Roblox Plans To Go Public Via IPO Or Direct Listing: Report

Leading mobile and platform gaming company Roblox is purportedly preparing to go public via an initial public offering or direct listing.

What Happened: Reuters reports that Roblox, which was founded in 2004, is eyeing a debut on the public markets.

The company operates with a freemium model, generating the majority of its revenue from in-app purchases.

In February, Roblox reported it had 115 million monthly active users. The game was seeing 1.5 billion hours of monthly engagement.

Why It’s Important: In the IPO or direct listing, Roblox expects to be valued at about $8 billion, or double its February valuation, according to Reuters.

Roblox raised $150 million in February in a round led by existing investor venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Temasek and Tencent Holdings TCEHY joined as new investors. Existing investors Altos Ventures, Meritech Capital, and Tiger Global Management all participated in the round.

In the second quarter this year, video game spending hit a record $11.6 billion in the U.S., up 30% year-over-year.

SensorTower reported Roblox as the sixth highest-grossing mobile game in the world for the month of August. The game ranked fifth on the iOS App Store and tenth on Google Play.

A survey from RoosterMoney showed that kids are spending the largest portion of their allowance on Roblox. The game ranked fourth for spending in the survey in 2019, and has now been number one for two straight quarters. This could be a good indicator that the game is seeing increased monetization in 2020.

The company expects $1 billion in billings for 2020, according to CNBC. Roblox pays around 25% of its revenue to developers who create in-app games.

Gaming developer Unity Software U went public in September and has seen shares surge 60% since the debut.

Microsoft Corporation MSFT bought out Mojang, maker of the rival game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion in 2014.

What’s Next: If Roblox attempts a direct listing, it would follow Asana Inc ASAN and Palantir Technologies PLTR who both took that route on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy: Roblox