Roku Inc. reported substantial increases in both revenue and income during the first quarter despite a slight slowdown in active account growth.“Though there will be difficult COVID-19-related comparisons in 2021, we believe that the shift to streaming is inevitable,” CEO Anthony Wood and CFO Steve Louden wrote in a letter to shareholders. “It will be global and will transform the way content is distributed and monetized.”
The company garnered approximately $574 million in revenue, $466.5 million serving as platform revenue, representing a 101% year over year increase, and $107.7 in device revenue, a 79% increase from a year ago. The growth has helped the company cope with operational costs, generating $75.8 million in operational income at the end of the quarter, a significant improvement over the $55.2 million the company lost during the same quarter last year.
With more active accounts recorded, Roku had 53.6 million total during the first quarter, a 35% year over year growth rate, but at a slower pace from last year by 37%-43%. Roku attributed its quarterly growth to advertising and said that the Roku Channel, its ad-supported streaming service, now reaches U.S. households with an estimated 70 million people.Its streaming hour consumption has also doubled.
Roku’s Platform segment revenue, driven by ad sales and revenue-sharing deals with content partners, doubled in Q1, to $466.5 million. The company said streaming hours consumed on Roku devices increased by 1.4 billion hours over the last quarter to 18.3 billion. In addition, Roku reported average revenue per user (ARPU) on a trailing 12-month basis hit $32.14 in Q1, up 32% year over year.
Wall Street analysts on average expected Roku to report Q1 revenue of $490.6 million and a loss of 13 cents per share. The company also reported earnings of 54 cents per share, compared to the 13 cent loss per share Wall Street had projected. Roku’s gross profit of $326.8 billion was up 132% since the same time last year.