Deepak Mathivanan • Cantor Fitzgerald

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CEO & Chair Fidji Simo stated that in an AI-agent world, Instacart is well-positioned due to its vast selection and rich data, with the key being to integrate where users are. Regarding industry growth, she attributed it to the fact that online grocery remains significantly underpenetrated. Simo believes the acceleration is driven by improving services across the board (selection, affordability, speed) and retailers leaning in more aggressively to capture the online shift, often using Instacart's enterprise technology to do so.

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CEO Fidji Simo stated that the benefits from small basket orders are widespread across all retailer types, with items typically including snacks, beverages, and fresh produce. Regarding the Uber Eats partnership, she noted that restaurant adoption continues to deepen and has a positive, reinforcing effect on the core business, as customers who order from restaurants also tend to order groceries more frequently and spend more.

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CEO Ariane Gorin hypothesized that traffic from GenAI search is converting better because it is more qualified and further down the discovery funnel. She stressed the importance of integrations with AI partners and strong fundamentals like supply and loyalty. CFO Scott Schenkel added that the B2B business in Asia is strong and the API is a key enabler for bringing Expedia's supply and tech to partners, with continued double-digit growth expected.

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CEO Ariane Gorin highlighted that the B2B business's geographic and segment diversity provides a hedge against macro headwinds and noted that packaging and targeted rates help hotel partners manage demand. CFO Scott Schenkel explained that the improved margin outlook is supported by recent employment actions and ongoing work on discretionary costs, giving management confidence in achieving the 75 to 100 basis points of expansion.

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CEO Ariane Gorin attributed B2B strength in APAC to strong new and existing partnerships in high-growth markets, emphasizing the critical role of high-quality, relevant supply. For 2025, she outlined a strategy of deepening existing partnerships, signing new ones, and testing new products. On margins, she declined to break out specific line-item contributions but affirmed the strategy is to find efficiencies while maintaining the flexibility to invest in long-term growth areas like international markets and Vrbo.

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CEO Ariane Gorin stated that Vrbo's growth acceleration depends on continuing to improve the product, expand supply into areas like urban destinations, and execute effective marketing. She added that improvements to Vrbo also benefit the vacation rental business on Brand Expedia. CFO Julie Whalen deferred 2025 guidance to the next call but emphasized a continued focus on cost discipline in overhead and cost of sales, noting that marketing efficiency is the largest lever for future margin improvement as recovering brands drive more direct traffic.

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President & CEO Kurt Ekert defended Sabre's NDC position, stating its 38 live connections represent a fulsome portfolio and that its competitive advantage lies in its buyer-facing workflow integration. He attributed the six-month delay in the LCC solution launch to an internal 'execution delay on our side from a tech standpoint,' acknowledging a setback in their product roadmap.

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CEO Kurt Ekert explained that Sabre is no longer reporting the GDS EDIFACT market share metric as it doesn't represent the full addressable market, but inferred that growing double-digits while the market is down implies 'very considerably' growing share. He and CFO Michael Randolfi noted the remaining proceeds will fund strategic initiatives and technology modernization, with full-year CapEx expected to be around $80 million.

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CEO Kurt Ekert identified near-term opportunities in improving the productivity of customer service and developer teams. For the longer term, he highlighted the transformative potential of AI in consumer travel shopping, noting Sabre is embedding Google's Gemini AI into its revenue optimization products and the SabreMosaic platform to enhance customer competitiveness and drive future revenue.

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CEO & Chair Tony Xu stated that AI is causing a fundamental rethinking of the business, impacting consumer product design (search, personalization), physical world operations (inventory creation, merchant onboarding), and internal productivity, particularly in coding. CFO Ravi Inukonda noted that new verticals are growing faster than the core restaurant business, with strength from both new and existing customer cohorts. He highlighted that order frequency and user numbers in new verticals are at all-time highs, driven by improved selection, quality, and affordability.

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CEO Tony Xu asserted that the M&A bar remains high, viewing the Deliveroo and 7 Rooms deals as business as usual, aimed at expanding market reach and adding to the platform business. CFO Ravi Inukonda added that strong growth in new verticals is driven by increased selection, better product quality, and cohort habituation, leading to higher order frequency and share gains.

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CEO Tony Xu discussed AVs, highlighting that autonomous delivery presents different challenges than robotaxis, and confirmed it's an area of exploration. CFO Ravi Inukonda reported that the Wolt and the broader international business had a strong year, growing substantially faster than peers, with Wolt+ scaling more quickly than DashPass did in its early days.

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CEO Tony Xu (per transcript) explained that growth was driven by strong underlying cohort performance, with user numbers and order frequency at all-time highs. He specified that while the restaurant business growth has been stable, new verticals like grocery and international segments are growing much faster and gaining share. He attributed the AOV increase partly to the grocery business but advised not to view it as a major shift.

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President Harley Finkelstein responded that while it's too early to quantify a market share shift, Shopify is actively preparing for this trend. He explained that new products like Catalog and Universal Cart are designed to make Shopify the essential partner for AI platforms. The strategy is to ensure Shopify merchants are at the center of this new frontier if and when it becomes a dominant channel, similar to how Shopify approached social commerce.

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President Harley Finkelstein stated the strategy is to create an owned channel for merchants to drive traffic and sales. He noted that enhancements like the new AI-powered home feed led to an 18% increase in sessions with recommendation engagement. The ultimate goal is to increase customer LTV for merchants and help consumers discover new brands, an ecosystem exclusive to Shopify merchants.

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CEO Daniel Ek explained that OpEx is managed to drive long-term lifetime value (LTV), not arbitrary quarterly targets, meaning they will invest heavily when the SAC-to-LTV ratio is favorable. Co-President Gustav Söderström added that Spotify is retooling its entire tech stack for the 'generative age,' which creates a strategic advantage as LLMs improve with more usage, capitalizing on Spotify's high engagement.

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CFO Ellie Mertz stated that Airbnb has not yet seen a meaningful downward shift in host pricing. However, she framed it as a 'considerable opportunity' for the company to encourage hosts to lower prices to capture more demand, especially in the current macroeconomic climate, rather than a trend that is actively occurring.

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Martin de Los Santos, CFO, explained that Q1 EBIT margin expansion was largely due to country mix, as the higher-margin Argentina business grew its revenue share. He reiterated that the company does not manage for short-term margins and will continue to invest for long-term growth. Ariel Szarfsztejn, EVP of Commerce, attributed the strong advertising growth to product improvements, particularly making 'Brands' and 'Display' ad formats more widely available to sellers.

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Ariel Szarfsztejn (Executive) attributed the strong buyer metrics to the compounding effect of long-term investments in the value proposition, including vertical-specific features, new categories like groceries, and the crucial role of free shipping. Osvaldo Giménez (Executive) explained that the sequential NIMAL improvement was driven by higher product spreads resulting from lower bad debt, which was aided by better collections and positive seasonality in December.

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Executive Osvaldo Giménez explained that users with a credit card show higher engagement, buy more on the marketplace, and increase their overall use of Mercado Pago products. Executive Martin de Los Santos added that while specific NIMAL figures are not disclosed, consumer and merchant loans have the highest margins. In contrast, the credit card NIMAL is currently neutral to marginally negative as it scales, though older cohorts are already becoming profitable.

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CEO Jamie Iannone confirmed they are leaning into marketing the pre-loved value proposition, especially for C2C selling, to unlock a significant TAM. He highlighted innovations like 'Magical Listing' and new fashion discovery tools. Regarding competition, Iannone stated that eBay's global scale and strong financial model are key advantages, allowing them to invest and acquire customers who then shop across multiple categories.

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CEO Josh Silverman confirmed Etsy is already promoting domestic sellers and is prepared to increase marketing if tariffs create a significant price advantage. CFO Lanny Baker stated the category mix is stable, with the top six categories unchanged. He added that based on third-party data, Etsy outperformed peers in four of those six categories, including Home & Living and Jewelry, due to its gifting and personalization efforts.

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CEO Avishai Abrahami detailed two monetized AI agents: an AI-powered chat for customer websites and an AI marketing agent, framing them as hiring 'experts' for a user's business. Regarding Wix Studio, he explained that agencies are reporting significant efficiency gains and the ability to produce higher-quality websites, as the platform streamlines the entire design-to-code workflow into a single, powerful design environment.

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CEO Aman Bhutani reiterated that their customer base remains resilient and that business formation data does not directly correlate with their performance. Regarding WordPress, he expressed excitement for their newly launched, faster version of Managed WordPress but did not comment on specific migration trends.

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CEO Evan Spiegel responded that the rollout of Sponsored Snaps will be thoughtful and deliberate to maintain a high bar for creative relevance, starting with the Pixel Purchase goal-based bidding objective before expanding. On compute, he confirmed that machine learning for advertising is a major focus area, benefiting from broader platform investments. The company is actively experimenting with advanced techniques like sequence models and leveraging larger, fresher models to improve ad performance.

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