Roblox Chairman and CEO David Baszucki Talks Earnings

Roblox’s daily users jumped 26% last quarter and CEO David Baszucki says ad revenue is growing. Baszucki discusses the company’s earnings with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Video game platform Roadblocks the shares on the up and up.
Of course, the company reported large and expected to jump
and users for the first quarter, with its daily active
players jobbing twenty six percent ninety seven point eight million
now and that was for the first three months ending
in March. Dave Pazuki, Reblock CEO, joins us and Dave,
are you economic anxiety proof? Are you recession proof.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Ed? Carolyn, thank you for having me on the program.
I want to highlight significant performance in Q one. We
just shared yesterday on our Earnie's Call on our really
mission to get ten percent of the global gaming software
market running on the platform. Roadblocks is virtual, Roadblocks is digital.
We do not have any supply chain issues. There is

(00:51):
no shortage of Roadblocks, and we are contributing to the
US trade import export ratio. We're bringing cash.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Into the and you're paying some of those content creators,
in particular developers. Dave, I'm interested in that ten percent figure, Like,
what sort of timeframe are we talking here? Because what
you're about three percent?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Now? Am I right? We're at about two and a
half to three percent. We have shared consistently that we
believe we can grow at greater than twenty percent year
on year. We highlighted in Q one growth rates much
higher than that, including revenue growth rates of twenty nine
percent year on year, daily active user growth rates of

(01:33):
twenty six percent year on year, and a couple really
interesting highlights. Over thirteen users on the platform, DAUS grew
by thirty six percent year on year and India huge
market grew by seventy seven percent year on year. So

(01:53):
we really think it's attainable.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Dave, I'm a passionate gamer in the over third category,
and I'd say that the biggest headlines right now are
the delay of GTA six high fidelity game and the
delay of switch to on the console side. Is that
way you think you're going to compete when you aim
ten percent market share? How did those two headlines impact

(02:19):
roadblocks and the platform.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
We have shared a roadmap, including highlighting genre expansion into
RPG sports and racing battle games on the platform. We
are seeing more of this on the platform. For example,
we recently NASCAR has teamed up with Driving Empire, Paramount

(02:43):
teamed up with SpongeBob simulator, PGA Tour has teamed up
so we're seeing more and more of this. We shared
that these three genres, which will contribute to us getting
to ten percent of the gaming space, we believe grew
over sixty percent year on year on the platform growing revenue.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
What role is advertising going to play?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
We think we already have some creators on our platform
who are making more money on advertising than they are
with virtual currency. We believe it's a natural compliment. What
it's not big enough yet for us to break out
the numbers. We just released a partnership with Google that
will provide more video advertising for some of our our developers.

(03:30):
So it's part of building an economic ecosystem, you know.
We also shared that over one hundred creators on the
platform made over a million dollars in the last twelve months,
So there's a huge variety of creators starting to make
good businesses.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
And Wedbush, for example, the analyst, they're saying that payment,
when it improves the content, it draws more people there.
Dave Weber also say, look, when you actually tell us
exactly you break out the numbers advertising, that's the next
cat list for roadblock shares. Any timeframe and when you
will be able to break out the advertising numbers.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
We want to break out those numbers sooner as soon
as we can. They are growing, stay tuned, we're looking
forward to that. That said, we're growing at enormous rates
with the core business of virtual currency, both on engagement
and on users, really significant outperformance in Q one.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I'm going to go to the delicate side because last
time you joined us, Dave, it was all about parental controls.
It's all about the focus on safety. Now since we
last spoke, there's been a couple more legal cases come
your way. Look, these lawsuits aimed at you and at
Discord and once again is about alleged grooming, sexual exploitation
using the platforms. How are you dealing and responding to

(04:44):
those particular lawsuits. How you're feeling, Dave? As well as
I know you have your own family using it and
you think seriously about this stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
I would say both optimistic and as well a humility
for the responsibility we have. You know, any single inci
and on our platform is one too many, and there's
almost one hundred million daily users on the platform every day.
We take this as an enormous responsibility. We are taking
leadership here in that all communication on our platform is

(05:15):
filtered and goes through AI filters, which are getting enormously better,
including voice. There's no image sharing on our platform, so
there's less risk of some of the things that happen
in that area. And more and more we're focusing not
just on under thirteen, but on thirteen through seventeen year olds.
That's also a delicate age. We're starting to lean into

(05:38):
age verification around this. We work very heavily with local, state,
and federal law enforcement. Roadblocks is a dangerous place for
bad actors, so we have a big responsibility here.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Dave, you talked about M and A actually in the
roadbox ecosystem during the call. Give me some solid numbers
on what that looks like and some MNA for the
company as well. Going forward.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
We have shared that there are over there's now three
creators on a run rate of over fifty million a year.
You can put some multiples on top of that and
estimate what their businesses might be worth. At our Developer
conference last year, we shared a prediction there'll be a
billion dollar valuation studio on the platform. We think that's

(06:25):
very very possible. Internally, we haven't announced any M and A,
but we are generating a fair amount of cash. You know,
we have well north of three billion dollars of cash,
but no roadblocks. M and A plans right now.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Dave Zukier roadblocks. Thank you very much for joining us
on Bloomberg Technology