Roblox has become the latest startup to join the public markets in a direct listing, with its share price rising more than 60% on its first day of trading, valuing the company at $38bn and change. No, it doesn't make a profit, and yes it is growing very quickly.
What is Roblox?
Roblox is a game platform, popular with kids and pre-teens, which lets users create their own games for anyone to play. Which they do — a lot.
Roblox reports that last quarter more than 8,700 million hours were spent on their platform, and a recent report from Qustodio estimated that the average child in the US was spending 81 minutes per day playing on Roblox — roughly the same amount of time as was being spent on TikTok.
Roblox as a business is also particularly interesting. The platform and the games on it are free to download and play, but users can pay — using in-game currency called Robux — for various items, upgrades or content. Roblox earns a slice of each transaction, and also earns money through advertising. In 2020, there were nearly 250 developers and creators that earned $100,000 or more in Robux.
