Q1 2024 Rumble Inc Earnings Call

May 14, 2024

Operator: Greetings and welcome to the Rumble Inc. first quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

Greetings and welcome to the rumbling first quarter.

Speaker Change: 'twenty 'twenty four earnings conference call at this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance. During the conference. Please press star zero on your telephone keypad as a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

Operator: As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Shannon Devine, Investor Relations. Thank you. Thank you, Operator.

It's now my pleasure to introduce your host Shannon Devine Investor Relations. Thank you you may begin.

Shannon Devine: I'm here today with Chris Pavlovski, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Rumble, Brandon Alexandroff, the CFO, and Tyler Hughes, the COO. A press release detailing our first quarter 2024 results was released today and is available on the Investor Relations section of our company website. Before we begin the formal presentation, I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include predictions, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this webcast and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our earnings release and the factors included in our filings with the SEC.

Thank you operator, I'm here today, with Chris Pawlowski, founder Chairman and CEO of Rumble, Brendan Alexandra the CFO and Tyler he is the CFO.

Speaker Change: A press release detailing our first quarter 2024 results was released today and available on the Investor Relations section of our company website before we begin the formal presentation I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include predictions estimates or other information that might be considered forward looking all forward looking statements.

Speaker Change: Are made only as of the date of this webcast and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our earnings release and the factors included in our filings with the FCC.

Shannon Devine: Future company updates will be available via press release and company updates via the company's identified social media channels. I will now turn the call over to Rumble's founder, chairman, and CEO, Chris Pavlovski. Thank you, Shannon.

Speaker Change: Future company updates will be available via press release and company updates via the company's identified social media channels I will now turn the call over to Rumble, founder Chairman and CEO, Chris Pawlowski.

Christopher Pavlovski: Though it hasn't been long since our last update, I would like to reiterate the major achievements of our first quarter, led by the public launch of RumbleCloud and RumbleStudio. While both products are still in their very early innings, we are highly encouraged by their market reception. For RumbleCloud, we launched our initial cloud computing offering and successfully secured two key strategic partnerships, ACP Creative IT and Kinshift, to help augment and deliver our initial suite of products for the mid-market and enterprise segments.

Christopher Pavlovski: Thank you Shannon.

Christopher Pavlovski: It hasnt been long since our last update I would like to reiterate the major achievements of our first quarter led by the public launch of Rumble cloud and Rumble studio, while both products are still in their very early innings. We are highly encouraged by their market reception for.

Christopher Pavlovski: Rumble cloud, we launched our initial cloud computing offering and successfully secured two key strategic partnerships.

Christopher Pavlovski: <unk> creative.

Christopher Pavlovski: And can shift to help augment and deliver our initial suite of products for the Midmarket and enterprise segments, while we recognize that sales cycles can extend to several months due to the mission critical nature of cloud services, we have seen great receptivity to all our to our value proposition, which addresses some of the major pain.

Christopher Pavlovski: While we recognize that sales cycles can extend to several months due to the mission-critical nature of cloud services, we have seen great receptivity to our value proposition, which addresses some of the major pain points in the cloud market, including security and unpredictable costs. As a result, we have been able to successfully generate and advance many sales conversations with mid-market and enterprise customers.

Christopher Pavlovski: <unk> in the cloud market, including security and unpredictable cost.

Christopher Pavlovski: As a result, we have been able to successfully generate and advanced many sales conversations with mid market and enterprise customers as we advanced sales cycles, we will continue to augment our offering based on the feedback we receive from customers, which will extend our addressable market and accelerate our ability to capture a larger share for Rumble cloud.

Christopher Pavlovski: As we advance sales cycles, we will continue to improve our offering based on the feedback we receive from customers, which will extend our addressable market and accelerate our ability to capture a larger share. For RumbleCloud, we expect to see meaningful results during the back half of 2024. Now turning to RumbleStudio, which has seen tremendous early results with over 2,000 creators adopting the product. These creators include Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Glenn Greenwald, Dave Rubin, and Donald Trump Jr., just to name a few.

Christopher Pavlovski: We expect to see meaningful results during the back half of 2024.

Christopher Pavlovski: Now turning to Rumble studio, which has seen tremendous early results with over 2000 creators adopting the product. These creators include Tucker Carlson Megyn, Kelly, Glenn Greenwald, Steve Rubin and Donald Trump Junior just to name a few the studio is the new cockpit for our creators where they can simplify their live streaming.

Christopher Pavlovski: The studio is the new cockpit for our creators where they can simplify their live streaming experience by easily streaming video to multiple platforms, inviting guests, and engaging with their audience. Most importantly, Rumble Studio will be a new scalable vehicle for creators to monetize their live content through our patent-pending technology to facilitate host-read advertising through the platform. While we continue to test the underlining technology and optimize the experience for both the creator and the advertiser, we expect RumbleStudio to be a key enabler for us to automate and scale our host Red advertising revenue stream.

Christopher Pavlovski: <unk> bye easily streaming video to multiple platforms, inviting guests and engaging with their audiences. Most importantly, rumble studio will be a new scalable vehicle for creators to monetize their live content through our patent pending technology to facilitate host red advertising through the platform while.

Christopher Pavlovski: We continue to test the underlying technology and optimize the experience for both the creator and Advertiser, we expect Rumble studio to be a key enabler for us to automate and scale our host red advertising revenue stream.

Christopher Pavlovski: One of the best ways we plan to drive host-read ads at volume is through Rumble-branded product lines. In Q1, we entered into a partnership to launch Rumble-branded 1775 coffee and have seen very promising results. March coffee sales by our partner were up 43% over February, and April sales were up 68% over March.

Christopher Pavlovski: One of the best ways, we plan to drive host Red AD volume is through Rumble branded product lines in Q1, we entered into a partnership.

Speaker Change: Partnership to launch Rumble branded $17 75, coffee and Ive seen very promising results March coffee sales by our partner were up 43% over February and April sales were up 68% over March the strategy and entering partnerships to create products that fill excess advertising inventory has worked.

Christopher Pavlovski: The strategy of entering partnerships to create products that fill excess advertising inventory is working so well that we have decided to launch multiple new products in the coming months. We believe the Rumble Studio technology can drive meaningful scale to this revenue line in the coming years with nearly zero investment. Both the studio and cloud round out the foundation of our portfolio, consisting of our flagship Rumble video platform, our new live streaming service, Rumble Studio, our advertising platform, Rumble Advertising Center, and, of course, our new infrastructure as a service offering, Rumble Cloud. During the first quarter, Rumble Advertising Center, or RAC, began deploying pre-roll video ads across our mobile apps.

Speaker Change: So well that we have decided to launch multiple new products in the coming months, we believe the Rumble studio technology can drive meaningful scale to this revenue line in the coming years with nearly zero investment.

Speaker Change: Both the studio and cloud round out the foundation of our portfolio consisting of our flagship Rumble video platform, our new live streaming service Rumble studio, our advertising platform Rumble advertising center and of course, our new infrastructure as a service offering Rumble cloud during the first quarter.

Christopher Pavlovski: We also continued expanding our ad inventory by onboarding publishers to the RAC network, which is a massive long-term opportunity for us, as it was for Google with AdSense. We have seen great progress in growing the publisher network on RAC with the recent onboarding of Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, and Drudge Report, just to name a few. Outside of inventory expansion, we continue to build our sales and marketing teams as we drive demand to the platform, where we are seeing great results through direct response, particularly in financial services, health products, and e-commerce.

Speaker Change: <unk> advertising center or rack began deploying pre rolled video ads across our mobile apps. We also continued expanding expanding our AD inventory by Onboarding publishers to the rack network, which is a massive long term opportunity for us as it was for Google with AD sense, we've seen great progress in growing the publisher.

Speaker Change: Network on rack with recent on the recent Onboarding of Breitbart the gateway abundant Drudge report just to name a few.

Speaker Change: Outside of inventory expansion, we continue to build our sales and marketing teams as we drive demand to the platform, where we are seeing great results through direct response, particularly in the financial services health products and E Commerce.

Christopher Pavlovski: We are also making meaningful progress with brand advertisers. The first quarter reflected a transitionary period during which we completed the final leg of our core building phase, brought our monetization tools online, and began to ramp up our focus on revenue as the quarter progressed. With this enhanced focus on revenue, we are on track to deliver sequential revenue increases starting in the second quarter. Given this transition and focus towards monetization, we plan on introducing Average Revenue Per User, or ARPU, as a key business metric later this year.

Speaker Change: We're also making meaningful progress with brand advertisers.

Speaker Change: The first quarter reflected a transition hurry period during which we completed the final leg of our core building phase brought our monetization tools online and began to ramp our focus on revenue as the quarter progressed with this enhanced focus on revenue. We are on track to deliver sequential revenue increase starting in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: Given this transition and focus towards monetization, we plan on introducing average revenue per user or <unk> as a key business metric later this year compared to our existing metrics of estimated minutes watched per month and hours of uploaded video per day. This new key business metric will better reflect our managements evolving.

Christopher Pavlovski: Compared to our existing metrics of estimated minutes watched per month and hours of uploaded video per day, this new key business metric will better reflect our management's evolving assessment of the business and our priority to monetize our core user base. Our average MAUs for the first quarter were 50 million, representing our ninth consecutive quarter of over 40 million MAUs, further solidifying our core audience as we head into an exciting back half of the year with the U.S. election cycle.

Speaker Change: Assessment of the business and our priority to monetize our core user base. Our average I may use for the first quarter were $50 million, representing our ninth consecutive quarter of over 40 million Meus further solidifying our core audience as we head into an exciting back half of the year with the U S election cycle.

Christopher Pavlovski: While we have historically had to spend money to incentivize certain prominent creators to join our platform to diversify our content and build out our user base, we believe this will become less and less necessary. This is because the new monetization assets built within our platform are designed to incentivize creators, driving organic growth through new content, and will ultimately continue to add to our core user base. As a result, expenses from commitments to creators have started to reduce as agreements come to a close.

Speaker Change: While we have historically had to spend money to incentivize certain prominent creators to join our platform to diversify our content and build out our user base. We believe this will become less and less necessary. This is because the new monetization assets built within our platform are designed to incentivize creators driving organic.

Speaker Change: Growth through new content and will ultimately continue to add to our core user base. As a result expenses from commitments to creators have started to reduce as agreements come to a close we expect we expect this trend to continue as we progress throughout the year in and enter into early 2025.

Speaker Change: As I close I want to reiterate that we are now officially through our building phase as a company and have turned our focus to executing and delivering topline growth while growing sequentially quarter after quarter.

Speaker Change: We took our time built the right products and are now on track to deliver <unk>.

Speaker Change: Finally, I'd like to mention that we recently filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google based on Google's monopolization of the online advertising market with damages estimated in excess of $1 billion.

Christopher Pavlovski: This lawsuit is separate from our existing self-preferencing lawsuit against Google, where we have seen early success in our nearing-the-end-of-fact discovery. In addition to the billions in potential damages from both lawsuits, we are also seeking injunctive relief.

Speaker Change: This lawsuit is separate from our existing self preferencing lawsuit against Google, where we have seen early success and are nearing the end of the fact discovery.

Speaker Change: In addition to the billions in potential damages from both lawsuits were also seeking injunctive relief. If we are successful in these lawsuits rumble and other platforms can finally have 11th level playing field in search traffic mobile apps and online advertising, which we which we expect would lead to a.

Christopher Pavlovski: If we are successful in these lawsuits, Rumble and other platforms can finally have a level playing field in search traffic, mobile apps, and online advertising, which we expect would lead to a material increase in our MAUs and advertising revenue. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Brandon Alexandroff. Thanks, Chris.

Speaker Change: Material increase to our <unk> and advertising revenue.

Speaker Change: With that I will turn the call over to our CFO Brendan Alexandra.

Brandon Alexandroff: I'll now take you through our first quarter financials at a very high level before turning the call over to the operator for Q&A. For the first quarter of 2024, we reported revenues of $17.7 million compared to $17.6 million for Q1 2023. Other services and cloud revenues increased by $3.2 million, offset by a decrease in advertising revenues of $3.1 million. The increase in revenue from other services in the cloud is driven mainly by subscriptions, tipping features, and cloud services offered. The decrease in advertising revenue is mostly related to sponsorship revenue.

Christopher Pavlovski: Thanks, Chris.

Brandon Alexandroff: Now I'll take you through our first quarter financials at a very high level before turning the call over to the operator for Q&A.

Brandon Alexandroff: For the first quarter of 2024, we reported revenues of $17 7 million compared to $17 6 million for Q1 2023.

Brandon Alexandroff: Other services and cloud revenues increased by $3 2 million offset by a decrease in advertising revenues of $3 1 million. The increase in revenue from other services in cloud is driven mainly by subscriptions Chipping features in cloud services offered.

Speaker Change: The decrease in advertising revenue is mostly related to sponsorship revenue as.

Brandon Alexandroff: As we've mentioned, the manual processes inherent in our sponsorship revenue generation result in a smaller number of participants, which in turn creates volatility. With an increased focus on revenue, we intend to disaggregate our revenue into additional categories later in the year while introducing a new key business metric, Average Revenue Per User, or ARPU, for certain revenue categories. We believe that ARPU will better reflect the focus of our management team, and accordingly, over time, we intend to phase out the reporting of estimated minutes watched per month and hours of uploaded video per day.

Speaker Change: As we've mentioned the manual processes inherent in our sponsorship revenue generation, resulting in a smaller number of participants which in turn creates volatility.

Speaker Change: With an increased focus on revenue, we intend to disaggregate our revenue into additional categories later in the year, while introducing a new key business metric average revenue per user or <unk> for certain revenue categories. We believe that <unk> will better reflect the focus of our management team and accordingly over time, we intend to phase out the <unk>.

Speaker Change: Reporting of estimated minutes watched for months and hours of uploaded video per day.

Brandon Alexandroff: We also continue to expect a sequential increase in second quarter revenues as compared to the first quarter and expect this trend to continue throughout 2024. Cost of services increased to $31.8 million for the quarter, compared to $26 million in the first quarter of 2023 due to an increase in programming and content costs of $5.3 million, hosting expenses of $0.1 million, and other service costs of $0.4 million. Moving to our cash position, we ended the first quarter of 2024 with $183.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, compared to $219.5 million as of December 31, 2023.

Speaker Change: We also continue to expect a sequential increase in second quarter revenues as compared to the first quarter and expect this trend to continue throughout 2024.

Speaker Change: Cost of services increased to $31 8 million for the quarter compared to $26 million in the first quarter of 2023 due to an increase in programming and content costs of $5 3 million hosting expenses of $0 1 million and other service cost of zero point $4 million.

Speaker Change: Moving to our cash position.

Speaker Change: We ended the first quarter of 2024 with $183 8 million in cash cash equivalents and marketable securities compared to $219 5 million as of December 31, 2023.

Brandon Alexandroff: And as of March 31, 2024, our programming and content agreements had a minimum contractual cash commitment of $76 million, down from $106 million at December 31, 2023. Before I conclude, I want to reiterate that with our revenue engines coming online and our guaranteed creator commitments now significantly decreasing during 2024 and into 2025, we continue to move materially towards breakeven in 2025. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator to open up the line for questions. Thank you.

Speaker Change: And as of March 31, 2020 for our programming and content agreements had a minimum contractual cash commitment of $76 million down from $106 million at December 31, 2023, we maintain sufficient cash to meet our ongoing capital needs.

Speaker Change: Before I conclude I want to reiterate that with our revenue engines coming online and our guaranteed creator commitments now significantly decreasing during 2024 and into 2025, we continue to move materially towards breakeven in 2025 that.

Speaker Change: That concludes my prepared remarks, I will now turn the call over to the operator to open up the line for questions.

Operator: We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. The confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue... You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Speaker Change: Thank you we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question. Please press star one on your telephone keypad, a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You May Press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Operator: For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the start button. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Jason Helfstein. Please proceed with your question. Thank you, everybody.

Speaker Change: For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing starkey.

Speaker Change: One moment, please while we poll for questions.

Speaker Change: Our first question comes from Jason <unk> with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.

Jason Stuart Helfstein: So we'll just break this down to like just a bunch of topics and kind of go into each. So let's start with engagement, kind of relative to fourth quarter U.S. Stahl, maybe just talk about the swing factors there, and then, you know, obviously appreciate the comments about the sequential improvement in revenue. Let's get a little started. Hey Jason, this is Chris.

Speaker Change: Everybody.

Jason Stuart Helfstein: Just break it down so maybe just a bunch of kind of topics and kind of going here. So.

Speaker Change: Let's start with engagement.

Speaker Change: So kind of relative to fourth quarter U S.

Speaker Change: It was down a good amount.

Speaker Change: Probably a little more than we would have thought maybe you could talk about the swing factors there and then.

Speaker Change: Obviously appreciate the comments about the sequential improvement in revenue, maybe if you can kind of say anything about like engagement, so far in second quarter relative to the first quarter.

Speaker Change: I will start there and then we'll get to some of the other questions.

Christopher Pavlovski: With respect to the fourth quarter of last year in Q1, we saw a major influx of MAUs coming from the sports content, in particular, sports content like Street League skateboarding was one that did really, really well and overperformed. So we saw a lot of our sports content really push the needle on MAUs a lot further than we anticipated in Q4, and obviously, that didn't really exist in Q1. So that's one of the contributing factors.

Speaker Change: Hey, Jason this is Chris.

Speaker Change: With respect to the.

Speaker Change: The fourth quarter of last year in Q1.

Speaker Change: We saw a major.

Speaker Change: Influx of <unk> coming from the sports sports content in particular like Street League skateboarding was one that did really really well and over perform so we saw a lot of support a lot of our sports content really push the needle and may use a lot further than we anticipated in Q4, and obviously that.

Christopher Pavlovski: The other factors are obviously geopolitical events that happened in Q4, and around the world had an outsized impact on MAUs as well, so that kind of settled in Q1. With respect to Q2, we're not providing any guidance right now on Q2 outside of what we've already provided. [inaudible] It's still too early at this point. We did see a little pickup in January with the primary, but then that fizzled really fast. So we haven't seen that come back yet, but I would anticipate that to really pick up in the back half of 2024 and probably around convention time.

Speaker Change: That didn't really exist in Q1, so that's one of the contributing factors. The other factors are obviously geopolitical events that happened in Q4 around.

Speaker Change: Around the world.

Speaker Change: Outsized impacts on amaze as well so that kind of settled in Q1 with respect to Q2, we're not providing any guidance right now on Q2 outside of what we've already provided.

Speaker Change: And then just on political are you starting to see any pickup in political engagement.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: It's still too early at this point, we did see like a little pickup in January with the primary but then that fizzled really fast. So we haven't seen that come back yet, but I would anticipate that that really pick up in the back half of 2024 and probably around the convention time.

Speaker Change: Got it and then.

Speaker Change: So with respect to Iraq or any ads sold through rack in the first quarter or that really won't start that really didn't start until the second quarter.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yes, so we started introducing pre-rolls in our apps through Rack. We've had a lot of advertisers sign up for Rack, and we've started moving a lot of our inventory through Rack. So yes, Rack is selling. Advertisers are now buying via Rack, and we're now executing inventory through Rack as well on both Rumble and even other publisher sites as well. So we're seeing Rack really, we saw a lot of momentum for Rack in Q1, and Matt Kohls. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Speaker Change: Yes, so we started introducing pre rolls and our apps through Iraq.

Speaker Change: We've had a lot of advertisers sign ups, Iraq, and we've started moving a lot of our inventory through rack. So yes, <unk> is selling advertisers are now buying via Iraq and.

Speaker Change: We're now executing inventory through through rack as well on both the Rumble and even other publisher sites as well so we're seeing rack.

Speaker Change: Really we saw a lot of momentum for rack and in Q1.

Speaker Change: Okay, and so what I mean.

Speaker Change: Again like.

Speaker Change: You think about the different ways to sell I mean will you be do you expect by the.

Speaker Change: I don't know that ended the year will you be that 100% through rapidly we still be selling through other methods as well.

Christopher Pavlovski: By the end of the year, we think, I hope to be 100% selling through or, you know, 90, 90, 95% plus selling through RAC. You know, within the next quarter or two, for sure, we want to move all of our host red advertising through RAC. And when it comes to programmatic, we've moved a lot of it already through RAC. And just to kind of give a little bit of insight on RAC, we saw growth sequentially, both in January, February, and March, as well. And what was the offsetting factor, because obviously, U.S. U.N. revenue is down sequentially.

Speaker Change: By the end of the year, we think.

Speaker Change: Hope to be 100% selling through or 1990, 95% plus selling through rack.

Speaker Change: Within the next quarter or two for sure we want to move all of our host red advertising through rack.

Speaker Change: And when it comes to programmatic, we moved a lot of it already through rack and just to kind of give.

Speaker Change: A little bit of insight on rack, we saw we saw growth sequentially. Both in January February and March as well.

Speaker Change: And what was the offsetting factor.

Speaker Change: You can revenue was down sequentially.

Speaker Change: What was the Iraq was up what was down.

Christopher Pavlovski: Well, we just introduced pre-rolls starting in, I think it was, depending on the device, it was throughout the different, throughout the quarter. So as we started introducing them, we started to see growth in RAC. Obviously, it's coming off a smaller baseline, but we're seeing growth there, and then other services and cloud. Are there any offsetting factors in that line if we think about the first quarter versus the fourth quarter?

Speaker Change: Well, we just introduced.

Speaker Change: We introduced the <unk> rules starting in I think it was depending on the device. It was throughout the different throughout the quarters. So as we started introducing.

Speaker Change: We started <unk>, we started to see growth in rack, obviously, it's coming off a smaller base line, but we're seeing the growth there okay and then on other services and cloud revenue.

Speaker Change: That was basically flat sequentially, but you talked about.

Speaker Change: Some new deals and kind of momentum is there any offsetting factors.

Speaker Change: In that line, if we think about the first quarter versus the fourth quarter.

Speaker Change: And then just.

Speaker Change: I guess, how should we think about kind of growth in that line from here for the rest of the year.

Christopher Pavlovski: With respect to cloud, we launched it, I think, in the final weeks of the quarter, so we're not going to be able to provide any reasonable guidance on that because it was launched in the last couple weeks of the quarter. Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk, [inaudible] We're going to move materially towards break-even and 25. Are we talking about EBITDA, are we talking about net income? We're talking about free cash flow. What metrics are you talking about? Sounded like your thing at some point.

Speaker Change: With respect to cloud we launched it I think in the last final weeks of the quarter. So we're not going to be able to provide any.

Speaker Change: A reasonable guidance on that.

Speaker Change: Because it was launched in the last couple of weeks of the quarter.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: And then.

Speaker Change: Specifically the comment about.

Speaker Change: Hey, Brandon do you want to add to this comment.

Speaker Change: Move materially towards breakeven in 'twenty five.

Speaker Change: Some questions on <unk>.

Speaker Change: Be more specific what we're talking about EBITDA, we're talking about net income while we're talking about free cash flow, So which metric are you talking about and then.

Speaker Change: It sounds like Youre, saying at some point in 'twenty five.

Speaker Change: Given quarter in 'twenty, five and not for all of 'twenty five.

Speaker Change: Just maybe clarify those two points.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yeah, so we're not giving a specific definition of that at this stage, and we'll continue to refine exactly what that definition is. But, obviously, it's related to cash and the fact that our revenue engines are starting to kick in, and our creator commitment expenses are starting to close out, and that's where we start heading towards break-even. But we're not giving a specific definition of what that is, and we're also not giving guidance at this stage on which quarter in particular.

Speaker Change: Yes, so we're not we're not giving specific definition of that at this stage and we'll continue to refine exactly what that definition is.

Speaker Change: Sure.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: But obviously, it's related to cash and the fact that our revenue engines are starting to kick in and our.

Speaker Change: Creator commitment expenses are starting to close out and that's where we start heading towards.

Speaker Change: Breakeven, but we're not giving a specific definition of what that is and we're also not giving guidance at this stage on which quarter. In particular, however, we have discussed the fact that these greater commitments.

Christopher Pavlovski: However, we have discussed the fact that these creator commitments have about a 12 to 36-month timeframe on them, but they're mostly in the shorter range of that. So we should expect this to start happening in the mid-to-back half of next year, and maybe lastly on the content engagement. What are you most excited about?

Speaker Change: I have about a 12 to 36 month timeframe on them, but they are mostly in the shorter range and bad. So we should expect this to start happening.

Speaker Change: Mid to back half of next year.

Speaker Change: And then just maybe lastly on the kind of content engagement.

Speaker Change: Chris what are you most excited about in the second quarter.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yeah, so there's a few different things that we're looking at right now. Obviously, the election cycle kicking off at the GOP convention, we feel like, you know, we're going to be a big part of that going forward for the end of the year. But we're also starting to see a lot of traction on just like the smaller curators and the smaller live streams. And we're seeing some growth on that as well

Speaker Change: Yes. So there is a there's a few different things that we're we're looking at right now obviously the election cycle.

Speaker Change: Kicking off at the GOP Convention, we feel like we're going to be a big part of that going.

Speaker Change: Going forward for the end of the year.

Speaker Change: But we're also starting to see a lot of traction on just like the smaller our creators and the smaller <unk>.

Speaker Change: <unk> streams, and we're seeing we're seeing some growth on that as well and as we introduce the Rumble studio product and introduce ads, we feel like we're really going to be able to fuel a lot of engagement and traction in that community. So we have seen an uptick there and we're really looking forward to kind of pushing on both ends.

Speaker Change: As we get into the end of the year here.

Okay I'll leave it at that thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Tom Forte with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question. Great, thanks. So three questions for me. I'll go one at a time.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Tom Forte with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question.

Thomas Ferris Forte: Great. Thanks, three questions from me I will go one at a time, Greg Chris you talked a little about the sports content on our platform.

Thomas Ferris Forte: So that part of my question was answered, but can you explain or discuss the significance of the strategic partnership with Barstool sports.

Thomas Ferris Forte: Chris, you talked a little about the sports content on the platform, so that part of my question was answered, but can you explain or discuss the significance of the strategic partnership with Barstool Sports? Hey Tom, this is Chris.

Thomas Ferris Forte: Hey, Tom This is Chris.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yeah, so we signed a deal with Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports in Q1. That deal encompasses multiple different things. One is obviously bringing all their podcasts and all their shows to Rumble. Two is that they'll be promoting Rumble as their main live streaming platform and video platform for all their video content. So we'd be the home, and there's an exclusive promotion arrangement there.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yes, So we signed a deal with Dave Portnoy and Barstool sports in Q1.

Christopher Pavlovski: And three, we also have a cloud services arrangement with them, and four, an advertising partnership. What we're noticing with the Barstool partnership right now is that it has helped us a lot with opening doors with brands. A lot of brands are very interested in advertising around Barstool content.

Christopher Pavlovski: That deal encompasses multiple different things.

Tom: One is obviously, bringing in all of their podcasts and all their shows to Rumble too is that they will be promoting rumble as their main.

Tom: Live streaming platform and video platform for all of their video content. So we'd be the home and there is an exclusive promotion arrangement there.

Tom: And.

Tom: Three we also have a cloud services arrangement with them and for an advertising partnership what we're noticing with the Barstool partnership right. Now is that it has helped US a lot with opening doors with brands a lot of brands are very interested in advertising around the barstool.

Tom: Content. So it's been very beneficial on with respect to our sales team and opening up doors there.

Christopher Pavlovski: So it's been very beneficial with respect to our sales team and opening up doors there. And then for my second question, I wanted to talk about audience engagement. And then with the upcoming U.S. presidential election, what you can do, if anything, to sustain audience engagement following the election. Yes, so this is Chris again.

Speaker Change: Great and then for my second question.

Speaker Change: I wanted to talk about audience engagement, and then with the upcoming U S personnel presidential election, what you can do if anything to sustained engagement following the election.

Christopher Pavlovski: And this is where I think we missed an opportunity back in 2022. And here in 2024, we're going to capture that opportunity. So in 2022, our product was really lacking in many different ways. We lacked a lot of features that our competition, like YouTube, or Twitch, had, and most particularly YouTube. And, with respect to what we've done in the last year, we've really, really improved that product to create a mousetrap to really stick with users. So in 2022, during the midterms, we lost a lot of users directly after that election cycle. We saw a steep drop off right away.

Speaker Change: Yes. So this is Chris again.

Christopher Pavlovski: This is where I think like we missed an opportunity back in 2022 and here in 2024, we're going to capture that opportunity. So in 2022, our product was really lacking in many different ways. We we lacked a lot of features that our competition like Youtube pattern, which had.

Christopher Pavlovski: And most particularly the Youtube.

Christopher Pavlovski: And.

Speaker Change: With respect to what we've done in the last year is that we've really really improve that product to create a mouse trap to really stick to users. So in 2022 during the mid terms, we lost a lot of users directly after that that election cycle.

Speaker Change: We saw a steep drop off right away.

Christopher Pavlovski: In 2024, we're hoping to have that big, you know, increase in audience again in the back half of this year. But the major difference here is that we have a lot more content. It's a lot more diverse. The product is significantly better. In some cases, it's better than our competition.

Speaker Change: In 2024, we're hoping to have that big.

Speaker Change: The increase.

Speaker Change: The increase in audience again in the back half of this year, but the major difference here is that we have a lot more content. Its a lot more diversified the product is significantly better in some cases, it's better than our competition.

Christopher Pavlovski: And I think that we'll be a lot better at sticking a big cohort of those users after this election. So it really comes down to the product, in my eyes, and having a really, really good product. And I think that we've really executed on that in a major way through the Rumble platform and, obviously, the Rumble Studio, which is very unique to our competition. So if we can have the creators using that Studio product and seeing the benefits of that, I think it's going to be a lot easier to keep the users on Rumble come 2025. Great. And then last question for me, and thanks again for taking my questions.

Speaker Change: And I think that will be a lot better at sticking a big cohort of those users. After this election. So it really comes down a product in my eyes, and having a really really good product and I think that we've really executed on that in a major way through the Rumble platform and obviously, the Rumble studio, which is very unique to our.

Speaker Change: So if we can have the creators using that studio product.

Speaker Change: And seeing the benefits of that I think it's going to be a lot easier to stick the users on rumble come in 2025.

Speaker Change: Great and then last question from me and Thanks again for taking my questions you've talked from time to time.

Christopher Pavlovski: You've talked from time to time about upgrading your user interfaces, so I was hoping you'd give your current thoughts on your user interfaces for web, mobile web, mobile app, and smart TV app. Yes, so we've made some huge improvements. We just redid the dashboard here about a week ago, and another iteration of the design of the mobile apps just came out as well. So, we've made massive progress on this, both on OTT, mobile, and desktop. I think that our UI is now at a point where we don't receive complaints anymore.

Speaker Change: Upgrading your user interfaces. So I was hoping you could give your current thoughts on your user interfaces for web mobile web mobile apps and smart TV.

Speaker Change: Yes.

Speaker Change: Made some huge improvements.

Speaker Change: Redid, the dashboard here about a week ago.

Speaker Change: And the another.

Speaker Change: <unk> iteration of the design of the mobile apps just hit as well so.

Speaker Change: Made massive progress on this both on OTT mobile and desktop I think that our our UI now is at a point, where we don't receive complaints anymore. So it's.

Thomas Ferris Forte: So, it's really at a point where we can really help the platform and stick with the users. Great. Thanks for taking my advice. Thank you, Tom.

Speaker Change: It's really at a point, where we can really help.

Speaker Change: We can really help the platform and stick the users.

Speaker Change: Great. Thanks for taking my question.

Tom: Thank you Tom.

Operator: We have now reached the end of our question and answer session. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. [inaudible] and Matt Kohls.

Speaker Change: We have now reached the end of our question and answer session. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect. Your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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Operator: We'll see you next time....

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Operator: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Greetings and welcome to the Rumble Inc. first quarter. 2024 Earnings Conference Call.

Speaker Change: [music].

Operator: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

Operator: As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Shannon Devine, Investor Relations. Thank you. Thank you, Operator.

Jason Stuart Helfstein: So we'll just break this down to like just a bunch of topics and kind of go into each. So let's start with engagement, kind of relative to fourth quarter U.S. Stoffel, maybe just talk about the swing factors there, and then obviously appreciate the comments about the sequential improvement in revenue. Let's get a little start. Hey Jason, this is Chris.

Christopher Pavlovski: With respect to the fourth quarter of last year in Q1, we saw a major influx of MAUs coming from the sports content, in particular, like Street League Skateboarding, which did really, really well and overperformed. So we saw a lot of our sports content really push the needle on MAUs a lot further than we anticipated in Q4, and obviously, that didn't really exist in Q1. So that's one of the contributing factors.

Christopher Pavlovski: The other factors are obviously geopolitical events that happened in Q4, around the world had an outsized impact on MAUs as well, so that kind of settled in Q1. With respect to Q2, we're not providing any guidance right now on Q2, outside of what we've already provided on Twitter. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Rumble.

Christopher Pavlovski: It's still too early at this point. We did see a little pickup in January with the primary, but then that fizzled really fast. So we haven't seen that come back yet, but I would anticipate that to really pick up in the back half of 2024 and probably around convention time. Yes, so we started introducing pre-rolls in our apps through Rack. We've had a lot of advertisers sign up for Rack, and we've started moving a lot of our inventory through Rack.

Christopher Pavlovski: So yes, Rack is selling. Advertisers are now buying via Rack, and we're now executing inventory through Rack as well on both Rumble and even other publisher sites as well. So we're seeing Rack really pick up really quickly in Q1. Okay.

Christopher Pavlovski: By the end of the year, we think I hope to be 100% selling through or, you know, 90, 95% plus selling through RAC. You know, within the next quarter or two, for sure, we want to move all of our host red advertising through RAC. And when it comes to programmatic, we've moved a lot of it already through RAC. And just to kind of give a little bit of insight on RAC, we saw growth sequentially, both in January, February, and March, as well. And what was the offsetting factor, because obviously, U.S. U.N. revenue was down sequentially.

Christopher Pavlovski: With respect to cloud, we launched it, I think, in the final weeks of the quarter, so we're not going to be able to provide any reasonable guidance on that because it was launched in the last couple weeks of the quarter. [inaudible] Are we talking about EBITDA, are we talking about net income? We're talking about free cash flow. What metric are you talking about? Download your thing at some point.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yeah, so we're not giving a specific definition of that at this stage, and we'll continue to refine exactly what that definition is. But obviously, it's related to cash and the fact that our revenue engines are starting to kick in, and our creator commitment expenses are starting to close out, and that's where we start heading towards break-even. But we're not giving a specific definition of what that is, and we're also not giving guidance at this stage on which quarter in particular.

Christopher Pavlovski: However, we have discussed the fact that these creator commitments have about a 12 to 36-month time frame on them, but they're mostly in the shorter range of that. So we should expect this to start happening in the mid-to-back half of next year, and maybe lastly on the content engagement. What are you most excited about?

Christopher Pavlovski: We expect this trend to continue as we progress throughout the year and into early 2025. As I close, I want to reiterate that we are now officially through our building phase as a company and have turned our focus to executing and delivering top-line growth while growing sequentially quarter after quarter. We took our time, built the right products, and are now on track to deliver. Finally, I'd like to mention that we recently filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google based on Google's monopolization of the online advertising market, with damages estimated in excess of $1 billion. This lawsuit is separate from our existing self-preferencing lawsuit against Google, where we have seen early success in our nearing-the-end-of-fact discovery. In addition to the billions of dollars and potential damages from both lawsuits, we're also seeking injunctive relief.

Christopher Pavlovski: Yeah, so there's a few different things that we're looking at right now. Obviously, the election cycle kicking off at the GOP convention, we feel like, you know, we're going to be a big part of that going forward for the end of the year. But we're also starting to see a lot of traction on just like the smaller creators and the smaller live streams. And we're seeing some growth on that as well

Christopher Pavlovski: And as we introduce the Rumble Studio product and introduce ads, we feel like we're really going to be able to fuel a lot of engagement and traction in that community. And we have seen an uptick there. And we're really looking forward to kind of pushing on both ends as we get into the end of the year here. I'll leave it at that. Our next question comes from Tom Forte with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question. Great, thanks. So, three questions for me. I'll go one at a time.

Christopher Pavlovski: What we're noticing with the Barstool partnership right now is that it has helped us a lot with opening doors with brands. A lot of brands are very interested in advertising around the Barstool content, so it's been very beneficial with respect to our sales team and opening up doors there. Brandon, for my second question, I wanted to talk about audience engagement and then, with the upcoming U.S. presidential election, what you can do, if anything, to sustain engagement following the election. Yes, so this is Chris again.

Brandon Alexandroff: We ended the first quarter of 2024 with $183.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, compared to $219.5 million as of December 31, 2023. Additionally, as of March 31, 2024, our programming and content agreements had a minimum contractual cash commitment of $76 million, down from $106 million at December 31, 2023. We maintained sufficient cash to meet our ongoing capital needs.

Christopher Pavlovski: And this is where I think we missed an opportunity back in 2022. And here in 2024, we're going to capture that opportunity. So in 2022, our product was really lacking in many different ways. We lacked a lot of features that our competition, like YouTube, or Twitch, had, and most particularly YouTube. And, with respect to what we've done in the last year, we've really, really improved that product to create a mousetrap to really stick with users. So, in 2022, during the midterms, we lost a lot of users directly after that election cycle. We saw a steep drop off right away.

Brandon Alexandroff: Before I conclude, I want to reiterate that with our revenue engines coming online and our guaranteed creator commitments now significantly decreasing during 2024 and into 2025, we continue to move materially towards breakeven in 2025. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator to open up the line for questions. Thank you.

Christopher Pavlovski: In 2024, we're hoping to have that big increase in audience again in the back half of this year. But the major difference here is that we have a lot more content. It's a lot more diversified, and the product is significantly better. In some cases, it's better than our competition, and I think that we'll be a lot better at retaining a big cohort of those users after this election. So, it really comes down to the product, in my eyes, and having a really, really good product.

Operator: We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. The confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question area. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Christopher Pavlovski: And I think that we've really executed on that in a major way through the Rumble platform and, obviously, Rumble Studio, which is very unique to our competition. So, if we can have the creators using that Studio product and seeing the benefits of that, I think it's going to be a lot easier to keep the users on Rumble come 2025. Great. And then last question for me, and thanks again for taking my questions.

Christopher Pavlovski: You've talked from time to time about upgrading your user interfaces, so I was hoping you'd give your current thoughts on your user interfaces for web, mobile web, mobile app, and smart TV app. Yes, so we've made some huge improvements. We just redid the dashboard here about a week ago, and another iteration of the design of the mobile apps just came out as well. So we've made massive progress on this, both on OTT, mobile, and desktop. I think that our UI now is at a point where we don't receive complaints anymore. So it's really at a point where we can really help. We can really help the platform and stick with the users.

Thomas Ferris Forte: Great. Thanks for taking my call. Thank you, Tom. We have now reached the end of our question and answer session. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Speaker Change: [music].

Speaker Change: Greetings and welcome to the rumbling first quarter.

Speaker Change: 2024 earnings conference call at this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.

Speaker Change: Anyone should require operator assistance during the conference. Please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

Speaker Change: As a reminder, this conference is being recorded it is now my pleasure to introduce your host Shannon Devine Investor Relations. Thank you you may begin.

Speaker Change: Thank you operator, I'm here today, with Chris Pawlowski, founder Chairman and CEO from Brendan Alexandra the CFO of empower he is the CFO.

Speaker Change: A press release detailing our first quarter 'twenty 'twenty four results was released today and available on the Investor Relations section of our company website before we begin the formal presentation I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include predictions estimates or other information that might be considered forward looking all forward looking statements.

Speaker Change: Are made only as of the date of this webcast and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our earnings release and the factors is contained in our filings with the FCC.

Speaker Change: Future company updates will be available via press release and company updates via the companies identify social media channel I will now turn the call over to Rumble, founder Chairman and CEO, Chris Cabell optics.

Speaker Change: Thank you Shannon, though it hasnt been long since our last update I would like to reiterate the major achievements of our first quarter led by the public launch of Rumble cloud and Rumble studio, while both products are still in their very early innings. We are highly encouraged by their market reception.

Speaker Change: Rumble cloud, we launched our initial cloud computing offering and successfully secured two key strategic partnerships.

Speaker Change: P creative.

Speaker Change: And Ken shifts to help augment and deliver our initial suite of products for the Midmarket and enterprise segments, while we recognize that sales cycles can extend to several months due to the mission critical nature of cloud services, we have seen great receptivity to all our due to our value proposition, which addresses some of the major pain.

Speaker Change: And the cloud market, including security and unpredictable cost.

As a result, we have been able to successfully generate and advanced many sales conversations with mid market and enterprise customers as we advanced sales cycles, we will continue to augment our offering based on the feedback we received from customers, which will extend our addressable market and accelerate our ability to capture a larger share for Rumble cloud.

Speaker Change: We expect to see meaningful results during the back half of 2024 now.

Speaker Change: Now turning to Rumble studio, which has seen tremendous early results with over 2000 creators adopting the product. These creators include Tucker Carlson Megyn, Kelly, Glenn Greenwald, Dave Rubin and Donald Trump Junior just to name a few.

Speaker Change: Studio is the new cockpit for our creators where they can simplify their live streaming experience by easily streaming video to multiple platforms inviting guests and engaging with their audiences. Most importantly, rumble studio will be a new scalable vehicle for creators to monetize their live content through our patent pending technology.

Speaker Change: <unk> to facilitate host red advertising through the platform.

Speaker Change: While we continue to test the underlying technology and optimize the experience for both the creator and Advertiser, we expect Rumble studio to be a key enabler for us to automate and scale our host red advertising revenue stream.

Speaker Change: One of the best ways, we plan to drive host Red AD volume is through Rumble branded product lines in Q1, we entered into a partnership.

Both the studio and cloud round out the foundation of our portfolio consisting of our flagship Rumble video platform, our new live streaming service Rumble studio, our advertising platform Rumble advertising center and of course, our new infrastructure as a service offering Rumble cloud during the first quarter.

Speaker Change: <unk> advertising center or Iraq began deploying pre roll video ads across our mobile apps. We also continued expanded expanding our AD inventory by Onboarding publishers to the rack network, which is a massive long term opportunity for us as it was for Google with ads.

Speaker Change: We are seeing great progress in growing the publisher network on rack with recent the recent onboarding of Breitbart the Gateway Pundant Drudge report just to name a few.

Speaker Change: We're also making meaningful progress with brand advertisers.

Speaker Change: The first quarter reflected a transition aerie period during which we completed the final leg of our core building phase brought our monetization tools online and began to ramp our focus on revenue as the quarter progressed with this enhanced focus on revenue. We are on track to deliver sequential revenue increase starting in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: We took our time built the right products and are now on track to deliver finally I'd like to mention that we recently filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google based on Google's monopolization of the online advertising market with damages estimated in excess of $1 billion.

Speaker Change: This lawsuit is separate from our existing self preferencing lawsuit against Google, where we have seen early success and are nearing the end of fact discovery.

Speaker Change: In addition to the billions in potential damages from both lawsuits were also seeking injunctive relief. If we are successful in these lawsuits rumble and other platforms can finally have 11 level playing field in search traffic mobile apps and online advertising, which we which we expect would lead to a.

Speaker Change: Material increase to our <unk> and advertising revenue.

Speaker Change: With that I will turn the call over to our CFO Brendan Alexandra.

Christopher Pavlovski: Thanks, Chris.

Brandon Alexandroff: Now I'll take you through our first quarter financials at a very high level before turning the call over to the operator for Q&A.

Brandon Alexandroff: For the first quarter of 2024, we reported revenues of $17 7 million compared.

Brandon Alexandroff: Compared to $17 6 million for Q1 2023, other services and cloud revenues increased by $3 2 million offset by a decrease in advertising revenues of $3 1 million.

Speaker Change: The increase in revenue from other services in cloud is driven mainly by subscriptions Chipping features in cloud services offered.

Speaker Change: The decrease in advertising revenue is mostly related to sponsorship revenue as.

Speaker Change: As we've mentioned the manual processes inherent in our sponsorship revenue generation, resulting in a smaller number of participants which in turn creates volatility.

Speaker Change: Reporting of estimated minutes watched per month and hours of uploaded video per day.

Speaker Change: We also continue to expect a sequential increase in second quarter revenues as compared to the first quarter and expect this trend to continue throughout 2024.

Speaker Change: Cost of services increased to $31 8 million for the quarter compared to $26 million in the first quarter of 2023 due to an increase in programming and content costs of $5 3 million hosting expenses of 0.1 million and other service cost of zero point $4 million.

Speaker Change: Moving to our cash position.

Speaker Change: We ended the first quarter of 2024 with $183 8 million in cash cash equivalents and marketable securities compared to $219 5 million as of December.

31 2023.

Speaker Change: And as of March 31, 2020 for our programming and content agreements had a minimum contractual cash commitment of $76 million down from $106 million at December 31, 2023.

Speaker Change: We maintain sufficient cash to meet our ongoing capital needs.

Speaker Change: That concludes my prepared remarks, I will now turn the call over to the operator to open up the line for questions.

Speaker Change: For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the starkey.

Speaker Change: One moment, please while we pull for questions.

Speaker Change: Our first question comes from Jason <unk> with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker Change: Everybody will just break it down until I can just a bunch of kind of topics and kind of going here, so let's start with engagement.

Speaker Change #100: So kind of relative to fourth quarter U S.

Speaker Change #101: It was down a good amount.

Speaker Change #102: Probably a little more than we would have thought maybe you could talk about the swing factors there and then.

Speaker Change #103: Obviously appreciate the comments about the sequential improvement in revenue, maybe if you can kind of say anything about like engagement, so far in second quarter relative to the first quarter.

Speaker Change #104: I will start there and then we'll get to some of the other questions.

Chris: Hey, Jason this is Chris.

Speaker Change #105: With respect to.

Speaker Change #105: The fourth quarter of last year in Q1.

Speaker Change #107: We saw a major.

Speaker Change #107: Influx of MAA is coming from the sports sports content in particular like Street League skateboarding was one that did really really well and over perform so we saw a lot of support a lot of our sports content really push the needle on MAA as a lot further than we anticipated in Q4, and obviously that.

Speaker Change #107: That didn't really exist in Q1, so that's one of the contributing factors. The other factors are obviously geopolitical events that happened in Q4 around.

Speaker Change #107: Around the world.

Speaker Change #107: Outsized impacts on MAA as well so that kind of settled in Q1 with respect to Q2, we're not providing any guidance right now on Q2 outside of what we've already provided.

Speaker Change #108: And then just on political are you starting to see any pickup in political engagement or still too early.

Speaker Change #109: It's still too early at this point, we did see like a little pickup in January with the primary but then that fizzled really fast.

Speaker Change #109: So we haven't seen that come back yet but.

Speaker Change #109: But I would anticipate that that really pick up in the back half of 2024 and probably around the convention time.

Speaker Change #109: Got it and then.

Speaker Change #110: So with respect to Iraq, where any ads sold through rack in the first quarter or that really won't start that really didn't start until the second quarter.

Speaker Change #111: Yes, so we started introducing pre rolls and our apps through sort of Iraq.

Speaker Change #111: We've had a lot of advertisers sign ups, Iraq, and we've started moving a lot of our inventory through rack. So yes rack is selling advertisers are now buying via Iraq.

Speaker Change #111: <unk>.

Speaker Change #111: And we're now executing inventory through through rack as well on both the Rumble and even other publisher sites as well so we're seeing rack.

Speaker Change #112: Really we saw a lot of momentum for rack and in Q1.

Speaker Change #113: Okay, and so what I mean.

Speaker Change #113: Again like.

Speaker Change #114: You think about the different ways to sell I mean will you be do you expect by the.

Speaker Change #114: I don't know that ended the year will you be at 100% through rapidly will you still be selling through other methods as well.

Speaker Change #115: By the end of the year, we think.

Speaker Change #115: I hope to be 100% selling through or 1990, 95% plus selling through rack.

Speaker Change #115: Within the next quarter or two for sure we want to move all of our host red advertising through rack.

Speaker Change #116: And when it comes to programmatic, we've moved a lot of it already through rack and just to kind of give a.

Speaker Change #117: A little bit of insight on Iraq, we saw we saw growth sequentially. Both in January February and March as well.

Speaker Change #117: And what was the offsetting factor.

Speaker Change #117: You can revenue was down sequentially.

Speaker Change #118: What was Iraq was up what was down.

Speaker Change #119: Well, we just introduced.

Speaker Change #120: We introduced the <unk> rules starting in I think it was depending on the device. It was throughout the different throughout the quarter. So as we started introducing.

Speaker Change #121: We started we started to see growth in rack, obviously, it's coming off a smaller base line, but we're seeing the growth there okay and then on other services and cloud revenue.

Speaker Change #121: That was basically flat sequentially, but you talked about.

Speaker Change #122: Some new deals and kind of momentum is there any offsetting factors.

In that line, if we think about the first quarter versus the fourth quarter.

Speaker Change #122: And then just.

Speaker Change #123: I guess, how should we think about kind of growth in that line from here for the rest of the year.

Speaker Change #124: With respect to cloud we launched it I think in the last final weeks of the quarter. So we're not going to be able to provide any.

Speaker Change #125: Reasonable guidance on that.

Speaker Change #125: Because it was launched in the last couple of weeks of the quarter.

Speaker Change #125: Right.

Speaker Change #125: And then.

Speaker Change #125: Just specifically the comment about.

Speaker Change #126: Hey, Brandon do you want to answer this though to comment.

Brandon Alexandroff: Move materially towards breakeven in 'twenty five.

Some questions on these.

Speaker Change #127: Let's be more specifics are we talking about EBITDA, we're talking about net income while we're talking about free cash flow, So which metric are you talking about and then.

Brandon Alexandroff: It sounds like Youre, saying at some point in 'twenty, five Aida given quarter in 'twenty, five and not for all of 'twenty five.

Speaker Change #128: So if you just maybe clarify those two points.

Speaker Change #129: Yes, so we're not we're not giving specific definition of that at this stage and we'll continue to refine exactly what that definition is.

Speaker Change #130: But obviously, it's related to cash and the fact that our revenue engines are starting to kick in and our.

Speaker Change #129: <unk>.

Creator commitment expenses are starting to close out and that's where we start heading towards <unk>.

Speaker Change #129: Breakeven, but we're not giving a specific definition of what that is and we're also not giving guidance at this stage on which quarter. In particular, however, we have discussed the fact that these greater commitments.

Speaker Change #131: We have about a 12 to 36 month timeframe on them, but they are mostly in the shorter range of that so we should expect this to start happening.

Speaker Change #132: Mid to back half of next year.

And then just maybe lastly on the kind of content engagement.

Speaker Change #132: Chris like what are you most excited about in the second quarter.

Speaker Change #133: Yes. So there is a there's a few different things that we're we're looking at right now obviously the election cycle.

Chris: Kicking off at the GOP Convention, we feel like we're going to be a big part of that going forward for the end of the year.

Chris: But we're also starting to see a lot of traction on just like the smaller our creators and the smaller <unk>.

Speaker Change #134: Live streams.

Speaker Change #134: And we're seeing we're seeing some growth on that as well and as we introduce the Rumble studio product and introduce ads, we feel like we're really going to be able to fuel a lot of engagement and traction in that community. So we have seen an uptick there and we're really looking forward to kind of pushing on both ends.

As we get into the end of the year here.

Speaker Change #135: Okay I'll leave it at that thank you.

Speaker Change #135: Our next question comes from Tom Forte with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question.

Thomas Ferris Forte: Great. Thanks, three questions from me and I'll go one at a time, Greg Chris you talked a little about the sports content on our platform.

Speaker Change #136: So that part of my question was answered, but can you explain or discuss the significance of the strategic partnership with Barstool sports.

Chris: Hey, Tom This is Chris.

Chris: Yes, So we signed a deal with Dave Portnoy and Barstool sports in Q1.

Chris: That deal encompasses multiple different things.

Chris: One is obviously, bringing in all their podcasts and all their shows to Rumble too is that they will be promoting rumble as their main.

Speaker Change #137: Live streaming platform and video platform for all of their video content. So we'd be the home and there is an exclusive promotion arrangement there.

Speaker Change #138: And three we also have a cloud services arrangement with them and for an advertising partnership what we're noticing with the Barstool partnership right. Now is that it has helped US a lot with opening doors with brands a lot of brands are very interested in.

Speaker Change #138: Advertising around the barstool content, so it's been very beneficial on.

With respect to our sales team and opening up doors there.

Speaker Change #139: Great and then for my second question.

Speaker Change #140: I wanted to talk about audience engagement, and then with the upcoming U S personnel presidential election, what you can do if anything to sustained engagement following the election.

Speaker Change #140: Yes. So this is Chris again.

Speaker Change #141: This is where I think like we missed an opportunity back in 2022 and here in 2024, we're going to capture that opportunity. So in 2022, our product was really lacking in many different ways. We we lacked a lot of features that our competition like Youtube pattern, which had.

Speaker Change #141: And most particularly on Youtube.

Speaker Change #141: And.

Speaker Change #141: With respect to what we've done in the last year is that we've really really improve that product to create a mouse trap to really stick to users. So in 2022 during the mid terms, we lost a lot of users directly after that that election cycle.

Speaker Change #141: We saw a steep drop off right away.

Speaker Change #141: In 2024, we're hoping to have that big.

Speaker Change #141: The increase in audience again in the back half of this year, but the major difference here is that we have a lot more content. Its a lot more diversified the product is significantly better in some cases, it's <unk>.

Speaker Change #142: Better than our competition.

Speaker Change #143: And I think that will be a lot better at sticking a big cohort of those users. After this election. So it really comes down a product in my eyes, and having a really really good product and I think that we've really executed on that in a major way through the Rumble platform and obviously the Rumble studio, which is very unique to our competition.

Speaker Change #143: So if we can have the creators using that studio product.

Speaker Change #143: Seeing the benefits of that I think it's going to be a lot easier to stick to users on rumble come in 2025.

Speaker Change #144: Great and then last question from me and Thanks again for taking my questions you've talked from time to time about upgrading your user interfaces. So I was hoping you could give your current thoughts on your user interfaces for web mobile web mobile App and smart TV apps.

Speaker Change #145: Yes, so we've made some huge improvements we just redid the dashboard here about a week ago.

And the another iteration of the design of the mobile apps just hit as well. So we've made massive progress on this both on OTT mobile and desktop I think that our our UI now is at a point, where we don't receive complaints anymore. So it's it's really at.

Speaker Change #145: At a point, where we can really help.

Speaker Change #145: Can really help the platform and stick the users.

Speaker Change #145: Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Tom: Thank you Tom.

Speaker Change #146: We have now reached the end of our question and answer session. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect. Your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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