WEBVTT - Roblox CEO David Baszucki Talks Growth

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>And let's go back to Roadblocks because the gaming platform

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<v Speaker 2>reported phenomenal booking increases more than fifty percent in the

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<v Speaker 2>last quarter daily active US account topping one hundred and

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<v Speaker 2>eleven million shares. So you see still trading higher after

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<v Speaker 2>the earnings posted yesterday morning. Roeblox CEO David and Bazooki

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<v Speaker 2>joined us now, Dave, just across the board growth daily

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<v Speaker 2>active views is particularly the older cohort. I'm looking at

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<v Speaker 2>ours engaged revenue bookings. We're seeing you raise your guidance.

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<v Speaker 2>These viral experiences grow a garden for example, how much

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<v Speaker 2>are they contributing to this growth?

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, great to be here, and we have created an

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<v Speaker 1>essential really the conditions to grow a garden, in this

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<v Speaker 1>case growing amazing creative new experiences on roadblocks in addition

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<v Speaker 1>to grow a garden, which is a cultural meme. Right now,

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<v Speaker 1>there's five experiences on roadblocks with more than ten million

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<v Speaker 1>and daily active users, and I want to highlight in

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<v Speaker 1>addition to that great growth we saw, we saw thirteen

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<v Speaker 1>and up users grow daily active users sixty four percent

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<v Speaker 1>year on year. We have a vision of ten percent

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<v Speaker 1>of the global gaming content market running on our platform,

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<v Speaker 1>and this really explosion of great new hits. It supports

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<v Speaker 1>that thesis. I also want to highlight. Even without Grow

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<v Speaker 1>a Garden, we would have reported an amazing Queue two

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<v Speaker 1>with great year on year growth rates.

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<v Speaker 2>Brook Covens there, Grow a Gardens there. Just delve into

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<v Speaker 2>these hits that you have. How much revenue do they

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<v Speaker 2>sort of supply to you? Can you break it out

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<v Speaker 2>on an individual win basis?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, I want to highlight these hits. A lot of

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<v Speaker 1>them have been created in the last year. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>four of the top five experiences were created in the

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<v Speaker 1>last year. Part of our vision is there's enormous headroom

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<v Speaker 1>to innovate in the gaming space around how games are created,

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<v Speaker 1>how people consume them, how they're social, all of this,

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<v Speaker 1>and we believe this innovation is driving the ability for

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<v Speaker 1>creators to make awesome new experiences on the platform. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>we're starting to see some of these hits go global.

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<v Speaker 1>Want to highlight for example, a pac DAUS grew over

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<v Speaker 1>seventy six percent year on year, and we still have

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of headroom. We're we're only about three percent

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<v Speaker 1>of the global gaming market running on our platform, and

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<v Speaker 1>our vision is to get to ten percent. Dave.

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<v Speaker 3>I've been able to get with your team and talk

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<v Speaker 3>a little bit in recent months about advertising, and one

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<v Speaker 3>of the things I think people don't necessarily understand about

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<v Speaker 3>roadblocks is advertising is a revenue stream for you, but

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<v Speaker 3>also for the deads, the creators themselves. But I think

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<v Speaker 3>I'm right in saying you've never really given us a

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<v Speaker 3>dollar figure on how it's going. Would you just update

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<v Speaker 3>us on the ecosystem and the wins you see for roadblocks.

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<v Speaker 1>We do think there's a significant advertising opportunity on the platform,

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<v Speaker 1>and you're exactly right. All of this growth we've been sharing,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, bookings growth of north to fifty percent in

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<v Speaker 1>Q two was driven not by advertising, but by people

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<v Speaker 1>spending robucks on the platform. That said, there's several categories

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<v Speaker 1>of experiences and creators that advertising may be the best

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<v Speaker 1>way for them to make future revenue highlighting Typically, our

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<v Speaker 1>vision is advertising for older users, not for younger users,

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<v Speaker 1>because we're already so healthy monetarily there, and we have

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<v Speaker 1>launched video advertising on the platform. We just in the

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<v Speaker 1>last week open it up for more creators. I will

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<v Speaker 1>assure you if and when we hit ten percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the global gaming market space. That advertising will be a

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<v Speaker 1>key part of that top bookings line.

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<v Speaker 3>I kind of want to stick with the creators because

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<v Speaker 3>I'm always understand the ecosystem. So one thing that you've

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<v Speaker 3>done is help creators get licensing deals. They might create

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<v Speaker 3>a game, that game might be franchisable. Why do that?

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<v Speaker 3>But also, like, are you kind of taking the liability

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<v Speaker 3>on copyright and on legal and everything else that comes

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<v Speaker 3>with a deal like that?

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<v Speaker 1>We aren't really And what we've seen, you know, two

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<v Speaker 1>years ago, people might have thought, well, you're not going

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<v Speaker 1>to have any prime sports brands on your platform, and

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<v Speaker 1>then all of a sudden, we have, you know, NFL Universe,

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<v Speaker 1>a partnership between the NFL and an existing developer on

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<v Speaker 1>the platform be extremely successful. What we've started talking about

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<v Speaker 1>with our IP platform is the ability for great brands,

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<v Speaker 1>whether it's for example, Stranger Things, there's Quid game from

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<v Speaker 1>Netflix being available for creators on the platform who want

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<v Speaker 1>to integrate the brand and really create a win win

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<v Speaker 1>in that these brands can have a lot of people

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<v Speaker 1>interacting with them, it can drive engagement within them. So

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<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of opportunity in the future to connect

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<v Speaker 1>great brands, great ip with the creative energy of the

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<v Speaker 1>developers on our platform.

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<v Speaker 2>I like that win win idea and the revenue share

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<v Speaker 2>that goes to the developers. Also, what's interesting is developers

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<v Speaker 2>are buying from these one off makers. Say that grow

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<v Speaker 2>a Garden. I think it's a team who still owns

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<v Speaker 2>about half, but he sold off the other half of

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<v Speaker 2>his business over to New Zealand Splating Point Studio. Are

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<v Speaker 2>you helping facilitate that m and A. How do you

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<v Speaker 2>see your role there?

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<v Speaker 1>We would like to more and more make a very

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<v Speaker 1>liquid market there. And at our Roadblocks Developer conference a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of years ago, I shared that as we have

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<v Speaker 1>a larger proportion of the gaming market running on Roadblocks,

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<v Speaker 1>it's not inconceivable that there will be a billion dollar

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<v Speaker 1>studio on the platform. We're well into the nine figures

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of millions of dollar types studios and grow Garden

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<v Speaker 1>was a great example of an initial small team working

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<v Speaker 1>with Jendell who acquired part of it, and it was

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<v Speaker 1>a deal that was a win win deal. The original

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<v Speaker 1>creators did very well and grow Garden has been refined

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<v Speaker 1>and tuned into now the largest simultaneously played game in

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<v Speaker 1>the history of the Guinness Book of World Records going

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<v Speaker 1>over twenty million concurrent players. A few weeks ago.

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<v Speaker 3>Dave, about three weeks ago you came onto the program

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<v Speaker 3>and discuss with me generative AI video based age verification.

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<v Speaker 3>In the interim on July twenty fifth, we got the

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<v Speaker 3>Online Safety Act, and which will have an impact on you.

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<v Speaker 3>Could you just quantify how that those parameters might impact

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<v Speaker 3>active users or engagement just quickly.

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<v Speaker 1>I want to highlight we have always had safety as

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<v Speaker 1>one of our top priorities, and we're not waiting for

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<v Speaker 1>the law or legislation. We've innovated with as on our

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<v Speaker 1>own because we want to keep people on our platform.

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<v Speaker 1>Roadblocks is a place where we filter all the texts

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<v Speaker 1>and the voice, where we monitor for critical harms, where

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<v Speaker 1>there's no image sharing or any of the things that

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<v Speaker 1>might happen from that, so age ustimation. We took leadership

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<v Speaker 1>here in innovating and we think it's going to set

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<v Speaker 1>the standard for the industry.

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<v Speaker 3>Roadblock CEO, Dave Zuki, it's great to have you back

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<v Speaker 3>on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much,