a percentage of revenue from period-to-period.

我們預期銷售和行銷、研發以及一般行政費用的絕對值將會增加，但佔收入的百分比會隨著時間的推移而波動。

Transaction losses decreased to $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, and were $3.9 million for full year of 2019, representing approximately 1% of revenue; our typical range has been between 1% and 2%. Under 606, non-GAAP net income was $3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with non-GAAP net income of $2.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Our basic and diluted non-GAAP net income per share under 606 was $0.03 in each of the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2018. Under 606, adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 million in the fourth quarter compared with adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

2019年第四季交易損失降至120萬美元，2019年全年交易損失為390萬美元，約佔營收的1%；我們的典型範圍在 1% 到 2% 之間。根據 606 計劃，2019 年第四季非 GAAP 淨利潤為 340 萬美元，而 2018 年第四季非 GAAP 淨利潤為 270 萬美元。2019 年和 2018 年第四季度，606 項下我們的基本和稀釋非 GAAP 每股淨利潤均為 0.03 美元。在 606 項下，第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 350 萬美元，而 2018 年第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 360 萬美元。

Now I'd like to share our forward-looking guidance for 2020, which is on a 606 basis. For the first quarter of 2020, we expect revenue in the range of $81.5 million to $82.5 million. For the full year 2020, we expect revenue in the range of $340 million to $345 million. Our revenue growth rates always vary from period-to-period due to a variety of factors. Specific factors influencing the shape of year-over-year performance this year include: Q1 is expected to be stronger on a year-over-year basis in part because of the number of Mondays since that is the day we recognize our client payment processing and administration fee for the week. The first quarter of 2019 had 12 Mondays, whereas the first quarter of 2020 has 13 Mondays.

現在我想分享我們基於 606 的 2020 年前瞻性指引。2020 年第一季度，我們預計營收在 8,150 萬美元至 8,250 萬美元之間。2020 年全年，我們預計營收在 3.4 億至 3.45 億美元之間。由於多種因素，我們的收入成長率總是在不同時期有所不同。影響今年同比業績表現的具體因素包括： 預計第一季同比表現將更為強勁，部分原因是周一數量較多，因為週一是我們確認客戶付款處理的日子；一周的管理費。2019 年第一季有 12 個週一，而 2020 年第一季有 13 個週一。

In Q2, we are anticipating further adjustments to how Connects are used on our site to drive high-quality matches, and we expect that to put some downward pressure on revenue. Last year, we adjusted the number of Connects required to submit a proposal. As we continue to optimize this to drive quality proposals and increase fill rates for jobs on our platform, we expect to see some negative revenue impact this year.

在第二季度，我們預計將進一步調整我們網站上連接的使用方式，以推動高品質的比賽，我們預計這會給收入帶來一些下行壓力。去年，我們調整了提交提案所需的連線數量。隨著我們繼續優化這一點以推動高品質的提案並提高我們平台上職位的填充率，我們預計今年的收入將受到一些負面影響。

In Q3 and Q4, we are not expecting monetization improvements similar to the pricing changes that impacted us in the second half of 2019, which results in some year-over-year comparison headwind. In addition Q3 of '19 had 14 Mondays, whereas Q3 of 2020 has 13 Mondays.

在第三和第四季度，我們預計貨幣化不會出現類似於 2019 年下半年影響我們的定價變化的情況，這會導致一些同比比較阻力。此外，19 年第三季有 14 個週一，而 2020 年第三季有 13 個週一。

Lastly, we expect our managed services revenue to grow slower in 2020, as our primary focus is on increasing client usage of and spend on our marketplace offerings. All of that said, I would like to emphasize that we are expecting fairly consistent sequential quarterly growth over the course of 2020.

最後，我們預計 2020 年我們的託管服務收入成長將放緩，因為我們的主要重點是增加客戶對我們市場產品的使用和支出。綜上所述，我想強調的是，我們預計 2020 年季度環比成長將相當一致。

As Hayden mentioned earlier, we are confident this business can have strong profitability economics over the long term. This year, however, our focus is on investing for growth in order to capture our large market opportunity. We will manage costs with discipline but have not prioritized achieving a particular EBITDA margin, and as such, we are not guiding to an EBITDA range this year.

正如海登之前所提到的，我們相信該業務能夠在長期內擁有強勁的獲利能力。然而，今年我們的重點是投資成長，以抓住我們巨大的市場機會。我們將嚴格管理成本，但沒有優先考慮實現特定的 EBITDA 利潤率，因此，我們今年不會指導 EBITDA 範圍。

Before turning the call back to Hayden, I'd like to say that we are committed to providing regular investor updates as we've done in the past, and look forward to more face-to-face meetings as the year progresses.

在將電話轉回海登之前，我想說，我們致力於像過去一樣定期提供投資者最新情況，並期待隨著時間的推移舉行更多的面對面會議。

Now I'll turn it over to Hayden to share some concluding remarks.

現在我將把它交給 Hayden 來分享一些結論。

Thanks, Brian. Above all else, I want the takeaway of this call to be that Upwork is incredibly well positioned to capture a huge opportunity, executing on a focused strategy that will deliver 20% growth and increasing profitability over time. We see critical secular trends converging and we're ready to take advantage of the changing landscape of how we work. We have a unique leadership position and knowhow in digital and remote work, a technology platform with incredible scale, a data asset including millions of users and trillions of unique matching data points, which together enable us to deliver better quality talent, faster more effectively and at higher scale than any other solution that exists. We're well positioned to own a significant share of the large and growing market for contingent professionals, with early success and growing penetration of both the self-service market as well as the large enterprise space.

謝謝，布萊恩。最重要的是，我希望這次電話會議的要點是，Upwork 處於非常有利的位置，能夠抓住巨大的機遇，執行專注的策略，隨著時間的推移，該策略將實現20% 的成長並提高盈利能力。我們看到關鍵的長期趨勢正在融合，我們已準備好利用我們工作方式不斷變化的格局。我們在數位和遠距工作方面擁有獨特的領導地位和專業知識、規模令人難以置信的技術平台、包括數百萬用戶和數萬億個獨特匹配數據點的數據資產，這些共同使我們能夠更快更有效地提供更優質的人才，比現有的任何其他解決方案都具有更高的規模。我們已做好充分準備，在龐大且不斷增長的臨時專業人員市場中佔據重要份額，並在自助服務市場和大型企業領域取得了早期成功並不斷滲透。

My #1 priority is to make our potential as a market leader and a higher growth business a reality. While 2020 will be a transition year as we lay the foundation for the future, I'm confident that our efforts to strengthen our core self-service business and expand the impact of our sales team will yield results. I appreciate the continued confidence of our investors, who share our vision and who I believe will be rewarded.

我的首要任務是讓我們作為市場領導者的潛力和更高成長的業務成為現實。雖然 2020 年將是我們為未來奠定基礎的過渡年，但我相信，我們加強核心自助服務業務和擴大銷售團隊影響力的努力將會取得成果。我感謝投資者的持續信任，他們與我們有著共同的願景，我相信他們會得到回報。

One of the best things about my job is that I get to see and hear from our customers every day, both those at giant corporations and those at small mom and pop shops. In recent conversations, Upwork clients and freelancers used words like superhuman and Batman to describe how they feel when using our product. Our customers speak with awe about how our company has truly changed what they thought was possible for themselves and their businesses. Our tremendous opportunity to be a generation-defining company that changes people's lives for the better motivates me and all of us at Upwork every single day. We are confident in the future and excited about the opportunities ahead.

我的工作中最好的事情之一就是我每天都能看到和聽到客戶的意見，無論是大公司的客戶還是小型夫妻店的客戶。在最近的對話中，Upwork 客戶和自由工作者使用超人和蝙蝠俠等詞彙來描述他們在使用我們的產品時的感受。我們的客戶滿懷敬畏地談論我們公司如何真正改變了他們認為對自己和他們的企業來說可能發生的事情。我們有巨大的機會成為一家定義一代人的公司，讓人們的生活變得更好，這每天都激勵著我和 Upwork 的所有人。我們對未來充滿信心，並對未來的機會感到興奮。

We look forward to answering your questions about our results and our outlook. Operator, we are ready for questions.

我們期待回答您有關我們的結果和前景的問題。接線員，我們準備好回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney from RBC.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 RBC 的 Mark Mahaney。

I'd like to ask 2 questions, please. Hayden, thanks for laying out the 3 initiatives to accelerate growth going into 2021, which of those 3 or could you just rank order them in terms of which of those 3 you think will be easiest and which of those 3 will be hardest to achieve? And then Brian, will you ring-fence at all the bottom line for us in '20, like what you're willing to accept and what you aren't willing to accept? Could we -- would it be -- could it be a year of steep EBITDA losses? Do you want to run it at breakeven? I'm sorry, you may have covered that, but I think I may have missed that. Just if you're not giving specific guidance that you at least ring-fencing it to levels that we should at least not expect -- we should not be surprised by or should not expect as investors?

我想請教2個問題。Hayden，感謝您提出了2021 年加速成長的3 項舉措，這3 項中哪一項是您認為最容易實現的，或者您認為這3 項中哪一項是最難實現的，或者您能否對它們進行排序？然後布萊恩，你會在 20 世紀為我們劃定所有的底線嗎？例如你願意接受什麼，你不願意接受什麼？今年會不會是 EBITDA 大幅虧損的一年？你想在盈虧平衡的情況下運行它嗎？抱歉，您可能已經涵蓋了這一點，但我想我可能錯過了這一點。如果你沒有給出具體的指導，至少將其限制在我們至少不應該預期的水平——作為投資者，我們不應該感到驚訝或不應該預期？

Mark, thanks for the question. In terms of ranking our priorities, I think the #1 focus for us is really around increasing our client spend retention. And that metric is driven by really all 3 of the priorities I outlined, in particular, in priority #2, where we're talking about increasing the efficacy for clients to do longer term solutions on our site, like payroll and temp-to-hire offerings in objective #1 where we're tackling larger clients who typically we've seen have a lot more to spend and also have better retention characteristics for us. I think those are just some examples of how really all 3 of the pieces are critical to driving that overall growth. But the umbrella that we're really focused on is how do we improve client spend retention over time because there's a lot of runway there, and we think we can do it with the strategy we've laid out.

馬克，謝謝你的提問。就我們的優先事項排序而言，我認為我們的第一個重點實際上是提高客戶支出保留率。該指標實際上是由我概述的所有 3 個優先事項驅動的，特別是在優先事項 #2 中，我們討論的是提高客戶在我們網站上執行長期解決方案的效率，例如工資和臨時工。目標#1中的招募產品，我們正在處理更大的客戶，我們通常會看到這些客戶有更多的花費，並且對我們來說也有更好的保留特徵。我認為這些只是一些例子，說明這三個部分對於推動整體成長確實至關重要。但我們真正關注的是如何隨著時間的推移提高客戶支出保留率，因為那裡有很多跑道，我們認為我們可以透過我們制定的策略來做到這一點。

Yes. Thanks, Mark, for your question on the EBITDA. So our goal is to make the company a higher growth business, sustaining 20% year-over-year over the long term. And so with that in mind, we plan to operate with cost discipline as we've done in the past. We will look to redeploy capital to the highest growth opportunities, especially in sales and marketing as we see clear LTV to CAC hurdles. We continuously are evaluating those best options. And we wanted optionality in order to drive that growth without being constrained by a profitability target this year, but I would say that both Hayden and I will manage this business accordingly and not -- it's not a growth at all cost kind of conversation.

是的。謝謝馬克提出關於 EBITDA 的問題。所以我們的目標是讓公司成為更高成長的企業，長期維持20%的年成長。因此，考慮到這一點，我們計劃像過去一樣嚴格遵守成本原則。我們將尋求將資本重新部署到最高成長機會，特別是在銷售和行銷領域，因為我們看到 CAC 有明顯的 LTV 障礙。我們不斷評估這些最佳選擇。我們希望有選擇性，以便在不受今年盈利目標限制的情況下推動增長，但我想說，海登和我都會相應地管理這項業務，而不是——這不是不惜一切代價增長的對話。

And your next question comes from the line of Ron Josey from JMP Securities.

您的下一個問題來自 JMP 證券公司的 Ron Josey。

This is David on for Ron. Can you talk about your sales hiring plans for 2020? And then for Brian, under 606, you deferred more marketplace revenue in 3Q. Can you provide some more color on that, please?

這是大衛替榮恩發言。能談談您2020年的銷售招募計畫嗎？然後對於 Brian，在 606 下，您在第三季推遲了更多的市場收入。您能提供更多顏色嗎？

Yes. So David, our focus is definitely on capturing long-term value and creating that long-term value, and so sales is an important part of that strategy. We saw really good performance last year from our sales team on a number of metrics, including the 18- to 24-month payback period, but also exceeding some of our targets around new deals, as an example. And so as we look towards the rest of this year, we have a hiring plan around sales, but really have identified a number of gating metrics. But as we see the sales team achieving, that will trigger more or less hiring based on the performance. And so we are expecting continued consistent hiring within the sales organization, but we will dynamically make decisions around that based on the team's performance.

是的。所以大衛，我們的重點肯定是獲取長期價值並創造長期價值，因此銷售是該策略的重要組成部分。去年，我們的銷售團隊在許多指標上都取得了非常好的表現，包括 18 至 24 個月的投資回收期，而且還超越了我們圍繞新交易的一些目標。因此，當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，我們有一個圍繞銷售的招聘計劃，但實際上已經確定了一些控制指標。但當我們看到銷售團隊取得成就時，這將根據績效觸發或多或少的招募。因此，我們期望銷售組織內部持續持續招聘，但我們將根據團隊的績效動態地做出決策。

Yes, thanks for your question on 606. It's based upon the build of that freelancer service fee over time, and so it can vary a little bit quarter-by-quarter. And what we guided was basically around $750,000 a quarter going forward in 2020. But if you look back historically at some of the numbers there, they do move around a little bit on a quarter-to-quarter basis. But based on our forecast going forward, it looks like it's fairly even. And that depends on, again, the estimated time of when freelancers can move around from the 20%, 10%, 5% buckets. And so it's basically more of a timing issue than anything else. And we'll have to continue to assess the estimated time of when they will get to that 5% tier on a go-forward basis, which could move numbers around, but that won't be that material.

是的，感謝您在 606 上提出的問題。它是基於自由工作者服務費隨著時間的推移而增加的，因此每個季度可能會略有不同。到 2020 年，我們的指導基本上是每季 75 萬美元左右。但如果你回顧歷史上的一些數字，你會發現它們確實在每季都有一些變化。但根據我們對未來的預測，看起來相當均勻。這又取決於自由工作者可以從 20%、10%、5% 的桶中移動的估計時間。因此，這基本上更多的是一個時間問題。我們必須繼續評估他們何時達到 5% 的水平，這可能會改變數字，但這不是那麼重要。

And your next question comes from the line of Brent Thill from Jefferies.

您的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Brent Thill。

This is John Byun for Brent. Thanks again for rolling out the strategy. In terms of returning to 20% growth, I mean I know you can't give guidance, but how wide is the time line? And what is required to do that? Is there a certain milestone you have to hit in terms of the mix from your larger companies or any specific achievements that you need to hit to return to that level?

我是布倫特的約翰·拜恩。再次感謝您推出策略。就恢復20%的成長而言，我的意思是我知道你無法給予指導，但時間線有多寬？做到這一點需要什麼？就大公司的組合而言，您是否必須達到某個里程碑，或者您需要達到什麼具體成就才能恢復到該水平？

Absolutely. So the fundamentals of our business, I want to emphasize, are really strong. And as we're looking ahead over this year, as Brian mentioned, we're seeing the expectation of consistent quarter-over-quarter growth in the business. That being said, the 20% target is what we're aiming for, and we want to get there as soon as possible. It's going to take some time as we lay out the -- as we continue with the investments that I outlined in terms of the strategy around driving more larger clients into our product, helping them spend more on bigger and more programmatic efforts as well as with our focus on the technical category and really acceleration there. So we want to be realistic as we look forward around how long those things will take.

絕對地。因此，我想強調的是，我們業務的基礎非常強大。正如布萊恩所提到的，當我們展望今年時，我們預計業務將實現季度環比持續成長。話雖這麼說，20% 的目標是我們的目標，我們希望盡快實現這一目標。當我們繼續進行我概述的投資策略時，我們需要一些時間來推動更多的大客戶進入我們的產品，幫助他們在更大、更程序化的工作上投入更多資金，以及我們專注於技術類別並真正加速那裡的發展。因此，當我們展望這些事情需要多長時間時，我們希望保持現實。

I can tell you that my experience in this business is that there's 2 different types of changes we can typically make. One category of changes are things that are around pricing or monetization that often we introduce, and that can be more of like a systemic shock and have a material impact immediately for better for worse. The other types of changes we make are usually introducing new features, new offerings, things like that that given the recurring nature of habitual behavior that drives so much of any single year's performance, it will take the next year or the third year for those impacts to fully scale out to the full business. And so we are working hard to get to that goal as fast as possible, but we're realistic that some of these investments will take a little bit of time to materialize.

我可以告訴你，我在這個行業的經驗是，我們通常可以做出兩種不同類型的改變。一類變化是我們經常引入的與定價或貨幣化相關的變化，這些變化可能更像是系統性衝擊，並且會立即產生重大影響，無論好壞。我們所做的其他類型的改變通常是引入新功能、新產品等，考慮到習慣行為的反覆出現在很大程度上推動了任何一年的業績，這些影響將需要明年或第三年才能顯現出來全面擴展到整個業務。因此，我們正在努力盡快實現這一目標，但我們現實的是，其中一些投資需要一點時間才能實現。

And your next question comes from the line of Marvin Fong from BTIG.

您的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Marvin Fong。

I just want to drill down on that wallet retention target at 98% to 100%. I was curious if that's -- what degree is that being impacted by, I guess, the idea that some people might be hired full-time off the platform? If not for that, would wallet retention be above a 100%? And then I do get questions on just that what are the potential economics of -- to Upwork when freelancers hired off the platform? Is that -- how material can that be?

我只想深入了解 98% 到 100% 的錢包保留率目標。我很好奇，我猜，有些人可能會在平台之外全職受聘，這對這種影響有多大？如果不是這樣，錢包留存率會超過 100% 嗎？然後我確實有人問到，當自由工作者從平台上聘用時，Upwork 的潛在經濟效益是什麼？那是——那有多重要？

Client spend retention is a big focus for us. And so we're really working to not just watch that number hit the historical levels, which is the number we stated 98% to 100%. That's the pattern we've seen in the business for a long time. And so the reversion to that number is something that we could foresee. But that being said, our priority is to try to make that not happen and try to increase client spend retention through the strategies around pursuing larger clients, getting larger projects on the site.

保留客戶支出是我們的一大重點。因此，我們確實在努力，不僅僅是讓這個數字達到歷史水平，也就是我們所說的 98% 到 100%。這就是我們長期以來在行業中看到的模式。因此，我們可以預見這一數字的回歸。但話雖這麼說，我們的首要任務是努力避免這種情況發生，並嘗試透過圍繞追求更大客戶、在網站上獲得更大項目的策略來增加客戶支出保留率。

And so I think to your question around taking freelancers off the site, which certainly does happen, every marketplace has some of that behavior kind of endemic to it. One of the focus areas that we're working on this area is a lot of our clients have said, "Hey, I really want to work with this amazing freelancer I found. Help me figure out how to do that in a different way, like I want to payroll them. This is a long-term relationship." And a lot of the solutions that we have there, including our payroll solution, haven't been that prominent in front of users and not easy for them to identify and start using.

因此，我認為關於讓自由工作者離開網站的問題（這肯定會發生），每個市場都有一些特有的行為。我們在這一領域工作的重點領域之一是我們的許多客戶都說：「嘿，我真的很想與我找到的這位令人驚嘆的自由工作者一起工作。幫助我弄清楚如何以不同的方式做到這一點，就像我想給他們薪水一樣。這是一種長期的關係。」我們在那裡擁有的許多解決方案，包括我們的薪資解決方案，在用戶面前並沒有那麼突出，而且他們不容易識別和開始使用。

And so one of the things we're doing to help with client spend retention, but more fundamentally also to serve kind of the need of the customers out there telling us what they want, is make that the offerings around client spend around payroll and around employment of record services and around scenarios like temp-to-hire, things that people can much more readily do directly inside of our current product experience. And that way, they have an option to do that without having to basically circumvent our platform. And so those are the types of investments that I think really create more value for users in terms of expanding our offering and the ways that they can use us and also come back to improving that client spend retention number over time. And so that's a big focus for us this year.

因此，我們正在做的事情之一是幫助客戶保留支出，但更根本的是滿足客戶的需求，告訴我們他們想要什麼，就是圍繞客戶支出提供圍繞工資和圍繞客戶支出的產品。記錄服務的使用以及臨時僱用等場景，人們可以在我們當前的產品體驗中直接更容易地完成這些事情。這樣，他們就可以選擇這樣做，而不必基本上繞過我們的平台。因此，我認為這些類型的投資真正為用戶創造了更多價值，不僅擴大了我們的產品範圍，增加了他們使用我們的方式，而且隨著時間的推移，也提高了客戶支出保留率。所以這是我們今年的重點。

Great. And then a second one, if I may. Just Brian, you alluded to the change in the Connects policy starting in the second quarter. Could you maybe elaborate on that? And then also give us some sense, will that move to take rate measurably as we think about the interplay of revenue and GSV for 2020?

偉大的。如果可以的話，然後是第二個。布萊恩，您提到了從第二季開始的連接政策的變化。能詳細說明一下嗎？然後也給我們一些感覺，當我們考慮 2020 年收入和 GSV 的相互作用時，這項措施是否會衡量利率？

Just to chime in on the Connects question. One of the things we changed last year around Connects was introducing more of a strong payment model around Connects for freelancers, and that was really aiming at how do we improve the quality of the proposals that freelancers are submitting and save them more time from submitting many, many proposals that ultimately were not going to be successful with clients. And so that was the change that we introduced last year, and that really did help with monetization in the back half of the year. As a byproduct of that, it was more successful even though we expected on monetization. And this year, I want to be really clear that we are focused on growing the business over the long term, including really healthy GSV growth and not making decisions that increase in-year revenue but are not driving sustainable, healthy marketplace characteristics.

只是為了插話連接問題。去年我們圍繞Connects 所做的改變之一是為自由工作者引入了更多圍繞Connects 的強大支付模式，這實際上是為了我們如何提高自由工作者提交的提案的質量，並為他們節省更多時間來提交許多提案。 ，許多提案最終不會在客戶中獲得成功。這就是我們去年推出的改變，這確實有助於今年下半年的獲利。作為其副產品，儘管我們期望貨幣化，但它還是更成功。今年，我想明確表示，我們的重點是長期業務成長，包括真正健康的 GSV 成長，而不是做出增加年內收入但不會推動可持續、健康的市場特徵的決策。

And so as we look at that Connects framework that we introduced last year, there is room to optimize the pricing inside of that framework so that we get more high-quality proposals, increased match rates with clients and that does help us over the long term in terms of having really healthy recurring usage. But in the short term, that will mean some monetization reductions as we -- to optimize the pricing in that program. So that's kind of the context on the changes we're making in and why I think this is part of, again, really focused on long-term health of the business. Do you want to add anything on the quarters, Brian?

因此，當我們審視去年推出的 Connects 框架時，我們發現該框架內部的定價還有優化的空間，以便我們獲得更多高質量的提案，提高與客戶的匹配率，這確實對我們有長期幫助就真正健康的重複使用而言。但從短期來看，這將意味著我們會減少一些貨幣化——以優化該計劃的定價。這就是我們正在做出的改變的背景，也是為什麼我認為這是真正專注於業務長期健康發展的一部分。布萊恩，你想在宿舍裡增加什麼嗎？

No, I think that -- I mean Marvin, you might have got it. I mean we've said this in the prepared remarks that we're anticipating the Connects adjustments to reduce revenue in Q2 and throughout 2020. But it's all for long-term growth. It's all about driving quality proposals and more fill rate improvements. We want to make sure that you took that into account building your models and part of what we said as well as the sequential quarterly growth. You can kind of see that being consistent throughout the year, and you can take that into account in your models.

不，我認為——我是說馬文，你可能已經明白了。我的意思是，我們在準備好的演講中已經說過，我們預計 Connects 會進行調整，以減少第二季和整個 2020 年的收入。但這都是為了長期成長。這一切都是為了推動品質提案和更多填充率的提高。我們希望確保您在建立模型時考慮到這一點以及我們所說的一部分以及連續的季度成長。您可以看到這一點全年保持一致，並且您可以在模型中考慮這一點。

Moving on, we also have a question coming from Nandan Amladi from Guggenheim Partners.

接下來，我們還有一個來自古根漢合夥人公司的南丹阿姆拉迪的問題。

I wanted to ask about the composition of the sales team. I know you've stacked up, and you said about half of the sales team is now productive. Can you talk about your emphasis on the mid-market versus large enterprise and new versus upsell?

我想問一下銷售團隊的組成。我知道您已經累積了經驗，並且您說過大約一半的銷售團隊現在很有成效。您能談談您對中端市場與大型企業以及新產品與追加銷售的重視嗎？

Yes. So right now, the team is structured to cover all the sizes of accounts kind of inside of our segmentation. So we've got a large accounts team, our strategic accounts team as well as mid-market. And the volume of opportunities right now is certainly in the mid-market team because they're really the ones pulling from the broader marketplace and a lot of the customers that have started to reach the limitations of the lower price plans that we offer and really are needing to scale up and use Upwork Business and Upwork Enterprise. So from a sales team standpoint, certainly there's a lot of personnel in that part of the team. But we are still really focused on making sure that we have strength with our enterprise and larger customers because they have such a large programmatic spend, and we can offer them the scale that they need to deploy that spend and to really use us in a systematic way is the goal.

是的。所以現在，團隊的結構涵蓋了我們細分範圍內的所有帳戶規模。因此，我們擁有龐大的客戶團隊、策略客戶團隊以及中端市場團隊。現在的機會數量肯定是在中端市場團隊中，因為他們實際上是從更廣泛的市場中拉出來的，並且許多客戶已經開始達到我們提供的較低價格計劃的限制，並且確實需要擴大規模並使用Upwork Business 和Upwork Enterprise。因此，從銷售團隊的角度來看，這部分團隊肯定有很多人員。但我們仍然真正專注於確保我們在企業和大型客戶中擁有實力，因為他們擁有如此龐大的程序化支出，我們可以為他們提供部署該支出所需的規模，並真正以系統化方式使用我們。方法就是目標。

So we're not -- we're kind of covering all our bases there in terms of the reps kind of working on each part of the market. In terms of land versus expand kind of within that structure that's focused on the different client sizes by segment, there are land teams and expand teams that really are focused on generating that activity. And as I mentioned, the investments we made last year in specializing those roles have been really successful in both sides, expanding new deals as well as growing within the existing customers we have.

所以我們不是——我們在市場各個部分的代表方面涵蓋了我們所有的基礎。就土地與擴張而言，在專注於按細分市場不同客戶規模的結構中，有土地團隊和擴張團隊真正專注於進行該活動。正如我所提到的，我們去年在專業化這些角色方面所做的投資在雙方都取得了真正的成功，擴大了新交易，並在我們現有的客戶中不斷發展。

Yes. And I wanted to say, the scale and specification of our clients means that being touched by both sales and services. It's a significant accelerator to unlock that spend that they have. And so once we do land then it's critical for us to unlock that project and staff augmentation costs. The other thing I would add is we see a pretty solid payback period of 18 to 24 months on our enterprise deals, which we feel we can improve over time as we ramp more of that sales force.

是的。我想說的是，我們客戶的規模和規格意味著銷售和服務都會受到感動。這是釋放他們現有支出的重要加速器。因此，一旦我們落地，那麼釋放該專案和人員擴充成本對我們來說至關重要。我要補充的另一件事是，我們的企業交易有 18 至 24 個月的相當穩定的投資回收期，我們認為隨著時間的推移，隨著我們銷售隊伍的增加，我們可以改善這一點。

And your next question comes from the line of Drew Kootman from Cantor Fitzgerald.

你的下一個問題來自康托·菲茨杰拉德 (Cantor Fitzgerald) 的德魯·庫特曼 (Drew Kootman)。

Brian, I know you touched on all the quarterly impacts that are happening this year and the tough comps in the second half. But I was just curious if you could discuss where you see the year-over-year growth rate may be bottoming out? Or do you think that's more of a 2021 thing on the way to 20%?

布萊恩，我知道您談到了今年發生的所有季度影響以及下半年的艱難比較。但我只是好奇您能否討論一下您認為同比增長率可能會在哪裡觸底？或者你認為這更多是 2021 年達到 20% 的事嗎？

Yes. So great question. I would anticipate, based upon what we gave you guys on the sequential growth periods and the year-over-year comp periods that we have, is that you will see the growth deceleration to basically stabilize or bottom out in the back half of the year with acceleration expected in 2021 as we do a lot of these investments. And it takes a while, as Hayden said, for us to see the results of some of the investments. They take a while to move through the marketplace and things like that. So that would be where I see the year going.

是的。很好的問題。我預計，根據我們向你們提供的連續增長期和同比比較期的信息，你們將看到增長減速在今年下半年基本穩定或觸底。隨著我們進行大量此類投資，預計 2021 年會加速。正如海登所說，我們需要一段時間才能看到一些投資的結果。他們需要一段時間才能穿過市場之類的東西。這就是我預計今年的發展方向。

Great. And then just with the recent market volatility, just curious how much volatility you guys assume for the economy and guidance?

偉大的。然後，考慮到最近的市場波動，只是想知道你們對經濟和指導的假設有多大波動？

Yes. I mean our marketplace is fairly predictable based upon spend and the retention and things like that. I mean there are always macroeconomic things that are going on, and we were discussing this morning, the coronavirus and like how would that impact us. But we don't have a big supply chain in China. This is remote work. And so people can get work from that perspective. And so I would say there's not a lot of macroeconomic things that we're factoring into our guidance right now, but we do monitor those things.

是的。我的意思是，根據支出和留任率等因素，我們的市場是相當可預測的。我的意思是，宏觀經濟方面的事情總是在發生，我們今天早上正在討論冠狀病毒，以及這將如何影響我們。但我們在中國沒有大型供應鏈。這是遠距工作。因此人們可以從這個角度找到工作。因此，我想說，我們目前沒有將太多宏觀經濟因素納入我們的指導中，但我們確實會監控這些因素。

Perfect.

完美的。

Yes, I would just add to that. I think we have seen in the past and would expect in the future of some degree of competing countervailing factors. If there is a downturn, certainly a lot of customers may pull back spending in a lot of places. But often, we've seen there's deflated value, and I think that's where our solution is fairly valuable as well as really let people tap into kind of distributed teams and things like that that they may be more interested in a briefing when there's kind of lean times and they have to reassess their workforce. So we had a really successful year back in 2008, 2009, and we haven't baked into the future for our current forecast any specific impact from market volatility.

是的，我只想補充一點。我認為我們過去已經看到並且預計未來會出現某種程度的競爭性抵消因素。如果出現經濟衰退，許多客戶肯定會減少在許多地方的支出。但我們經常看到價值縮水，我認為這就是我們的解決方案相當有價值的地方，並且真正讓人們利用分散式團隊和類似的東西，當有某種情況時，他們可能對簡報更感興趣經濟困難時期，他們必須重新評估他們的勞動力。因此，我們在 2008 年和 2009 年度過了非常成功的一年，我們還沒有考慮到市場波動對未來的任何具體影響。

And your next question comes from the line of Corey Greendale from First Analysis.

你的下一個問題來自《First Analysis》的科里·格林代爾 (Corey Greendale)。

This is Logan on for Corey. Maybe a question on marketing spend in 2020. You mentioned awareness earlier. Should we anticipate materially higher marketing spend in 2020? Or how should we think about that expense going forward?

這是科里的洛根。也許是關於 2020 年行銷支出的問題。您之前提到了意識。我們是否應該預期 2020 年的行銷支出會大幅增加？或者我們應該如何考慮未來的支出？

We're definitely focused on closing the gap around not just awareness but more of the realization and consideration of Upwork for more of the strategic larger projects, complex projects. And I think that's where we're seeing an opportunity in the market today where a lot of customers who maybe do know about us don't have the right perception about how strategically we can help them out. This year, we are maintaining our brand investments in a similar way to last year, and we have rebooted the campaign starting in January with updated messaging that really goes after closing that perception versus reality gap.

我們絕對致力於縮小差距，不僅是在認識方面，而且是在更多戰略性大型專案、複雜專案中對 Upwork 的實現和考慮。我認為這就是我們今天在市場上看到的機會，很多可能了解我們的客戶對我們如何從策略上幫助他們擺脫困境沒有正確的認識。今年，我們將以與去年類似的方式維持我們的品牌投資，並且我們從一月份開始重新啟動了該活動，並更新了訊息，真正消除了認知與現實之間的差距。

As we look out over the year, we are still focused on maintaining healthy CAC to LTV ratios. I think it's really critical that we do not adopt any kind of strategy that some other companies do around kind of growth at all costs or growth at the expense of really sensibility. So right now, we are investing in the areas where we feel like there is a profitable return. And we're doing some amount of brand spend there, but compared to folks like Indeed and ZipRecruiter, our investments there are, on order of magnitude, smaller. And we think that's the right thing for right now. We're not ready to go pull the trigger on some giant increase in brand spend. So right now, we're evaluating the opportunities, looking at the economics, and we'll continue to optimize our marketing spend as we see it perform.

展望這一年，我們仍然致力於維持健康的 CAC 與 LTV 比率。我認為至關重要的是，我們不要像其他公司那樣採取任何不惜一切代價實現成長或以犧牲真正敏感性為代價的成長策略。所以現在，我們正在投資那些我們認為能帶來豐厚回報的領域。我們在那裡進行了一定的品牌支出，但與 Indeed 和 ZipRecruiter 等公司相比，我們在那裡的投資在數量級上較小。我們認為目前這是正確的做法。我們還沒有準備好大幅增加品牌支出。所以現在，我們正在評估機會，著眼於經濟，我們將根據我們看到的表現繼續優化我們的行銷支出。

Okay. Great. And then maybe a product functionality question for you, Hayden. What are you hearing from your customers? Are some of your large customers that maybe aren't spending as much as you think they should, are they giving you feedback that you lack this XYZ functionality and this is a must-have, a need to have, a nice to have. What's that discussion look like?

好的。偉大的。海登，也許還有一個產品功能問題想問你。您從客戶那裡聽到了什麼？您的一些大客戶是否可能沒有像您想像的那樣花費那麼多，他們是否給您反饋說您缺乏此 XYZ 功能，而這是必須具備的、需要擁有的、值得擁有的。那個討論是什麼樣的？

Yes. So customers always have a long list of requests, as you know, but we have incredibly great feedback from customers. I mean just 2 weeks ago, I was meeting with our customer advisory board, which includes some of our representatives from some of our biggest companies that we serve today. And I'd say, it really depends on the market segment. I think we have really strong product market fit across the board. And we're just kind of dialing the features and functionality based on certain requirements. And I think that's where one of our advantages is, as when you go to a large customer, a lot of the times the things they need around governance and reporting, security and compliance.

是的。因此，如您所知，客戶總是有一長串請求，但我們從客戶那裡得到了非常好的回饋。我的意思是，就在兩週前，我正在與我們的客戶諮詢委員會會面，其中包括我們今天所服務的一些最大公司的一些代表。我想說，這實際上取決於細分市場。我認為我們的產品市場契合度非常高。我們只是根據某些要求來調整特性和功能。我認為這就是我們的優勢之一，就像當你接觸大客戶時，很多時候他們需要圍繞著治理和報告、安全性和合規性的東西。

Those are really unique needs, and we have been investing for years in building out solutions that serve those needs. And I think those are the types of things that really will continue to be differentiators for us as we continue to attack larger parts of the market and sell into larger companies. So I'm excited about the foundation that we've built on. And certainly, we'll continue to innovate the product offering to serve our customers.

這些確實是獨特的需求，多年來我們一直在投資建立滿足這些需求的解決方案。我認為，隨著我們繼續攻擊更大的市場並向更大的公司出售產品，這些類型的事情將繼續成為我們的差異化因素。所以我對我們所建立的基礎感到興奮。當然，我們將繼續創新產品來服務我們的客戶。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to our presenters for any closing remarks.

我目前沒有提出任何進一步的問題。現在我想將會議轉回給我們的主持人發表閉幕詞。

Thank you all for joining the call today, and you can hang up, operator.

感謝大家今天加入通話，接線員，您可以掛斷電話了。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now all disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入。你們現在可以斷開連結了。