As part of their Q3 2019 financial results, Roku announced that they now have 32.3 million active accounts. This is after the company added 1.7 million last quarter, and over 8.5 million since the third quarter last year. With more users, and with them streaming even more, streaming hours increased from 6.2 billion to 10.3 billion (+66%) over the last year.
In comparison, in September, Amazon revealed that they had more than 37 million active users, up from the 34 million that they announced in May.
Much of Roku’s user growth is coming from licensing the Roku platform to Smart TV manufacturers. The company reported that nearly 1 in 3 Smart TVs sold in the first half of the year now use the Roku platform. The company continues to focus on growing their platform business, which surpassed $179.3 million in revenue, up 79% year-over-year. Over two-thirds of their platform revenue continues to come from ads and sponsorship on the Roku interface and The Roku Channel.
Earlier this year, 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 $17.34 to $22.58 driven by a doubling the number of monetized video ad impressions.
Part of this comes from their launch of their Amazon Channels competitor, which allows Roku users to purchase premium services like HBO, Showtime, STARZ, and Epix using their Roku account.
The primary growth though in The Roku Channel is as a free ad-supported streaming service like Pluto TV and Tubi. In February, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said, AVOD is important “in terms of its value to consumers and its importance in the OTT business model.”
Over the course of the year, the company has added content for kids & family, live news, and sports.