WEBVTT - Roblox CEO Talks Photo-Based Age Verification 

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news roadblocks as we've going

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<v Speaker 1>rolling out age verification technology for all users and is

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<v Speaker 1>introducing age based chat as a gaming platform, expands safety

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<v Speaker 1>features with further parental resources too. My bloc CEO David

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<v Speaker 1>Zooki joins us now and Dave. This really builds on

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<v Speaker 1>that big, ambitious September announcement.

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<v Speaker 2>How is this going to be rolling out?

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<v Speaker 3>Hey, great to be here and what an enormous responsibility.

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<v Speaker 3>With one hundred and fifty million users every day coming

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<v Speaker 3>to the platform, We're rolling out what we believe will

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<v Speaker 3>be the gold standard for the future of Internet safety,

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<v Speaker 3>where the first really major gaming platform to use AI

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<v Speaker 3>to estimate the age of everyone on the platform who

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<v Speaker 3>wants to use chat and communicate. We're going to start

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<v Speaker 3>rolling this out in December and then it'll be should

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<v Speaker 3>be all rolled out by January. Basically, on whatever device

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<v Speaker 3>you're on, take a quick image, will analyze your age

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<v Speaker 3>with AI, complement it with a bunch of other signals,

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<v Speaker 3>and use that really to figure out who who might

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<v Speaker 3>you be chatting with? To keep the platform more safe.

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<v Speaker 3>We're not going to be allowing miners, for example, to

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<v Speaker 3>communicate with people who are adults, and we're going to

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<v Speaker 3>roll it out to everyone on the platform.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm really interested as to how you're going to measure

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<v Speaker 1>success here, Dave, because in many ways you're trying to

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<v Speaker 1>prove a negative. But how are you going to be

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<v Speaker 1>internally thinking this has worked, people are satisfied and they're safe.

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<v Speaker 3>Well, I want to highlight things are already working in

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<v Speaker 3>that we're a very unique platform, and that we filter

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<v Speaker 3>all of the text and communication on our platform. We

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<v Speaker 3>don't allow the sharing of images, we have monitoring for

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<v Speaker 3>critical harms. We work very closely with law enforcement. So

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<v Speaker 3>I see this as an addition to everything we're doing

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<v Speaker 3>and really to our vision of what we've been calling

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<v Speaker 3>the gold standard. But we do estimate over the next

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<v Speaker 3>few months will will know roughly the age of everyone

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<v Speaker 3>on the platform, and we'll complement that with some of

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<v Speaker 3>the other things we do, like trusted connections and things

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<v Speaker 3>like that to constantly build on our innovation. You know,

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<v Speaker 3>we've shipped over one hundred safety innovations in the last year,

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<v Speaker 3>so it's really a continuation of that focus.

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<v Speaker 2>You're using a.

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<v Speaker 1>Third party vendor persona I believe, and how are you

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<v Speaker 1>going to be ensuring that that's robust enough. The AI,

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<v Speaker 1>the underlying technology is robust enough. Ever in the UK

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<v Speaker 1>well some of the using Discord, for example, managed to

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<v Speaker 1>bypass previous facial recognition age verification tests.

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<v Speaker 3>There's a bunch of other signals we have in addition

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<v Speaker 3>to the facial age estimation, and we do have the

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<v Speaker 3>ability to estimate several times if we need to so,

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<v Speaker 3>so in addition to using the camera to do an

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<v Speaker 3>age check, we have other ways to validate and putting

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<v Speaker 3>all of these signals together, we believe is pretty robust.

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<v Speaker 1>Really, what's so interesting is clearly you're here with safety

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<v Speaker 1>as a priority. You did mention back in the earnings

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<v Speaker 1>your CFO in particular that maybe you'll see some friction,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe the numbers, the revenue, the growth might be impacted

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<v Speaker 1>as people start to have to verify their age, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>slower to come and adopt.

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<v Speaker 2>Do you think that that will bear out? How will

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<v Speaker 2>it look longer term?

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<v Speaker 3>We shared this vision that we believe over ten percent

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<v Speaker 3>of the global gaming market, which is somewhere between a

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<v Speaker 3>one hundred and eighty and two hundred billion dollar market,

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<v Speaker 3>is going to be running on roadblocks, and in the

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<v Speaker 3>earnings call, we just had. We shared this amazing growth

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<v Speaker 3>both on bookings and daus in the seventy percent year

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<v Speaker 3>on year rate. Long term, we believe this is just

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<v Speaker 3>the right thing for the platform. We're unique in that

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<v Speaker 3>we have all ages. We have people under thirteen, over thirteen,

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<v Speaker 3>or over thirteen is growing rapidly. This is the right

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<v Speaker 3>long term vision and we're really optimistic about continuing our growth.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, so this is the right balance from your perspective,

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<v Speaker 1>what do you think the data will bear out as

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<v Speaker 1>to the name, Well, ultimately the actual ages of people

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<v Speaker 1>you have using it. Do you think you have more

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<v Speaker 1>under thirteen's you anticipated? Do you think you have more

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<v Speaker 1>older users?

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<v Speaker 3>We can't estimate that exactly. What I can say is

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<v Speaker 3>that our the facial age estimation tech we're going to

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<v Speaker 3>use is pretty reasonable and pretty accurate. I've tried it,

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<v Speaker 3>some of my kids have tried it. We've tried it

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<v Speaker 3>within our staff meeting. So I think we're going to

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<v Speaker 3>find out we're reasonably close. But over time we will

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<v Speaker 3>get a better signal on everyone's age.

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<v Speaker 1>And this must be something that marketiers that those that

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<v Speaker 1>eventually we're buying more ads with.

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<v Speaker 2>Roadblocks are going to be looking at.

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<v Speaker 1>Is this going to help well inject some fuel to

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<v Speaker 1>that offering because people will feel safer about what age

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<v Speaker 1>group can be consuming such.

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<v Speaker 3>A We have shared a couple things. You know, we

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<v Speaker 3>don't target under eighteen already on the platform, but there's

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<v Speaker 3>an enormous number of older users joining the platform. We

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<v Speaker 3>shared in our earnings call I believe in Q four like,

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<v Speaker 3>we're literally earn qth running at over ten billion hours

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<v Speaker 3>a month of engagement. That's an amazing amount of engagement.

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<v Speaker 3>Our economy is primarily driven right now by our virtual

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<v Speaker 3>economy powered by Robucks. But advertising is a wonderful compliment,

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<v Speaker 3>and you're right, we're going to have a better, more

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<v Speaker 3>accurate estimate of everyone's age, which for a lot of

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<v Speaker 3>our advertisers that are starting to hop on with events

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<v Speaker 3>supporting all kinds of things, beauty products, movies, things like that,

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<v Speaker 3>they'll have a better idea of really the number of

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<v Speaker 3>people over eighteen on our platform.

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<v Speaker 1>Reblock CEO David Zooki on the latest safety updates.

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<v Speaker 2>We really appreciate you joining the show today. Thank you,