Freelancer market operator Fiverr International (FVRR -2.00%) reported third-quarter results early Wednesday morning. The Tel Aviv-based company swung to a solid bottom-line profit and nearly doubled its sales year over year.
Freelance services are hot in 2020, and Fiverr is taking full advantage of this unique opportunity. Investors were quick to embrace Fiverr's strong results, driving share prices more than 9% higher during Wednesday's trading session.
Fiverr International's third-quarter results by the numbers
|
Metric |
Q3 2020 |
Q3 2019 |
Change |
Analyst Consensus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Revenue |
$52.3 million |
$27.9 million |
88% |
$49 million |
|
GAAP net income (loss) |
($0.5 million) |
($8.4 million) |
71% |
N/A |
|
Adjusted earnings (loss) per diluted share |
$0.12 |
($0.12) |
N/A |
$0.08 |
Data source: Fiverr International. GAAP = generally accepted accounting principles.
The company's stellar sales rested on rock-solid trends in the underlying business. The number of active buyers of freelance services increased 37% year over year to 3.1 million accounts, and the average spend per buyer rose 20% to $195. Higher customer numbers and beefier spending per client add up to significant pricing power for Fiverr, suggesting that the company could raise its fees significantly without scaring away its users.
The recent influx of new users appears to have staying power, too. Users who signed up for Fiverr's services during the second quarter generated an above-average return on Fiverr's user-grabbing investment in the third quarter.
These are still the early chapters of a long-lasting growth story. Fiverr launched a business-to-business gig marketplace in September, opening up the market for more substantial deals between larger businesses. The company is enjoying positive word-of-mouth marketing as successful users on both the buyer and seller sides of the freelancing gigs recommend Fiverr's services to family, friends, and business partners.
The company is expanding its international presence by translating its services into new languages, adding Portuguese during the third quarter in order to explore the Portuguese and Brazilian markets.
That's how business is done in 2020. Image source: Getty Images.
Where Fiverr is going from here
I could go on, but Fiverr's vibrant growth prospects should be abundantly clear by now.
"Our long view on what's going on right now is that the past decade that started with 2010 was a decade of freelancing becoming mainstream. We think that this decade is going to be the decade in which businesses are going to figure out how to integrate freelancers into their workflows," CEO Micha Kaufman said on the earnings call. "We're seeing smaller businesses continue to work on an increasing pace using freelancers to get themselves off the ground as they start the business. And the more mature businesses are figuring out how to integrate those freelancers into their existing workflows."
Fiverr provides flexible services with quick turnarounds for small and medium businesses. In the long run, the company wants to disrupt the entire job market. This stock is a direct bet on long-term growth in the small business sector today, with an eye toward expansion into larger business-to-business opportunities in the long run.
