Roku delivered its first-quarter results on Wednesday with better-than-expected revenue and the addition of 1.6 million active streaming accounts in the period. While the company’s results beat analysts’ estimates, Roku told investors it still sees pressure on its advertising business.
The company’s revenue for the quarter reached $741 million, up just 1% from the year-ago quarter, and a net loss of $193.6 million.
Notably, the company revealed that it had reached 71.6 million active accounts, up 17% year-over-year. Streaming hours reached 25.1 billion, an increase of 4.2 billion hours or 20% year over year. Average revenue per user was down 5% year-over-year to $40.67.
“Consistent with our position in our latest earnings call, we expect macro uncertainties to persist through 2023,” the company wrote in a letter to shareholders. “Consumers remain under pressure from inflation and recession fears, so discretionary spending is likely to remain contained. Accordingly, we expect the advertising market to look much the same in the second quarter as it did in the first quarter, with certain verticals improving advertising spend (travel and health and wellness) while others remain under pressure (M&E and financial services).
In its letter, Roku wrote that it was the most popular streaming platform for this year’s Super Bowl with about half of all streams. The company notes that of those viewers, 12% entered the game through the sports experience or a game-related ad.
Roku expects total net sales of approximately $770 million in the second quarter, total gross profit of approximately $335 million and adjusted EBITDA of -$75 million.
The company’s earnings results come a month after Roku conducted a second round of layoffs and laid off 6% of its workforce, or about 200 employees. Roku disclosed the cuts in an SEC filing, explaining that the decision was part of a larger plan to reduce year-over-year operating expense growth and prioritize projects it believes will generate higher returns on investment. will have the investment. The company had laid off 200 U.S. employees in November due to economic conditions in the industry.