August 1, 2025 • 7 mins
Roblox CEO David Baszucki talks about creating new experiences and how that has benefited the company's growth and guidance. He speaks with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And let's go back to Roadblocks because the gaming platform
reported phenomenal booking increases more than fifty percent in the
last quarter daily active US account topping one hundred and
eleven million shares. So you see still trading higher after
the earnings posted yesterday morning. Roeblox CEO David and Bazooki
joined us now, Dave, just across the board growth daily
active views is particularly the older cohort. I'm looking at
(00:28):
ours engaged revenue bookings. We're seeing you raise your guidance.
These viral experiences grow a garden for example, how much
are they contributing to this growth?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hey, great to be here, and we have created an
essential really the conditions to grow a garden, in this
case growing amazing creative new experiences on roadblocks in addition
to grow a garden, which is a cultural meme. Right now,
there's five experiences on roadblocks with more than ten million
and daily active users, and I want to highlight in
(01:03):
addition to that great growth we saw, we saw thirteen
and up users grow daily active users sixty four percent
year on year. We have a vision of ten percent
of the global gaming content market running on our platform,
and this really explosion of great new hits. It supports
that thesis. I also want to highlight. Even without Grow
(01:26):
a Garden, we would have reported an amazing Queue two
with great year on year growth rates.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Brook Covens there, Grow a Gardens there. Just delve into
these hits that you have. How much revenue do they
sort of supply to you? Can you break it out
on an individual win basis?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, I want to highlight these hits. A lot of
them have been created in the last year. In fact,
four of the top five experiences were created in the
last year. Part of our vision is there's enormous headroom
to innovate in the gaming space around how games are created,
how people consume them, how they're social, all of this,
(02:08):
and we believe this innovation is driving the ability for
creators to make awesome new experiences on the platform. You know,
we're starting to see some of these hits go global.
Want to highlight for example, a pac DAUS grew over
seventy six percent year on year, and we still have
a lot of headroom. We're we're only about three percent
(02:32):
of the global gaming market running on our platform, and
our vision is to get to ten percent. Dave.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I've been able to get with your team and talk
a little bit in recent months about advertising, and one
of the things I think people don't necessarily understand about
roadblocks is advertising is a revenue stream for you, but
also for the deads, the creators themselves. But I think
I'm right in saying you've never really given us a
dollar figure on how it's going. Would you just update
us on the ecosystem and the wins you see for roadblocks.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
We do think there's a significant advertising opportunity on the platform,
and you're exactly right. All of this growth we've been sharing,
you know, bookings growth of north to fifty percent in
Q two was driven not by advertising, but by people
spending robucks on the platform. That said, there's several categories
(03:23):
of experiences and creators that advertising may be the best
way for them to make future revenue highlighting Typically, our
vision is advertising for older users, not for younger users,
because we're already so healthy monetarily there, and we have
launched video advertising on the platform. We just in the
(03:43):
last week open it up for more creators. I will
assure you if and when we hit ten percent of
the global gaming market space. That advertising will be a
key part of that top bookings line.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I kind of want to stick with the creators because
I'm always understand the ecosystem. So one thing that you've
done is help creators get licensing deals. They might create
a game, that game might be franchisable. Why do that?
But also, like, are you kind of taking the liability
on copyright and on legal and everything else that comes
(04:18):
with a deal like that?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We aren't really And what we've seen, you know, two
years ago, people might have thought, well, you're not going
to have any prime sports brands on your platform, and
then all of a sudden, we have, you know, NFL Universe,
a partnership between the NFL and an existing developer on
the platform be extremely successful. What we've started talking about
(04:43):
with our IP platform is the ability for great brands,
whether it's for example, Stranger Things, there's Quid game from
Netflix being available for creators on the platform who want
to integrate the brand and really create a win win
in that these brands can have a lot of people
interacting with them, it can drive engagement within them. So
(05:07):
there's a lot of opportunity in the future to connect
great brands, great ip with the creative energy of the
developers on our platform.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I like that win win idea and the revenue share
that goes to the developers. Also, what's interesting is developers
are buying from these one off makers. Say that grow
a Garden. I think it's a team who still owns
about half, but he sold off the other half of
his business over to New Zealand Splating Point Studio. Are
you helping facilitate that m and A. How do you
see your role there?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We would like to more and more make a very
liquid market there. And at our Roadblocks Developer conference a
couple of years ago, I shared that as we have
a larger proportion of the gaming market running on Roadblocks,
it's not inconceivable that there will be a billion dollar
studio on the platform. We're well into the nine figures
(05:58):
hundreds of millions of dollar types studios and grow Garden
was a great example of an initial small team working
with Jendell who acquired part of it, and it was
a deal that was a win win deal. The original
creators did very well and grow Garden has been refined
and tuned into now the largest simultaneously played game in
(06:19):
the history of the Guinness Book of World Records going
over twenty million concurrent players. A few weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Dave, about three weeks ago you came onto the program
and discuss with me generative AI video based age verification.
In the interim on July twenty fifth, we got the
Online Safety Act, and which will have an impact on you.
Could you just quantify how that those parameters might impact
active users or engagement just quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I want to highlight we have always had safety as
one of our top priorities, and we're not waiting for
the law or legislation. We've innovated with as on our
own because we want to keep people on our platform.
Roadblocks is a place where we filter all the texts
and the voice, where we monitor for critical harms, where
(07:11):
there's no image sharing or any of the things that
might happen from that, so age ustimation. We took leadership
here in innovating and we think it's going to set
the standard for the industry.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Roadblock CEO, Dave Zuki, it's great to have you back
on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much,
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And let's go back to Roadblocks because the gaming platform
reported phenomenal booking increases more than fifty percent in the
last quarter daily active US account topping one hundred and
eleven million shares. So you see still trading higher after
the earnings posted yesterday morning. Roeblox CEO David and Bazooki
joined us now, Dave, just across the board growth daily
active views is particularly the older cohort. I'm looking at
(00:28):
ours engaged revenue bookings. We're seeing you raise your guidance.
These viral experiences grow a garden for example, how much
are they contributing to this growth?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hey, great to be here, and we have created an
essential really the conditions to grow a garden, in this
case growing amazing creative new experiences on roadblocks in addition
to grow a garden, which is a cultural meme. Right now,
there's five experiences on roadblocks with more than ten million
and daily active users, and I want to highlight in
(01:03):
addition to that great growth we saw, we saw thirteen
and up users grow daily active users sixty four percent
year on year. We have a vision of ten percent
of the global gaming content market running on our platform,
and this really explosion of great new hits. It supports
that thesis. I also want to highlight. Even without Grow
(01:26):
a Garden, we would have reported an amazing Queue two
with great year on year growth rates.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Brook Covens there, Grow a Gardens there. Just delve into
these hits that you have. How much revenue do they
sort of supply to you? Can you break it out
on an individual win basis?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, I want to highlight these hits. A lot of
them have been created in the last year. In fact,
four of the top five experiences were created in the
last year. Part of our vision is there's enormous headroom
to innovate in the gaming space around how games are created,
how people consume them, how they're social, all of this,
(02:08):
and we believe this innovation is driving the ability for
creators to make awesome new experiences on the platform. You know,
we're starting to see some of these hits go global.
Want to highlight for example, a pac DAUS grew over
seventy six percent year on year, and we still have
a lot of headroom. We're we're only about three percent
(02:32):
of the global gaming market running on our platform, and
our vision is to get to ten percent. Dave.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I've been able to get with your team and talk
a little bit in recent months about advertising, and one
of the things I think people don't necessarily understand about
roadblocks is advertising is a revenue stream for you, but
also for the deads, the creators themselves. But I think
I'm right in saying you've never really given us a
dollar figure on how it's going. Would you just update
us on the ecosystem and the wins you see for roadblocks.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
We do think there's a significant advertising opportunity on the platform,
and you're exactly right. All of this growth we've been sharing,
you know, bookings growth of north to fifty percent in
Q two was driven not by advertising, but by people
spending robucks on the platform. That said, there's several categories
(03:23):
of experiences and creators that advertising may be the best
way for them to make future revenue highlighting Typically, our
vision is advertising for older users, not for younger users,
because we're already so healthy monetarily there, and we have
launched video advertising on the platform. We just in the
(03:43):
last week open it up for more creators. I will
assure you if and when we hit ten percent of
the global gaming market space. That advertising will be a
key part of that top bookings line.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I kind of want to stick with the creators because
I'm always understand the ecosystem. So one thing that you've
done is help creators get licensing deals. They might create
a game, that game might be franchisable. Why do that?
But also, like, are you kind of taking the liability
on copyright and on legal and everything else that comes
(04:18):
with a deal like that?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We aren't really And what we've seen, you know, two
years ago, people might have thought, well, you're not going
to have any prime sports brands on your platform, and
then all of a sudden, we have, you know, NFL Universe,
a partnership between the NFL and an existing developer on
the platform be extremely successful. What we've started talking about
(04:43):
with our IP platform is the ability for great brands,
whether it's for example, Stranger Things, there's Quid game from
Netflix being available for creators on the platform who want
to integrate the brand and really create a win win
in that these brands can have a lot of people
interacting with them, it can drive engagement within them. So
(05:07):
there's a lot of opportunity in the future to connect
great brands, great ip with the creative energy of the
developers on our platform.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I like that win win idea and the revenue share
that goes to the developers. Also, what's interesting is developers
are buying from these one off makers. Say that grow
a Garden. I think it's a team who still owns
about half, but he sold off the other half of
his business over to New Zealand Splating Point Studio. Are
you helping facilitate that m and A. How do you
see your role there?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We would like to more and more make a very
liquid market there. And at our Roadblocks Developer conference a
couple of years ago, I shared that as we have
a larger proportion of the gaming market running on Roadblocks,
it's not inconceivable that there will be a billion dollar
studio on the platform. We're well into the nine figures
(05:58):
hundreds of millions of dollar types studios and grow Garden
was a great example of an initial small team working
with Jendell who acquired part of it, and it was
a deal that was a win win deal. The original
creators did very well and grow Garden has been refined
and tuned into now the largest simultaneously played game in
(06:19):
the history of the Guinness Book of World Records going
over twenty million concurrent players. A few weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Dave, about three weeks ago you came onto the program
and discuss with me generative AI video based age verification.
In the interim on July twenty fifth, we got the
Online Safety Act, and which will have an impact on you.
Could you just quantify how that those parameters might impact
active users or engagement just quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I want to highlight we have always had safety as
one of our top priorities, and we're not waiting for
the law or legislation. We've innovated with as on our
own because we want to keep people on our platform.
Roadblocks is a place where we filter all the texts
and the voice, where we monitor for critical harms, where
(07:11):
there's no image sharing or any of the things that
might happen from that, so age ustimation. We took leadership
here in innovating and we think it's going to set
the standard for the industry.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Roadblock CEO, Dave Zuki, it's great to have you back
on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much,
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