$Roblox(RBLX.US) first take: The third-quarter performance was good, as expected by Dolphin in the second-quarter performance review. With the Olympic-themed The Games event and the boost from the peak season effect, the platform's traffic and user activity saw significant improvements (DAU increased by 27%, total user duration increased by 29%), which in turn drove subscription revenue and income beyond expectations. The company is advancing video advertising, but it currently cannot provide effective support; attention can be paid to this area starting next year.

However, alongside the rapid expansion of revenue, platform costs have also risen, including the developer share that varies with revenue, basic trust and safety costs, and sales expenses, all of which have accelerated growth. However, management and R&D expenses have been relatively restrained. Ultimately, the operating loss was still lower than market expectations, while the Covenant EBITDA metric, which reflects changes in net revenue, significantly exceeded market expectations due to more revenue/deferred beats.

It is precisely because of the clearly warming subscription revenue trend that Q4 performance has a clear guarantee. The company's guidance for Q4 revenue slightly exceeded market expectations, but the profit guidance for the fourth quarter was significantly more optimistic compared to market expectations, implying that the company will take more cost control actions on the expenditure side next quarter, such as slowing down employee recruitment. Whether it is the acceleration of growth returning or expenditure control, these are the changes that the current market is willing to see.