Why investors shouldn’t panic about Roblox’s disappointing Q4 report

Fun fact: The metaverse market size is predicted to reach as much as $800bn by 2024 — it was worth just $46bn in 2020.

Roblox [RBLX] investors will be wishing that Q4 was just a simulation, but unfortunately, there’s nothing virtual about its numbers.

Is the metaverse dream in for a rude awakening? 

This article was originally written by MyWallSt. Read more insights from the MyWallSt team here.

How did Roblox do?

As a writer, I’m incapable of enjoying numbers, whether good or bad, so let’s keep the numeric information from Roblox’s Q4 brief:

Revenue (bookings): $770m versus $772m expected

Loss per share: $0.25 versus $0.13 estimated

Daily active users: 49.5 million— up 33% year-over-year

Ok, a little bit of good to top it off, but those losses must be a tough pill to swallow for investors. After all, this open-world gaming/development platform, which allows users to interact and play over the internet, is supposed to be the pioneer of the metaverse, right? 

That may be correct, but one can’t simply say “metaverse” and suddenly be a trillion-dollar business — sorry Zucks. Our modern conception of the metaverse — read all about what it is free in the MyWallSt app here — is barely a toddler.

Meta (formerly Facebook), has tried to steal the metaverse spotlight — hence the name — and has dedicated billions towards its pivot. However, while Zuckerberg & Co. are clearly serious about this endeavour, they are still years behind Roblox. So, for anyone concerned about a big tech overshadowing, just think of streaming. 

Amazon, Disney, HBO, and more were expected to destroy Netflix with their streaming offerings. Now, name me a single service from this lot that can match Netflix’s user experience? 

None — and trust me, a metaverse is a LOT more complicated to build from scratch than a user-friendly content library. Big tech won’t be overtaking Roblox soon.

Roblox may be hurting, but it’s still a leader in the metaverse. This shouldn’t be taken lightly, and investors just need to be a bit more patient. 

Virtual Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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