Roku reported another record growth quarter, with platform revenue surging 78% year over year to $319 million, its active user base swelling to 46 million and the company swinging into operating profit territory.
“Player” revenue, which is the money Roku makes from selling streaming boxes and sticks, and licensing its OS to smart TV makers, was up 62% to $132.4 million.
But in Q3, Roku saw its more explosive sales growth in the area of the “platform” side of its business, which is mainly about selling OTT advertising.
And platform business is a boomin’.
Roku said its average revenue per customer was up 20% year over year, and 8% sequentially, to $27.
“Feels like a clear sign that ad buyers are desperate to shift dollars out of linear TV toward connected TVs,” tweeted LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield.
Roku’s total revenue was up 73% year over year to $452 million.
“Q3 was the strongest quarter in the platform segment’s history driven by strong growth in advertising as brands embraced connected TV platforms like Roku, we expanded reach of The Roku Channel, and saw a significant increase in content distribution activities,” said Scott Rosenberg, senior VP of the Platform Business at Roku.
“Monetized video ad impressions were up almost 90% year-over-year in Q3, up sharply vs roughly 50% year-over-year in Q2," Rosenberg added. "Not only are existing brands growing spend but many new advertisers are shifting into streaming as more and more cord-cutting consumers become unreachable to brands on traditional linear television. First-time advertisers more than doubled year-over-year in Q3 and once brands become accustomed to the superior performance of streaming they tend to stay with Roku. Ninety-seven percent of brands that spent $1 million or more with Roku in Q3 2019 continued to invest in Q3 2020.”
Roku is conducting its quarterly conference call with equity analysts at 5 p.m. EST Thursday.
