RBLX Q1 2021 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Roblox Corporation Q1 2021 Earnings Call
• Date: May 11, 2021 at 12:30 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Anna Yen (Head of Investor Relations)
  • David Baszucki (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Mike Guthrie (Chief Financial Officer)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Company reported strong underlying engagement with the over-13 daily active users metric up 111% in Q1 and hours played up 128% in Q1.
• April engagement was highlighted as strong and April bookings were described as materially higher than internal expectations.
• Q1 developer payouts were reported at almost $120M for the quarter.
• The company stated that bookings showed the highest growth among core metrics as engagement converted to monetization.
• No GAAP or non-GAAP profitability metrics were discussed on the call outside of references to reconciliations being available on the IR website.
• The company referenced supplemental materials and a shareholder letter posted after market close that contain reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures.

Guidance

• No formal numeric full-year 2021 guidance was provided on the call.
• The company noted that forecasting for the direct listing had assumed COVID would be out of the system by the end of Q2, and that assumption has not occurred.
• April bookings were described as 'somewhere around 45 to 47 percent of the consensus numbers for the quarter' according to commentary on the call.
• Management declined to provide specific pipeline or product ship dates for branded experiences, music, avatar features, voice, or console launches.
• Company commentary reserved judgement on China potential by stating it 'cannot make any forward-looking predictions on China' while noting early positive signals.
• The company reiterated that many platform investments have 'no ship dates' and that product timing remains early and subject to change.