As part of their Q2 2019 financial results, Roku announced that they now have 30.5 million active accounts. This is after the company added 1.4 million last quarter, and over 8.5 million (+39%) since the second quarter last year. With more users, and with them streaming even more, streaming hours increased from 5.5 billion to 9.4 billion (+72%) over the last year.
In comparison, in May, Amazon revealed that they had more than 34 million active users, up from the 30 million that they announced in January.
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 $167.7 million in revenue, up 86% 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 $16.60 to $21.06 - driven by a doubling the number of monetized video ad impressions.
Part of this comes from their launch of their Amazon Channels competitor which allow Roku users to purchase premium services like HBO, Showtime, STARZ, and Epix using their Roku account.
It does not come as a surprise that Roku is taking on Amazon Channels. Amazon’s Prime Video Channels expects to net $500+ million from their streaming partners. Apple also officially launched their similar Apple TV Channels service in May. Apple is adding their new TV App to Roku devices later this year, but it is unclear if users will be able to subscribe to third-party services like on Apple TV.