Roku lost $24.2 million in the first six months of 2017 and has accumulated $244 million in losses during its history. Giant rivals can spend millions on moonshots that end up as failures, and the world may never know the exact financial toll of these endeavors. Roku, as a company going public, has no such margin of error.
But here’s what Roku has going for it. CEO Anthony Wood saw a few years ago that the market for streaming-TV devices like the Apple TV was limited, so he started to look for other ways to make money off the transition from traditional TV to over-the-top TV.
Several metrics back him up. Roku’s prospectus says players using its OS accounted for 48 percent of usage on TV-connected devices in late 2016. This year, according to Parks Associates, Roku rose to 37 percent of U.S. homes using broadband, up from 33 percent a year ago. And last month, Roku held a 39 percent share of U.S. connected TV users, rising above its deeper-pocketed rivals.
From the article "Roku IPO stands a fighting chance in a market hostile to tech offerings" by Kevin Kelleher.
The promotions have continued since then. Currently, customers who prepay for four months get a free Apple TV 4K in return. One month of prepay earns customers a Roku streaming stick. And new customer...
In their Tuesday webinar on advancements in smart home technology, Sean Wargo, senior director of marketing intelligence at AVIXA and Brad Russell, research director, connected home, at Parks Associat...
In their Tuesday webinar on advancements in smart home technology, Sean Wargo, senior director of marketing intelligence at AVIXA and Brad Russell, research director, connected home, at Parks Associat...
Its Sling TV service also ranks among the top 10 most popular cord-cutting video services, according to market researcher Parks Associates. It puts the company ahead of direct rivals such as AT&T’s Di...
