Yelp - Earnings Call - Q3 2020

Transcript

Speaker 0

Good day, and welcome to Yelp's Third Quarter twenty twenty Earnings Conference Call. Participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to James Milne, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations.

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us on Yelp's third quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today are Yelp's Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Stockman Chief Financial Officer, David Schwarzbach and Chief Operating Officer, Jed Nachman. We published a shareholder letter on our Investor Relations website and with the SEC about an hour ago, and I hope everyone had a chance to read it. We'll provide some brief opening comments and then turn to your questions. Now I'll read our safe harbor statement.

We'll make certain statements today that are forward looking and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please note that these forward looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward looking statements in light of new information or further events. In addition, we are subject to a number of risks that may significantly impact our business and financial results. Please refer to our SEC filings as well as our shareholder letter for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. During our call today, we'll discuss adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non GAAP financial measures.

These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. In our shareholder letter released this afternoon and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non GAAP financial measures as well as historical reconciliations of GAAP net income to both adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. And with that, I will turn the call over to Jeremy.

Speaker 2

Thanks, James, and welcome, everyone. Yelp's third quarter results demonstrate our business' considerable resilience. Although we clearly remain in the midst of a pandemic, in the third quarter, we were excited to see significantly improved business performance from the second quarter and signs that our long term strategy is working. Third quarter net revenue grew by 31% from the second quarter as both consumers and local businesses turned to Yelp as their trusted resource for adapting to the new normal. This revenue coupled with strong expense management enabled us to deliver a 24% adjusted EBITDA margin, demonstrating our ability to perform under the most challenging circumstances.

Traffic and engagement trends showed robust improvements in the third quarter. Overall page views and searches increased by approximately 40% from the second quarter, while app unique devices rebounded by 4,000,000 from the second quarter to 32,000,000. Consumers turned to Yelp for our trusted content and added more than 5,000,000 reviews in the third quarter. Our balanced ratings and high quality reviews continue to differentiate us from competitors. In fact, a recent study authored by an economist at the Federal Trade Commission highlighted Yelp's robust review content and significant efforts to combat review fraud.

As a compliment for our valuable review content, Yelp has put a focus on providing the most up to date local business information through our COVID nineteen features. For example, our health and safety measures section has been particularly well received with more than 700,000 business locations leveraging it by the October. We have also continued to make progress on our long term strategy, which is designed to drive increased revenue growth and profitability. In the third quarter, we saw positive year over year revenue growth in two key areas, Home and Local Services and our self serve sales channel. With approximately 20% of leads monetized in the Home and Local Services category by the end of the quarter, we continue to see a substantial opportunity to further monetize our consumers' high purchase intent fees.

To support the execution of our long term strategy and to diversify and continue to refresh our board's expertise, we have welcomed four accomplished independent directors over the last two years. Today, I'm pleased to announce another fantastic addition to Yelp's board, Tony Wells. As chief brand officer at USAA, Tony brings a wealth of experience, which will be particularly valuable as we continue to evolve our go to market capability and expand our self serve channel as part of our next phase of growth. While we hope that the worst of COVID-nineteen economic impact is behind us, Yelp remains focused on the continued execution of its strategy. In the third quarter, we demonstrated a more efficient go to market capability and made progress on our strategic growth initiatives while improving our already strong balance sheet.

As the pandemic subsides, we are confident in our ability to return to sustainable growth in the new year. With that, I'd like to turn it over to David.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jeremy. As Jeremy highlighted, we were pleased to see improving trends across both consumer and business metrics in the third quarter. Net revenue increased by $52,000,000 on the second quarter to $221,000,000 in the third quarter, resulting in a 16% year over year decline and a net loss of $1,000,000 Ad budgets improved steadily throughout the quarter, highlighted by our home and local services category, which grew by a mid single digit percentage compared to the 2019. In addition, non term advertiser retention improved by more than 25% compared to the 2019, returning to the year over year retention gains we saw back in February. And many of our multi location advertisers returned to spend in the third quarter after receiving relief in the second quarter, which drove a 34% quarter over quarter increase in paying advertising locations to over 500,000.

The strong revenue performance combined with a leaner cost structure and favorable expenses enabled us to deliver $53,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA and a 24% adjusted EBITDA margin even as we continue to invest in sales, marketing and product. Expenses were more favorable than expected in the quarter, driven primarily by lower than anticipated headcount. This resulted from a combination of modestly higher than expected attrition, sales reps returning from furlough at a somewhat lower rate than anticipated, and the movement of some hiring into the fourth quarter. In addition, we saw favorability across areas like healthcare and bad debt, reflecting the improving macro environment in the third quarter. These encouraging operational results further strengthened our balance sheet, leading to the addition of $65,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents in the third quarter.

With $591,000,000 of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet at the end of the third quarter and $269,000,000 remaining available under our share repurchase program, we believe that it is appropriate to resume returning excess capital to shareholders. The exact timing for the restart of our buyback program will depend on market and economic condition. I'll now turn to our outlook. Based on the improved business and local economic trends in the third quarter, we are providing a business outlook. We expect fourth quarter net revenue will fall within the range of $220,000,000 to $230,000,000 It's important to underscore that our fourth quarter results are subject to increased volatility due to a variety of seasonal dynamics.

These include such things as holiday spending for multi location customers and the number of SMB customers choosing to pause their ads over the holidays. The ongoing pandemic also increases uncertainty and our outlook does not reflect a widespread renewal of shelter in place orders. On the expense side, we intend to further invest in our growth initiatives in the fourth quarter. This includes increasing our product investments as we focus on opportunities in self serve and our home and local services category. While we have gained efficiency in our local sales channel, we intend to invest selectively in our multi location sales team and in performance marketing to support our self serve channel.

We will also see a full quarter of expenses related to restoring reduced salaries in August and completing the staggered return of furloughed employees in October. As a result, we anticipate fourth quarter operating expenses will increase from the third quarter. Accordingly, we expect fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA margin will be approximately 16% to 20%. With that operator, please open up the line for questions.

Speaker 0

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question today will come from Shweta Khajuria from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Let me try two please. First on Home and Local. So you said 20% of leads were monetized. Could you talk about the opportunity there?

Where can that percentage go? How does that compare to industry? And how are you positioning yourself today for post COVID growth in that category, whether it is converting restaurant traffic better for home and local or the products that you've introduced like special offers and nearby jobs? That's first. And then the second one is a high level questions on recovery.

Understood that there are a lot of uncertainties, shelter in place, vaccine, stimulus. How are you thinking about the recovery curve and the speed? So post vaccine, do you think that the advertising dollars will snap back in with a a quick recovery, or will that be a slower curve? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Hi, Shweta. This is Jeremy. I guess I can kick it off on a home and local question here. You know, as you noted, we're at 20% monetized leads, so we continue to improve there. You know, 20% is not that much, in our view.

We think there's, an opportunity to continue to better merchandise, things like request a quote, improve our matching. We've expanded the number of categories that request a quote, has questionnaires for, and and all of that is continuing to drive more monetization. So we see a lot of headroom there. But, you know, also, we we think that it's a it's a great product, and so we should, see growth over time, in that category. We also mentioned, you know, some of the innovations that we're driving, in the home and local segment, things like nearby jobs.

And we've we've really seen that resonate, in the early days of its release with newer businesses. So they might not be able to compete on purely on reputation alone, but they can compete on important dynamics, like pricing and their responsiveness. And so that that's very promising. That's something that we're gonna continue to work on into 2021 refining both pricing and, the the way it works and drives more leads, for local businesses, especially newer local businesses. On the recovery side, you know, we as you can kinda see from our results and traffic, you know, as economic activity picks up, we do see, you know, fairly, correlative recovery alongside that.

So I would imagine in a post vaccine world, as people get more comfortable, as, you know, panic continues to subside, as people get out and and do more things, we will see you know, we will participate in that robust recovery. You know, the exact time frame, I think, is anyone's guess at this point. But if you look at our business, you know, quite a bit of it now is driven by this home and local services segment, which has been, you know, really solid for us throughout the year and is, you know, from a traffic standpoint, it's consistent with 2019. And so we feel really good about the opportunity ahead of us for our business, and we're not really relying on, say, restaurant traffic coming back to create the growth that we need to to have a a good start to 2021.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thanks, Jeremy.

Speaker 0

Sure thing. Our next question today will come from Dan Salmon of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Hey. Good afternoon, everyone.

Speaker 3

We've seen some recent reports of just sticking with a question about home and local services. Some some recent reports about Google testing more option based, more bid case more bid based option bid bidding options, excuse me, versus sort of straight leads for for home and local. I'm just curious. Have have you guys seen heard anything in the in the marketplace about that? Do you have a view on it?

And then, of course, there were several other reports about the Department of Justice digging in on Google a little bit more. Jeremy, you've obviously had some views to share on that in the past. Would you would you care to update those now?

Speaker 2

Sure. I can try and take a stab at at these questions here. So first, on the home and local side, you mentioned, you know, Google product. I think they they are testing some sort of leads product as I understand, and maybe that's what you're referring to, and it's it's moving to an auction model like the rest of their system. I actually think, you know, my understanding is most of their system is, you know, the CPC system and whatnot is already auction based, but can't really answer specifics.

You know? I I don't know their product pipeline. But from our perspective, you know, home and local has been, you know, kind of a key area of investment. For us, we've been driving, you know, higher percentage of monetized leads. We've been trying, you know, for the last few years really up, the value we deliver to advertisers.

I think that's shown up, in, you know, our business metrics and and our retention. And innovation continues. So, you know, with the launch of nearby jobs, we've got a new product offering out there for those that maybe don't want to buy CPC ads for one reason or another, but, you know, want to get in there and see the value that Yelp can provide and start responding to customers. And so, you know, we're not sitting on our hands, watching the market, change around us. We're trying to lead the change as well.

On the, you know, on the other question about, you know, DOJ antitrust, the the DOJ's antitrust case, You know, our view has always been we're happy to talk to regulators. You know, we've been on on this for about a decade or so, and and we we haven't been shy about expressing our views. We're, you know, we're absolutely encouraged, that there's bipartisan support for an antitrust investigation into Google. You know, DOJ kinda got started. We understand, you know, state AGs are also, working on something.

And so I I think that's you know, it's it's a healthy thing. You know, we're certainly supportive. We're we're happy to share our views with anyone who comes and asks about it, and so we'll continue to

Speaker 3

do that. But that said, you know, it's a long process.

Speaker 2

As I as mentioned, we've been been at it for for a decade or so, and so this isn't something that's gonna be resolved in the next year or two. It probably, takes a a long time. And so we're really focused on the opportunities that we have right in here and now. You know, things like 20% of our leads being monetized. Like, let's get that number up and drive revenue here and now instead.

Speaker 0

Our next question today will come from Sergio Segura from KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you. On nearby jobs, it sounds like you guys are off to a strong start. Do you see more opportunity selling to existing advertisers or onboarding new ones? You know, given the success of the product and request quote, where do you see further opportunities for product innovation?

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah. So as you noted, you know, nearby jobs is off, to a a solid start. We're excited to see that. It's something, you know, we've been working on for good little while now. I don't think we're we fully know exactly how it fits into the the wider picture.

I think we're kind of in the early days, so it's a fixed price product right now. We are seeing some some resonance, with new businesses prime I think primarily because of, you know, these new businesses not having essentially a fully built out reputation with Yelp because, of course, Yelp is about reviewing and and so forth. It's a great way to introduce themselves to, potential customers and try to differentiate on other dimensions that customers care about. Like, are you responsive? Are you, you know, are you getting back to me?

Is your price super competitive, etcetera? But that said, this product, in my mind, there's no reason why it shouldn't work for existing customers as well. So I think it's on us to continue to experiment with those pricing models, merchandising, the leads that that are are put into that flow. There's a lot of different dimensions for us to optimize in the coming years. We're we're excited about the overall opportunity there.

Hey, Jay. Sure.

Speaker 0

Showing no further questions, ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will conclude our question and answer session. And this also will conclude Yelp's third quarter twenty twenty earnings conference call. We thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect your lines.