2020 Highlights
• Total net revenue grew 58% YoY to $1,778 million;
• Platform revenue increased 71% YoY to $1,268 million;
• Gross profit was up 63% YoY to $808 million;
• Roku added 14.3 million incremental active accounts (up 39%) in 2020 to reach 51.2 million
• Streaming hours increased by 20.9 billion hours YoY to a record 58.7 billion;
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increased $5.62 YoY to $28.76 (trailing 12-month basis);
• In 2020, 38% of all smart TVs sold in the U.S. were Roku TV models
Outlook
We are pleased with our 2020 results and the resilience of our business, and are optimistic about the year ahead. We believe we have sufficient visibility in the short-term to provide formal outlook for Q1. However, as we look farther ahead, the level of uncertainty compounds when trying to assess the net impact of a variety of factors such as the timing of the vaccine rollouts,
emergence of new COVID-19 variants as well as the lasting economic impacts of the pandemic. Consequently, instead of providing a formal outlook for the full year, we will provide some directional perspective.
Historically, Q1 is our seasonally softest quarter from a revenue perspective (typically revenue has been roughly 25% lower sequentially than our seasonally strong Q4). Our Q1 outlook calls for similar seasonality with the midpoint of total net revenue Roku Q4 and Full Year 2020 Shareholder Letter
of $485 million (up 51% year-over-year). We anticipate total gross profit of roughly $238 million at the midpoint. Strong gross profit growth outpacing OPEX growth is expected to result in adjusted EBITDA of $31 million at the midpoint.
Wood also noted a difficult comps to last year’s results:
We are mindful that in 2021 year-over-year comparisons will be quite volatile. In the first half of the year, we expect strong financial comparisons as compared to the first half of 2020 which includes early impacts from COVID-19 and the resulting economic lockdown. While in the second half of the year, we anticipate much tougher comparisons thanks to our exceptional performance in 2H20, and Q3 in particular, as consumer interest in streaming surged and our monetization efforts rebounded from slower Q2 growth levels.
Shareholder Letter:
https://ir.roku.com/static-files/0e84462d-74ac-459d-9aff-be3…
Article:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/streaming-video-mavens-roku-re…