Strategic Focus on Platform Revenue Growth and Diversification
Roku's strategy to grow platform revenue has been in place for 18 months, focusing on diversification and execution.
Q2 platform revenue grew 18% YoY, driven by ad demand, new products like Roku Ads Manager, and acquisition of Frndly.
Management emphasizes that the strategy is starting to show results, with expectations of sustained double-digit growth and profitability improvements.
Adjusted EBITDA margin was 21%, reflecting continued operating leverage from faster revenue growth and cost controls.
Cash balance stood at $1.7 billion with convertible debt at $2.2 billion, providing a flexible capital structure.
Create segment revenue was $154 million, up 2% year-over-year and sequentially, with double-digit subscription growth and 16% year-over-year growth excluding nonstrategic revenues.
Grow segment revenue was $287 million, down 4% year-over-year but up 1% sequentially, driven by strong performance from the Unity Ad Network powered by Vector.
Record free cash flow of $127 million was achieved, improving $47 million year-over-year, supported by strong profitability and timing of publisher payments.
Unity exceeded the top end of guidance in Q2 2025 with revenue surpassing expectations by $16 million and adjusted EBITDA by $15 million.
AI-Driven Platform Kokai and Performance Improvements
Kokai, the company's most significant platform upgrade, leverages advanced AI technology called Koa to enhance ad campaign performance.
Clients adopting Kokai have seen a 43% improvement in audience targeting (Samsung in Europe) and a 73% reduction in cost per acquisition (Cashrewards in Asia).
Overall, campaigns in Kokai are outperforming legacy campaigns by more than 20 points on key KPIs, with about 75% of client spend now running through Kokai.
Management expects full adoption of Kokai by all clients by the end of 2025, emphasizing its central role in future growth.
The company has developed distributed AI systems that enable rapid iteration and innovation, with plans to expand AI capabilities to real-time, agentic campaign management.