Yesterday Roku announced their fourth quarter 2017 earnings, and to the surprise of many reported total revenues of $188.3M.
Overall revenues are up 28%, driven by platform revenue growth of 129%, which made up for a single-digit decline in player revenue. Gross profit rose 64% to $73.5M in the fourth quarter of 2017. Average revenue per user was up 48% to $13.79.
Roku’s revenue broke down as $2.8M from players (sales of physical players) and $85.4M from the platform (ad and subscription revenue). Roku also saw active accounts rise 44% year over year.
This quarterly report clearly points to how Roku is slowly building their company as a platform-first company. You see this in Roku’s efforts to give away their software to TV manufacturers in exchange for the revenue from ads and subscriptions.
While Roku reported a profit in the fourth quarter of 2017, they project a loss in early 2017 in the range of -$55M to -$40M. This likely comes as Roku gets ready for the late 2018 launch of their new Roku Connect-powered smart speakers and sound bars.
The good news is it looks like Roku had a great fourth quarter 2017, and the company is now moving into new markets like smart speakers to continue to expand.
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