Latest news with #userengagement
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Duolingo Set For Q2 Bookings Beat, Guidance Likely Conservative
Duolingo shares have tumbled 24% in the past month amid concerns over slowing growth and rising churn, despite strong global brand momentum. The company will announce its results for the second quarter ending June 30, following the close of the U.S. market on Wednesday, August 6. Against this backdrop of heightened investor caution and mixed sentiment around engagement trends, JP Morgan analyst Bryan M. Smilek reiterated the Overweight rating on Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL), lowering the price forecast from $580 to $ analyst cautions that some investors suspect that negative chatter on social media about Duolingo's AI-first strategy could be dampening engagement. While that may have briefly impacted virality in the U.S., Smilek emphasizes that Duolingo's brand remains strong, with about 90% of user growth historically being organic. Smilek notes that Duolingo shares have fallen 30% since their May 14 peak, underperforming the S&P 500's 6% gain. This drop is largely tied to concerns stemming from third-party data pointing to a sharper-than-expected slowdown in user and subscription bookings growth, along with rising churn in Duolingo Max. U.S.-based concerns likely have limited global impact, and the company's social media metrics are steady, with TikTok followers even beginning to rise again. Given these trends, investors are likely hoping for second quarter DAU growth between 40% to 42%, near the low end of management's 40 to 45% guidance, and third quarter growth of 37% to 39%, indicating stabilization. Smilek has trimmed DAU forecasts by roughly 1-4% across the second quarter to fourth quarter, now projecting 42% growth in the second quarter, 39% in the third quarter, and 40% in the fourth quarter. Still, the analyst's bullish view remains intact, citing Duolingo's leadership in a largely untapped global market, its 130 million monthly active users represent just 18% of the online language learning market and only 7% of all language learners. Over the medium term, Smilek expects growth to be driven by new products, increased gross additions, returning users, marketing, and better content and outcomes. Smilek projects Duolingo's adjusted EBITDA margins to improve significantly in the second half of the year, driven by AI-related cost savings. For 2025, he models year-over-year operating leverage across all non-GAAP expense categories. The analyst projects bookings growth of 31% year-over-year on a constant currency basis (versus the company's 29.8%–30.9% guidance), with adjusted EBITDA margins reaching 28.3%, up 266 basis points year-over-year and near the top end of the 27.5%–28.5% guidance range. The forecast reflects a combination of factors, including monetization from Duolingo Max, higher pricing and conversions for Super, increasing Family Plan adoption (currently under 25% of subs), and favorable currency effects. Based on these trends, Smilek anticipates Duolingo's second-quarter results will land at the high end of the company's guidance. He also expects Duolingo to raise its full-year outlook for both bookings and adjusted EBITDA, noting that the guidance could prove conservative. Price Action: DUOL shares are trading lower by 0.41% to $359.87 at last check Thursday. Read Next:Photo by DANIEL CONSTANTE via Shutterstock Latest Ratings for DUOL Date Firm Action From To Mar 2022 Evercore ISI Group Maintains Outperform Mar 2022 Piper Sandler Maintains Overweight Jan 2022 Piper Sandler Maintains Overweight View More Analyst Ratings for DUOL View the Latest Analyst Ratings UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Duolingo Set For Q2 Bookings Beat, Guidance Likely Conservative originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Nextdoor Relaunches Network With a Focus on News, Alerts and AI
Nextdoor Holdings Inc., the neighborhood-focused social network, unveiled a slew of new features as part of a sweeping redesign that aims to highlight more urgent content and boost user engagement. The changes include an alert system for critical events, including power outages and severe weather, Nextdoor said on Tuesday. And there's a local news offering that will prominently feature reports from 3,500 partner publications around the US, UK and Canada, displayed in a carousel at the top of users' feeds.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Spotify's Reliance on AI-Powered Offerings Drive Growth?
Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT has consistently focused on integrating AI to personalize its offerings. This approach has helped the company's steady growth in user engagement reinforce its leadership in the audio streaming market. The AI DJ feature, launched in 2023, continues to resonate with users, with reports indicating high engagement. In the first quarter of 2023, SPOT had 515 million monthly active users (MAU), which increased 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company then reported 615 million MAU, marking an increase of 2.1% from the previous quarter. This figure grew nearly 10% by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. In the most recent March quarter, Spotify reported 678 million MAU, adding 3 million from the previous quarter and rising 10.2% from the same quarter last year. SPOT's AI DJ partially contributed to MAU growth, as other AI-powered features enhanced the user experience. Spotify Wrapped, an AI-driven personalized summary of listening habits, remains a strong tool for retention and engagement. In the recent earnings call, management explained that the slowdown in the first quarter was due to the strong performance of Spotify Wrapped in the previous quarter. This feature is likely to boost user engagement again in the second half of the year as well. Spotify's AI Playlist feature is gaining traction, which allows premium users to create playlists from prompts, and it has expanded to more than 40 new markets in April 2025. This feature improves the value proposition of a paid subscription, contributing toward average year-over-year revenue per user growth of 4% in the first quarter of 2025. The company has also utilized AI in optimizing its ad targeting for a significant proportion of its ad-supported user base, enhancing its user engagement. In doing so, SPOT registered 8% year-over-year growth in ad-supported revenues and witnessed an 885-basis-point increase in its ad-supported gross margin. The company has enhanced its focus on AI-based offerings up a notch by accepting audiobooks from ElevenLabs, an AI software company that offers high-quality voice narration technology. Authors can now use the ElevenLabs platform to narrate their audiobooks in 29 languages and distribute the content to Spotify, expanding their reach. That said, the global audiobooks market is anticipated to grow, seeing a CAGR of 26.2% from 2025 to 2030. Partnering with ElevenLabs is a strategic move for Spotify, allowing it to extend its global reach, strengthen its competitive moat and monetize its enormous global audience. The SPOT stock has skyrocketed 128.8% in the past year, significantly outperforming Amazon AMZN and Apple AAPL, and the industry as a whole. The industry has rallied 32%. Amazon has gained 11.7%, while Apple has declined 5.2%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, SPOT trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 64.34X, higher than Amazon's 33.26X, Apple's 28.33X and the industry's 39.73X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Spotify has a Value Score of F, while Amazon and Apple have a Value Score of D, respectively. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Spotify's earnings for 2025 is pegged at $9.22 per share, implying 55% year-over-year growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research SPOT currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Spotify Technology (SPOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Globe and Mail
04-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Can Spotify's Reliance on AI-Powered Offerings Drive Growth?
Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT has consistently focused on integrating AI to personalize its offerings. This approach has helped the company's steady growth in user engagement reinforce its leadership in the audio streaming market. The AI DJ feature, launched in 2023, continues to resonate with users, with reports indicating high engagement. In the first quarter of 2023, SPOT had 515 million monthly active users (MAU), which increased 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company then reported 615 million MAU, marking an increase of 2.1% from the previous quarter. This figure grew nearly 10% by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. In the most recent March quarter, Spotify reported 678 million MAU, adding 3 million from the previous quarter and rising 10.2% from the same quarter last year. SPOT's AI DJ partially contributed to MAU growth, as other AI-powered features enhanced the user experience. Spotify Wrapped, an AI-driven personalized summary of listening habits, remains a strong tool for retention and engagement. In the recent earnings call, management explained that the slowdown in the first quarter was due to the strong performance of Spotify Wrapped in the previous quarter. This feature is likely to boost user engagement again in the second half of the year as well. Spotify's AI Playlist feature is gaining traction, which allows premium users to create playlists from prompts, and it has expanded to more than 40 new markets in April 2025. This feature improves the value proposition of a paid subscription, contributing toward average year-over-year revenue per user growth of 4% in the first quarter of 2025. The company has also utilized AI in optimizing its ad targeting for a significant proportion of its ad-supported user base, enhancing its user engagement. In doing so, SPOT registered 8% year-over-year growth in ad-supported revenues and witnessed an 885-basis-point increase in its ad-supported gross margin. The company has enhanced its focus on AI-based offerings up a notch by accepting audiobooks from ElevenLabs, an AI software company that offers high-quality voice narration technology. Authors can now use the ElevenLabs platform to narrate their audiobooks in 29 languages and distribute the content to Spotify, expanding their reach. That said, the global audiobooks market is anticipated to grow, seeing a CAGR of 26.2% from 2025 to 2030. Partnering with ElevenLabs is a strategic move for Spotify, allowing it to extend its global reach, strengthen its competitive moat and monetize its enormous global audience. Spotify's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates The SPOT stock has skyrocketed 128.8% in the past year, significantly outperforming Amazon AMZN and Apple AAPL, and the industry as a whole. The industry has rallied 32%. Amazon has gained 11.7%, while Apple has declined 5.2%. 1-Year Price Performance From a valuation standpoint, SPOT trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 64.34X, higher than Amazon's 33.26X, Apple's 28.33X and the industry's 39.73X. P/E - F12M Spotify has a Value Score of F, while Amazon and Apple have a Value Score of D, respectively. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Spotify's earnings for 2025 is pegged at $9.22 per share, implying 55% year-over-year growth. SPOT currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops." Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.5% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention. See them now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report Apple Inc. (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report Spotify Technology (SPOT): Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (
Zawya
03-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Gamezop to set up regional headquarters in Bahrain
Gamezop, one of the world's leading gamification platforms, has announced plans to set up its regional headquarters in Bahrain as part of its broader plans to expand into the rapidly growing Middle Eastern digital landscape. Gamezop's move comes following the successful establishment of its wholly-owned subsidiary in Bahrain, which was supported by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB). The India-headquartered company plans to invest $4 million to accelerate operations, hire local talent, and explore acquisitions to support its growth plans. Backed by Bitkraft Ventures – one of the world's largest video gaming venture capital firms – Gamezop is integrated into over 9,000 platforms across 70+ countries, through which it engages over 45 million users every month. With its Mena headquarters, Gamezop is poised to strengthen its regional footprint, forge new partnerships, and contribute to Bahrain's vision of becoming a leading digital innovation hub in the Middle East. Gamezop enables apps and websites to integrate games that boost user engagement and drive revenue. Ads shown inside the games generate earnings that are shared between Gamezop and the host platforms. Founded in 2016 by Yashash and Gaurav Agarwal, Gamezop is leveraging Bahrain as a gateway to expand into the rapidly growing Middle Eastern digital landscape. The company's expansion comes in line with its global growth strategy, with additional markets in the pipeline. Gamezop aims to onboard over 1,000 new app and website partners from its Bahrain hub, as well as double its group revenue over the next 18 months. Welcoming Musab Abdulla, Executive Director of ICT at the Bahrain EDB, said: "Bahrain's gaming and content creation ecosystem is building strong momentum, powered by robust digital infrastructure, supportive government initiatives and a growing pool of ambitious, creative talent." "The arrival of innovative companies like Gamezop further accelerates this growth, creating new opportunities for local developers and reinforcing Bahrain's position as a hub for creative industries in the region," he stated. Unveiling the big regional plan, Agarwal said: "We chose Bahrain for its strategic location, business-friendly environment, and access to the wider region. We anticipate Bahrain will continue to attract leading global companies to establish their regional hubs here, thanks to its forward-looking policies and the proactive support of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, which has been instrumental in supporting our expansion,' "Our presence here marks the beginning of what we hope will become a strong digital bridge between India and the Middle East," he added. According to him, Bahrain offers Gamezop an ideal springboard into the Middle East – a region undergoing rapid digital transformation, characterised by high smartphone penetration, a young tech-savvy population, and surging demand for interactive content. With thousands of consumer-facing apps and websites actively seeking new ways to boost engagement and monetisation, Mena is a fertile market for Gamezop's offerings, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Copyright 2024 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
