Upwork Inc (UPWK) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Upwork second-quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持，歡迎參加 Upwork 第二季度收益電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jacob McQuown, Vice President to Deputy General Counsel. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給今天的發言人、副總裁兼副總法律顧問雅各布·麥克奎恩 (Jacob McQuown)。請繼續。

Thank you. Welcome to Upwork's discussion of its second-quarter 2024 financial results. Joining me today are Hayden Brown, Upwork's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Erica Gessert, Upwork's Chief Financial Officer. Following management's prepared remarks, they will be happy to take your questions. But first, I'll review the Safe Harbor statement.

謝謝。歡迎參加 Upwork 對其 2024 年第二季財務表現的討論。今天與我一起出席的還有 Upwork 總裁兼執行長 Hayden Brown；以及 Upwork 財務長 Erica Gessert。在管理層準備好發言後，他們將很樂意回答您的問題。但首先，我將回顧安全港聲明。

During this call, we may make statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact. 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.

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。前瞻性陳述包括除歷史事實陳述之外的所有陳述。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。

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 website and our Investor Relations website as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings press release. Additional information will also be set forth in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2024.

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，以及今天的收益新聞稿中討論的風險和其他重要因素。其他資訊也將在我們截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日的三個月的 10-Q 表格季度報告中列出。

In addition, reference will be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information regarding non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our Investor Relations website at investors.upwork.com. Unless otherwise noted, reported figures are rounded in comparison to the second quarter of 2024 or to the second quarter of 2023. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP figure, and all other financial measures are GAAP unless added as non-GAAP.

此外，也將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。有關非 GAAP 財務指標的信息，包括與其最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的調節，可以在今天下午在我們的投資者關係網站 Investors.upwork.com 上發布的新聞稿中找到。除非另有說明，報告的數據是與 2024 年第二季或 2023 年第二季相比進行四捨五入的。自由現金流量是非公認會計準則數字，所有其他財務指標均為公認會計準則，除非添加為非公認會計準則。

Now, I'll turn the call over to Hayden.

現在，我將把電話轉給海登。

Welcome, everyone, to Upwork's second-quarter 2024 earnings call. Upwork's strong and durable business continues to deliver compelling growth characteristics on both the top and bottom lines. Our second-quarter revenue reached $193.1 million, marking a 15% year-over-year increase. Our continued commitment to enhancing profitability was demonstrated by our highest-ever quarter of GAAP net income at $22.2 million, while adjusted EBITDA was $40.8 million, a 21% adjusted EBITDA margin, up from 8.5% in the second quarter of last year. We delivered this revenue growth and outperformed our profitability goals while operating in a dynamic macroeconomic environment that has become more challenging for businesses, large and small.

歡迎大家參加 Upwork 的 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。Upwork 強大而持久的業務繼續在營收和利潤方面提供引人注目的成長特徵。我們第二季的營收達到 1.931 億美元，年增 15%。我們對提高獲利能力的持續承諾體現在我們有史以來最高的季度GAAP 淨利潤為2,220 萬美元，而調整後EBITDA 為4,080 萬美元，調整後EBITDA 利潤率為21%，高於去年第二季度的8.5 %。我們實現了這一收入成長，並超越了我們的獲利目標，同時在動態的宏觀經濟環境中運營，這對大大小小的企業都變得更具挑戰性。

This challenging environment showed through with softer top-of-funnel activity than expected in the second quarter. A leading indicator of the softness that we track internally is client-seeking work, which is a measure of the number of clients engaging in an action that leads to a new contract.

這種充滿挑戰的環境體現在第二季的漏斗頂部活動比預期更為疲軟。我們內部追蹤的軟弱性的一個主要指標是尋求客戶的工作，這是衡量參與導致新合約的行動的客戶數量的指標。

In Q1, this number accelerated 11% quarter over quarter, while in Q2, this number decelerated 6% sequentially, with particular impact in May and June, along with a mix shift of active clients towards very small businesses. While we applaud the resiliency of smaller businesses outperforming other cohorts on our platform, small businesses' historical characteristics of lower spend per contract and fewer contracts per client lead us to have more caution about performance expectations for the remainder of the year. We believe it's prudent to assume that the changes in client activity due to macroeconomic conditions that we observed in Q2 will remain for the rest of 2024, and we have factored those changes into lowered 2024 full-year revenue guidance, while reiterating our 2024 full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance.

在第一季度，這一數字環比增長了 11%，而在第二季度，這一數字環比下降了 6%，特別是在 5 月和 6 月，以及活躍客戶向非常小型企業的混合轉移。雖然我們對小型企業在我們平台上表現優於其他企業的彈性表示讚賞，但小型企業每份合約支出較低和每個客戶合約較少的歷史特徵使我們對今年剩餘時間的業績預期更加謹慎。我們認為，謹慎的假設是，我們在第二季度觀察到的宏觀經濟狀況導致的客戶活動變化將在2024 年剩餘時間內持續存在，並且我們已將這些變化納入下調的2024 年全年收入指引中，同時重申我們的2024 年全年收入指引。

Upwork's profitable marketplace model and our continued disciplined execution provide us with a distinct competitive and financial advantage, which we are continuing to leverage. Our advanced technology platform and global two-sided marketplace enable us to serve as the singular online destination to connect highly skilled freelance talent with clients in the full range of ways as they want to work. Our numbers also evidence our continued success in winning share from offline, analog, and digital hiring and staffing sources as we outperform broader market trends.

Upwork 的獲利市場模式和我們持續嚴格的執行為我們提供了獨特的競爭和財務優勢，我們將繼續利用這一優勢。我們先進的技術平台和全球雙邊市場使我們能夠成為唯一的線上目的地，以客戶想要的各種方式將高技能的自由職業人才與客戶聯繫起來。我們的數字也證明，我們在超越更廣泛的市場趨勢的同時，不斷成功地從線下、類比和數位招募和人員配置來源中贏得份額。

Upwork benefits from the ongoing enduring secular shift towards a high-quality, cost-effective, flexible alternative to traditional full-time and contingent staffing approaches. We are in a position of continued strength, both on an absolute and relative basis with growing profitability and free cash flow dynamics that reflect the fundamental advantages of our business model.

Upwork 受益於持續的長期轉變，轉向高品質、具成本效益、靈活的替代傳統全職和臨時人員配置方法。無論是在絕對還是相對基礎上，我們都處於持續強勢的地位，不斷增長的盈利能力和自由現金流動態反映了我們商業模式的基本優勢。

Innovation for growth continues to be paramount for Upwork, positioning us for peak performance once the macro rebounds. We continue to invest in multiple revenue and GSV growth levers to maintain our position as an industry leader and translate that leadership position into top- and bottom-line growth, supported by continued healthy take rate expansion. These levers include: first, continuing to leverage Upwork's intrinsic ability to shape shift to wherever the market demand for skills is with the current focus on making Upwork the preeminent destination for AI talent and work; second, improving customer productivity, engagement, and work outcomes in our products by infusing AI-powered features and user experiences built on Uma, Upwork's mindful AI; third, our continued expansion into our enterprise TAM through the right products, partnerships, and integrations; fourth, acquiring new clients cost effectively in that scale by launching new distribution channels through partnerships; and fifth, continuing to drive marketplace quality, efficiency, and adoption of value-added services via our ads and monetization efforts. I'll touch on progress for each of these GSV and revenue-enhancing levers.

對 Upwork 來說，創新促進成長仍然至關重要，一旦宏觀經濟反彈，我們就能達到最佳表現。我們繼續投資於多種收入和 GSV 成長槓桿，以保持我們作為行業領導者的地位，並將這種領導地位轉化為營收和利潤的增長，並得到持續健康的採用率擴張的支持。這些槓桿包括：首先，繼續利用 Upwork 的內在能力來塑造市場對技能需求的轉移，目前的重點是使 Upwork 成為人工智慧人才和工作的卓越目的地；其次，透過注入基於 Uma、Upwork 的正念人工智慧的人工智慧功能和使用者體驗，提高我們產品中的客戶生產力、參與度和工作成果；第三，我們透過正確的產品、合作夥伴關係和整合不斷擴展我們的企業 TAM；第四，透過合作夥伴關係推出新的通路，以成本有效的方式獲得該規模的新客戶；第五，透過我們的廣告和貨幣化工作，持續提高市場品質、效率和增值服務的採用。我將介紹每項 GSV 和增收手段的進展。

Based on a long track record of serving clients with access to the talent, it is always most relevant for the skills they need today. Clients are coming to us for professional, skilled, and knowledgeable and transforming their AI dreams into realities. From building and deploying gen AI chat bots to training and tuning data and prompts for LLMs to delivering marketing or back-office projects to integrate the latest AI-enabled capabilities, businesses are realizing the need to supplement their internal capabilities and know-how by looking externally to find talent and solutions that deliver on the promise of AI-driven productivity and innovation.

基於為客戶提供人才服務的長期記錄，它始終與他們當今所需的技能最相關。客戶來到我們這裡尋求專業、熟練和知識淵博的人才，並將他們的人工智慧夢想變成現實。從建構和部署新一代人工智慧聊天機器人，到為法學碩士培訓和調整數據和提示，再到交付行銷或後台專案以整合最新的人工智慧功能，企業正在意識到需要透過尋找來補充其內部能力和專業知識。

This is where Upwork has a tremendous structural advantage. Compared to studies that show only 15% of corporate employees have the AI-related skills and training they need, more than half of freelance professionals on Upwork are already familiar with and using AI tools to deliver high-quality outcomes. It's no surprise then that a recent report from our Upwork Research Institute found that nearly half, 48%, of C-suite executives have already brought in freelancers to get delayed AI-related projects back on track.

這就是 Upwork 具有巨大結構優勢的地方。研究顯示，只有 15% 的企業員工擁有所需的人工智慧相關技能和培訓，相比之下，Upwork 上超過一半的自由工作者已經熟悉並使用人工智慧工具來提供高品質的成果。毫不奇怪，我們的 Upwork 研究所最近的一份報告發現，近一半（48%）的首席高階主管已經聘請了自由工作者，以使延遲的人工智慧相關專案重回正軌。

Upwork is serving a range of businesses, including leading companies like Scale AI, with the expert talent they require for their AI initiatives, and we are evolving our offerings to meet this growing market demand. While GSV from AI-related work was up 67% year over year in Q2, what excites us most is the opportunity ahead for this business and our customers. The tangible benefits for talent on our platform who are leaning into these opportunities are compelling. As just one example, freelance professionals working on AI-related projects earned 47% more per hour than those working on non-AI-related projects in Q2.

Upwork 正在為一系列企業提供服務，包括 Scale AI 等領先公司，為其人工智慧計畫提供所需的專家人才，我們正在不斷改進我們的產品以滿足不斷增長的市場需求。雖然人工智慧相關工作的 GSV 在第二季度同比增長了 67%，但最令我們興奮的是該業務和我們的客戶面臨的機會。對於我們平台上那些傾向於這些機會的人才來說，實際的好處是令人信服的。舉一個例子，第二季度，從事人工智慧相關專案的自由工作者的每小時收入比從事非人工智慧相關專案的自由工作者高 47%。

Our second ongoing growth lever is improving customer productivity and enhancing engagement through our own AI-powered product features. During the second quarter, we announced Uma, Upwork's mindful AI, to underpin key steps in the hiring and matching process and serve as an always-on indispensable work companion. Our vision for Uma is to transform the way work is done on Upwork by more seamlessly augmenting the power of people and AI working together.

我們的第二個持續成長槓桿是透過我們自己的人工智慧產品功能提高客戶生產力並增強參與度。在第二季度，我們宣布推出 Upwork 的正念人工智慧 Uma，以支援招募和配對流程中的關鍵步驟，並成為永遠在線、不可或缺的工作伴侶。我們對 Uma 的願景是透過更無縫地增強人與人工智慧協同工作的力量來改變 Upwork 的工作方式。

Although this product is still in its early days and has launched only in select use cases, we've seen demand growing with a 23% quarter-over-quarter increase in users interacting with Uma in Q2. Over time, we see Uma changing the game for customers, both making our platform easier to use and improving the quality of work outcomes.

儘管該產品仍處於早期階段，並且僅在選定的用例中推出，但我們已經看到需求不斷增長，第二季度與 Uma 互動的用戶環比增長了 23%。隨著時間的推移，我們看到 Uma 為客戶改變了遊戲規則，既使我們的平台更易於使用，也提高了工作成果的品質。

We also continue to innovate our offering on behalf of our enterprise clients. The large enterprise market is not a monolith, but is comprised of multiple large subsegments, with clients that prioritize their needs differently, so we have been strategically addressing that diversity of business needs. This quarter, we successfully began testing a new bifurcation of our solutions for enterprise clients in which we have ring-fenced existing functionality and pricing in one offering and winnowed down a more limited set of functionality and alternative pricing to target a subset of enterprise buyers.

我們也代表企業客戶不斷創新我們的產品。大型企業市場不是一個整體，而是由多個大型細分市場組成，客戶的需求優先順序不同，因此我們一直在策略上解決業務需求的多樣性。本季度，我們成功開始為企業客戶測試我們解決方案的新分支，其中我們將現有功能和定價限制在一個產品中，並篩選出一組更有限的功能和替代定價，以瞄準一小部分企業買家。

During testing, this approach yields higher total conversion for our sales team with 46 combined enterprise deals closed in the quarter, 27 for the new offering, and 19 for our traditional enterprise standard and compliance products. This dual-track approach is giving us good insights on how to move forward with modifications to our pricing and packaging to reaccelerate enterprise growth, and we will have further updates in the coming quarters.

在測試過程中，這種方法為我們的銷售團隊帶來了更高的總轉換率，本季度完成了46 筆合併企業交易，其中27 筆為新產品，19 筆為我們的傳統企業標準和合規產品。這種雙軌方法為我們提供了關於如何推進定價和包裝修改以重新加速企業成長的良好見解，我們將在未來幾季提供進一步的更新。

During the second quarter, Labelbox, Builders FirstSource, and Guidepoint were among the new enterprise solutions clients we added. Further advancing our existing enterprise solutions partnerships, this month, we announced a new partnership with Beeline, one of the largest and most familiar BMS providers. We've also built on our MSP partnership with KellyOCG by enabling our first joint clients, including Nasdaq, to incorporate and access the high-quality talent pool we have on Upwork. These steps indicate our agility and further lay the foundation for unlocking this large market opportunity.

在第二季度，Labelbox、Builders FirstSource 和 Guidepoint 是我們新增的企業解決方案客戶之一。為了進一步推進我們現有的企業解決方案合作夥伴關係，本月，我們宣布與最大、最熟悉的 BMS 提供者之一 Beeline 建立新的合作夥伴關係。我們還與 KellyOCG 建立了 MSP 合作夥伴關係，讓我們的首批聯合客戶（包括納斯達克）能夠整合並利用我們在 Upwork 上擁有的高品質人才庫。這些步驟顯示了我們的敏捷性，並進一步為釋放這一巨大的市場機會奠定了基礎。

Historically, Upwork's primary method of acquiring and converting clients has been on our website and mobile apps, attracting them through word of mouth, SEO, and paid acquisition channels. With our broad partnership strategy, we see a new avenue for cost-effectively attracting and converting new clients at scale by embedding Upwork experts and innovative experiences for businesses in the third-party ecosystems wherein those prospective clients encounter the need for expertise in the real time.

從歷史上看，Upwork 獲取和轉換客戶的主要方法是在我們的網站和行動應用程式上，透過口碑、搜尋引擎優化和付費獲取管道吸引他們。憑藉我們廣泛的合作夥伴策略，我們看到了一條新途徑，透過在第三方生態系統中嵌入Upwork 專家和企業創新經驗，以經濟高效的方式大規模吸引和轉化新客戶，在這些生態系統中，這些潛在客戶即時滿足專業知識的需求。

Upwork is already home to huge communities of experts in everything from GoDaddy, WordPress, and website development, to Shopify, e-commerce, and other e-commerce platforms, to social media management, project management, and a massive middle and long tail of knowledge work specialties. Our strategy is to light up these communities of experts inside third-party ecosystems to places where they can enable partners and their customers to succeed. The starting point in engagement does not need to be on Upwork for significant value to be created.

Upwork 已經擁有龐大的專家社區，涵蓋領域從 GoDaddy、WordPress 和網站開發，到 Shopify、電子商務和其他電子商務平台，再到社交媒體管理、專案管理以及龐大的中長尾知識工作專業。我們的策略是點亮第三方生態系統內的這些專家社區，讓他們能夠幫助合作夥伴及其客戶取得成功。參與的起點並不需要在 Upwork 上才能創造重大價值。

In the past quarter, we more than doubled our number of partner deals and May brought the highest monthly revenue derived from partnerships that we've seen to date. Today, partnerships combined contribution to our GSV is small, but it is growing. As we further accelerate this partner program over future quarters, we will reach orders of magnitude more businesses and prime position to leverage Upwork for their work needs.

在過去的季度中，我們的合作夥伴交易數量增加了一倍多，並且 5 月份帶來了迄今為止我們所看到的合作夥伴關係帶來的最高月度收入。如今，合作夥伴對我們 GSV 的貢獻雖小，但正在不斷成長。隨著我們在未來幾季進一步加速這項合作夥伴計劃，我們將接觸更多數量級的企業，並在利用 Upwork 滿足他們的工作需求方面處於領先地位。

Finally, a critical lever for us as we continue to lean in to building more value-added sources for customers that improve the overall quality and efficiency of the marketplace, while also expanding our take rate, are our ads, and monetization features, including subscriptions. Q2 was a quarter of record experimentation velocity for us in this area, and we saw a notable success and updates to our pricing and packaging.

最後，隨著我們繼續致力於為客戶建立更多增值來源，提高市場的整體品質和效率，同時擴大我們的採用率，對我們來說一個關鍵的槓桿是我們的廣告和貨幣化功能，包括訂閱。第二季是我們在這一領域的實驗速度創紀錄的四分之一，我們看到了顯著的成功以及我們的定價和包裝的更新。

In the marketplace, we added more connects and our AI-powered Upwork Chat Pro app to the Freelancer Plus subscription, while increasing our price point to one with the additional value we are delivering. These changes contribute to our highest take rate ever. 75% year-over-year revenue growth in asset monetization products and a 68% quarter-over-quarter increase in Upwork Chat Pro daily active users in Q2.

在市場上，我們在 Freelancer Plus 訂閱中添加了更多連接和人工智慧驅動的 Upwork Chat Pro 應用程序，同時將我們的價格點提高到我們提供的附加價值。這些變化促成了我們有史以來最高的採用率。第二季資產變現產品營收年增 75%，Upwork Chat Pro 日活躍用戶季增 68%。

Asset monetization products continue to be one of our fastest-growing revenue streams. This is another area where the progress made is significant, and yet, the runway ahead is even more promising. Upwork is demonstrating our position to capture long-term growth from secular tailwinds, even while navigating a choppy environment in the near term, staying the course and executing unwaveringly on our profitability goals.

資產貨幣化產品仍然是我們成長最快的收入來源之一。這是另一個取得重大進展的領域，而且前方的道路更加光明。Upwork 展示了我們從長期順風車中獲取長期增長的能力，即使在短期內面臨動蕩的環境時，也能堅持到底並堅定不移地執行我們的盈利目標。

We are excited to drive this business to tremendous scale, building on our formidable assets and momentum, continuing to invest in growth, and creating meaningful leverage increases every year towards our 35% five-year adjusted EBITDA target. We are thrilled to be in a position to innovate work with and for our customers using our distinct differentiators of talent, technology, and know-how.

我們很高興能夠以我們強大的資產和勢頭為基礎，繼續投資於成長，並每年創造有意義的槓桿成長，以實現我們35% 的五年調整後EBITDA 目標，將這項業務推向巨大的規模。我們很高興能夠利用我們在人才、技術和專業知識方面的獨特優勢，與客戶合作並為客戶進行創新工作。

With that, I will turn it over to Erica to review our financials.

這樣，我將把它交給艾麗卡來審查我們的財務狀況。

Thanks, Hayden. As Hayden outlined, we're excited about the strength of our business model, the opportunities ahead for Upwork, and our ability to generate durable, profitable growth in a tough macro. Our model is highly profitable, with gross margins over 77% in the second quarter, expanding adjusted EBITDA margins and increasing free cash flow. We are steadfast in our goal to reach 35% adjusted EBITDA margin in the next five years, while increasing our operating leverage every year along the way. Now, I'll review a few highlights from our most recent results.

謝謝，海登。正如 Hayden 所概述的那樣，我們對我們業務模式的優勢、Upwork 未來的機會以及我們在嚴峻的宏觀環境中實現持久、盈利增長的能力感到興奮。我們的模式利潤豐厚，第二季毛利率超過 77%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率不斷擴大，自由現金流不斷增加。我們堅定的目標是在未來五年內達到 35% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，同時逐年提高我們的營運槓桿。現在，我將回顧我們最新結果中的一些亮點。

Revenue grew 15% year over year to $193.1 million in the second quarter and was driven in part by the flat fee pricing structure we started last year as well as sustained momentum from our ads and monetization products. Marketplace revenue was $166.8 million and grew 17% year over year.

第二季營收年增 15%，達到 1.931 億美元，部分原因是我們去年啟動的固定費用定價結構以及廣告和貨幣化產品的持續成長動能。市場收入為 1.668 億美元，年增 17%。

In our enterprise business, total enterprise revenue remained flat at $26.3 million in Q2. Within our enterprise solutions products, customer spend and behavior remained consistent with Q1 trends and with the current high interest rate environment, which is impacting corporate spending. Managed services revenue showed strength in the quarter, growing on a year-over-year basis, reflecting increasing demand for work product delivery and the signing of six new managed services MSAs in the past few quarters.

在我們的企業業務中，第二季企業總收入保持不變，為 2,630 萬美元。在我們的企業解決方案產品中，客戶支出和行為與第一季的趨勢以及當前影響企業支出的高利率環境保持一致。本季託管服務收入表現強勁，年成長，反映出對工作產品交付的需求不斷增長以及過去幾個季度簽署了六項新的託管服務管理協議。

While Q1 of this year saw strengthening top-of-funnel activity on Upwork, in Q2, we saw a softening of these trends as well as a mix shift to very small businesses, which affects our average contract size. This activity is a flow-through from broader macroeconomic trends. As a result, Upwork's GSV declined 2.7%, and GSV per active client declined 5% year over year. In spite of these temporal macro-related challenges, we're pleased with our ongoing ability to perform better than many traditional staffing, temp services, and job board companies due to our differentiated tech-enabled marketplace business model. Even with these pressures, active clients were up 6% year over year to $868,000 with both new acquisition and retention benefiting us on a year-over-year basis.

雖然今年第一季 Upwork 的漏斗頂部活動有所加強，但在第二季度，我們看到這些趨勢減弱，並且混合轉向非常小型的企業，這影響了我們的平均合約規模。這項活動是更廣泛的宏觀經濟趨勢的體現。因此，Upwork 的 GSV 年比下降了 2.7%，每個活躍客戶的 GSV 年減了 5%。儘管存在這些與時間相關的宏觀挑戰，但由於我們差異化的技術支援市場業務模式，我們對我們持續比許多傳統的人員配置、臨時服務和求職委員會公司表現更好的能力感到滿意。即使面臨這些壓力，活躍客戶仍年增 6%，達到 868,000 美元，新客戶和保留客戶都使我們同比受益。

Our marketplace take rate was at an all-time high of 18% in Q2, up 30 basis points from Q1. We are confident we have additional capacity to grow our take rate, and our approach to this is focused on pricing to value. We continue to test and experiment with a wide variety of monetization strategies on the platform, and these tests are supporting our belief that we have significant opportunities to increase our take rate in the future. As we do this, we will always balance the opportunities we see to monetize the unique platform experiences we enable with marketplace health and growth.

第二季我們的市佔率達到 18% 的歷史最高水平，比第一季上升 30 個基點。我們相信我們有額外的能力來提高我們的採用率，而我們的方法重點是按價值定價。我們繼續在平台上測試和實驗各種貨幣化策略，這些測試支持了我們的信念，即我們未來將有很大的機會提高我們的轉換率。當我們這樣做時，我們將始終平衡我們所看到的將我們提供的獨特平台體驗貨幣化的機會與市場的健康和成長。

In Q2, we saw sustained momentum from our ads and monetization products, with Freelancer Plus subscriptions growing 28% year over year, contributing to what continues to be our highest growth revenue stream. Non-GAAP gross margin continued to improve, both on a year-over-year and sequential basis to 77.6%. Non-GAAP operating expense was $112.2 million in the second quarter, representing 58% of revenue compared to $115.7 million, or 69% of revenue in the prior year, as we continue to successfully reduce operating costs.

第二季度，我們的廣告和變現產品保持了持續成長的勢頭，Freelancer Plus 訂閱量年增 28%，為我們帶來了最高成長的收入來源。非 GAAP 毛利率持續改善，較去年同期和季比均達到 77.6%。第二季非 GAAP 營運費用為 1.122 億美元，佔營收的 58%，而前一年為 1.157 億美元，佔營收的 69%，因為我們持續成功降低營運成本。

For the second quarter, non-GAAP R&D expense was $44 million, increasing 21% year over year as we continue to accelerate our pace of innovation and invest in technology. We expect R&D to be higher in absolute dollars year over year, but decline as a percentage of revenue throughout 2024. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expense of $43.9 million declined 22% year over year, and we expect to maintain a similar level of spend as a percentage of revenue for the remainder of the year.

第二季度，非 GAAP 研發費用為 4,400 萬美元，年增 21%，因為我們持續加快創新步伐和技術投資。我們預計研發的絕對金額將年增，但在 2024 年佔營收的百分比將會下降。非 GAAP 銷售和行銷費用為 4,390 萬美元，年減 22%，我們預計今年剩餘時間的支出佔收入的比例將維持類似水準。

Our provision for transaction losses, or PFTL, remains low at $1.8 million for Q2, approximately 1% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $40.8 million in the second quarter, representing adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.1%. Our profitable business model generated our highest quarter of GAAP net income ever and continued to generate GAAP earnings per share growth, which includes the impact of stock-based compensation.

第二季我們的交易損失準備金 (PFTL) 仍維持在 180 萬美元的低水平，約佔總收入的 1%。第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 4,080 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 21.1%。我們的獲利業務模式創造了有史以來最高的 GAAP 淨利潤，並繼續實現 GAAP 每股盈餘成長，其中包括基於股票的薪酬的影響。

For the second quarter of 2024, GAAP net income was $22.2 million, and fully diluted GAAP earnings per share was $0.17. Free cash flow for the second quarter was $33.5 million, the result of the high free cash flow yield inherent in our business model. We also returned $33.1 million to shareholders through share repurchases, representing nearly 100% of the free cash flow generated during the second quarter. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were approximately $497.7 million at the end of the second quarter.

2024 年第二季度，GAAP 淨利為 2,220 萬美元，完全稀釋後的 GAAP 每股收益為 0.17 美元。第二季的自由現金流為 3,350 萬美元，這是我們業務模式固有的高自由現金流收益率的結果。我們也透過股票回購向股東返還了 3,310 萬美元，相當於第二季產生的自由現金流的近 100%。截至第二季末，現金、現金等價物和有價證券約為 4.977 億美元。

Turning to guidance. We are providing a more tempered revenue outlook for the remainder of the year based on the data points we have seen since May and no expectations of improvement to the current macro environment. By maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year, we are increasing our margin outlook. This is due to the strong focus on cost discipline across our business. Our ability to produce growing margins in this environment gives us confidence in our long-term adjusted EBITDA margin goal. We believe our balanced focus on growth and profitability and growing margins with a high free cash flow yield will produce strong shareholder returns over time.

轉向指導。根據我們自 5 月以來看到的數據點，我們對今年剩餘時間的收入前景提出了更溫和的預期，並且預計當前宏觀環境不會有所改善。透過維持今年調整後的 EBITDA 指引，我們提高了利潤率預期。這是由於我們整個業務對成本紀律的高度重視。我們在這種環境下創造不斷增長的利潤的能力使我們對長期調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率目標充滿信心。我們相信，隨著時間的推移，我們對成長和獲利能力以及不斷增長的利潤率和高自由現金流收益率的平衡關注將為股東帶來強勁的回報。

For the third quarter of 2024, we expect to produce revenue in the range of $179 million to $184 million, representing 3% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. For adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter, we are guiding to a range of $36 million to $39 million, which represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20% at the midpoint.

我們預計 2024 年第三季的營收將在 1.79 億美元至 1.84 億美元之間，中間值年增 3%。對於第三季調整後的 EBITDA，我們的指引範圍為 3,600 萬美元至 3,900 萬美元，這意味著調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為中點 20%。

For the full-year 2024, we anticipate revenue between $735 million to $745 million, representing 7% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Contemplated in our revenue guidance are some near-term headwinds from anti-circumvention initiatives, which we expect will help to improve customer experience and platform quality while stimulating long-term growth of our marketplace. We expect our take rate for the rest of the year to remain stable with what we saw in Q2. As a result of our ongoing cost discipline and the strength of our model, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be within a range of $140 million to $150 million, increasing our adjusted EBITDA margin outlook.

對於 2024 年全年，我們預計營收在 7.35 億美元至 7.45 億美元之間，中間值年增 7%。我們的收入指引中考慮了反規避舉措帶來的一些近期阻力，我們預計這將有助於改善客戶體驗和平台質量，同時刺激我們市場的長期成長。我們預計今年剩餘時間的採用率將與第二季的情況保持穩定。由於我們持續的成本控制和模型的優勢，我們預計全年調整後 EBITDA 將在 1.4 億美元至 1.5 億美元之間，從而提高了我們調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的前景。

As a reminder, GSV and revenue growth and consequently adjusted EBITDA margins are affected in the fourth quarter of this year by the fact that there are fewer Sundays in the quarter this year versus last year. Because of the timing each week when our clients are billed, the number of Sundays in any set period affects our revenue and GSV recognition in that period. Excluding the structural impact, our GSV growth rate for the year would be approximately 1 point higher. We expect full-year 2024 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $0.90 and $0.94, up from our guidance last quarter of $0.88 to $0.92. For the full year, weighted average shares outstanding will decline to a range of $139 million to $143 million, down from our previous guidance last quarter of $140 million to $144 million.

提醒一下，今年第四季的 GSV 和收入成長以及調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率受到了影響，因為今年該季度的周日數量比去年少。由於我們的客戶每週都會收到帳單，因此任何設定期間內的周日數量都會影響我們在該期間的收入和 GSV 認可。排除結構性影響，我們今年的 GSV 成長率將高出約 1 個百分點。我們預計 2024 年全年非 GAAP 攤薄後每股收益將在 0.90 美元至 0.94 美元之間，高於我們上季度指引的 0.88 美元至 0.92 美元。全年加權平均流通股將下降至 1.39 億美元至 1.43 億美元，低於我們上季度先前指引的 1.4 億美元至 1.44 億美元。

Our profitable marketplace enables us to achieve durable profitable growth in the near and long term. We can increase profitability and free cash flow while continuing to invest in innovative solutions that will unlock new S-curves of growth for Upwork. Regardless of the macro environment, we will continue innovating and strengthening our position as a market leader, while producing steady and significant operating margin and free cash flow on an ongoing basis.

我們的獲利市場使我們能夠在短期和長期內實現持久的獲利成長。我們可以提高獲利能力和自由現金流，同時繼續投資創新解決方案，為 Upwork 開啟新的 S 型成長曲線。無論宏觀環境如何，我們都將繼續創新並鞏固我們作為市場領導者的地位，同時持續產生穩定且可觀的營業利潤率和自由現金流。

As always, I want to close by thanking our incredible team at Upwork for their contributions this quarter and their unparalleled creativity, focus, and pace of execution. I am proud to be a part of this great team.

像往常一樣，我想最後感謝 Upwork 令人難以置信的團隊在本季度做出的貢獻以及無與倫比的創造力、專注力和執行速度。我很自豪能成為這個偉大團隊的一員。

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

因此，我們很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Andrew Boone, JMP Securities.

（操作員指示）Andrew Boone，JMP 證券。

Thanks much for taking my questions. Hayden, in your prepared remarks, you talked about the health of the platform in terms of balancing take rate initiatives and monetization products. Can you just speak to that in terms of how you are viewing things like Connects and pushing more monetization on to freelancers as well as also making sure that there is plenty of liquidity for the platform as well as supporting more first-time freelancers?

非常感謝您回答我的問題。海登，在您準備好的發言中，您談到了平台在平衡採取率措施和貨幣化產品方面的健康狀況。您能否談談您如何看待 Connects 之類的事情，如何向自由工作者推動更多的貨幣化，以及如何確保平台有充足的流動性以及支持更多的首次自由工作者？

Thanks, Andrew. I'd say the work we've done so far has been incredibly successful and provides the blueprint for how we want to continue driving in balancing the factors that you're outlining because we are laser-focused on expanding take rate while making these initiatives accretive from a marketplace health and quality perspective.

謝謝，安德魯。我想說，我們迄今為止所做的工作非常成功，並為我們如何繼續推動平衡您概述的因素提供了藍圖，因為我們在製定這些舉措的同時，專注於擴大採用率從市場健康和質量的角度來看，具有增值作用。

What we look at here is things like Connects and subscriptions and value-added services that we're enhancing the platform with really are ways for us to improve signal quality in the marketplace for us to also give talent and clients more control over when, where, and how they want to engage and to be featured or propose themselves with more priority for work, things like that. And so really, these are features and functionality in a large part or are in service of our marketplace health goals. And monetization is, in some cases, just a byproduct of how these work most effectively and really can be capitalized on for customers and for us.

我們在這裡看到的是像 Connects 和訂閱以及增值服務這樣的東西，我們正在增強平台，這確實是我們提高市場訊號品質的方法，讓我們也讓人才和客戶更好地控制時間、地點，以及他們希望如何參與、如何展示或提出自己更優先地工作，諸如此類。事實上，這些特性和功能在很大程度上是為了我們的市場健康目標服務的。在某些情況下，貨幣化只是這些工作如何最有效地發揮作用的副產品，並且真正可以為客戶和我們所利用。

Stepping back and looking more broadly at the ads and monetization opportunity we have, we know that given where we are today and when we compare our opportunity to other two-sided marketplace businesses, there is a lot of run room here. And we also know specifically about features and functionality, whether it's in value-added services or further enhancements to subscriptions that there's a long road map here that we can execute on. So we feel great about the opportunity to continue to expand and build on what we've done and really continue to expand take rate in a way that is really valuable and healthy for the marketplace and for customers.

退後一步，更廣泛地審視我們擁有的廣告和貨幣化機會，我們知道，考慮到我們今天的處境，以及當我們將我們的機會與其他雙邊市場業務進行比較時，這裡有很大的運行空間。我們也特別了解功能和功能，無論是增值服務還是訂閱的進一步增強，這裡都有我們可以執行的漫長路線圖。因此，我們對有機會繼續擴展和鞏固我們所做的事情感到非常高興，並以對市場和客戶真正有價值和健康的方式真正繼續擴大採用率。

That's helpful. And then I wanted to ask about partner deals. Hayden, as you roll out more of these deals, can you talk about what's been successful and how that paints the picture for where you guys want to pursue additional deals going forward? Thanks so much.

這很有幫助。然後我想詢問合作夥伴交易的情況。海登，當您們推出更多此類交易時，您能否談談哪些是成功的，以及這如何描繪了你們未來想要尋求更多交易的情況？非常感謝。

We view the partnership opportunity as very large, and there's certainly a lot of ways to look at this. OpenAI was our launch partner for this bigger program and really provided the starting point for the momentum that we've been building in that now we have. I'd say what success looks like for us is really using this partnership muscle that we've been building over the last few quarters to build this highly scalable, very cost effective, new way for us to bring client demand to our talent. And the unlock for us is that we don't need all of these clients to come and know about our brand or register and start with an account on Upwork for them to find success and for them to find our talent. So we're really turning our model around and bringing our talent out into the ecosystem through these partners and leveraging some of these marquee partnerships like the OpenAI one to generate what has become a very successful and fast-moving funnel here of partners who are coming to us and saying, hey, can we get in on some of this action, because these partners have ecosystems of clients and customers who themselves have needs that these partners have not always had a good way to service.

我們認為合作機會非常大，當然有很多方法可以看待這一點。OpenAI 是我們這個更大計劃的啟動合作夥伴，它確實為我們現在所建立的勢頭提供了起點。我想說，對我們來說，成功實際上是利用過去幾季我們一直在建立的合作夥伴關係來建立這種高度可擴展、非常具有成本效益的新方式，讓我們能夠將客戶需求轉化為我們的人才。對我們來說，我們不需要所有這些客戶來了解我們的品牌，也不需要在 Upwork 上註冊並啟動帳戶，讓他們找到成功並找到我們的人才。因此，我們確實正在轉變我們的模式，透過這些合作夥伴將我們的人才帶入生態系統，並利用其中一些大型合作夥伴（例如 OpenAI 合作夥伴）來產生一個非常成功且快速發展的合作夥伴漏斗。我們說，嘿，我們可以參與其中一些行動嗎？

So this is what's contributed to May being the highest monthly revenue partnership month we've seen to date. And the fact that in the past quarter, we doubled the number of partner deals and are still building from there. So it is still early in the opportunity, but we do see that this could be a very exciting trajectory around client acquisition and a different model for us to go forward.

因此，這就是 5 月成為我們迄今為止所見過的最高月收入合作夥伴月份的原因。事實上，在過去的一個季度，我們的合作夥伴交易數量增加了一倍，並且仍在增加。因此，現在還處於早期階段，但我們確實看到，這可能是一個非常令人興奮的客戶獲取軌跡，也是我們前進的不同模式。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Bernie McTernan, Needham & Company.

伯尼·麥克特南，李約瑟公司。

Great. Thank you very much. Just a couple for me. And maybe we know the answer just based on the guide, but I just wanted to clarify. If the trends that you saw in June continued into July and August on -- at the bookings level, and then the guidance for take rate to be flat sequentially or for the remainder of the year relative to 2Q, is that just thinking about in this kind of top-line bookings environment is not right to be leaning in a monetization, or is there anything else we should be thinking of?

偉大的。非常感謝。對我來說只是一對。也許我們僅僅根據指南就知道答案，但我只是想澄清一下。如果您在 6 月看到的趨勢持續到 7 月和 8 月——在預訂水平上，那麼採取率的指導將連續或在今年剩餘時間內相對於第二季度持平，這只是考慮一下這種頂級的預訂環境不適合傾向於貨幣化，或者還有什麼我們應該考慮的嗎？

And then -- sorry, one last clarification, just the 100-basis-point impact to GMV growth given the one last Sunday in the fourth quarter, is that for the full year or just the fourth quarter thinking about the year-over-year growth?

然後，抱歉，最後一個澄清，考慮到第四季度上週日的情況，對 GMV 增長 100 個基點的影響是全年還是僅考慮同比的第四季度生長？

Yeah. Sure, Bernie. So in terms of the -- back on the line there. In terms of the trends that we saw on top of funnel, first and foremost, we actually saw very strong top-of-funnel demand signals in Q1, and we really saw that that starting to turn in kind of mid-May and then into June and July. We did see those trends get slightly worse in June and July. And so this is really what we're basing our guidance on. We fully contemplated this impact in our guidance and in fact, are now contemplating no improvement to these trends going forward. So in that way, I think we feel like we've fully de-risked our guidance for the year.

是的。當然，伯尼。因此，就 — — 而言，回到線上。就我們在漏斗頂部看到的趨勢而言，首先也是最重要的是，我們實際上在第一季看到了非常強烈的漏斗頂部需求訊號，我們確實看到這種情況在5 月中旬開始轉變，然後進入六月和七月。我們確實看到這些趨勢在六月和七月略有惡化。所以這確實是我們指導的基礎。我們在指導中充分考慮了這種影響，事實上，現在正在考慮對未來的這些趨勢不進行任何改善。因此，我認為我們感覺我們已經完全消除了今年指導的風險。

On your question in terms of the take rate trends, yeah, I mean, I think we're just being prudent, again, kind of anticipating the trends that we're seeing and just looking at top-of-funnel trends, both on kind of the demand side as well as this mix shift and expecting that we'll see a little bit lighter usage in some of the ads products as well.

關於您關於採用率趨勢的問題，是的，我的意思是，我認為我們再次保持謹慎，有點預測我們所看到的趨勢，並且只是關注漏斗頂部的趨勢，兩者都在需求方面以及這種混合轉變，預計我們也會看到一些廣告產品的使用量減少。

And then on the Sunday effect question, yes, that's -- the 1 point impact is for the full year.

然後關於週日影響問題，是的，那就是——1 點影響是針對全年的。

Got it. Thanks, Erica.

知道了。謝謝，艾麗卡。

Maria Ripps, Cannacord.

瑪麗亞·里普斯，坎納科德。

Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. First, understanding that you're breathing in a tough macro environment, can you maybe just talk about your ability to sustain your EBITDA guidance? And as we look at your P&L, sort of what are some areas that you can optimize here in the near term without sort of impacting future growth as the environment improves? And then I have a quick follow-up.

偉大的。非常感謝您回答我的問題。首先，了解您正處於艱難的宏觀環境中，您能否談談維持 EBITDA 指導的能力？當我們查看您的損益表時，您可以在短期內優化哪些領域，而不會隨著環境的改善而影響未來的成長？然後我會進行快速跟進。

Yeah. Just in terms of maintaining the adjusted EBITDA guidance, I mean, look, this is an inherently profitable business, and we've made a tremendous amount of progress with the cost discipline muscle that we've implemented as a business. We're obviously continually making progress both on the gross margin line as well as on the OpEx line. And so we feel really, really confident that we can continue to do so. We're at 77.5% gross margin now. And we do still have some continued optimization that we can do that we're working on, on rates with hosting costs, other things like that.

是的。就維持調整後的 EBITDA 指導而言，我的意思是，看，這是一項本質上有利可圖的業務，而且我們在作為業務實施的成本紀律方面取得了巨大進展。顯然，我們在毛利率和營運支出方面都在不斷取得進步。因此，我們非常非常有信心能夠繼續這樣做。我們現在的毛利率是 77.5%。我們仍然可以繼續進行一些我們正在努力的最佳化，包括託管成本的費率以及其他類似的事情。

And then just as a reminder to everyone, we're continuing to invest in growth. Our R&D expense was up 21% year over year in Q2, and we are very, very focused on investing in the growth levers that will grow GSV into the future. So we think we know we can do both. We can continue to optimize in areas that are kind of lower ROI spend for us, optimized on the G&A line and other places, and produce that growing operating margin while investing in growth.

然後提醒大家，我們將繼續投資成長。第二季我們的研發費用年增 21%，我們非常非常注重投資成長槓桿，以推動 GSV 走向未來。所以我們認為我們知道我們可以兩者兼得。我們可以繼續在投資報酬率較低的領域進行最佳化，在一般管理費用和其他方面進行最佳化，並在投資於成長的同時產生不斷增長的營業利潤。

Got it, that's very helpful. And then secondly, could you maybe talk about any recent developments as it relates to AI tools and functionality? And I know you highlighted a few in the press release. And is there any way to sort of quantify the impact of AI on your overall business?

明白了，非常有幫助。其次，您能否談談與人工智慧工具和功能相關的最新進展？我知道您在新聞稿中強調了一些內容。有沒有什麼方法可以量化人工智慧對您整體業務的影響？

Sure, Maria. In terms of the AI tools and functionality, I'd say we're very pleased with how the features and functionality we're launching, including things like our Uma, AI work companion, as well as Upwork Chat Pro, which is an AI-enabled feature for freelancers in particular, to leverage that throughout the work journey on Upwork, these are all getting very strong adoption and continue to be advancing even though they're still in their early stages. We've seen a 23% increase between Q1 and Q2 in users interacting with Uma. We also saw a 68% increase in freelancers using Upwork Chat Pro on a daily basis. So these are kind of positive signals that this is an effective strategy for us that is going to continue to enhance the experience, and our metrics and really is giving us confidence in the road map that we're executing.

當然，瑪麗亞。在人工智慧工具和功能方面，我想說，我們對我們推出的功能和功能非常滿意，包括我們的 Uma、人工智慧工作伴侶，以及 Upwork Chat Pro（這是一個人工智慧） - 特別為自由工作者啟用的功能，以在Upwork 的整個工作旅程中利用該功能，這些功能都得到了非常廣泛的採用，並且儘管仍處於早期階段，但仍在不斷發展。我們發現，第一季和第二季與 Uma 互動的用戶數量增加了 23%。我們也發現每天使用 Upwork Chat Pro 的自由工作者數量增加了 68%。因此，這些都是積極的信號，表明這對我們來說是一項有效的策略，將繼續增強體驗和我們的指標，並且確實讓我們對正在執行的路線圖充滿信心。

In terms of AI impact on the overall business, here's one way to think about ring-fencing the negative impact, which I think we get a lot of questions about. As the world is undergoing an AI transition, and inevitably on that journey, some of the old ways of working will get left behind. The segment of jobs in our marketplace that are less complex and hypothetically, most easily disrupted over time by AI, are jobs and Upwork with less than $300 of spend, which comprised just under 5% of our GSV today. To be clear, we are not yet seeing a broad-based AI impact overall in this small job segment.

就人工智慧對整體業務的影響而言，這裡有一種思考隔離負面影響的方法，我認為我們對此有很多疑問。隨著世界正在經歷人工智慧轉型，在這過程中，一些舊的工作方式將不可避免地被拋在後面。我們市場上不太複雜和假設性的工作部分，隨著時間的推移，最容易被人工智慧顛覆，是支出低於 300 美元的工作和 Upwork，占我們今天 GSV 的不到 5%。需要明確的是，我們還沒有看到人工智慧對這個小工作領域產生廣泛的影響。

Now, if you look within the small job segment, the current impact from AI is much more limited and is most visible in a couple of categories. Writing and translation is obviously where it's most evident, and that's just as we've expected and seen over multiple quarters now.

現在，如果你看看小型工作領域，人工智慧目前的影響要有限得多，並且在幾個類別中最為明顯。寫作和翻譯顯然是最明顯的，這正如我們在多個季度所預期和看到的那樣。

In writing and translation and elsewhere, we continue to see, at this point, a positive AI-driven mix shift away from simple, very low effectiveness jobs, to complex, more valuable, higher paying work. And this transition has started in the past. In the past quarter, we saw hours per contract in writing, we saw spend per contract in translation, all increasing because of the new work that's emerging for editors and translators who are actually working with and supplementing the outputs delivered by AI. So these factors are really a testament to the AI-related opportunity that we expect to benefit from by offering the human expertise that is so valued across all of our categories in the marketplace as humans are working with AI tools in the ecosystem. And what we see is AI augmenting humans much more so than replacing them.

在寫作、翻譯和其他領域，我們繼續看到人工智慧驅動的方面組合從簡單、效率很低的工作轉向複雜、更有價值、更高薪的工作。這種轉變在過去就已經開始了。在過去的季度中，我們看到每份合約的書面時間和每份合約的翻譯支出，所有這些都在增加，因為編輯和翻譯人員正在不斷湧現新的工作，他們實際上正在處理和補充人工智慧交付的輸出。因此，這些因素確實證明了與人工智慧相關的機會，我們希望透過提供人類專業知識而受益，這些專業知識在我們市場上的所有類別中都非常有價值，因為人類在生態系統中使用人工智慧工具。我們看到人工智慧對人類的增強遠大於取代人類。

Great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful.

偉大的。太感謝了。這非常有幫助。

Thanks, Maria.

謝謝，瑪麗亞。

Josh Chan, UBS.

喬許陳，瑞銀。

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the trajectory that you saw through Q2. Was it kind of like a one-time step-down in May or June and then kind of flat from there, or was it like a slow easing?

嗨，下午好。感謝您回答我的問題。我想知道您是否可以多談談您在第二季度看到的軌跡。是有點像五月或六月的一次性降息，然後從那時起持平，還是像緩慢的寬鬆政策？

And then I guess, just to clarify on your guidance, I guess, does that imply a flat lining from current levels, or does it imply kind of continuing slowing as you talk about maintaining the current trend? Thank you.

然後我想，只是為了澄清您的指導，我想，這是否意味著當前水平持平，或者是否意味著當您談論維持當前趨勢時會繼續放緩？謝謝。

Yeah. So maybe to take a step back and talk about kind of the transition from Q1 to Q2, we saw a really promising top-of-funnel demand signals in Q1, our client-seeking work metric, which is a leading indicator for us on overall demand on the platform and growth on the platform, was up 11% in Q1. And that trend really started to reverse around mid-May, and then we saw a declining trend into June and July. And so -- and again, I -- we saw a couple of factors here. We saw overall demand signals decline. And then we also saw a mix shift to -- we saw strong growth from very small businesses and lower demand from larger customers, which is really understandable given the high interest rate environment that we're operating in. Since smaller businesses tend to have lower spend characteristics overall, this mix shift impacts our GSV per active, which is what's making us more cautious about the outlook for the rest of the year.

是的。因此，也許退後一步，談談從第一季到第二季的過渡，我們在第一季度看到了一個非常有希望的漏斗頂部需求訊號，我們的客戶尋求工作指標，這是我們整體的領先指標第一季該平台的需求和成長成長了 11%。這種趨勢在 5 月中旬左右真正開始逆轉，然後我們看到了進入 6 月和 7 月的下降趨勢。所以——我再說一次——我們在這裡看到了幾個因素。我們看到整體需求訊號下降。然後我們也看到了混合轉變——我們看到非常小的企業的強勁成長和大型客戶的需求下降，考慮到我們所處的高利率環境，這確實是可以理解的。由於規模較小的企業整體支出特徵往往較低，因此這種組合轉變會影響我們的每活躍用戶 GSV，這使我們對今年剩餘時間的前景更加謹慎。

Thanks for the color. And then in terms of your expense management, very impressive in this environment, when demand eventually returns, will you need to undergo like a period of added spend, or how are you thinking about that trajectory as demand eventually bottoms and gets better? Thank you.

謝謝你的顏色。然後就您的費用管理而言，在這種環境下非常令人印象深刻，當需求最終回歸時，您是否需要經歷一段時期的額外支出，或者您如何看待隨著需求最終觸底並變得更好的軌跡？謝謝。

Yeah, sure. I mean, we're very, very proud of the cost discipline that we've implemented. I think we're doing a great job at it, and I'm really proud of the team here for working so hard. We are very committed to continuing to grow operating leverage as we continue down this path. And even as demand returns, I think we'll be very moderated in the way that we invest. We've built a very, very good, for example, performance marketing engine, with very kind of clear parameters in terms of yield and ROI, and we'll continue to invest that way as we go forward. So I don't necessarily see the need to ratchet up significantly our spend as demand returns, but we'll assess it as we go.

是的，當然。我的意思是，我們對我們實施的成本紀律感到非常非常自豪。我認為我們在這方面做得很好，我為這裡的團隊如此努力工作感到自豪。隨著我們繼續沿著這條道路前進，我們非常致力於繼續提高營運槓桿。即使需求回升，我認為我們的投資方式也會非常溫和。例如，我們已經建立了一個非常非常好的績效行銷引擎，在產量和投資報酬率方面有非常明確的參數，我們將繼續以這種方式進行投資。因此，我不一定認為有必要隨著需求的回升而大幅增加我們的支出，但我們會邊做邊評估。

Perfect. Thank you for your time and the color.

完美的。感謝您的時間和顏色。

Matt Farrell, Piper Sandler.

馬特法瑞爾，派珀桑德勒。

Thanks for taking my question. I'd love to understand a little bit more about the bifurcation of the enterprise pricing strategy. What kind of went into that? You obviously hit on some early results, but how should we be thinking about that helping to drive an acceleration in the enterprise business over the next couple of quarters?

感謝您提出我的問題。我很想多了解企業定價策略的分歧。到底是怎麼回事？您顯然得到了一些早期結果，但我們應該如何看待這有助於推動未來幾季企業業務的加速？

Sure, Matt. Our view on this is the enterprise TAM is so attractive, and we're really positioned well to work aggressively to keep unlocking it. With the pilot we ran in the last quarter, you're right, we saw some promising signals, and we're still in testing and really using the learnings from those signals to inform where we go next from here.

當然，馬特。我們對此的看法是，企業 TAM 非常有吸引力，而且我們確實處於有利位置，可以積極努力不斷解鎖它。透過我們在上個季度運行的試點，你是對的，我們看到了一些有希望的信號，我們仍在測試中，並真正利用從這些信號中學到的知識來告知我們下一步的發展方向。

I'd say because of where we are with that work, the insights have been really strong, but we're not yet expecting the same level of performance every quarter in terms of the type of new logo conversion that we saw in the last quarter carrying forward. But we do think it's critical in this environment and every environment to remain really agile in unlocking the market opportunity, and that's really what we're focused on doing, because we see opportunities both to increase conversion and expand the number of logos in the enterprise space that we have as well as unlock share of wallet. And that's where we're focused. So it's -- I think it's too soon to say more specific than that, but that is actually where we're laser focused, and the results, I think, are showing that from the agility.

我想說的是，由於我們在這項工作中所處的位置，洞察力非常強，但我們還沒有預期每個季度在上個季度看到的新徽標轉換類型方面都能達到相同水平的績效發揚光大。但我們確實認為，在這種環境和每個環境中，保持真正敏捷性來釋放市場機會至關重要，這正是我們專注於做的事情，因為我們看到了提高轉換率和擴大企業中徽標數量的機會我們擁有的空間以及解鎖錢包份額。這就是我們關注的重點。所以，我認為現在說更具體的資訊還為時過早，但這實際上是我們重點關注的地方，我認為結果從敏捷性中證明了這一點。

And then kind of following up on some of the questions on the full-year guide. Based on my math, it assumes a pretty significant deceleration in GSV as you move through the rest of the year. I guess, how does the macro, both on the small and the enterprise customers, different? How is it different than previous cycles of slowing? It seems like it's much more intense this time around than it has been in the past, but would love just any more clarity on spending patterns and the assumptions that are embedded in GSV. Thanks.

然後跟進全年指南中的一些問題。根據我的數學計算，假設今年剩餘時間 GSV 會出現相當大的減速。我想，對於小型客戶和企業客戶來說，宏觀有何不同？它與之前的放緩週期有何不同？這次的情況似乎比過去更加激烈，但希望能更清楚地了解 GSV 中的支出模式和假設。謝謝。

Maybe I'll start, and Hayden, feel free to add on. So a couple of things here. Like I said, the guidance is based on essentially bringing forward the kind of lower trends that we saw exiting Q2 and even into Q3 for the rest of the year. So that's what we're basing it on. It's kind of the June and July trends, and we really wanted to make sure that we were not anticipating any improvement to the macro from what we've been seeing in the last couple of months. And so like I said, to that effect, we do think we've effectively de-risked the back half of the year.

也許我會開始，海登，請隨意補充。這裡有幾件事。正如我所說，該指導意見本質上是基於將我們在第二季甚至今年剩餘時間內看到的較低趨勢提前到第三季。這就是我們的基礎。這是六月和七月的趨勢，我們真的想確保我們沒有預期宏觀經濟會比過去幾個月看到的任何改善。正如我所說，為此，我們確實認為我們已經有效地降低了今年下半年的風險。

Just in terms of how macro is impacting kind of spending on the platform, I would say, look, writ large, high-interest rates impact demand on the large and medium business customer spend, inflation impacts demand on the small business and consumer side. And these both impact GSV and they have compounding effects over time.

就宏觀如何影響平台上的支出而言，我想說，看，高利率影響大中型企業客戶支出的需求，通貨膨脹影響小型企業和消費者方面的需求。這些都會影響 GSV，並且隨著時間的推移會產生複合效應。

And I think we've been able to weather the storm really well for the past few years as we've been going through this, and now we're starting to see some of those compounding effects, I think, really affects on the demand on the platform. But we've been able to grow revenue in this environment due to some of the investments we've made in high-growth categories and our ads and monetization strategy, and we do anticipate that some of those things will also get share with benefits in 2025 and beyond.

我認為，在過去的幾年裡，我們已經能夠很好地度過這場風暴，因為我們一直在經歷這個過程，現在我們開始看到其中一些複合效應，我認為，確實對需求產生了影響在平台上。但由於我們在高成長類別以及我們的廣告和貨幣化策略上進行的一些投資，我們能夠在這種環境下增加收入，並且我們確實預計其中一些東西也將與以下方面分享收益： 2025 年及以後。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Marvin Fong, BTIG.

馬文·方，BTIG。

Good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. So I guess just to kind of maybe round out the whole discussion about the state of the world. Anything you could add in terms of categories or even geography areas that might be trending particularly weak or maybe even relatively stronger relative to kind of the overall marketplace? And then I have a follow-up.

晚安.感謝您回答我的問題。所以我想也許只是為了完善關於世界狀況的整個討論。您可以在類別甚至地理區域方面添加任何內容，這些區域可能相對於整體市場的類型特別疲軟，甚至可能相對較強？然後我有一個後續行動。

Marvin, what we're seeing is from a category standpoint, the tech industry broadly in the macro at large is being hit harder from a job openings perspective. So we are seeing that, that is flowing through to some extent in terms of demand for tech jobs on our own platform being a bit weaker. And that's consistent with the macro trends. We also know that, that impact, however, is not totally uniform. There are some subcategories within our own tech category on our platform that are performing better. So it's a bit uneven, but that's, I'd say, one theme.

馬文，從類別的角度來看，從職缺的角度來看，整個宏觀科技產業受到更大的打擊。因此，我們看到，這在一定程度上體現在我們自己平台上對技術工作的需求有點疲軟。這與宏觀趨勢是一致的。然而我們也知道，這種影響並不完全一致。我們平台上我們自己的技術類別中有一些表現較好的子類別。所以這有點不平衡，但我想說，這是一個主題。

The bright spots in terms of categories definitely are the strength in AI-related work. That grew 67% year over year, and we're seeing emerging growth in subcategories even within these AI impacted like slices of the business like rating and translation, whereas even as automation is happening, new growth shoots are popping up. So that's the category story.

品類上的亮點無疑是AI相關工作的強項。這一數字年增了67%，我們看到子類別正在成長，甚至在這些人工智慧影響的業務領域（如評級和翻譯）中也是如此，而即使自動化正在發生，新的成長芽也在出現。這就是類別的故事。

To the question of geos or other segments, I'd say we saw US, Germany, and UK as a bit more impacted than other countries globally in terms of client demand. And again, I think that's indicative of kind of what's going on broadly in those economies.

對於地理或其他細分市場的問題，我想說，就客戶需求而言，我們認為美國、德國和英國比全球其他國家受到更大的影響。再說一次，我認為這顯示了這些經濟體正在廣泛發生的情況。

Yeah, okay. Perfect. That makes total sense. And I did want to also follow up on the bifurcated enterprise. So I'm just curious exactly what is it about -- or how should we sort of think about the less -- the lower feature version? I mean, what is it that makes it more palatable? Is it some of maybe the upfront cost, or is it a take rate being lower? What exactly is it that's going to draw these more on the fence kind of enterprises?

是啊，好吧。完美的。這完全有道理。我也確實想跟進這個分叉的企業。所以我只是很好奇它究竟是關於什麼的——或者我們應該如何考慮功能較低的版本？我的意思是，是什麼讓它變得更可口？是前期成本的一部分，還是採用率較低？到底是什麼會吸引更多的圍觀型企業？

And then just part B of that question, is there any risk in your mind that some of your existing enterprise customers that are on the full feature version that they might opt for the less full feature version? Thanks.

然後是這個問題的 B 部分，您是否認為某些使用完整功能版本的現有企業客戶可能會選擇功能較不完整的版本？謝謝。

Yeah. I understand the concern. I can tell you there's no risk of cannibalization here. What we are doing is really leveraging the art of getting the packaging, the pricing, the whole structure absolutely right to meet the different subsegments that exist within enterprise. And previously, we had more or less like one offering to target with, and now, we have more tools in our toolkit.

是的。我理解大家的擔憂。我可以告訴你這裡不存在蠶食的風險。我們正在做的事情是真正利用包裝、定價和整個結構的藝術來滿足企業內存在的不同細分市場。以前，我們或多或少有一種目標產品，而現在，我們的工具包中有更多工具。

And again, we're not -- this was one first iteration at this, really aimed at optimizing landing these new customers and expanding their share of wallet, which is something that we want to be absolutely best-in-class at. So we learned a bunch of things. I would say we're not compromising margins or take rate or kind of the effectiveness of our overall business and its profitability. But we are determined to nail how we get these packages and pricing absolutely right on losses market.

再說一遍，我們不是——這是第一次迭代，真正的目的是優化這些新客戶的登陸並擴大他們的錢包份額，這是我們希望成為同類最佳的事情。所以我們學到了很多。我想說，我們不會損害利潤率或利用率或我們整體業務的有效性及其獲利能力。但我們決心弄清楚如何在損失市場上獲得絕對正確的這些套餐和定價。

That's great. Thanks for the color, Hayden.

那太棒了。謝謝你的顏色，海登。

Sure.

當然。

(Operator Instructions) John Byun, Jefferies.

（操作員說明）John Byun，Jefferies。

Thank you. This is John Byun on behalf of Brent Thill. On the macro and GSV growth, I mean, what sort of actions could you take, or what could help resume the growth there? I mean, will it require a low interest rate or some other either external or specific factors to you?

謝謝。我是約翰·拜恩 (John Byun)，代表布倫特·希爾 (Brent Thill)。關於宏觀和 GSV 的成長，我的意思是，你可以採取什麼樣的行動，或者什麼可以幫助恢復那裡的成長？我的意思是，它是否需要低利率或其他一些外部或特定因素？

And then on the EBITDA margin further expansion, I think in the past, you've mentioned that there was still room to optimizing R&D. Wondering how you still view that. If not, then where are there still big pockets we can optimize more between the different OpEx lines? Thank you.

然後，關於 EBITDA 利潤率的進一步擴張，我想您過去曾提到，研發仍有優化的空間。想知道您仍然如何看待這一點。如果不是，那麼我們在不同的營運支出系列之間還有哪些地方可以進行更多優化？謝謝。

John, we don't have to wait for a better macro to return for our GSV investments to pay off. We expect the levers we're investing in now based on the early stages they're in now to have impact in 2025, even if a challenging macro persists. And certainly, they will perform better when the macro improves. So our growth will come from enterprise initiatives, including the pricing and packaging work, which unlocks logos and wallet share as well as amplification from the VMS and MSP program.

約翰，我們不必等待更好的宏觀經濟回報，我們的 GSV 投資就能獲得回報。我們預計，即使充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟持續存在，我們目前投資的槓桿仍處於早期階段，將在 2025 年產生影響。當然，當宏觀經濟改善時，他們的表現會更好。因此，我們的成長將來自企業計劃，包括定價和包裝工作，這可以解鎖徽標和錢包份額，以及 VMS 和 MSP 計劃的放大。

The AI and Uma-powered performance improvements we're making on our platform, from partnership efforts that drive new client acquisition at scale, from the scaling of AI talent and work-related GSV in our marketplace, which is growing at a rapid pace. These efforts are all in their early execution this year, and we never expected them to have a significant 2024 impact.

我們在平台上透過人工智慧和 Uma 推動的效能改進，來自於推動大規模新客戶獲取的合作夥伴努力，來自於我們市場中人工智慧人才和與工作相關的 GSV 的擴展，而市場正在快速成長。這些努力都在今年的早期執行中，我們從未預期它們會在 2024 年產生重大影響。

In 2025, they will be beneficial. And they will also be enhanced by the asset monetization work, which will be an additional tailwind, as well as anti-circumvention efforts, which will be favorable next year on GSV and revenue. So we feel great about our portfolio of opportunities and the ongoing strong execution we have behind every single one of them.

到2025年，它們將受益匪淺。資產貨幣化工作以及反規避工作也將增強這些工作，這將成為額外的推動力，這將有利於明年的 GSV 和收入。因此，我們對我們的機會組合以及每個機會背後持續的強大執行力感到非常滿意。

And I'll just answer on the adjusted EBITDA margin expansion question. Yeah, we absolutely do have more optimization to go in the R&D line. We are continuing to grow that line. I think you can expect that we are going to continue to invest in innovation on the platform. We think that, that ongoing innovation and investment in technology are the ways to grow this business. And so you will see that line continue to grow some on a year-over-year basis, but not nearly to the extent that it has in the past. So we've been growing over 20% of the year for the past few years in R&D.

我將只回答調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率擴張問題。是的，我們在研發方面確實有更多的優化要做。我們正在繼續擴大這條生產線。我認為您可以預期我們將繼續投資於該平台的創新。我們認為，持續的創新和技術投資是發展這項業務的方式。因此，您會看到該產品線繼續逐年增長，但不會達到過去的程度。因此，過去幾年我們的研發投入每年成長超過 20%。

And we're taking a really surgical approach. We're going kind of project by project and looking through and cutting back where we're not seeing the ROI profile that we want along the time horizons that we want. And again, we also have optimizations that we can take in continuing to improve on our gross margin line. And then I think there's definitely a way to go in G&A as well.

我們正在採取真正的外科手術方法。我們將逐一進行檢查，並在我們想要的時間範圍內查看和削減我們沒有看到我們想要的投資回報率的情況。同樣，我們還可以採取優化措施來繼續提高毛利率。我認為 G&A 也肯定有一條路可走。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. That concludes Upwork's second-quarter 2024 earnings call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

謝謝。Upwork 的 2024 年第二季財報電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。