Veritone Inc (VERI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Veritone Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

下午好，歡迎參加 Veritone Inc. 2022 年第四季和全年財務業績電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，此事件正在記錄中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Alger, SVP, Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係和資本市場高級副總裁 Brian Alger。請繼續。

Thank you, and good afternoon. After the market closed today, Veritone issued a press release announcing results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. The press release and other supplemental information is available in the Investors section of Veritone's website.

謝謝，下午好。今天市場收盤後，Veritone 發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的第四季度和財年業績。

Joining us for today's call are both the live and digital twin versions of Veritone's CEO and President, Ryan Steelberg, and CFO, Mike Zemetra, who will provide prepared remarks and then open up the call for a live question-and-answer session.

參加今天電話會議的有 Veritone 執行長兼總裁 Ryan Steelberg 和財務長 Mike Zemetra 的現場和數位孿生版本，他們將發表準備好的講話，然後開啟電話會議進行現場問答環節。

Please note that certain information discussed on the call today, including certain answers to your questions, will include forward-looking statements. This includes, without limitation, statements about our business strategy and future financial and operating performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and the assumptions that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those stated. Certain of these risks and assumptions are discussed in Veritone's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K.

請注意，今天電話會議上討論的某些信息，包括對您的問題的某些回答，將包含前瞻性陳述。其中包括但不限於有關我們的業務策略和未來財務和營運績效的聲明。這些前瞻性陳述受風險、不確定性和假設的影響，可能導致實際結果與所述結果有重大差異。 Veritone 向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（包括其 10-K 表年度報告）討論了其中的某些風險和假設。

These forward-looking statements are based on the assumptions as of today, March 2, 2023, and Veritone undertakes no obligation to revise or update them.

這些前瞻性陳述是基於截至 2023 年 3 月 2 日的假設，Veritone 不承擔修改或更新這些陳述的義務。

During this call, the actual and forecasted financial measures we will be discussing include non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the corresponding GAAP measures are included in the press release we issued today. Also, when we reference pro forma measures, such measures are presented on a combined pro forma basis, treating PandoLogic, as owned by Veritone since January 1, 2021.

在本次電話會議中，我們將討論的實際和預測財務指標包括非公認會計準則指標。我們今天發布的新聞稿中包含了這些指標與相應的 GAAP 指標的對帳。此外，當我們引用形式指標時，這些指標是以綜合形式呈現的，將 PandoLogic 視為自 2021 年 1 月 1 日起歸 Veritone 所有。

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that not only has this call been produced with Veritone Generative AI, but it is also being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link in the Investors section of Veritone's website at www.veritone.com.

最後，我想提醒大家，這次電話會議不僅是使用 Veritone Generative AI 製作的，而且還進行了錄音，並將透過 Veritone 網站 www.veritone.com 投資者部分中的連結提供重播。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to the digital twin of our CEO and President, Ryan Steelberg. Ryan?

現在我想將電話轉給我們執行長兼總裁 Ryan Steelberg 的數位孿生。瑞安？

Thank you, Brian. Good afternoon. (foreign language) As Brian noted, I am Ryan's digital twin, powered by Veritone Generative AI. We are happy to speak with you today and to provide an update regarding our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results.

謝謝你，布萊恩。午安. (外語)正如 Brian 所說，我是 Ryan 的數位孿生，由 Veritone Generative AI 提供支援。我們很高興今天與您交談並提供有關我們 2022 年第四季度和全年業績的最新資訊。

Given this is my first earnings call as CEO and President, I want to take a moment to discuss the initiatives we will be prioritizing. Although Veritone will always be driven by our software and technology innovation, we are doubling down on our focus in the markets where we have established clear differentiation and product market fit, resulting in disruptive efficiency and productivity gains for our customers.

鑑於這是我作為執行長兼總裁的第一次財報電話會議，我想花點時間討論我們將優先考慮的舉措。儘管 Veritone 始終以軟體和技術創新為驅動力，但我們正加倍關注已建立明顯差異化和產品市場契合度的市場，從而為我們的客戶帶來顛覆性的效率和生產力提升。

According to various third-party estimates, these markets already represent tens of billions of dollars in opportunity for our applications, solutions and services and through focus, we expect to capture greater share and revenue growth.

根據各種第三方估計，這些市場已經為我們的應用程式、解決方案和服務帶來了數百億美元的機會，透過集中精力，我們期望獲得更大的份額和收入成長。

Entering the third month in my new capacity, we have already implemented a number of operational and organizational changes designed to more tightly align our go-to-market and technology development with our customers' needs. Together with the executive leadership I am pushing for operational excellence in everything we do, from hiring to employee engagement and of course, product development and sales.

在我擔任新職務的第三個月，我們已經實施了一系列營運和組織變革，旨在使我們的行銷和技術開發與客戶需求更加緊密地結合起來。我與高階主管一起推動我們所做的每一件事都追求卓越運營，從招聘到員工敬業度，當然還有產品開發和銷售。

The entire leadership team is aligned behind a heightened attention to productivity and operational excellence. We are committed to driving Veritone to sustainable profitability through growth and innovation. While these changes are largely internal and not yet evident to those outside the company, we expect the end result will be improved customer engagement and consequently, more profitable growth.

整個領導團隊都高度重視生產力和卓越營運。我們致力於透過發展和創新推動 Veritone 實現永續盈利。儘管這些變化主要是內部的，公司外部人士還未察覺，但我們預計最終結果將是提高客戶參與度，從而實現更多的利潤成長。

For the fourth quarter and full year 2022, Veritone reported revenue of $44 million and $150 million, respectively. Q4 new bookings reached another record of $20 million, up 141% year-over-year. Our year-over-year customer count grew 21% to 642 and our gross revenue retention continued to be strong in the high 90th percentile.

2022 年第四季和全年，Veritone 報告的收入分別為 4,400 萬美元和 1.5 億美元。第四季新訂單金額再創紀錄，達到 2,000 萬美元，年增 141%。我們的客戶數量年增 21%，達到 642 家，我們的總營收留任率持續保持強勁，達到 90% 的高位。

As we will detail, our commercial businesses powered by Veritone aiWARE, continue to be our foundation and clear differentiation in the market, providing the bulk of the revenues and profits for the business. That said, our investments in government and regulated industry solutions outside of energy, which I will speak to in a moment, are showing signs of more material traction with Q4 2022 GRI bookings growing both sequentially and year-over-year.

正如我們將詳細介紹的那樣，由 Veritone aiWARE 提供支援的商業業務將繼續成為我們的基礎和在市場上的明顯差異化，為業務提供大部分收入和利潤。話雖如此，我們對能源以外的政府和受監管行業解決方案的投資（我稍後會談到）顯示出更多實質性吸引力的跡象，2022 年第四季度 GRI 訂單環比和同比增長均有所增長。

Against a challenging global market in 2022, we have taken a number of actions to set our course and refocus the company for sustainable and profitable growth. During the fourth quarter, Veritone took the decisive action of buying back $60 million of our convertible debt for a total cost of just over $39 million, substantially improving our balance sheet and signaling high confidence in our business and outlook towards profitability.

面對 2022 年充滿挑戰的全球市場，我們採取了一系列行動來明確方向並重新調整公司以實現永續和獲利成長。在第四季度，Veritone 採取果斷行動，以略高於 3900 萬美元的成本回購了 6000 萬美元的可轉換債務，大大改善了我們的資產負債表，並表明了對我們的業務和盈利前景的高度信心。

Post this debt repurchase, we remain well capitalized with $184.4 million in total cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022. We ended the year with unencumbered cash of $91 million and our November 2026 total debt outstanding is now just $141 million.

此次債務回購後，我們的資本充足，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金和現金等價物總額為 1.844 億美元。

In January, we announced a number of strategic initiatives that are already in motion, including the addition of key management talent, organizational realignment, various cost reductions and the divesting of the energy business. The net result of these actions is that Veritone is more capable, focused and efficient in its operations.

今年 1 月，我們宣布了一系列已在實施的策略性舉措，包括增添關鍵管理人才、進行組織調整、削減各種成本以及剝離能源業務。這些行動的最終結果是，Veritone 的營運能力更強、更專注、更有效率。

Our go-to-market and engagement with customers and partners is more tightly aligned as we drive value.

隨著我們推動價值的發展，我們的行銷以及與客戶和合作夥伴的互動更加緊密地結合在一起。

With the recent increase in AI awareness from the emergence of generative AI and ChatGPT, Veritone is driven to continue to innovate and deploy market-leading and trusted AI applications and solutions.

隨著生成式人工智慧和 ChatGPT 的出現，人們對人工智慧的認識不斷提高，這推動著 Veritone 不斷創新並部署市場領先且值得信賴的人工智慧應用程式和解決方案。

In mid-February, we announced Veritone aiWARE's native support of generative AI models, detailing several use cases where generative AI is being utilized today in production with our customers. While the advancements and significance of the new public large language models or LLMs, cannot be overstated for Veritone, conversational AI in these LLMs and domain-specific LLMs as a class are another set of powerful models for aiWARE to utilize in delivering game-changing products and solutions to our customers.

2 月中旬，我們宣布了 Veritone aiWARE 對生成式 AI 模型的原生支持，並詳細介紹了目前在與客戶合作生產中使用生成式 AI 的幾個用例。雖然新的公共大型語言模型或 LLM 的進步和意義對 Veritone 來說怎麼強調都不為過，但這些 LLM 中的對話式 AI 和作為一個類別的特定領域 LLM 是 aiWARE 用來向客戶提供改變遊戲規則的產品和解決方案的另一組強大模型。

We believe generative AI improves the customer experience and as a result, should accelerate adoption of AI solutions and services for both new and existing customers. We have consistently maintained that artificial intelligence in good times and bad will continue to thrive.

我們相信生成式人工智慧可以改善客戶體驗，進而加速新舊客戶採用人工智慧解決方案和服務。我們始終認為，人工智慧無論在順境或逆境都將繼續蓬勃發展。

Our 21% growth in customers and 141% bookings growth are concrete evidence that, that belief continues to be valid. Importantly, the customer and booking strength was balanced across all of our offerings, further diversifying our business.

我們的客戶數量增加了 21%，預訂量增加了 141%，這有力地證明了這一信念仍然有效。重要的是，我們所有產品的客戶和預訂實力都是平衡的，這進一步實現了業務多元化。

Now let's get into more of the operational details of our fourth quarter results, kicking off the business review with commercial enterprise. Fourth quarter 2022 commercial enterprise revenues of $42.8 million increased 18% sequentially but were down 21% year-over-year.

現在讓我們進一步了解第四季業績的營運細節，從商業企業開始業務審查。 2022 年第四季商業企業營收為 4,280 萬美元，較上季成長 18%，但年減 21%。

Excluding Amazon, Q4 2022 commercial enterprise software and services revenues were up more than 70% year-over-year, while Managed Services revenues were up 12%. On the full year, commercial software and services revenues grew over 54% without Amazon, and Managed Services revenues grew 17%. Stated more plainly, our 21% year-over-year growth in customers and otherwise growth in commercial revenues was strong as we continue to minimize the concentration risk of one customer.

不包括亞馬遜，2022 年第四季商業企業軟體和服務收入年增超過 70%，而託管服務收入則成長 12%。全年來看，不包括亞馬遜的商業軟體和服務收入成長超過 54%，託管服務收入成長 17%。更直白地說，由於我們持續將單一客戶的集中風險降至最低，我們的客戶數量較去年同期成長 21%，商業收入也實現強勁成長。

Our recent deals with The Masters, Candle Media, Fox, Stats Perform and Odyssey are all examples of our ability to expand and diversify in this dynamic operating environment. By growing our customer base and continuing to deliver superior products and services, Veritone will grow stronger and less susceptible to the actions of a single customer or even a single end market.

我們最近與 The Masters、Candle Media、Fox、Stats Perform 和 Odyssey 達成的交易都是我們在這個充滿活力的營運環境中擴張和多樣化能力的體現。透過擴大客戶群並繼續提供優質的產品和服務，Veritone 將變得更加強大，並且不太容易受到單一客戶甚至單一終端市場的行為的影響。

Moving on to government and regulated industries or GRI. GRI revenues were relatively flat at $1.2 million in Q4 and $3.8 million on the full year. That said, bookings strength, broad customer engagement and new product and market initiatives indicate that our investments in GRI end markets are gaining traction at an accelerating pace. At the state and local level, we continue to sign law enforcement agencies near daily. Moreover, our suite of offerings is driving increased product penetration with virtually no churn.

轉向政府和受監管行業或 GRI。 GRI 收入相對持平，第四季為 120 萬美元，全年為 380 萬美元。儘管如此，預訂量的強勁、廣泛的客戶參與以及新產品和市場舉措表明，我們對 GRI 終端市場的投資正在加速成長。在州和地方層面，我們幾乎每天都會繼續與執法機構簽署協議。此外，我們的一系列產品正在推動產品滲透率的提高，而且幾乎沒有客戶流失。

Last quarter, we closed a 3-year 7-figure SaaS contract to provide services to a statewide agency, the California Highway Patrol. And since signing the contract has already been upsized. In the fourth quarter, we introduced redaction as a service, which is not only improving our revenue opportunities, but it is also accelerating the sales cycle with numerous agencies that are understaffed and already overwhelmed with content.

上個季度，我們簽訂了一份為期 3 年、價值 7 位數的 SaaS 合同，為州級機構加州公路巡邏局提供服務。並且自簽訂合約以來，合約金額已經增加。在第四季度，我們推出了編輯服務，這不僅增加了我們的收入機會，而且還加速了眾多人手不足且內容不堪重負的機構的銷售週期。

In the fourth quarter, we also announced the general availability of Veritone Tracker, a unique person of interest detection and tracking solution that does not require biometric face identification. It is already attracting interest across our entire government customer base, including federal, state and local agencies as well as some of our commercial customers.

在第四季度，我們還宣布了 Veritone Tracker 的全面上市，這是一種不需要生物特徵面部識別的獨特興趣點檢測和追蹤解決方案。它已經吸引了我們整個政府客戶群的興趣，包括聯邦、州和地方機構以及一些商業客戶。

Coming into 2023, a primary focus is on growing the business with existing customers and diversifying with new customers in the markets that we have established clear product market fit and productivity gains for our customers.

進入 2023 年，我們的主要重點是與現有客戶一起發展業務，並在已經為客戶建立明確的產品市場契合度和生產力提升的市場中透過新客戶實現業務多元化。

Before handing the call over to Mike to go through the financials in more detail, I want to address the difficult decision to divest our energy group, while the potential of the energy market continues to be attractive and growing, our energy business has underperformed.

在將電話交給麥克更詳細地介紹財務狀況之前，我想先談談剝離能源集團的艱難決定，雖然能源市場的潛力繼續具有吸引力且不斷增長，但我們的能源業務表現不佳。

Our decision demonstrates that we are focused on markets with stronger product market fit and traction. Those of you who have followed Veritone for a while know that the company's name is derived from Latin, meaning truth in the signal. As we have all witnessed over the past several months, there is a lot of noise around AI.

我們的決定表明，我們專注於產品市場契合度和更具吸引力的市場。關注 Veritone 一段時間的人都知道，該公司的名字源自於拉丁語，意為訊號中的真相。正如我們過去幾個月所見，人工智慧領域存在著許多喧囂。

Veritone provides applications, solutions and services to our customers that eliminate the noise and simply improve their processes and outcomes at significant margins to Veritone. Today, we are clearly an established leader in delivering AI-enabled results to more than 600 commercial customers with strong customer growth and retention, we expect to extend that lead not only in our commercial markets but also with our targeted government and regulated clients as well. The people we have attracted and the technology we continue to develop are the foundational elements for Veritone to capture and dominate our targeted markets.

Veritone 為我們的客戶提供應用程式、解決方案和服務，以消除噪音並簡單地改善他們的流程和結果，為 Veritone 帶來可觀的利潤。今天，我們顯然已成為向 600 多個商業客戶提供人工智慧成果的領先者，擁有強勁的客戶成長和保留率，我們希望不僅在商業市場擴大領先地位，而且還能在我們的目標政府和受監管客戶中擴大領先地位。我們吸引的人才和持續開發的技術是 Veritone 佔領和主導目標市場的根本要素。

Now I would like to hand the call off to Mike Zemetra, our CFO, to go through the financial results and guidance. Take it away, Mike.

現在，我想將電話轉交給我們的財務長 Mike Zemetra，來聽取財務結果和指導。把它拿走吧，麥克。

Thank you, Ryan. I am excited to report that we continue to make substantial financial progress, ending the year with solid customer metrics and contributions made across our Software Products & Services and Managed Services. This includes our second time reporting positive non-GAAP income in Q4 2022 and ending the year with a much improved balance sheet and cash in excess of $180 million.

謝謝你，瑞安。我很高興地報告，我們繼續取得實質的財務進展，以穩健的客戶指標和對軟體產品和服務以及託管服務的貢獻結束了這一年。這包括我們在 2022 年第四季第二次報告非 GAAP 收入為正，並以資產負債表大幅改善且現金超過 1.8 億美元結束今年。

During my prepared remarks, I will discuss our fiscal 2022 and Q4 year-over-year performance and KPIs, our December 2022 debt buyback and Q1 and fiscal 2023 guidance, highlighting the scalability of our revenue and business risks heading into fiscal 2023, focus on near-term profitability and projected full year results.

在我的準備好的發言中，我將討論我們 2022 財年和第四季度的同比業績和 KPI、我們 2022 年 12 月的債務回購以及 2023 財年第一季度和業務風險的可擴展性，重點關注近期盈利能力和預計的全年業績。

Starting with full year 2022 performance. Revenue was a record $149.7 million, up 30% year-over-year from $115.3 million in 2021. This growth was driven largely by Software Products & Services which increased $25.1 million or 42% to a record $84.6 million in revenue and secondarily from Managed Services, which increased $9.4 million or 17%.

從 2022 年全年業績開始。營收達到創紀錄的 1.497 億美元，較 2021 年的 1.153 億美元年增 30%。 這一增長主要得益於軟體產品與服務，其收入增加了 2,510 萬美元或 42%，達到創紀錄的 8,460 萬美元，其次是託管服務，增加了 197%。

The increase in Software Products & Services was driven largely from the Q3 2021 acquisition of PandoLogic and 30% organic growth from legacy software product and services revenue, led by growth in commercial media and entertainment.

軟體產品和服務的成長主要得益於 2021 年第三季對 PandoLogic 的收購以及傳統軟體產品和服務收入 30% 的有機成長，其中主要由商業媒體和娛樂業務的成長所推動。

On a pro forma basis, fiscal year 2022 revenue increased slightly by 1% from 2021 pro forma revenue of $148.1 million. Driving this pro forma variance was Software Products & Services, which decreased $7.8 million or 8%, offset by the $9.2 million increase in Managed Services. The pro forma decline in Software Products & Services was driven by our hiring solutions which decreased $13.8 million or 19% year-over-year, offset by the increase in organic Software Products & Services of $6.4 million or 30%.

以預測基礎計算，2022 財年營收較 2021 年預測營收 1.481 億美元小幅成長 1%。推動這一預計差異的原因是軟體產品與服務，其減少了 780 萬美元，即 8%，但被託管服務 920 萬美元的增幅所抵消。軟體產品和服務的預期下降是由於我們的招募解決方案年減 1,380 萬美元或 19%，但有機軟體產品和服務增加了 640 萬美元或 30%。

Our hiring solutions revenue declined on a pro forma basis due to a year-over-year decrease of 38% from Amazon, our largest customer, offset by revenue growth of over 78% from other hiring solutions customers. Apart from Amazon going through its well-publicized post-pandemic changes, our hiring solutions customer growth has been a monumental 80% since we acquired PandoLogic through December 2022.

我們的招募解決方案收入以備考基礎計算有所下降，原因是我們最大的客戶亞馬遜的收入年減了 38%，但其他招募解決方案客戶的收入成長了 78% 以上。除了亞馬遜經歷廣為人知的疫情後變革之外，自從我們收購 PandoLogic 以來，截至 2022 年 12 月，我們的招募解決方案客戶成長率達到了驚人的 80%。

As I will discuss later in our guidance, while we expect a strong jobs economy throughout 2023, including continuing new and existing customer growth across our hiring solutions platform, we are projecting revenue from Amazon to be slightly down year-over-year as we settle into the post-pandemic higher interest rate and inflationary economy throughout 2023.

正如我將在後面的指引中討論的那樣，雖然我們預計 2023 年全年就業經濟將保持強勁，包括我們招聘解決方案平台上新老客戶數量的持續增長，但我們預計亞馬遜的收入將同比略有下降，因為我們將在 2023 年進入後疫情時代的高利率和通脹經濟。

In 2022, Amazon represented approximately 25% of our consolidated revenue, down from approximately 40% of our pro forma 2021 revenue. We expect customer growth and strong net revenue retention to further reduce the revenue concentration in 2023.

2022 年，亞馬遜約占我們綜合收入的 25%，低於 2021 年預計收入的約 40%。我們預計客戶成長和強勁的淨收入保留將在 2023 年進一步降低收入集中度。

As a percentage of total revenue, Software Products & Services represented approximately 56% of consolidated revenue in fiscal 2022 versus 62% in fiscal 2021 on a pro forma basis.

以總收入的百分比計算，軟體產品和服務在 2022 財年約佔合併收入的 56%，而 2021 財年則為 62%。

Full year non-GAAP gross profit reached $122.3 million as compared to $93.2 million in 2021, improving $29.1 million or 31%. This too was largely driven by the growth across our business, while overall non-GAAP gross margins improved to 81.7% in 2022 as compared with 80.8% in 2021, driven in large part by the mix of revenue growth in 2022.

全年非 GAAP 毛利達到 1.223 億美元，而 2021 年為 9,320 萬美元，成長 2,910 萬美元，增幅為 31%。這也主要得益於我們整個業務的成長，而整體非 GAAP 毛利率從 2021 年的 80.8% 提高到 2022 年的 81.7%，這在很大程度上得益於 2022 年的營收成長組合。

Non-GAAP net loss was $15.9 million as compared to non-GAAP net income of $6.8 million in 2021, a decline of $22.7 million, driven by increased investments made in core operations most notably additions of sales and engineering staff made in the first half of 2022 and to a lesser extent, from corporate investments around new system launches and higher professional fees. This was to support our first year Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts as we exit emerging growth status in 2022, partially offsetting this was the year-over-year improvement in non-GAAP gross margin.

非公認會計準則淨虧損為 1,590 萬美元，而 2021 年的非公認會計準則淨收入為 680 萬美元，下降了 2,270 萬美元，而 2021 年的非公認會計準則淨收入為 680 萬美元，下降了 2,270 萬美元，這主要是由於對核心業務的投資增加，最明顯的是 2022 年上半年增加了銷售和工程人員，以及在程度較小，來自專業費用的系統發布和更高程度，來自專業費用的系統發布和更高程度，來自專業費用的系統發布和更高程度，來自專業費用的系統發布和更高，來自專業費用的系統。這是為了支持我們第一年的薩班斯-奧克斯利合規工作，因為我們將在 2022 年退出新興增長狀態，而非 GAAP 毛利率的同比增長部分抵消了這一影響。

Overall, non-GAAP net loss was also down when compared to pro forma 2021 non-GAAP net income of $18.5 million driven by the aforementioned declines in our hiring solutions revenue, coupled with increased investments in our operations.

總體而言，與 2021 年預測的非 GAAP 淨收入 1,850 萬美元相比，非 GAAP 淨虧損也有所下降，這主要是由於上述招聘解決方案收入的下降，加上對營運的投資增加。

We opened 2022 with 560 full-time employees ramped up in the first half of 2022 to over 720 and with cost-cutting measures that began in the second half of 2022 and we are now at approximately 655 full-time employees or approximately 9% lower versus our height in mid-2022.

2022 年伊始，我們擁有 560 名全職員工，2022 年上半年增至 720 多名，並且自 2022 年下半年開始採取成本削減措施，目前我們擁有約 655 名全職員工，與 2022 年中期的巔峰時期相比下降了約 9%。

Now more specifically to Q4 2022 performance. Revenue was $43.9 million, down 20% or $11.3 million from Q4 of 2021, driven largely by Software Products & Services, which decreased 32% or $13 million driven by Amazon. Offsetting this decline was other Software Products & Services revenue, which collectively grew by $6.2 million or 60% year-over-year driven by overall customer growth over 120% net retention, excluding Amazon and gross revenue retention in the high 90 percentiles.

現在更具體地說是 2022 年第四季的表現。營收為 4,390 萬美元，較 2021 年第四季下降 20% 或 1,130 萬美元，主要受軟體產品和服務的影響，受亞馬遜的影響，軟體產品和服務下降了 32% 或 1,300 萬美元。抵銷這一下降的是其他軟體產品和服務收入，這些收入合計增長 620 萬美元，比去年同期增長 60%，這得益於整體客戶增長超過 120% 的淨保留率（不包括亞馬遜）和高 90% 百分位的總收入保留率。

Overall, our revenue pipeline and long-term outlook remains strong. Our partner-driven channel strategy continues to deliver results with record new bookings of $20 million in Q4 2022, an increase of 141% from Q4 2021. With increased opportunities around our offerings within commercial enterprise and GRI, newer generative AI product applications around NLP and hiring solutions expanded Managed Services to now include redaction as a service and accelerated cross-selling opportunities across our platform, our future pipeline is at an all-time high, particularly in GRI where we expect to immediately begin realizing significant growth in the near and long term.

整體而言，我們的收入管道和長期前景仍然強勁。我們的合作夥伴驅動型通路策略持續取得成果，2022 年第四季的新訂單量創紀錄地達到 2000 萬美元，較 2021 年第四季成長 141% 的新訂單量創紀錄地達到 2000 萬美元，較 2021 年第四季成長 141%。預計將在近期和長期內立即開始實現顯著成長。

In Q4, we reported solid KPI results. New bookings were $20 million, up 141% from Q4 of 2021. Gross revenue retention continued to be in the high 90th percentile, and ending software customers were up 21% year-over-year. In Managed Services, advertising gross billings per active client increased to a record $823,000, up 32% over Q4 of 2021. Overall, Q4 2022 advertising revenue continued to outpace the prior year and exceeded industry growth in large part due to the performance nature of our advertising platform.

在第四季度，我們報告了穩健的 KPI 結果。新訂單為 2,000 萬美元，較 2021 年第四季成長 141%。在託管服務方面，每位活躍客戶的廣告總收入增至創紀錄的 823,000 美元，比 2021 年第四季度增長 32%。

Q4 2022 non-GAAP gross profit reached $37.2 million, declining $11.7 million or 24% from Q4 of 2021, largely due to the decrease in our hiring solutions revenue. Overall, Q4 non-GAAP gross margins were 84.7% as compared with 88.6% in Q4 of 2021.

2022 年第四季非 GAAP 毛利達到 3,720 萬美元，較 2021 年第四季下降 1,170 萬美元或 24%，這主要是由於我們的招聘解決方案收入下降。整體而言，第四季非 GAAP 毛利率為 84.7%，而 2021 年第四季為 88.6%。

Software Products & Services non-GAAP gross margins benefit from the inclusion of our hiring solutions, which generate non-GAAP gross margins in excess of 90%. As a result, the overall non-GAAP gross margin came down in Q4 2022 as compared to Q4 2021. We expect consolidated non-GAAP gross margins to continue to exceed 80% throughout fiscal 2023 with sequential improvement each quarter consistent with the seasonality of our business.

軟體產品與服務非 GAAP 毛利率受益於我們的招募解決方案的納入，該解決方案產生了超過 90% 的非 GAAP 毛利率。因此，2022 年第四季的整體非 GAAP 毛利率與 2021 年第四季相比有所下降。

Q4 non-GAAP net income was $2.2 million as compared to $17.0 million in Q4 of 2021, driven largely by the decline in revenue from our hiring solutions coupled with increased investments in sales and engineering personnel across our core operations in order to grow and scale our aiWARE platform and business. Q4 2022 corporate operations remained relatively flat year-over-year.

第四季非 GAAP 淨收入為 220 萬美元，而 2021 年第四季為 1,700 萬美元，這主要是由於我們的招聘解決方案收入下降，以及為了發展和擴大我們的 aiWARE 平台和業務，我們增加了對核心業務銷售和工程人員的投資。 2022 年第四季企業營運較去年同期保持相對穩定。

Turning to our balance sheet. At December 31, 2022, we held cash and restricted cash of $185.3 million compared to $255.6 million at December 31, 2021. The $70.3 million decrease reflects net cash outflows from financing and investing activities of $74.0 million, offset slightly by net cash inflow from operations of $3.7 million. During Q4 2022, we used $39 million to repurchase $60 million or 30% of our outstanding convertible debt, generating a net gain of $21.0 million.

轉向我們的資產負債表。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們持有的現金和受限現金為 1.853 億美元，而 2021 年 12 月 31 日為 2.556 億美元。 2022 年第四季度，我們使用 3,900 萬美元回購了 6,000 萬美元或 30% 的未償還可轉換債務，產生了 2,100 萬美元的淨收益。

In addition, net cash outflows from financing and investing activities included $21.7 million towards acquisitions, including $14.4 million of cash towards PandoLogic's 2021 earnout, $9.8 million in net share settlements of equity awards and $4.8 million in capital expenditures.

此外，融資和投資活動的淨現金流出包括用於收購的 2,170 萬美元，其中包括用於 PandoLogic 2021 年盈利的 1,440 萬美元現金、980 萬美元的股權獎勵淨股份結算和 480 萬美元的資本支出。

Net cash inflows from operating activities of $3.7 million consists of net positive changes in our working capital of $24.9 million, principally associated with the growth and timing of payments in our Managed Services largely offset by our $15.9 million non-GAAP net loss in cash interest and taxes paid in 2022. Of the total $184.4 million in cash, approximately $93.1 million of our reported cash is essentially held for payments to third parties from our Managed Services. We ended December 31, 2022, with 36.3 million shares outstanding and convertible debt of $141 million principal, 1.75% interest due November 2026.

經營活動產生的淨現金流入 370 萬美元包括我們營運資本的淨正變化 2,490 萬美元，主要與我們託管服務的付款增長和時間有關，但這在很大程度上被我們 2022 年支付的 1,590 萬美元非 GAAP 現金利息和稅款淨額淨額所抵銷。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們擁有 3,630 萬股流通股及 1.41 億美元本金、1.75% 利息的可轉換債務，到期日為 2026 年 11 月。

Looking ahead to Q1 2023, I want to point out onetime cash and stock items. As a reminder, in the second half of 2022, we negotiated a settlement on PandoLogic's 2022 earnout of approximately $8 million in cash and $135,000 of Veritone's stock payable in Q1 2023. When aggregated, the final consideration paid for the PandoLogic acquisition was approximately $115 million in total or $35 million less than the target price of $150 million. If we average the last 2 years of revenue, this comes to a price around 1.8x revenue.

展望 2023 年第一季度，我想指出一次性現金和庫存項目。提醒一下，在 2022 年下半年，我們就 PandoLogic 2022 年的盈利達成了和解，約 800 萬美元現金和 135,000 美元的 Veritone 股票，將於 2023 年第一季支付。如果我們計算過去兩年的收入平均值，那麼價格大約是收入的 1.8 倍。

Turning to financial guidance for Q1 and fiscal 2023. Fiscal 2023 is shaping to be a challenging year with the backdrop of a possible recession, given inflationary and interest rate pressures. Taking these macro factors into consideration, we approached our 2023 planning with a very conservative approach on revenue with heightened discipline around costs as we march towards profitability.

轉向第一季和 2023 財年的財務指引。考慮到這些宏觀因素，我們在製定 2023 年規劃時採取了非常保守的收入方式，並在向盈利邁進的過程中加強了對成本的約束。

In February this year, we announced $12 million to $15 million of annualized cost savings initiatives, which included cutting back on certain operating expenses headcount reductions; and finally, the divestiture of our energy group, which we are tracking to finalize in the first half of 2023. I'm happy to report that we've executed on approximately $7.5 million of annualized savings through today or approximately 50% of the high end of our stated range and expect to continue to update you on further progress when we announce Q1 earnings in May 2023.

今年 2 月，我們宣布了 1,200 萬至 1,500 萬美元的年度成本節約舉措，其中包括削減某些營運費用、裁減員工人數；最後，我們計劃剝離能源集團，預計在 2023 年上半年完成。

With that backdrop, we are guiding Q1 revenue to be between $29.5 million and $30.5 million, representing an 11% decrease year-over-year at the midpoint. Driving this decline is our high-volume hiring solutions, including Amazon, who have returned back to non-pandemic hiring trends in Q1 2023 versus Q1 2022. As a result, we expect our Q1 2023 hiring solutions revenue to be down as much as 50% year-over-year in Q1 2023 returning back to more seasonal trends in Q2 and in the second half of 2023. Offsetting this will be GRI, which we expect to improve at or above 100% in Q1 2023 versus Q1 2022 driven by new and existing customer growth.

基於此背景，我們預計第一季營收將在 2,950 萬美元至 3,050 萬美元之間，年比中位數下降 11%。推動這一下降的是我們的高容量招聘解決方案，包括亞馬遜，其在 2023 年第一季度已恢復到非疫情期間的招聘趨勢，而 2022 年第一季度則不然。 2023 年第一季與 2022 年第一季相比，GRI 將提高 100% 或以上。

Our Managed Services is expected to be fairly flat in Q1 2023 versus 2022 with expected advertising revenue to remain comparable in the first half of 2023 versus 2022 given the current economic environment.

鑑於當前的經濟環境，預計 2023 年第一季我們的託管服務收入將與 2022 年持平，預計 2023 年上半年的廣告收入將與 2022 年保持相當。

Risks to our Q1 revenue guidance include execution on new enterprise deliverables, namely across GRI, which can be unpredictable and our concentration of Amazon, which usage of our hiring platform can vary.

我們第一季營收預期面臨的風險包括新企業交付成果的執行，即整個 GRI，這可能是不可預測的，以及我們對亞馬遜的集中度，我們的招募平台的使用可能會有所不同。

And Q1 quarterly non-GAAP net loss to be between $8.5 million and $9.5 million, which is down by $3.8 million versus Q1 2022 driven by the previously discussed year-over-year decline in our hiring solutions revenue. As a reminder, Q1 is our seasonally lowest performing quarter as the majority of our costs are fixed and payroll driven.

第一季非 GAAP 淨虧損在 850 萬美元至 950 萬美元之間，較 2022 年第一季度下降 380 萬美元，這主要是由於之前討論過的招聘解決方案收入同比下降所致。提醒一下，第一季是我們季度業績最差的一個季度，因為我們的大部分成本都是固定的和由薪資驅動的。

For full year 2023, we expect revenue to be between $158.0 million and $168.0 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 9% at the midpoint.

對於 2023 年全年，我們預計營收在 1.58 億美元至 1.68 億美元之間，中位數年增 9%。

As a reminder, and given current economic outlook, we are forecasting our revenue conservatively in 2023, including a year-over-year decline of approximately 10% from Amazon, certain onetime software sales revenues in 2022 that are not recurring in 2023 and the disposition of our energy revenue and group in the first half of 2023.

提醒一下，鑑於當前的經濟前景，我們對 2023 年的收入預測比較保守，包括亞馬遜的同比下降約 10%、2022 年某些一次性軟體銷售收入（2023 年不會重複出現）以及 2023 年上半年我們能源收入和集團的處置。

If we exclude the impact of these, our revenue guidance would be over 20% improvement in 2023 versus 2022.

如果我們排除這些影響，我們預計 2023 年的營收將比 2022 年成長 20% 以上。

Risks to our annual revenue guidance include the macro economy and the result of continued inflation and higher interest rates on our customers' execution on new enterprise deliverables namely across GRI and continued customer growth and retention metrics from our Software Products & Services.

我們年度營收指引面臨的風險包括宏觀經濟、持續通貨膨脹和更高利率對客戶執行新企業交付成果（即 GRI 成果）的影響以及我們軟體產品和服務的持續客戶成長和保留指標的影響。

We expect full year non-GAAP net loss to improve substantially in 2023 and be between $7.0 million and $1.0 million as we continue to progress towards profitability. At the midpoint, this represents a 75% improvement when compared to fiscal 2022 non-GAAP net loss.

我們預計，隨著我們繼續朝著獲利方向邁進，2023 年全年非 GAAP 淨虧損將大幅改善，達到 700 萬美元至 100 萬美元之間。從中間值來看，與 2022 財年非 GAAP 淨虧損相比，這一數字改善了 75%。

Before I close, we will be speaking at the following investor conferences: The JMP Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco on March 7 and the 35th Annual ROTH Conference in Dana Point on March 13 and 14. That concludes my prepared remarks.

在結束之前，我們將在以下投資者會議上發言：3 月 7 日在舊金山舉行的 JMP 證券技術會議和 3 月 13 日至 14 日在達納角舉行的第 35 屆 ROTH 年度會議。

Operator, we would like to now open up the call for questions.

接線員，我們現在想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Darren Aftahi of ROTH MKM.

(操作員指示) 我們的第一個問題來自 ROTH MKM 的 Darren Aftahi。

Two, if I may. First, you guys sound pretty enthused about kind of your outlook for GRI. I'm just kind of curious, could you speak to that enthusiasm and maybe touch on -- I know you guys launched the -- your Tracker product for forensics in the fourth quarter and just kind of how that kind of plays into that? And my second question is just given the HR product you guys have and it kind of being a defensive mechanism and more of a lower growth environment, even though there's hiring going on. Can you just kind of speak to trends in that business maybe outside of Amazon and some of your core customers?

如果可以的話，有兩個。首先，你們對 GRI 的展望聽起來相當熱情。我只是有點好奇，您能談談這種熱情 也許可以談談——我知道你們在第四季度推出了用於取證的 Tracker 產品，以及它是如何發揮作用的？我的第二個問題是，鑑於你們的人力資源產品，它是一種防禦機制，而且更多的是一種低成長環境，儘管正在招募。您能否談談亞馬遜之外以及一些核心客戶的業務趨勢？

Great. In GRI, we've put out a few releases, and we've updated you in the past that our strength and growth in local law enforcement at the city level and the county level and even now at the state level has continued to accelerate in pace. So today, we have hundreds of customers. We're signing new customers, almost daily. But however, historically, the products that we've been taking to market have been lower ticket item sales. We love the fact that aiWARE provides a very extensible platform to help us onboard customers who have limited budget to start investing in and improving their operations using AI. But on the flip side, we really were looking for opportunities to increase. We have this great relationship. We have great product market fit and a good brand in the space. And Tracker is one of the solutions that we're excited about to take to market where we do expect larger and higher ticket item opportunities.

偉大的。在 GRI，我們已經發布了一些新聞稿，並且我們過去曾向您更新過，我們在市級、縣級，甚至現在在州級的地方執法實力和增長都在持續加快。所以今天，我們有數百名客戶。我們幾乎每天都會簽新客戶。但是，從歷史上看，我們推向市場的產品都是低價商品。我們非常喜歡 aiWARE，它提供了一個高度可擴展的平台，幫助我們吸引預算有限的客戶開始投資並使用 AI 改善他們的營運。但另一方面，我們確實在尋找成長的機會。我們的關係非常好。我們的產品市場契合度極高，並且在該領域擁有良好的品牌。 Tracker 是我們很高興能推向市場的解決方案之一，我們確實期待它能帶來更大、更高價位的商品機會。

So in addition to that, some of the longer-term deals that we've been working on, right, in state and local law enforcement specifically, have just started to come to close. As you know, the space takes a long time. We were -- and we did disclosed earlier in the prepared remarks, about the California Highway Patrol and a statewide deal with them as it relates to our SLED based products. And so we are, we're very optimistic. We've been able to continue to grow the pipeline and now we're seeing the results of that while maintaining pretty cost discipline in the area.

除此之外，我們一直在努力達成的一些長期協議，特別是與州和地方執法部門的協議，剛開始達成。如您所知，空間需要很長時間。我們——並且我們確實在早些時候的準備好的發言中披露了關於加州公路巡警局以及與他們達成的一項與我們的基於 SLED 的產品有關的全州協議。因此我們非常樂觀。我們已經能夠繼續擴大管道，現在我們看到了成果，同時在該領域保持了相當嚴格的成本控制。

But again, I think Tracker, we're already in discussions with most of our customers about this new solution, which is proprietary with groups like BART up North and the Department of Justice and a multitude of different local law enforcement agencies across the country.

但是，我再次認為 Tracker 已經與大多數客戶討論了這個新解決方案，該解決方案是北部灣捷運 (BART) 和司法部以及全國眾多不同地方執法機構等團體的專有技術。

On the -- as it relates to HR talent acquisition solutions, PandoLogic, as we stated earlier, they've had significant growth quarter-over-quarter -- I'm sorry, year-over-year against the fourth quarter of over 60% on for non-Amazon business. So we have great product market fit there.

就人力資源人才招募解決方案而言，PandoLogic，正如我們之前所說，他們的季度環比增長顯著——與去年第四季度相比，非亞馬遜業務的同比增長超過 60%。因此，我們的產品非常適合那裡的市場。

The revenues and the new customer growth for non-Amazon business continues to accelerate, and we're very bullish on that market. We think the tight labor market is going to keep that side of the business strong and healthy, and we're going to continue to invest in that area. And we do feel that we have very clear product market fit and competitive differentiation against a few of the smaller competitors.

非亞馬遜業務的營收和新客戶成長持續加速，我們對該市場非常看好。我們認為緊張的勞動力市場將使該業務保持強勁和健康，我們將繼續在該領域進行投資。我們確實感覺到，與一些較小的競爭對手相比，我們的產品市場契合度和競爭差異化非常明顯。

And again, the saturation of programmatic or another way of saying is the adoption of programmatic into the HR talent acquisition space is still incredibly low. So we're very early in the curve, and it's a big market as we touched on just the programmatic advertising spend for job acquisition in the U.S. is over $85 billion per year. So it's a good market opportunity for us that we're going to continue to invest heavily in.

再次強調，程序化的飽和度，或者換句話說，程序化在人力資源人才獲取領域的應用仍然非常低。因此，我們處於這個曲線的早期階段，而且這是一個巨大的市場，正如我們剛才提到的，僅美國用於就業獲取的程序化廣告支出每年就超過 850 億美元。所以這對我們來說是一個很好的市場機會，我們將繼續大力投資。

The next question is from Koji Ikeda of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Koji Ikeda。

I actually kind of wanted to follow up on that GRI segment. And you're guiding to some pretty good growth there. But also in the prepared remarks, you talked a little bit about deliverable risk. I was wondering if you could just describe what that deliverable risk is for the GRI segment.

我其實有點想跟進 GRI 部分。你正在引導那裡實現相當不錯的成長。但在準備好的發言中，您也談到了一些可交割風險。我想知道您是否可以描述一下 GRI 部分的可交付風險是什麼。

There are some areas where -- let's say, some of the agencies are looking or making decisions on whether we could deploy aiWARE in a commercial cloud instance. As you may recall, aiWARE was built to be platform agnostic from either on-prem or Azure or Google Cloud or AWS. And despite the fact that we are fully deployed on Azure Gov or Fed, a lot of different agencies are just, frankly, trying to figure out where against the certain or ever-changing security protocols that they're under, can they deploy and start running aiWARE and the respective SLED applications in a public cloud versus a government cloud environment.

在某些領域—比如說，某些機構正在研究或決定是否可以在商業雲端實例中部署 aiWARE。您可能還記得，aiWARE 的建置與平台無關，無論是本地端、Azure、Google Cloud 還是 AWS。儘管我們已全面部署在 Azure Gov 或 Fed 上，但坦白說，許多不同的機構仍在試圖弄清楚，在他們所遵循的某些或不斷變化的安全協議下，他們是否可以在公有雲而不是政府雲端環境中部署並開始運行 aiWARE 和相應的 SLED 應用程式。

And so it's more of not a technical limitation, but at times, it's just a positioning or security changes that really every municipality is trying to grapple with.

所以這不僅僅是一個技術限制，有時，這只是每個城市都在努力解決的定位或安全變化。

In terms of Tracker, Tracker is a new product. So we have tried and true products as it relates to the SLED market for the products of contact and redact and illuminate. Tracker is a new product. We're just now starting to sell it into the marketplace. I think we have been conservative in our forecasting as it relates to the contribution of Tracker for 2023. But again, there -- because it is a brand-new product, we just wanted to be a little bit conservative and there is some, I'd say, the deployment risk greater than 0 because of the new nature of the product.

就Tracker而言，Tracker是一個新產品。因此，我們已經嘗試並驗證了與 SLED 市場相關的接觸、編輯和照明產品。 Tracker 是一個新產品。我們現在才開始將其銷售到市場上。我認為，我們對 2023 年 Tracker 貢獻的預測一直比較保守。

Got it. Ryan, that's super helpful. And just a follow-up here. I'm going to ask you the generative AI question with all the hype surrounding it, and I did see you guys have a press release around it. Just curious if you could talk a little bit about, if this generative AI has affected your pipeline positively or negatively? And maybe more importantly is, has this maybe opened the door to conversations into end markets where you haven't had much penetration before?

知道了。瑞安，這非常有幫助。這裡只是後續內容。我要問你們一個關於生成式人工智慧的問題，關於它周圍所有的炒作，我確實看到你們就它發表了一份新聞稿。我只是好奇，您是否可以稍微談談這種生成式人工智慧對您的流程產生了積極還是消極的影響？也許更重要的是，這是否可能為您之前尚未深入的終端市場打開了對話之門？

Well, let me start by saying that our team, thankfully, has -- again, we are not just a very quick and nimble company to react to market changes and opportunities. But we have had pretty good foresight on certain areas and key technology trends. We started working with large language models, specifically earlier versions of GPT going back to 2019. Our conversational AI framework and technology stack in our HR solutions business, formerly known as Wade & Wendy is actually both a combination of domain-specific large language models, think of them as proprietary ChatGPTs, if you will in conjunction or orchestrated with public large language models like ChatGPT.

好吧，首先我要說的是，值得慶幸的是，我們的團隊——再說一次，我們不只是一家能夠對市場變化和機會做出反應非常迅速和靈活的公司。但我們對某些領域和關鍵技術趨勢有相當好的預見性。我們開始研究大型語言模型，特別是 2019 年的 GPT 早期版本。

So first -- so first, this is not new to us. This is something that we've been seeing and actually building and deploying now for years.

首先——首先，這對我們來說並不新鮮。這是我們多年來一直看到並且實際建置和部署的東西。

The second thing that we're thrilled about is we are -- we don't -- I don't want to underestimate or understate the importance of these large language models as they're coming to market. But for us, as we've designed and as Chad and team have designed aiWARE going back in rears, this really is just -- and again, I don't want to minimize it, but just another class of AI models that we can readily deploy and immediately activate through aiWARE.

讓我們興奮的第二件事是，我們不會——我不想低估或低估這些大型語言模型進入市場的重要性。但對我們來說，正如我們以及 Chad 和團隊設計的 aiWARE 一樣，這真的只是——我再說一次，我不想將其最小化，而只是另一類我們可以通過 aiWARE 輕鬆部署並立即激活的 AI 模型。

And that's what you've seen. So when we announced just a couple of weeks ago to formally kind of consolidating all the things we're doing in generative AI, including synthetic voice, under what we're calling Veritone Generative AI, those were real production use cases that we showed. So we are both active in generating revenue as it relates to our generative AI deployment on aiWARE.

這就是你所看到的。因此，當我們幾週前宣布正式整合我們在生成 AI 中所做的所有事情（包括合成語音）並稱之為 Veritone 生成 AI 時，這些都是我們展示的真實生產用例。因此，我們都積極地創造收入，因為這與我們在 aiWARE 上部署生成式人工智慧有關。

And you're right, it has absolutely opened up a lot more broader app discussions, not just potentially with new customers, which is absolutely the case, but with existing customers.

你說得對，它確實開啟了更廣泛的應用程式討論，不僅是針對潛在的新客戶（這絕對是事實），還針對現有客戶。

So today, in our discussions with large media groups like CBS News and others is, again, as kind of their trusted AI wilderness guide, which I'll kind of conclude and talk about that at the end of the remarks today. But we are already working with them on ideating and figuring out how we can immediately deploy and take advantage of these generative AI solutions against the content that we already have.

所以今天，在我們與 CBS News 等大型媒體集團的討論中，再次提到了他們值得信賴的 AI 荒野指南，我將在今天的演講結束時總結並討論這一點。但我們已經與他們合作構思並研究如何立即部署和利用這些生成式人工智慧解決方案來處理我們現有的內容。

So one of the big benefits we have is we're sitting on petabytes and petabytes of our client data, as you know, for audio video content in other forms of structured data. So our ability to immediately activate and take advantage of these new or any new type of AI models, including these large language models, is we're prepared to act efficiently, quickly and cost effectively and deliver scalable production-based use cases and solutions in weeks instead of frankly, coming out with a press release and planning for the future.

因此，我們獲得的一大優勢是，我們擁有大量客戶數據，如您所知，這些數據包括其他形式的結構化數據中的音訊視訊內容。因此，我們能夠立即啟動並利用這些新的或任何新型的人工智慧模型，包括這些大型語言模型，我們準備好高效、快速、經濟地採取行動，並在幾週內提供可擴展的基於生產的用例和解決方案，而不是坦率地說，發布新聞稿和規劃未來。

The next question is from Patrick Walravens from JMP Securities.

下一個問題來自 JMP Securities 的 Patrick Walravens。

This is Aaron Kimson on for Pat. First off, can you guys elaborate on the rationale for divesting the energy business? What were your learnings there? And what does it show investors about the company's current priority?

這是 Aaron Kimson，代替 Pat 上場。首先，你們能詳細解釋一下剝離能源業務的理由嗎？你在那裡學到了什麼？它向投資者展示了公司目前的優先事項是什麼？

Yes. The energy market and really the product market fit we had, it was appealing and we had some early indications that we had a decent product market fit for us to really trying to build and deploy solutions to optimize the energy grids and to help orchestrate the input and distribution of green energy-based solutions and renewables on to legacy grids.

是的。能源市場以及我們擁有的產品市場契合度確實很有吸引力，而且我們有一些早期跡象表明，我們擁有良好的產品市場契合度，可以真正嘗試構建和部署解決方案，以優化電網，並幫助協調綠色能源解決方案和可再生能源在傳統電網上的輸入和分配。

That being said, it was an expensive initiative that was not performing up to the growth and scale as other areas of the business. And so as we were looking at areas starting -- really the middle of last year, of areas where we could start to save money, but be able to repurpose that focus and those resources on to other areas, specifically, as we aforementioned, such as generative AI and synthetic voice in other areas of investment, we just felt it was a better appropriation of resources and focus, not just at the coder line level, but at the management level, that if we had to make a tough decision, energy with its nascent positioning so far for us as a company was one of the areas on the chopping block that we felt was -- it just shouldn't be part of Veritone (inaudible).

話雖如此，這是一項昂貴的舉措，其表現不如業務其他領域的成長和規模。因此，當我們開始研究可以開始省錢的領域時——實際上是從去年年中開始，但能夠將重點和資源重新用於其他領域，具體來說，正如我們前面提到的，比如在其他投資領域中的生成性人工智能和合成語音，我們只是覺得這樣可以更好地分配資源和重點，不僅是在編碼人員流水線層面，而且在管理人員的一部分，如果我們必須做出貢獻（聽不清楚）。

We're not closing the door to be clear on the energy opportunity, but those will most likely be through strategic partners, such as Deloitte and others as opportunities arise as compared to Veritone direct going after and building proprietary applications and services for that industry.

我們不會關閉能源領域機會的大門，但這些機會最有可能透過策略合作夥伴來實現，例如德勤和其他公司，因為機會會出現，而 Veritone 則直接追求並為該行業建立專有應用程式和服務。

Very helpful. And then maybe just a follow-up for Mike. What are the key points you have made to investors on the balance sheet after the repurchase of the convertible debt at the end of November. Would you be open to doing a second repurchase kind of like bandwidth did earlier this week.

非常有幫助。然後也許只是對麥克的後續行動。 11月底可轉債回購之後，您在資產負債表上向投資人強調了哪些重點？您是否願意進行第二次回購，就像本週早些時候頻寬所做的那樣？

Yes. I mean, I think we're always going to be opportunistic in terms of use of our cash. And I think taking down 1/3 our debt was fiscally responsible and tied into our confidence in our outlook in terms of the operations.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們在使用現金方面總是會採取機會主義的做法。我認為減少 1/3 的債務在財務上是負責任的，並且與我們對營運前景的信心息息相關。

As far as going forward, again, if opportunities arise and it makes sense, we're certainly open to doing more. But at the moment, we're not looking into it.

就未來而言，如果出現機會且有意義，我們當然願意做更多。但目前我們還沒有調查此事。

The next question is from Nick Mattiacci of Craig-Hallum.

下一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum 的 Nick Mattiacci。

This is Nick on for Chad Bennett. So if you could remind us on the non-Amazon, PandoLogic portion of the business, just how the pricing and your visibility into revenues might differ from the Amazon relationship? And then maybe on that same subject, what are some of the verticals that you're looking to this year to drive growth ex Amazon?

這是 Chad Bennett 的尼克 (Nick)。那麼，如果您可以提醒我們非亞馬遜、PandoLogic 業務部分的話，定價和收入可見性與亞馬遜的關係有何不同？然後也許就同一主題而言，今年您希望哪些垂直行業能夠推動亞馬遜以外的成長？

Mike, do you want to take the revenue allocation distribution of Amazon versus non-Amazon?

麥克，你想看一下亞馬遜與非亞馬遜的所得分配分佈嗎？

Yes. I mean the pricing in terms of the model isn't highly differentiated. It may be differentiated by the target in terms of the candidate and where that candidate best gets filled. But as far as the overall model, it isn't necessarily differentiated between Amazon and non-Amazon.

是的。我的意思是，就模型而言，定價差異不是很大。它可以根據候選人的目標以及該候選人最適合的職位來區分。但就整體模式而言，亞馬遜和非亞馬遜之間並不一定有差別。

As far as targeted markets, I mean, there's -- we're seeing a lot within health care, for example, shortages in nursing and things along those lines, transportation. Other markets that really are non-technology driven that are continuing to expand.

就目標市場而言，我的意思是，我們在醫療保健領域看到很多問題，例如護理人員短缺以及交通運輸等。其他非技術驅動的市場正在持續擴張。

I think a lot of what you're reading in the news in terms of recession and layoffs has been principally driven in the technology market, whereas if you look at retail, health care, transportation and other markets, they're continuing to grow.

我認為，你們在新聞中讀到的很多關於經濟衰退和裁員的消息主要是由科技市場推動的，如果你看看零售、醫療保健、交通運輸和其他市場，你會發現它們仍在繼續增長。

In addition, we're also going to be cross-selling and we are actively cross-selling the product in the government, which is the largest hiring entity in the U.S.

此外，我們還將進行交叉銷售，我們正在積極地向政府交叉銷售產品，政府是美國最大的招聘實體。

Yes. We're already into the phase of contracting the hiring solutions with and into state and local law enforcement, which we're very excited about. .

是的。我們已經進入與州和地方執法部門簽訂招聘解決方案的階段，我們對此感到非常興奮。 。

In addition, the other areas -- so against the pullback of Amazon, as we articulated, we're confident in offsetting that again with the growth of the non-Amazon enterprise business for our HR-based solutions.

此外，其他領域 - 正如我們所闡述的，面對亞馬遜的撤退，我們有信心透過非亞馬遜企業業務的成長來再次抵消我們基於人力資源的解決方案所帶來的損失。

And then an additional, our refocus and on the verticals that we do have strong product market fit and strong traction already have very good and solid SAM and TAM. So as we have already addressed HR and the talent acquisition budget of over $85 billion in the U.S. alone is a great growth opportunity for our enterprise businesses in our HR talent acquisition solutions.

另外，我們重新聚焦於垂直產業，我們確實擁有強大的產品市場契合度和強大的牽引力，已經擁有非常好且穩固的 SAM 和 TAM。因此，正如我們已經解決的人力資源問題一樣，僅在美國，人才招募預算就超過 850 億美元，這對於我們人力資源人才招募解決方案中的企業業務來說是一個巨大的成長機會。

And then also just one segment of the opportunity in media and entertainment is the localization of content. As we're going in advancing in terms of globalization of content and media, both exporting U.S.-based content media assets, but also importing foreign language content. The localization business is expected to increase. This is already a $54 billion a year industry, just the localization of content. And obviously, we're right in the middle of it with a very, very tight and specific product market fit solutions to help accelerate that.

媒體和娛樂領域的機會之一就是內容的在地化。隨著我們在內容和媒體全球化方面的不斷進步，我們既出口美國的內容媒體資產，也進口外語內容。本地化業務預計會增加。光是內容在地化一項，就已經是一個每年產值 540 億美元的產業。顯然，我們正處於這個階段，擁有非常緊密和具體的產品市場契合解決方案來幫助加速這一進程。

And so those are 2, obviously, media entertainment and we do continue to see as a growing opportunity for us, including our licensing business, which we touched on earlier today. And we are -- we remain very bullish on our enterprise business for our HR talent solutions, considering the tight labor market and the clear ROI benefits that our programmatic solution brings to bear on that opportunity.

因此，這顯然是兩個媒體娛樂領域，我們確實繼續將其視為我們的成長機會，包括我們今天早些時候談到的授權業務。考慮到緊張的勞動力市場和我們的程序化解決方案為這一機會帶來的明顯的投資回報率優勢，我們對我們的人力資源人才解決方案的企業業務仍然非常看好。

Got it. And then if you could just touch on your expanded relationship with Deloitte. I know it's still pretty early, but any indications of traction thus far with Deloitte and where we might see that show up in the results.

知道了。然後您能否談談您與德勤的擴展關係？我知道現在還為時過早，但到目前為止，德勤的任何進展跡像以及我們可能會在結果中看到的變化。

Deloitte is still the most active in our GRI side, focused primarily on different areas of Fed, mostly Fed SIV and some on the Fed DoD side. We are in discussions on expanding utilization of aiWARE and other solutions as it relates to TMT in areas for potential localization, synthetic voice and other areas. .

德勤在我們的 GRI 方面仍然是最活躍的，主要關注聯準會的不同領域，大部分是聯準會 SIV，還有一些是聯準會 DoD 方面。我們正在討論擴大 aiWARE 和其他解決方案的利用，因為它與 TMT 相關，涉及潛在的在地化、合成語音和其他領域。 。

But again, we're -- obviously, we're not reliant -- we do have a very growing, expanding channel opportunity, working with dozens, if not like over 50 different channel partners today. So it's definitely not limited to Deloitte, but we do expect Deloitte to continue to be a growing partner for us for the foreseeable future.

但是，顯然，我們並不依賴——我們確實擁有一個不斷成長、不斷擴大的通路機會，目前我們與數十個甚至超過 50 個不同的通路合作夥伴合作。因此，這絕對不僅限於德勤，但我們確實希望德勤在可預見的未來繼續成為我們不斷成長的合作夥伴。

Maybe just to echo that, more recently, we've actually expanded more partnerships with both Amazon and Azure. So this is definitely -- this partner-driven model is highly successful for us.

也許只是為了呼應這一點，最近，我們實際上已經擴大了與亞馬遜和 Azure 的更多合作關係。所以這絕對是——這種合作夥伴驅動的模式對我們來說非常成功。

Yes.

是的。

There are no additional questions at this time. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back to Ryan Steelberg for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。我們的問答環節到此結束。我想請 Ryan Steelberg 致最後總結。

Thank you, operator. As I enter my third month in this new capacity as CEO, I am excited about and very confident in Veritone's future. Over these past several years, we have built Veritone and aiWARE to really set the class for enterprise AI software and solutions.

謝謝您，接線生。當我擔任執行長的新職位進入第三個月時，我對 Veritone 的未來感到非常興奮並且充滿信心。在過去的幾年裡，我們打造了 Veritone 和 aiWARE，真正為企業 AI 軟體和解決方案樹立了典範。

Our strong and diverse customer base are consistently high gross margins, our elite customer retention rates and most importantly, our dynamic and talented staff should provide our stakeholders with strong optimism for our specific future.

我們強大且多樣化的客戶群始終保持著高毛利率、精英客戶保留率，最重要的是，我們充滿活力和才華橫溢的員工應該為我們的利害關係人帶來對我們特定未來的強烈樂觀。

As we all know, aiWARE and can be very cluttered and confusing for many. And then obviously, it's gotten very noisy recently with the generative AI. So we truly believe that Veritone is the trusted AI wilderness guide for both new and existing enterprise customers.

眾所周知，aiWARE 對許多人來說可能非常混亂和令人困惑。顯然，最近生成式人工智慧變得十分吵雜。因此，我們堅信 Veritone 是新舊企業客戶值得信賴的 AI 荒野指南。

And again, we can -- we have confidence in that because, again, of our high retention rates and obviously against non-Amazon business and actually over 120% in net retention growth revenues. So again, we're going to finish this -- wrap up this by reiterating our focus for 2023, which is all about operational excellence, that means that it's getting our -- continuing to get our house in order, inclusive of becoming more efficient and cutting costs.

我們可以——我們對此充滿信心，因為我們的留存率很高，而且顯然相對於非亞馬遜業務，淨留存成長收入實際上超過了 120%。因此，我們再次重申，我們將完成這項工作，重申我們 2023 年的重點，即卓越運營，這意味著我們要繼續整頓內部秩序，包括提高效率和削減成本。

Our renewed focus on the successful markets that we're in with strong product market fit, such as HR talent acquisitions, TMT and GRI and a continued and passionate technology innovation and technology-driven company that we will always be at the forefront of bringing the latest and most reliable, most scalable AI-based solutions to the market.

我們重新關注我們所處的成功市場，擁有強大的產品市場契合度，例如人力資源人才收購、TMT 和 GRI，以及一家持續充滿激情的技術創新和技術驅動的公司，我們將始終走在最前沿，為市場帶來最新、最可靠、最具可擴展性的基於人工智慧的解決方案。

So thank you for your attention today, and I look forward to communicating with you in the future.

所以感謝您今天的關注，我期待著將來與您的交流。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。