Roblox's revenue was $925 million in 2018, which is an 82% more than the revenue in 2019. The company also stated earlier this month that it is now expecting sales to grow by an additional 60% this year, bringing it to a a range of $1.44 billion to $1.52 billion.
No slowdown in sight for IPOs or SPACs
Roblox had 32.6 million active users on a daily basis at the end of 2020 and the company is predicting that it will have 34.6 million to 36.4 million by 2021's end.
The majority of the company’s players are children 13 and under. Baszucki stated that the company is nearing a point where the majority of its users are not tweens. He also said that the number of 17-24-year-old Roblox users is growing very quickly.
Roblox, however, noted in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the growing number of users will cause greater scrutiny of the site.
Roblox stated that consumers are increasingly using interactive entertainment offerings such as ours, and even younger ones, and may call for stricter consumer protection laws and regulations which could impose additional expenses on companies such as ours.
That means that Roblox has to make sure the game stays safe for minors playing it and that privacy practices are strictly adhered to. The company also has safeguards to ensure that young users aren't paying too much to buy Robux.
Baszucki stated that he was ecstatic about the launch of the stock market and added that it was beneficial for long-term investors and employees in Roblox.
Roblox listed shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange as opposed to releasing new shares in an initial public offering. The NYSE had set a benchmark price of $45 a share for the stock.
Spotify (SPOT), Slack(WORK) (which is currently being bought by Salesforce (CRM), and Palantir were all made public through direct listings.
"For us, a direct listing seemed natural. Baszucki explained that direct listing brings together the entire community and everyone is using the same price at the trading opening.
Roblox: How it became the "it" game for teens -- and also a massive business
So what's next for the company now that it's publicly traded?
Roblox is still not profitable. It lost more than $253 million in 2020, which is up from a loss of $71 million a year earlier.
Baszucki stated that the company is looking to generate more sales from advertising. He said that it would be organic. For example, users can pay for Nike shoes in the game, as opposed to billboards with large sizes for Air Jordan in Roblox.
"The little amount of advertising we have been doing has been authentic and real," Baszucki told CNN Business.
Baszucki who uses Roblox under the name builderman, stated that he isn't worried about Roblox becoming a fad and losing its popularity.
He also said that the game continues to add users even as gamers have other options such as Minecraft, Fortnite and the increasingly popular Among Us to play during their spare time.
Minecraft servers
Roblox is among a growing number of unicorn companies that have gone public in the past few months and have seen their stock rise like Bumble, Poshmark, Airbnb and DoorDash. Gaming software firm Unity also went public in September and its shares have nearly doubled since.
Instacart and Coinbase are among the most anticipated debuts of stock markets this year. Robinhood is also expected to debut later in the year.
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