
The Roblox Corporation takes a share of every transaction on this fully-functional economy. In recent years, these social gaming aspects have been used by celebrities like Lil Nas X to host live performances and reach a younger demographic. Users also can create private meeting rooms and spaces to hang out with friends, making it similar to social media apps like Snapchat or Discord. This means users can create their own games, sell them on the platform and collect payments in the platform’s native digital currency called Robucks. However, the Roblox platform is far more capable and customizable. Here’s a video of someone using the platform that may seem instantly familiar to most of you:Īs you can see, the gameplay is remarkably reminiscent of Minecraft. Roblox, it seems, rolls all these features together into one mega application that offers everything. Some have monetization features that allow anyone to create and upload content that could be a lucrative side hustle, while others simply serve as the town’s square for tweens to communicate.

If you’re young enough to get turned away from a pub, you’re probably spending your time playing Fortnite (62.7% users younger than 24), learning a new skill via YouTube (regularly used by 77% of 15-25) or chatting with friends on Snapchat ( SNAP).Įach of these platforms offers something unique.

The Roblox modelįrom what I gather, Generation Z (those born between 19) have an eclectic collection of tools and platforms that help them interact with the digital world. In that spirit, here’s a closer look at Roblox’s business model, its underlying fundamentals, it’s pivot from IPO to direct listing and my estimate of its fair value. Meanwhile, I’ve convinced myself that I need to look into any platform that has this much traction with teenagers if I have any hope of spotting the next Facebook (FB) or YouTube. Nevertheless, it’s likely to go public in early 2021.

The company should have been public by now, but decided to pull the listing because of the ludicrous success of Airbnb ( ABNB) and DoorDash’s ( DASH) IPOs (more on this later). Turns out the platform has been around for over a decade, is worth several billions and is used by nearly half of North America’s population under the age of 16. One such instance was my discovery of gaming platform Roblox ( NYSE: RBLX) this year. As I get closer to my 30s, instances that make me feel old become increasingly common.
