BuzzFeed Q4 2024 Earnings Report

BuzzFeed EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.10
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

BuzzFeed Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $56.20 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

BuzzFeed Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2024
• Date: 3/13/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, March 13, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD) is a digital media and technology company that develops, produces and distributes content across websites, social media platforms, video services and other digital channels. Its content spans news, entertainment, lifestyle, food, shopping and culture, and is designed for audiences using mobile and social media platforms.

The company operates well-known media brands including BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Tasty. Its business activities include digital advertising, branded content, commerce and affiliate marketing, licensing, and the distribution of video and other media content. BuzzFeed News, the company’s dedicated news operation, was shut down in 2023 as part of a broader restructuring.

BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti, who remains the company’s chief executive officer. The company serves a primarily digital, global audience, with much of its reach generated through social platforms, search and direct visits to its owned websites and applications.

BuzzFeed Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Strong profitability momentum: Buzzfeed achieved positive adjusted EBITDA for both Q4 and full-year 2024, with full-year EBITDA growing 146.8% to $17.1 million.
• Balance sheet improvement: The company repaid $153.8 million of debt in 2024—funded by divesting Complex and First We Feast—and ended the year with cash exceeding remaining debt.
• Growth in programmatic and commerce: Programmatic advertising remained flat year over year, while affiliate commerce revenues rose 23% in 2024 and 39% in Q4, including a record Amazon Prime Day performance.
• Revenue headwinds: Full-year advertising revenue declined 17% and content revenue fell 49% year over year, with Q4 total revenues down 19.8% as direct-sold advertising and studio projects decreased.
• AI-driven expansion: Buzzfeed plans to launch BF Island, a new AI-native social media app with a $10 million investment and a private beta in Q2, targeting 5% conversion of its 34 million monthly users and low-double-digit ARPU.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BuzzFeed Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Juliana Clifton, VP of Communications. Please go ahead.

[Juliana Clifton, VP of Communications at BuzzFeed]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to BuzzFeed's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Juliana Clifton, VP of Communications for BuzzFeed. Joining me today are CEO Jonah Peretti and CFO Matt Omer. Before we get started, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that our remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in today's press release, our 2024 annual report on Form 10-K to be filed with the SEC, and our 2024 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

[Juliana Clifton, VP of Communications at BuzzFeed]

During this call, we present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, including Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin. The use of non-GAAP financial measures allows us to measure the operational strength and performance of our business, to establish budgets, and to develop operational goals for managing our business. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are relevant and useful information for investors because they allow investors to view performance in a manner similar to the method used by our management. A reconciliation of these GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release. Please refer to our investor relations website to find today's press release. Now, I'll pass the call over to Jonah.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'd like to begin with an update on where artificial intelligence is heading and the opportunity for our business. Over the past year, we've been pleased to see several companies release capable and affordable AI models, including open-weight models that can be hosted freely. We expect the proliferation of powerful models and the reduction in cost of capacity to continue for the foreseeable future, giving us the capabilities we need to transform our business. We've built our services so that we can easily integrate new models with our data and applications, seamlessly switching the back end to the most current and affordable models. These developments support our strategy of building the application layer on top of AI models, a place where value and profits will increasingly flow.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

Fundamentally, AI is a new computing platform that enables applications that weren't previously possible. This continues a well-known cycle in technology where each computing platform gives birth to new applications. Mainframe computers enabled accounting software, PCs enabled word processors, spreadsheets, and games, and the mobile phone enabled apps like Instagram and Uber. The most successful applications use the strengths of the computing platform to unlock value by creating totally new types of software that leverage those strengths. AI will follow the same pattern, and we are excited to build AI-native applications that have the potential to transform our business and the market. Our initial steps to building on AI platforms only took us part of the way there, bringing increased efficiency to our existing publishing business.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

For example, our writers use AI to track online trends, organize their research, and package content, freeing up more time for them to focus on human creativity. Our advertisements are targeted more effectively as our Lighthouse product gets the benefit of AI actually understanding our content and delivering more contextually relevant placements. There are many examples like this, but our publishing business remains human-powered because taste, editorial judgment, and human personality are what audiences want from media brands. We are excited about the ways core BuzzFeed is innovating, and we will continue to look for new efficiencies in this very human business, running it with an eye towards increased profitability. However, we also see potential for a new product that more fully leverages new AI technology. We see an opportunity to make a new kind of social media app that is built from scratch to be AI-native.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, and Reddit were all built over a decade ago. Even TikTok is almost a decade old, and all of them were designed before the explosion of generative AI capabilities. They bolted AI onto an existing experience, but we believe you can make something much better if you start it from scratch. Existing social media platforms' vision for AI is completely backwards. They use AI to take away people's human agency, manipulating people into spending hours passively scrolling through feeds. In the early days of social media, almost everyone contributed content, but now most of the content is made by a small group of influencers and professional creators fighting for attention by making increasingly extreme and emotionally charged content.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the majority of respondents would prefer to live in a world where TikTok and Instagram did not exist. All of this is a problem for the big platforms, but an opportunity for us. We know we can make social media fun again. We can get a higher percentage of people creating and connect people instead of dividing them. We are hard at work building BF Island and are excited to begin private beta testing with users in Q2. Our goal is to convert 5% of BuzzFeed's 34 million monthly users to BF Island.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

Data from Comscore shows that user time spent on top social media services, including sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok, is well over 27x higher than the time spent with publishers, and we hope this trend will hold true for BF Island, driven by its increased personalization and interactivity. This also reflects the significant engagement increase, up to 10x higher, when BuzzFeed users become community members and use our AI-powered tools and content formats. We are also building social and viral distribution into the platform to drive growth, which we believe could outpace the growth of our publishing business. The content on the platform will be entirely user-generated, with AI assistance allowing it to scale in ways that are impossible for our other editorial businesses.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

If we achieve our conversion and time-spent targets, we are modeling monetizing at an ARPU in the low double digits per year, approximately 50% of Snap, Pinterest, and other small social media services. By leveraging our existing ad platform and direct user revenue, and given the above model, we would expect to produce positive EBITDA in the first full year post-monetization and scaling quickly in subsequent years. While this is a bold new initiative with inherent risks, it represents a high upside opportunity if successful. We look forward to sharing more in future earnings calls. One final bit of context before the rest of the call. The development of BF Island is only possible because of the increased efficiencies we found in our core publishing business, allowing us to reallocate resources with minimal additional hiring.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

AI-assisted software development and productivity tools for our team will enable us to do more while still achieving significant cost savings relative to 2024. Our investment in BF Island is approximately $10 million, primarily focused on engineering. This is the efficiency that AI can bring, but once we launch BF Island, we will be even more excited to show you the creativity it can unlock. With that backdrop, I would like to share some updates on our business. BuzzFeed has improved its position in the marketplace over the past year. We have improved our fundamentals, stabilized the business, and streamlined operations, achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA for both Q4 and full year 2024, with full year EBITDA growth of $17.1 million or 146.8%. We have also fortified our balance sheet, entering 2025 with a cash balance that exceeds our remaining debt.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

In 2024, we repaid a total of $153.8 million in debt, including $120 million of convertible debt and $33.8 million of other debt. These actions were made possible through strategic moves, including the divestiture of Complex for $108.6 million, plus $5.7 million in fees, and the sale of First We Feast for $82.5 million. Together, these transactions largely recouped our initial cash investment in Complex Networks and First We Feast, which we acquired in 2021 for approximately $198 million in cash and 2.5 million split-adjusted shares of equity. With our debt load significantly reduced, we've sharpened our focus on high-margin tech-enabled revenue lines, programmatic advertising, and affiliate commerce. These areas are not only driving Adjusted EBITDA profitability, but are also allowing us to build more direct and valuable relationships with our audiences.

[Jonah Peretti, CEO at BuzzFeed]

As we enter 2025, we remain committed to strengthening our owned and operated platforms, increasing audience engagement, and using AI responsibly to enhance our content and business operations. Now I'll hand the call over to Matt to discuss our financial performance and outlook. Matt.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

Thank you, Jonah. I want to echo Jonah's remarks regarding the increased strength in our go-forward business. With two strong asset sales behind us and our restructuring complete, we believe we are positioned to be a more stable and more profitable business. As a reminder, all financial results are on a continuing operations basis, excluding Complex Networks and First We Feast. We have meaningfully reduced our go-forward headcount and cash cost structure. As a result of paying down debt, we have also reduced our future cash interest expense. We have made strides in strengthening our balance sheet and improving overall liquidity.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

Despite revenue declines in advertising and content, which are primarily driven by our direct sales channels, commerce and other revenues increased 23% year over year. As a reminder, the restructure announced in Q1 2024 significantly reduced our sales team, contributing to declines in direct-sold advertising and content compared to 2023, but aligning with our pivot toward programmatic advertising and affiliate commerce. For the full year ended December 31, 2024, advertising revenues declined 17% year-over-year to $94.4 million, reflecting a shift away from direct-sold advertising. However, programmatic advertising remained relatively flat year-over-year at $64.9 million. Content revenue declined 49% year-over-year to $33.9 million, driven by a decrease in direct-sold deals and fewer studio projects in 2024. Commerce revenues increased by $11.6 million, or 23%, reflecting strong affiliate commerce performance in key retail moments. Affiliate commerce increased 26% year over year to $59.6 million.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

We experienced our most successful Amazon Prime Day to date in July 2024, with a strong double-digit growth, outpacing Amazon's overall Prime Day growth. Our cost-saving measures are in full effect. Despite an overall revenue decline of $40.6 million, our net loss from continuing operations improved by $21.8 million. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA improved by $17.1 million, reinforcing that these cost-saving initiatives are delivering results. Turning to our fourth quarter financial results for our continuing operations, overall Q4 revenue was $56.2 million, or down 19.8% year over year, which was in line with our midpoint of our outlook. Advertising revenues declined $6.2 million, driven by a $6.3 million decline in direct-sold advertising. Programmatic advertising, however, remained relatively flat year over year at $18.0 million in Q4.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

Content revenues were $9.5 million, down 59% year over year, which again was driven by a $10.7 million decline in direct-sold content and a $3 million decline in studio revenues, as Q4 2023 included a feature film release. Commerce revenues increased 39%, or $6 million, to $21.3 million, fueled by strong affiliate commerce activity. Adjusted EBITDA for Q4 2024 was $10.9 million, compared to an Adjusted EBITDA of $13 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, but in line with the high-end of our outlook. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $38.6 million, an increase of $3 million relative to the year-ago period. As a reminder, we repaid $88.8 million in debt during December 2024 and approximately $5 million of interest. At the same time, we are seeing positive momentum across key audience engagement metrics, including time spent, loyalty, and engagement.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

In the fourth quarter of 2024, time spent increased to 79 million hours, a 10% increase from Q4 2023. Our flagship BuzzFeed brand continues to lead the way in time spent among its competitive set, reinforcing the company's strong tech optimization and engagement strategies. On our owned and operated websites, in Q4, direct visits, internal referrals, and app page views accounted for 64% of U.S. traffic on buzzfeed.com, strengthening our audience connection and making us less dependent on distributed platforms and algorithm shifts. HuffPost.com saw a significant surge in direct traffic during the 2024 presidential election cycle. In October 2024, direct traffic reached 69.7 million, its second largest month of the year. Loyalty and engagement trends also reflected positive momentum. Daily logged-in users on buzzfeed.com were 144% higher than Q4 2023, driven by tech optimizations.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

The percentage of loyal users across BuzzFeed web and app, so those who return more than once in a seven-day period, reached 48%, the highest level in over two years. Looking ahead, we remain focused on accelerating revenue growth and expanding profitability by leveraging our strengths in digital media, first-party audience engagement, and scalable tech-enabled businesses. We believe that by continuing to invest in our core brands and their owned and operated sites, improving monetization strategies, and optimizing operational efficiencies, we are positioning BuzzFeed for sustainable long-term success. Turning to our financial outlook, our management team has established a policy of providing annual guidance moving forward in lieu of quarterly guidance.

[Matt Omer, CFO at BuzzFeed]

We believe short-term guidance encourages a short-term view and inhibits a meaningful focus on long-term strategic initiatives that our company is taking to build up our business for long-term success, which is in the interest of both our employees and shareholders. With that, I'll share our 2025 financial outlook. As a reminder, this guidance is on a continuing operations basis and includes our planned investment in BF Island for the year ahead. We expect overall revenues in the range of $195-$210 million, or 3-10% higher than 2024 at the midpoint. We expect Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $10-$20 million, an improvement of approximately $10 million year over year at the midpoint. Thank you for joining us today. I'll pass it back to our operator.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

Participants

Executives

• Matt Omer, CFO
• Jonah Peretti, CEO
• Juliana Clifton, VP of Communications