As part of their Q4 2018 financial results, Roku announced that they now have 27.1 million active accounts. The company has seen active accounts grow by nearly 3.3 million since last quarter and over 7.8 million since the fourth quarter last year.
Much of the user growth is coming from licensing the Roku platform to Smart TV manufacturers. The company reported that nearly 1 in 5 U.S. TV households now use the Roku platform to stream a portion of their TV viewing.
The company continues to focus on growing their platform business which surpassed $150 million in revenue for the first time, up 77% year-over-year. Over two-thirds of their platform revenue comes from ads and sponsorship on the Roku interface and The Roku Channel.
The growth in the platform business means that Roku Players, like Roku Streaming Stick, now only make up 45% of the company’s revenue. Player revenue grew 21% year-over-year, but with devices on deep discount for the holidays, Player gross profit was down 70%.
Roku’s CEO Anthony Wood shared that they expect to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2019, by focusing on increasing monetization per user and scaling the number of households using the Roku platform. Since last year, Average Revenue Per User has increased from $4.17 to $17.95 - driven by a doubling the number of monetized video ad impressions. The company will also see growth from their recent launch of their Amazon Channels competitor which allow Roku users to purchase premium services like Showtime, STARZ, and Epix using their Roku account.