Shweta Khajuria • Wolfe Research, LLC

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CEO & Chair Fidji Simo articulated the vision of becoming a one-stop shop for CPG brands by offering unparalleled scale and performance. She explained that Instacart's strategy is to operate as a single, unified network that includes its marketplace, over 240 Carrot Ads retail partners, and off-site partnerships. By offering tools like universal campaigns, Instacart allows advertisers to optimize their spend across the entire network, positioning itself as the key aggregator for an industry that values efficiency and reach.

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CEO Fidji Simo confirmed that advertisers view Instacart as a high-performance platform with strong, measurable ROAS. She expressed confidence that this positioning is advantageous, as advertisers tend to focus their budgets on performance-driven channels during uncertain times. While acknowledging some brand caution around macro factors, she stated it was not widespread and that Instacart's ability to deliver performance at scale makes it a well-positioned partner.

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CEO Fidji Simo detailed four key pillars for ad growth: 1) Performance, by delivering best-in-class ROAS; 2) Scale, through their own marketplace and the Carrot Ads network; 3) Diversification, by attracting more emerging brands; and 4) Innovation, by launching new ad formats like sponsored recipes and AI-powered landing pages.

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CEO Fidji Simo explained that while specific adoption rates aren't disclosed, all top retailers use many of these services, tailored to their individual strategies. On price parity, she noted a shift from a binary decision to a more sophisticated, granular approach. Retailers now use tools like Eversight to optimize pricing on specific items, categories, or promotions, such as Kroger's weekly flyers, to drive value and competitiveness.

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President & CEO Peter Stern confirmed the strategic shift to wellness but emphasized that cardio will remain the foundation. He noted that existing app tiers already serve as gateways to the full membership. To expand the TAM, he stressed the importance of reigniting innovation and confirmed the company's commitment to its refurbished equipment program and the secondary market as key strategies to provide lower-priced entry points for its premium hardware.

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CFO Liz Coddington explained that strong free cash flow has enabled significant deleveraging, reducing the net leverage ratio from 7x to 2.7x QoQ. A tangible benefit is an estimated $5 million in annualized interest expense savings. CEO Peter Stern and CFO Liz Coddington clarified that the tariff risk is minimal, with no Peloton-branded hardware subject to China tariffs and an unmitigated impact of less than 1% of Connected Fitness COGS from other potential tariffs.

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Interim Co-CEO Karen Boone highlighted Peter Stern's extensive experience across hardware, software, and content, his track record of driving growth through innovation, and his personal passion for Peloton as a long-time member. Interim Co-CEO Chris Bruzzo added that Stern is thoughtful, appreciates Peloton's history, and is excited to lead its next chapter.

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CEO Luis von Ahn differentiated Duolingo by stating its focus is on teaching, not just translation, and expressed confidence in the 'video call' offering for that purpose. Both he and CFO Matt Skaruppa noted they do not track app download trends. Regarding geographic DAU trends, von Ahn explained that US growth has been below the company average, which he attributed to a historical lack of marketing spend in the expensive US market. He announced plans to begin spending small amounts on marketing in the US, similar to a strategy that successfully re-accelerated growth in Mexico.

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CEO Luis von Ahn differentiated Duolingo's product as a teaching tool, not just a translator, and stated he and the CFO do not track app download trends. Regarding geography, von Ahn explained that U.S. DAU growth has slowed, which he attributes to a historical lack of marketing spend in the country. He compared this to Mexico, where initiating a small marketing spend significantly accelerated growth, suggesting a similar strategy will be tested in the U.S.

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CEO Luis von Ahn Arellano reported that the marketing manager initiative is tracking well in France and is too new to judge in Korea, with plans to expand to Italy and Turkey. He clarified that since their renowned social media presence is almost entirely organic, they are not significantly impacted by shifts in social media ad pricing, as their paid performance marketing spend is minimal.

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CEO & Chair Tony Xu explained that recent growth is the result of product, selection, and quality improvements made over the past couple of years. Regarding advertising, he emphasized that the primary focus remains on the consumer experience, which in turn enables a successful ad business. The Symbiosis acquisition allows DoorDash to act as a marketing agent for merchants, spending ad dollars off-platform effectively. CFO Ravi Inukonda clarified that the ad business continues to be operated with discipline, focusing on merchant ROAS and consumer conversion.

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CEO Tony Xu explained that the potential Deliveroo acquisition adds scale in Europe, laying the foundation for new local commerce products and unlocking greater profit pools. He stated that the company is not currently seeing any effects from tariffs and believes food delivery is a resilient category, noting DoorDash will continue to focus on selection, affordability, and quality.

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CFO Ravi Inukonda explained that the company optimizes for absolute profit dollars rather than a specific margin percentage, noting the international portfolio is gross profit positive and scaling. CEO Tony Xu added that the investment philosophy for the coming years remains consistent: invest in areas with proven product-market fit and a clear path to monetization across their five main business lines.

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CFO Ravi Inukonda stated that revenue growth is outpacing GOV growth, driven by advertising and efficiencies in Dasher-related costs. He noted that in Q3, ads and Dasher cost leverage were the primary drivers but cautioned against linear expectations. CEO Tony Xu addressed grocery pricing by stating the goal is a combination of order accuracy, competitive prices (with some partners already at parity), and superior convenience.

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CEO Spencer Rascoff described the turnaround as being in the early stages, focusing first on shipping product and then driving user reconsideration. CFO Stephen Bailey detailed the $50 million reinvestment plan, allocating it in thirds: one-third to Tinder product tests, one-third to marketing for Tinder and Hinge product launches, and one-third to geographic expansion and new ventures like Archer and Her.

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CFO Steven Bailey stated that the company is encouraged by the Apple vs. Epic ruling and is already testing web payment options and discounted offers on the web across most U.S. brands. He noted that shifting just 10% of App Store purchases to the web could save approximately $25 million in fees. Regarding macro weakness, he confirmed the business is historically resilient but has seen some recent weakness in Tinder's a la carte revenue. If trends persist, the company is prepared to offer lower-priced bundles, similar to actions taken in the past.

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President and CFO Gary Swidler responded that improvement will come from multiple initiatives across three pillars: a cleaner ecosystem, better user outcomes, and making dating fun. He highlighted a new AI-driven matching feature as particularly exciting and directed investors to the Investor Day presentation for detailed KPIs, giving examples like adoption rates and quality match improvements.

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CEO Bernard Kim affirmed the focus on Gen Z and women through product initiatives and targeted marketing, while maintaining spending discipline. Regarding the CFO change, he highlighted incoming CFO Steve Bailey's 12 years of experience at the company and noted the transition has been in planning for a while.

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President & CEO Jamie Iannone confirmed a long runway for ads growth, which grew 17% in Q2, citing drivers like adoption, penetration, and new products, with a medium-term goal of at least 3% of GMV. He affirmed that the combination of focus categories, horizontal initiatives, and geo-specific investments are the key drivers that will propel the business forward.

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CFO Stephen Priest characterized the macro environment as uncertain, noting that U.S. demand remains more resilient than in Europe. He pointed to depressed consumer confidence in the U.K. and Germany due to inflation and geopolitical concerns. On marketing, Priest stated that the company believes it has the right balance, effectively using its spend to drive efficiencies and invest for long-term growth.

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CEO Bill Ready clarified that the strategy is unchanged: first-party demand remains primary, with third-party demand serving as a complement. He confirmed ongoing testing and announced Magnite as the next partner to help aggregate smaller demand sources, framing it as a steady, long-term build rather than an immediate revenue driver.

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CEO Bill Ready stated that recent innovations like Direct Links and Performance+ have compounding effects over multiple years, not one-off impacts. He emphasized that Performance+ is in the early stages of a multiyear adoption cycle, similar to what other platforms have experienced. He highlighted early results showing a 20% CPA improvement for advertisers and noted that more of the opportunity from these products is still ahead.

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CEO Bill Ready stated that Pinterest is still at a fraction of its potential monetization per unit of intent and has significant headroom for ad load growth. He explained that the key is relevance; as AI improves ad relevance—which has doubled in search over two years—ads become synergistic with engagement. Features like whole-page optimization dynamically increase ad load in high-commercial-intent moments, enhancing the user's shopping journey rather than disrupting it.

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CEO Dara Khosrowshahi highlighted two key affordability drivers: the Uber One membership program, which now has 30 million members and over 60% penetration in delivery, and the increasing use of merchant-funded offers. Regarding Europe, he noted Uber's organic success, such as reaching the #1 position in the U.K. for Eats, and pointed to strong performance in France and Germany as reasons why competitor consolidation in the region is expected.

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CFO Mike Guthrie noted the dramatic margin outperformance in recent quarters and guided that while such a high rate of improvement won't continue, cash flow growth will exceed bookings growth. He directed analysts to the full-year guidance for implied back-half rates. CEO David Baszucki described AI as a 'human acceleration tool' for creators, leading to higher quality and output, with a long-term vision for full 3D scene and '4D' interactive asset generation.

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CFO Lanny Baker stated that Etsy is encouraged about improving GMS growth over the year as product and marketing initiatives stack, assuming the macro environment remains consistent. CEO Josh Silverman added that while Etsy is leaning more into paid social media, they have not seen a decrease in ad costs, as their primary competitors for ad placements are large U.S. retailers, not just international players.

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CEO Josh Silverman emphasized that the significant take rate gains were achieved without negatively impacting seller margins. He cited improved Etsy Ads performance, higher Etsy Payments penetration, and the new seller onboarding fee as key drivers. CFO Rachel Glaser added that the 2024 gains will annualize into 2025 and that higher performance marketing spend drives more Offsite Ads (OSA) revenue.

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CEO Michael Barrett explained that publishers using OpenPath are charged a fee by The Trade Desk, making it an economic "swap out" with Magnite's fees, resulting in unchanged costs for the publisher. CFO David Day attributed the Q4 CPM pressure to a post-election demand drop, with a strong rebound in January and February providing confidence. Regarding guidance, Day noted they are conservative on new deal timing and that incremental revenue flows through to EBITDA at a high rate.

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CFO David Schwarzbach stated that Yelp does not plan to break out RepairPal's financial contribution separately but confirmed it is included in the guidance, noting the acquisition is key to accelerating growth in auto services. He also clarified that the L.A. fires had a minimal impact on the business in January.

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CFO David Schwarzbach attributed the higher EBITDA guidance to disciplined expense management, including holding headcount flat and reducing paid search spend from previously planned levels. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman noted that while paid search successfully drove top-of-funnel project volume, it didn't sufficiently change advertiser behavior to warrant the investment level, leading to the reduction in spend.

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CFO Erin Brewer stated that the Lyft Media business exited Q4 2024 at an annualized gross bookings run rate of approximately $50 million and is expected to exit Q4 2025 at a $100 million run rate. CEO David Risher added that while not providing specific financials for Price Lock, the feature has delivered 1.6 million rides, which are believed to be largely incremental, and has recently expanded to 24/7 coverage.

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CEO David Risher noted strong consumer sentiment, citing growth in both commute and discretionary 'party time' use cases, with Halloween rides hitting an all-time high. CFO Erin Brewer explained that recent revenue margin trends reflect incentive efficiencies and a mix impact from the bikes and scooters business, which accounted for about 2.5 points of margin in Q3.

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CFO Derek Andersen addressed both questions. On demand, he noted that performance is strongest in verticals with established product-market fit, such as retail and CPG for Pixel Purchase Optimization, and gaming and financial services for app-based optimizations. On compute costs, he explained that long-term efficiency gains come from rapid innovation followed by code and SKU optimization, as well as improved pricing from cloud partners due to Snap's increasing scale.

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CFO Derek Andersen outlined a multi-layered strategy focused on the lower-funnel DR business and the SMB customer segment. Key drivers include enhancing ML and AI for ad personalization, harvesting more privacy-safe signals, and improving the SMB onboarding experience with tools like Snap Promote and easier Cappy integrations. He stated the execution roadmap is very clear.

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CEO Sumit Singh attributed marketing success to a holistic, full-funnel approach targeting expanded audiences rather than specific channels. He confirmed that quarter-to-date performance was strong, with the Cyber Week holiday event being highly successful and driving some of the largest net sales days in Chewy's history, which contributed to the company raising its full-year guidance. Executive David Reeder also highlighted the value of organic brand-building programs like 'Chewy Claus'.

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CFO David Reeder described a measured rollout, with plans to end 2025 with a clinic count in the high teens. He emphasized that CVC is performing well, attracting more new-to-Chewy customers than modeled, with about half making a purchase on chewy.com within 30 days. CEO Sumit Singh positioned CVC as a key part of Chewy's defensible ecosystem, expanding the company's total addressable market into services, software, and data.

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CFO David Reeder described a measured rollout, with plans to open 8-10 new clinics in fiscal 2025. He highlighted that new customer acquisition at clinics is exceeding models, with about half of these new customers purchasing from chewy.com within 30 days. CEO Sumit Singh added that CVC is an 'ecosystem moat' that expands the total addressable market into areas like telehealth, insurance, and software, enhancing long-term customer engagement.

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CEO Jeff Green emphasized that the fragmentation of CTV makes a walled garden approach unviable, forcing premium content owners to use auctions to maximize value. He identified key drivers as global expansion, the establishment of UID2 as the CTV currency, and the shift from inventory scarcity to a focus on quality and data-driven differentiation. Regarding Amazon, Green argued that its conflict of interest as both a content owner and platform puts it at a significant disadvantage in CTV compared to TTD's objective, buy-side-only model.

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