Roblox Goes Public and Immediately is Worth more than 45 Billion
Roblox's revenue was nearly $925 million in 2018, which is an 82% growth over the year before. Roblox also stated earlier this month that its sales are expected to increase by 60% from $1.44 billion to $0.52 billion.
There is no sign of a slowdown for IPOs or SPACs
Roblox was home to 32.6 Million Daily Active Users at the End of 2020, and the company expects to have 34.6 to 36.4 Million users by 2021.
The majority of the company’s players are children 13 and under. Baszucki said that the company is getting close to the point at which many of its players will not be tweens. Baszucki stated that the Roblox user base is growing rapidly among 17-24-year-olds.
Roblox however, did note in its paperwork with Securities and Exchange Commission that the growing number of users will cause more scrutiny of the platform.
Roblox has stated that people are increasingly turning to interactive entertainment services like ours, even younger ones, and may call for stricter consumer protection laws and regulations, which could impose additional costs on companies like ours.
Roblox must ensure that the game is safe for minors and that privacy policies are strictly enforced. Roblox also has safeguards in place to ensure that children don't overspend on Robux.
Baszucki expressed excitement about the launch of the stock market, adding that it is ideal for long-term investors as well as employees of Roblox which was founded in 2004, to be a part of the company's success. Kd76
Roblox listed shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange as instead of releasing new stock in an initial public offering. The stock was subject to an initial price of $45 per share by the NYSE.
Spotify (SPOT), Slack (WORK) (which is in the process of being acquired by Salesforce (CRM)) and Palantir all went public through direct listings too.
"For us an open listing seemed natural. Baszucki stated that direct listing can bring together all the community and everyone pays the same price at the time of trading. Kd76
How Roblox became the most popular game for teens -- and a massive business
What's next for this company now that it is publicly traded?
Roblox is still not profitable. It lost more than $253 million in 2020, up from a loss or about $71 million in the previous year.
Baszucki said that the company will seek to increase sales through advertising. He said it will be organic. For instance, players can pay to wear Nike shoes in the game, as opposed to seeing massive Air Jordan billboards in Roblox.
"The small amounts of advertising we have been putting out is immersive and authentic," Baszucki told CNN Business.
Baszucki who uses Roblox under the name of builderman, said that he's not worried about Roblox becoming a fad and losing its popularity.
He noted that the game continues to add users even as gamers have other choices like Minecraft, Fortnite and the ever-growingly popular Among Us to play during their free time.
Roblox is among an increasing number of "unicorn" companies which have gone public in the past few months. These include Poshmark and Airbnb, as well as Bumble and Poshmark. Unity, an online gaming company, went public in September last year. The stock has nearly doubled in the span of a year.
Instacart and Coinbase are among the most anticipated debuts of stock markets this year. Robinhood is also expected to debut later in the year.
