Rumble Inc
For the period ended Jun 30, 2024. Filed Aug 12, 2024.
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Jun 30, 2024 · Filed Aug 12, 2024
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Item 1A. Risk Factors
Except as set forth below, there have been no material changes to the risk factors described under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. You should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and cautionary statements described therein, together with the other disclosures in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings with the SEC. Any such risks and uncertainties, as well as risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial, may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Relating to Our Business
We have offered and intend to continue to offer incentives, including economic incentives, to content creators to join our platform, and these arrangements may involve fixed payment obligations that are not contingent on actual revenue or performance metrics generated by the applicable content creator but rather are based on our modeled financial projections for that creator, which if not satisfied may adversely impact our financial performance, results of operations and liquidity.
Our user base and user engagement growth are directly driven by the content available on our platform. We have acquired and expect to continue to acquire content by providing economic incentives, including minimum guaranteed earnings, to a limited number of content creators, including sports leagues. These incentives have included and may continue to include equity grants and cash payments. This content acquisition strategy is intended to allow us to enter key content verticals and secure top content creators in those verticals before we have full monetization capabilities in place. Our present focus is to grow users and usage consumption and experiment with monetization levers, which may not maximize profitability in the immediate term, but which we believe positions our business for the long term. As of June 30, 2024, we had entered into programming and content agreements with a minimum contractual cash commitment of $55 million. In addition to the minimum contractual cash commitments, we have programming and content agreements that have variable cost arrangements. These future costs are dependent upon many factors and are difficult to anticipate, however, these costs may be substantial. To the extent our revenue and/or user growth assumptions associated with any particular creator do not meet our expectations, our financial performance, results of operations and liquidity may be negative impacted, since a failure to achieve these expectations is not expected to reduce our fixed payment obligations to any such creator.
In addition, when these programming and content agreements expire, content creators may choose to leave the Rumble video platform in favor of competing platforms, especially if competing platforms offer superior monetization opportunities. Creators may choose to leave our platform for other monetization-related reasons. For example, we currently do not apportion revenues related to Rumble Premium, our subscription service that provides users ad-free access to our content, among content creators. The loss of a material portion of our existing content creators could result in reductions to our user base and material harm to our business and results of operations.
Our recently launched cloud services business may not achieve success, and, as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our recent expansion into the cloud service business may not be successful and involves various risks relating to this business that may negatively affect our operating results, including:
| ● | our ability to derive an optimal pricing model that enables us to derive sufficient value from our customers while attracting new customers and retaining existing customers; |
| ● | our reliance on third-party providers for data center space and colocation services and on public cloud providers to prevent service disruptions; |
| ● | the intense competition that we face, including from companies with longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we have; |
| ● | our ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, particularly software and cloud engineers and sales and customer experience personnel; |
| ● | the possibility that we may be unable to maintain and improve our platform performance, especially during peak usage times; |
| ● | the possibility that we may underestimate or overestimate our data center capacity requirements and our capital expenditures on data centers, servers and equipment; |
| ● | our ability to obtain standard industry security certifications for our platform and products; |
| ● | our exposure to possible liability and harm to our reputation if the security of our cloud is breached, resulting in the exposure of our customers’ data, including personal information, to cyber criminals and other nefarious actors; |
| ● | the possibility that we may be unable to maintain the compatibility of our platform with third-party applications that our customers use in their businesses; and |
| ● | our ability to respond to rapid technological changes with new solutions and services offerings. |
The occurrence of any of these factors, or our inability to successfully mitigate the results of the associated impact, could also damage our reputation, negatively impact our relationship with our customers, and otherwise materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Risks related to our e-commerce business may result in our broader business, financial condition and results of operations being adversely affected.
We recently launched partnerships through which we sell Rumble-branded products through our online store, and we plan to expand such product partnerships in the future. This expansion involves various risks that may negatively affect our operating results, including:
| ● | expansion into new brands, products, services, and technologies will subject us to additional reputational, business, legal, regulatory and financial risks; |
| ● | inability to build and maintain strong brands, including due to unfavorable customer feedback and negative publicity; |
| ● | notwithstanding agreements by our partners to assume liability for the Rumble-branded products they place in our online store, we may be subject to product liability and similar claims and regulatory actions if products sold through our store result in harm, personal injury, death, or environmental or property damage; |
| ● | risks related to additional tax liabilities and collection obligations; |
| ● | market competition could adversely affect prices and demand for the Rumble-branded products we distribute; |
| ● | disruptions in our supply chain and other factors affecting the availability and distribution of our products could adversely impact our business; and |
| ● | risks related to online transactions and payment methods. |
The occurrence of any of these factors, or our inability to successfully mitigate the results of the associated impact, could also damage our reputation, negatively impact our relationships with our customers, and otherwise materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We derive the majority of our revenue from advertising. The failure to attract new advertisers, the loss of existing advertisers, or the reduction of or failure by existing advertisers to maintain or increase their advertising budgets may adversely affect our business and operating results.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, advertising revenue represents 74% and 79% of total revenue. In addition, a substantial portion of our revenue is derived one advertiser accounting for approximately 46% and 45% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. As is common in our industry, our advertisers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us. In addition, many of our advertisers purchase advertising services through one of several large advertising agency holding companies. Our revenue could be harmed by the loss of, or a deterioration in our relationship with, any of our largest advertisers or with any advertising agencies or the holding companies that control them. Advertising agencies and potential new advertisers may view our advertising products and services as experimental and unproven, and we may need to devote additional time and resources to educate them about our products and services. Advertisers may cease doing business with us, or they may reduce the prices they are willing to pay to advertise with us, if we do not deliver ads in an effective manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to alternatives, including online, mobile, and traditional advertising platforms. Advertisers may refuse to advertise on our platform due to a perceived risk to their brand safety standards, especially given the concentration of news and political content on our platform. We believe that our access to certain advertisers has been, and may continue to be, inhibited by the apparent political bias of these companies, some of whom we believe may exercise near monopolistic control over the advertising industry. In response, we recently filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to withhold advertising revenue from Rumble and other digital media platforms. Our actions to counter these efforts, whether through litigation or publicity campaigns, may not be successful. Any of the foregoing developments may adversely affect our business and operating results.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.