London-based global podcast company Audioboom released a raft of Q4 metrics, as a 2023 trading update. Not a formal earnings report, the release offers financial statistics, commercial developments, and comments from CEO Stuart Last. (the company released a summary of full-year 2023 a couple of weeks ago; RAIN coverage HERE.)
“I am buoyed by a more positive sentiment in the advertising industry, with brands making strong budget commitments during the upfronts booking season.” — Stuart Last, CEO, Audioboom
Average Q4 downloads totalled 110.1-million, nearly identical to the year-before number ($110.9M). The tiny dip is accounted for by Apple iOS17 update in September which removes some types of auto-downloading from Apple’s count. Audioboom notes an industry-wide estimate of 10% reduction in download metrics … by way of saying that Audiobom’s level performance can be viewed as a gain.
Total 2023 revenue is accounted in this release — it is $65-million, down from 2022’s Q4 revenue of $74.9-million. The company suffered an EBITDA loss of $1.5-million for full-year 2023.
Audioboom gained advertisers in Q4 over Q3 with a total of 8,406 brand advertisers.
As a peek forward, Audioboom announces $47-million in contracted revenue for 202, and “anticipates record revenue in 2024.
Commercial and product developments are itemized in this report, which is freely available HERE.
CEO Stuart Last commented: “The focus on expanding and diversifying our customer base through the launch of our brand sales unit has resulted in new commercial partnerships with leading advertising agencies. Our drive to optimise advertising inventory on the platform has led to a sharp increase in the number of ad slots we create per episode, with a subsequent one billion ad impressions being made available for sale to our customers in October.”
