Roku’s stock price dropped 24 percent on Friday as investors appeared to show concern over the company’s sliding per-user revenue.
The worries come despite Roku beating Wall Street expectations after posting a 14 percent increase in customers to more than 80 million served around the globe.
Roku’s stock price ended at $72 per share when the market closed on Friday. It erased another 40 cents per share in after-hours trading heading into the weekend.
On Thursday, Roku executives revealed its 80 million customers streamed a total of 29.1 billion hours of content in 2023, up 21 percent when compared to the same metric one year prior.
Despite this, Roku saw its average revenue per user, or ARPU, drop to $39.92, or 4 percent lower on a year-over basis. It was the first time since 2019 that Roku reported a slide in ARPU.
Executives attributed the lower ARPU rate to the company’s continued expansion efforts in overseas markets, where user revenue is typically lower compared to the U.S. and Canada. Over the past few years, Roku has expanded in Latin America and parts of Europe; last November, the company affirmed it was bringing its smart TV sets to Australia for the first time.
Like other streaming platforms, Roku continues to focus on the development of its advertising business, which helped bring in $3 billion in platform revenue during 2023. The figure was 10 percent higher compared to 2022, and included $828.9 million in revenue during the company’s fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023.
Total net revenue during 2023 was $3.5 billion, up 11 percent on a year-over basis.
