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The CEO of Roblox believes the future is bright for the company, following a very successful first day on the stock market where its value reached $45 billion–higher than EA and Take-Two.
David Baszucki told The Wall Street Journal that growth for Roblox is expected to be slower in 2021 compared to 2020 with the world coming out of the pandemic and engagement numbers in video games falling back down to Earth. But on a longer timeline, the executive said Roblox is taking steps to expand the appeal of Roblox beyond GenZ and in more markets around the world.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” Baszucki said. “The engines that have been powering Roblox’s growth up to the pandemic, we see those continuing well into the future.”
Roblox makes money by selling currency called Robux, while the game overall is more akin to a platform. Users can create their own games within Roblox and then sell their creations.
Roblox developers made $329 million collectively in 2020, and more than 300 people made more than $100,000 during the year. The team at Roblox is now trying to improve the core technology behind the game to allow people to create more sophisticated games. The hope is that this will in turn attract older players–right now, more than half of its players are under the age of 13.
Roblox brings in a lot of revenue, as the company made $923.9 million in 2020 (+82%), with active daily users climbing to an astonishing 32.6 million. However, Roblox Corp. does not make any money. The company posted a loss of $253.3 million in 2020, which was significantly worse than its loss of $71 million the year before.
Baszucki’s own net worth has climbed above $3 billion thanks to Roblox’s direct listing. He won’t take a salary at the company for the next seven years and he is planning charitable donations.
