–Expects fourth quarter and full year 2017 revenue to be at or above
high end of prior outlook
NEW HOPE, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEET), a public market leader in the mobile
meeting space, today pre-released selected preliminary financial
information for its fourth quarter and full year 2017.
Preliminary Financial Results for the fourth quarter 2017. The Company
expects:
-
Revenue to be at or above the high end of its prior outlook of $36.5
million to $38 million; and -
Adjusted EBITDA to be near or above the high end of its prior outlook
of $7.5 million to $9.5 million.
Preliminary Financial Results for the full year 2017. The Company
expects:
-
Revenue to be at or above the high end of its prior outlook of $120.1
million to $121.6 million; and -
Adjusted EBITDA to be near or above the high end of prior guidance of
$28.6 million to $30.6 million.
“We are pleased to deliver strong preliminary results for the fourth
quarter,” said Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of The Meet Group.
“Our recent close of the Lovoo acquisition and the continued rollout of
our video platform demonstrate our commitment to diversifying our
revenue mix and delivering on the promise of livestreaming video.
“While still a small component of total revenue, monetization of our
video product has been accelerating. In the past five weeks, average
revenue per daily active user for MeetMe Live users, or vARPDAU, in the
United States doubled to approximately 20 cents, up from approximately
10 cents just five weeks ago. We believe this has been largely driven by
the initial success of our new video gifting product on our MeetMe app.
In addition to driving monetization, we believe the gifting feature also
incentivizes streamers to produce higher-quality content and spend more
time engaging with their audience. In fact, we saw time spent in video
increase following the launch of monetization.
“Building on our early success in video, we recently expanded our mobile
product offerings in Skout with the launch of Skout Live. Skout Live
gives users the ability to broadcast and view livestreaming video,
invite other guest broadcasters into their live-streams, and earn
virtual gifts.”
Early results show increasing user engagement with the product:
* On average, 24% of Skout’s daily active users currently watch
live-streams
* 10% of all Skout live-streamers are already
receiving gifts
The Company has also commenced deployment of the cashout process on
Skout Live, where streamers can exchange a portion of the gift value
they receive for real money. The gifting and cash out features are
expected to be available on Tagged Live in the first quarter of 2018.
The Company has not yet closed and not yet finalized its financial
statement review process for the fourth quarter and full year 2017. As a
result, the information in this release is preliminary and based upon
information available to the Company as of the date of this release, and
thus remains subject to the completion of the normal year-end accounting
procedures and adjustments. During the course of the Company’s review
process, items may be identified that would require the Company to make
adjustments, which could result in changes to our preliminary selected
financial information above. As a result, the preliminary selected
financial information above is forward-looking information and subject
to risks and uncertainties, including possible adjustments to such
information. The Company expects to report its fourth quarter and full
year 2017 results in March of 2018.
About The Meet Group
The Meet Group (NASDAQ:MEET) is a fast-growing portfolio of mobile apps
designed to meet the universal need for human connection. Our apps –
currently MeetMe®, LOVOO®, Skout®, Tagged®, and Hi5® – let users in more
than 100 countries chat, share photos, stream live video, and discuss
topics of interest, and are available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in
multiple languages. Using innovative products and sophisticated data
science, The Meet Group keeps its over 4.5 million mobile daily active
users engaged and originates untold numbers of casual chats,
friendships, dates, and marriages. The Meet Group offers advertisers the
opportunity to reach customers on a global scale and has leading mobile
monetization strategies, including advertising, in-app purchases, and
subscription products. The Meet Group has offices in New Hope, San
Francisco, Dresden, and Berlin. For more information, visit themeetgroup.com,
and follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, including whether fourth quarter 2017 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA
will be in the projected range, whether full year 2017 revenue and
Adjusted EBITDA will be in the projected range, whether we will continue
the rollout of our video platform as anticipated, whether we will
continue to diversify our revenue mix and deliver on the promise of
livestreaming video, whether monetization of our video product will
continue to accelerate, whether average revenue per daily active user
for MeetMe Live will continue to increase, whether the gifting feature
will incentivize streamers to produce higher-quality content and spend
more time engaging with their audience, whether time spent in video will
continue to increase following the launch of monetization, whether the
early results show increasing user engagement on Skout Live will
continue and if so at what rates, whether we will complete deployment of
the cashout process on Skout Live as expected, and whether we will make
the gifting and cash out features available on Tagged Live in the first
quarter of 2018. All statements other than statements of historical
facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words
“believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,”
“should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is
likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these
forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and
projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may
affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy
and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results
to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk
that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as
anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and
upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the
functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems,
any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile
applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could
adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our
risk factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2016 filed with the SEC on March 9, 2017, our Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2017, June 30,
2017 and September 30, 2017 filed with the SEC on May 10, 2017, August
4, 2017 and November 9, 2017, respectively. Any forward-looking
statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is
made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ
may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict
all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
Regulation G – Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA, which is not calculated and presented
in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles
(“GAAP”), in evaluating its financial and operational decision making
and as a means to evaluate period-to period comparison. The Company
defines Adjusted EBITDA as earnings (or loss) from operations before
interest expense, benefit or provision for income taxes, depreciation
and amortization, stock-based compensation, warrant obligations,
non-recurring acquisition, restructuring or other expenses, gain or loss
on cumulative foreign currency translation adjustment, gain on sale of
asset, bad debt expense outside the normal range, and goodwill and
long-lived asset impairment charges. The Company excludes stock-based
compensation because it is non-cash in nature. The Company has not
included a GAAP reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA because such
reconciliation could not be produced without unreasonable effort.
The Company defines Video Daily Active User (vDAU) as a registered user
of one of our platforms who has logged in and visited the Live feature,
either as a broadcaster or viewer, on the day of measurement. The
Company defines Average Video Revenue per Daily Active User (vARPDAU) as
the average daily revenue per vDAU.
The Company uses these user metrics for financial and operational
decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons.
The Company presents user metrics because it believes them to be an
important supplemental measure of performance that is commonly used by
securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the
evaluation of companies in its industry and because it believes that
these metrics provide useful information to investors regarding the
Company’s financial condition and results of operations. The Adjusted
EBITDA estimates provided herein are forward-looking and a
reconciliation cannot be without unreasonable effort therefore no
reconciliation is provided. There is no comparable GAAP measure to
vARPDAU provided in the Company’s financial statements and therefore no
reconciliation is provided.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219005412/en/
The Meet Group
Investors:
Leslie Arena, 267-714-6418
larena@themeetgroup.com
or
Media:
Brandyn
Bissinger, 267-446-7010
bbissinger@themeetgroup.com
Source: The Meet Group, Inc.