Fiverr International Ltd
NYSE:FVRR

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Earnings Call Analysis

Q2-2024 Analysis
Fiverr International Ltd

Revenue and Profitability on the Rise Amid New Product Launches

In the second quarter, the company reported a revenue of $94.7 million, marking a 6% increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA hit $17.8 million with an 18.9% margin, which is a year-over-year improvement of 180 basis points. The company completed a $100 million share buyback and forecasts further increases in free cash flow with a mid-teens CAGR over the next three years. There were notable challenges, such as a decline in active buyers and traffic slowdown in June, but new initiatives like the AutoDS acquisition and the integration of AI tools are expected to diversify revenue streams and stabilize long-term growth.

Strong Financials in Q2 Reflect Operational Discipline

Fiverr reported a solid second quarter for 2024, achieving revenue of $94.7 million, an increase of 6% year-over-year. This outcome was above the midpoint of the company's guidance, reflecting effective management and operational discipline. The adjusted EBITDA came in at $17.8 million, yielding an impressive margin of 18.9%. Notably, this EBITDA margin showed an increase of 180 basis points compared to the prior year, underscoring Fiverr's commitment to enhancing operational leverage. The company expects to achieve a 25% long-term adjusted EBITDA margin by 2027, indicating robust plans for profitability and efficiency in the coming years.

Cash Flow Generation Remains Strong

Fiverr continues to demonstrate impressive cash flow generation capabilities with an operating cash flow of $21 million, up 11.9% year-over-year. The free cash flow also saw substantial growth, reaching $20.7 million, representing an increase of 12.5% year-over-year and translating to a free cash flow margin of 21.8%. These metrics illustrate Fiverr's ability to generate sustainable and growing cash flows, which provide support for future investments and returning value to shareholders.

Strategic Share Buyback Program Completed

Fiverr successfully completed a $100 million share buyback program, which was authorized in April. This strategic move reflects the company's confidence in its long-term growth prospects and commitment to enhancing shareholder value. The strong cash flow and solid balance sheet enable Fiverr to continue investing in its business while also returning capital to shareholders, demonstrating a balanced approach to capital allocation.

Mixed Trends in User Metrics Offer Insight into Demand

While Fiverr experienced growth in spending per buyer, which rose by 10% year-over-year, there was a decline in the number of active buyers, dropping to 3.9 million—a decrease of 8% year-over-year. Additionally, the overall Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) decelerated in Q2 due to weaker traffic starting in June. The company noted that the strength experienced earlier in the year was likely a pull forward, raising concerns about sustainability. As the economic environment remains challenging, particularly with higher inflation and interest rates impacting small businesses, Fiverr is closely monitoring buyer behavior and traffic trends.

Expanding Market Offerings with Product Innovations

Fiverr is actively expanding its product portfolio to capture additional market share and enhance its offerings. The introduction of a profession-based catalog and time-based transaction capabilities aims to facilitate long-term freelance hiring, providing a platform tailored for businesses with ongoing needs. This shift not only broadens Fiverr's addressable market but also aligns with the evolving business landscape where flexibility in talent acquisition is crucial.

AI Integration Continues to Drive Growth

The integration of AI tools, such as 'Neo', is a key focus for Fiverr. These tools aim to enhance customer experiences and improve match quality by assisting users in defining their project needs more accurately. This technological advancement is expected to bolster Fiverr's conversion rates, allowing buyers to engage with talent more effectively and contributively, facilitating higher overall platform engagement.

Guidance Suggests Cautious Outlook Amid Volatility

Looking ahead, Fiverr raised its revenue guidance for 2024, now expecting revenues between $383 million and $387 million, representing growth of 6% to 7% year-over-year. However, the outlook remains tempered by the anticipated volatility in the third quarter, with expectations of muted revenue growth. The company anticipates a recovery in the fourth quarter, supported by ongoing product improvements and the anticipated contributions from AutoDS, which is expected to enhance overall growth strategies and revenue streams.

Commitment to Long-Term Goals and Shareholder Value

Fiverr's management remains committed to long-term goals, projecting compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for free cash flow in the mid-teens over the next three years. They are also keen on disciplined capital allocation strategies and pursuing opportunities in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to strengthen their market position and expand offerings. This strategic vision positions Fiverr as a competitive player in the evolving gig economy landscape.

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2024-Q2

from 0
Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fiverr's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please advise that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Jinjin Qian. Please go ahead.

J
Jinjin Qian
executive

Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us on Fiverr's earnings conference call for the second quarter that ended June 30, 2024. Joining me on the call today are Micha Kaufman, Founder and CEO, and Ofer Katz, President and CFO.



Before we start, I would like to remind you that during this call we may make forward-looking statements and that these statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions as of today and Fiverr assumes no obligation to update or revise them. A discussion of some of the important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements can be found under the Risk Factors section in Fiverr's most recent Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC.



During this call, we'll be referring to some key performance metrics and non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin and free cash flow. Further explanation and a reconciliation of each of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is provided in the earnings release we issued today in our shareholder letter, each of which is available on our website at investors.fiverr.com. And now I'll turn the call over to Micha.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Thank you, Jinjin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our Q2 results demonstrate continued strong execution and the resilience of our business. Both the revenue and adjusted EBITDA came in above the midpoint of our guidance as we continue to expand customer wallet share and improve monetization. We are committed to driving profitable growth and delivering shareholder value in a fluid environment.



I'm pleased to report that we have completed the $100 million buyback program announced in April. We remain highly confident about the long-term opportunity of our business and believe our strong cash flow and strong balance sheet allow us to invest in our business while returning capital to our shareholders.



I'm very excited to be here today. It has been an incredibly busy and fulfilling few months at Fiverr, culminating in the announcement of our Summer Product Release last week. I want to thank our entire team for their hard work. The level of energy and dedication, especially in the last few weeks, reminded me of Fiverr's early days when we were just a small start-up. Fittingly, we are starting up a number of new ventures as we look to take our business to the next level. First is the expansion of Fiverr to enable freelance hiring capabilities. With the introduction of profession-based catalog and the ability to initiate time-based transactions and contracts, we are enabling businesses to hire long-term freelancers who act as part of the team with ongoing tasks and goals.



This is not an area we competed historically. But as we increasingly go up market and lean into complex service categories, it becomes essential to round up our offering. We believe it will significantly expand our direct addressable market, allowing us to open up top of funnel, specifically for traffic with long-term hiring intentions. It will allow us to capture more of our customers' overall freelance hiring budget.



The expansion of Fiverr to a multi-solution platform that enables long-term hiring is also an important message to our community. In an environment where AI seems to have the potential of upend many professions, the line between human services and AI-generated services is blurring. The professions-based catalog puts talent at the center of the marketplace experience. To our buyer community, it underscores our value proposition in connecting them with the best human talent around the world for authentic creative work.



To our talent community, the mission of Fiverr since day one has always been to bring them opportunities and empower their success, and the commitment has not changed in the face of AI. It is our passion and responsibility to help talent navigate the changing landscape, discover their skills and translate them into a career.



Earlier this month, we unveiled our first ever breakthrough achievement recognition to celebrate freelancers who have achieved significant earning milestones on Fiverr. It is extremely rewarding and inspiring to see people making $1 million or even $5 million throughout our platform by just doing what they love. Whether you're a musician or script writer or Shopify expert and no matter where you come from, it is all possible on Fiverr.



The second theme of our Summer Product Release is deepening the integration of Neo, Fiverr's AI tool throughout the market-based experience. As Gen-AI applications quickly shift consumers' Internet behavior and expectations, we want to stay ahead of the curve to build a more personable experience on Fiverr. At the same time, tests and data in the past 6 months have shown that not everyone prepares the outright chatbot experience when it comes to shopping. So, our strategy for Neo is to incorporate it as an assistance throughout the funnel to help customers when friction arises. For search, Neo provides the guidance you need to navigate Fiverr's massive catalog of services and talent. And it is trained to understand customers' past transactions and preference to provide the most relevant recommendations.



When it comes to project briefing, having Neo is like having a strategist by your side. It transforms customers' ideas into a structured brief document that not only looks good, but also delivers better business results. Neo can also help customers write more detailed reviews faster by generating content based on transactions and providing language assistance. We are in the early innings of unleashing the full potential of AI in our marketplace, and we believe it will be a multiyear tailwind for us to drive product innovation and growth.



Lastly, I want to say a few words on the acquisition of AutoDS. For us, the deal is strategic for a number of reasons. Fiverr was founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to find financial independence. The creator economy is the epitome of this community. And competitively, we have a strong foothold in this segment. We are passionate about continuing to support and empower this community. Like the Fiverr millionaires that I've mentioned earlier, there is something emotional gratifying in witnessing and contributing to their amazing stories.



Secondly, while dropshipping is not exactly a new business with the rise of fast fashion e-commerce sites like Temu and Shein and the continued strength of social media, we are seeing dropshipping related categories experiencing tremendous growth on Fiverr. That includes Shopify development, e-commerce management, video ads and UGC videos, to name a few. We believe the deal can create many synergetic opportunities for us to lean into growth.



Lastly, in an alignment with our expansion to a platform play, we are taking the opportunity to fold in new subscription-based revenue stream with strong synergy and growth potential. This will add to our value-added product portfolio, which includes Promoted Gigs and Seller Plus, and further strengthen our business overall financial profile.



To wrap up, we are expanding our business from a simple market base to a complete freelance talent platform for businesses of all sizes. We are also diversifying our business model to capture customers' freelance spending and provide them with multiple value-added products and software solutions. We continue to operate at the highest level of discipline to drive consistent margin expansion and free cash flow generation. We are committed to profitable growth, robust free cash flow and a disciplined capital allocation strategy that aims to deliver long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ofer, who will share some financial highlights.

O
Ofer Katz
executive

Thank you, Micha, and good morning, everyone. We delivered another strong quarter of results. Revenue for Q2 was $94.7 million, up 6% year-over-year, above the midpoint of our guidance. Adjusted EBITDA was $17.8 million, near the top end of our guidance and representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.9%. Importantly, adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 180 basis points year-over-year, which underscore our commitment to driving steady, measurable operating leverage. We remain confident in our ability to achieve a 25% long-term adjusted EBITDA margin in the next three years. We also continued to generate impressive cash flow. Operating cash flow was $21 million, up 11.9% year-over-year. Free cash flow was $20.7 million, representing a 12.5% year-over-year increase and a free cash flow margin of 21.8%. These results in a strong balance sheet, which we intend to use to increase shareholder value through a prudent capital allocation strategy.



As Micha mentioned, we have completed the $100 million share buyback, which was authorized in April, and we are committed to optimizing our capital allocation strategy to deliver shareholders value. Over the next three years, we expect to continue growing free cash flow generation with a CAGR in the mid-teens. There are multiple ways we can get them but as I often say, we always model based on what we know. Based on our line of sight today, we expect to achieve this through steady revenue growth, continued margin expansion, strong free cash flow generation accompanied by active share count management.





Unpacking our Q2 results, we continue to see our strategy of going up market work really well with spend per buyer showing a robust growth of 10% year-over-year. We also see AI continuing to have a net positive impact on our business. It is important to know that we are starting to see stabilizing and improving trends in simple services. As we mentioned in prior quarters, we believe the low-end transaction within the simple service categories were getting impacted the most. As the mix shift within those categories improved towards the higher end, we believe the overall durability of those categories shall improve over time as well.





There are also certain metrics in Q2 that didn't perform as strongly as we had anticipated. Active buyer was $3.9 million, down 8% year-over-year and overall GMV decelerate in Q2.

Both were impacted by a slowdown in traffic started in June as the strength we saw in the earlier part of the year proved to be more of a pull forward rather than sustainable term of trends. These trends serve as a reminder for us that we are still in the middle of macro cycle where higher inflation and interest rates impact the immediate cash flow of small businesses, erode their confidence in spending as they try to preserve more cash and delay large projects for potential rainy days ahead.



As we enter into the second half of this year, we are expanding on our product portfolio, both organically and inorganically to create additional growth catalysts as Micha covered extensively in his remarks. Our seller monetization program, such as Promoted Gigs and Seller Plus continue to show strong growth momentum and the addition of AutoDS will further strengthen our overall take rate. We believe these efforts will keep us on track to deliver the targets we set at the beginning of the year.



For the full year 2021, we are raising the bottom end of our guidance and now expect revenue to be in the range of $383 million to $387 million, representing year-over-year growth of 6% to 7%. We are seeing the volatility in June continuing to July, and we anticipate Q3 revenue growth to be relatively muted. We expect Q4 revenue growth to improve as the continued product development and the addition of the AutoDS creates additional growth catalysts. In terms of underlying drivers, we now expect active buyers to decline slightly more than we previously anticipated and spend per buyers to continue growing at a robust pace. We now expect the take rate to increase by approximately 250 basis points as we continue to expand our value-added product portfolio.



For adjusted EBITDA, we expect full year 2024 to be in the range of $69 million to $73 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.4% at the midpoint. We are confident that we can continue making steady and consistent progress on our adjusted EBITDA margin to reach 25% by the end of 2027. With that, we'll now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. And now we're going to take the first question, and it comes from the line from Ron Josey from Citi.

R
Ronald Josey
analyst

So I wanted to ask about the product and then maybe a little bit more about just broader visibility. So, on the product, look, I think it's really fast in the expansion to a broader marketplace with the hiring platform. And so specifically, Micha, I wanted to hear a little bit more about the benefits of Neo as it relates to conversion rates and then insights on overall launch plans to have it fully integrated.



And as we also think about the product I would love to hear more from a professional-based catalog, just how you see demand and supply evolving on the marketplace over time as you bring everything together and become more of that hiring and marketplace platform? And then just a little more detail on the macro volatility, the pull forward early in the year and then June, July comments. Was this just a change that happened in June, July? And as interest rates maybe come down, any insights on maybe when we might see some stability here.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Ron, thanks for the questions. I'll try to take them by order. So, the first one, as I think about the product release and specifically about Neo. So essentially, I think as I've said in my opening comments, the possibility of actually using AI to make our products better, it's pretty much endless. And we're in the very early stages of doing that and the experimentation that we've done with Neo as a personal assistant within the inbox, which is the -- which was the first version of doing it, taught us a lot about how our customers are actually using it and how it improves the conversion in briefing. It allows buyers to complete and it leads to higher conversion as a result. And so, the idea here is that we're graduating Neo to get out of the inbox and essentially being integrated in all of our experience. Right now, it's being rolled out gradually because we want to test its accuracy and performance. But essentially, you can fund it as a personal assistant throughout the experience. So, it allows customers to search better, to be more accurate about their needs, and as a result get much higher quality match.



But it also has awareness about where it exists. So, if you're looking at a specific page, you can ask questions about that page. So, it helps people make decisions and get to what they're looking for better. The same goes with the integration in briefing. If customers have a brief premade then they can just upload it, and we help make that brief even better.

But if they don't, then the technology that is behind Neo actually helps them write a better, more accurate brief and again, as a result of that, get matched with a much more specific cohort of potential talent that can do the job. So essentially it's a big part of our summer release. We're very happy on how it's progressing, it's a new technology, as we scale it up, it takes a little bit of time but we're in the process of gradually opening this up for more customers.



Second question was [Indiscernible] the profession-based catalog. So essentially, what are the things that happens in this idea of graduating for a market base to a platform is historically, Fiverr was just a market base for predefined services. But those services are being offered by professionals and we've noticed that a lot of the -- a lot of our customers, when they search for something, they do not necessarily search for a specific service, but they do search for specific talent. And as a result of that, we created a new catalog that is very much focused on talent, skills, professions, rather than specific services. And again, it allows customers to be more naturally matched with our talent. If you connect this with new contracting forms, like the possibility of paying based on hourly rates, then that completes or upgrades, enhances the platform and the possibilities of customers to actually engage with talent.



I think your last question was about what we're seeing with macro. I think as Ofer mentioned, we've seen some volatility during June. First, macro environment continues to be challenging in terms of SMB and the sentiment of hiring. And I think that there's a few stats that are worth calling out here. So, we have the small business index that continues to linger at the lowest levels in a decade. You have the job opening that are down 7% year-over-year. And in the tech sector, specifically, they're down 17% year-over-year, and you have professional staffing that is tracked through staffing hours that is also down 7% year-over-year, which is slightly worse than it was a year ago. So, all in all, when you think about the hiring space, the hiring space is not seeing its brightest moment right now.





In addition to that, what we've seen during June was some slowness in top-of-funnel traffic for us across the platform. So I think that from a matrix perspective, it's more visible in terms of impact on active buyers and less on spend per buyer. And spend per buyer has been growing pretty aggressively double-digit and the efforts that we're doing and going upmarket continues to pay off. And from a category perspective, we're seeing some more volatility among larger projects, which is something new. And I think that this tells more than anything else that what we're seeing is something that we can't call a steady trend.

Right now, the market is a little bit volatile, some of it is seasonality, some of it is AI in some categories, some of it is just macro. But in reality, we see -- among larger projects we've seen some more volatility and at the same time we're seeing some more stability on simple projects which is slightly different than what we've seen in the first few months. So we're just calling out those thoughts, it's hard to call them a trend at this point.

Operator

Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Bernie McTernan from Needham & Company.

B
Bernard McTernan
analyst

Great. Maybe just to start, I'd love to dive into AutoDS a little bit more and just learn -- maybe what capabilities the acquisitions bring that you didn't have before or for its customers and probably most importantly, how it's supposed to impact the financials in the second half of the year. And then I think based on the commentary of the take rate being up 250 basis points this year, it implies GMV down year-over-year in the second half of the year. So, I just wanted to make sure I was triangulating that right. And then, I know it's early, but how to think about if we should be expecting in your view, a reacceleration in '25 or not or just given the comments of the '27 targets involving strong revenue growth, just maybe the puts and takes in getting there in terms of your thoughts, in terms of the ability to continue to expand the take rate, how M&A could play in that, but also importantly, GMV growth?

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Bernie, thanks for the questions. So, AutoDS. Essentially, I think as we said in the opening comments, dropshipping is a category that has been on Fiverr for many, many years, and we've been witnessing a lot of growth in this category. I've been saying in previous quarters that Fiverr has identified a number of faster-growing categories in which we intend to double down. And in some cases it's doubled down organically and in some cases there is an opportunity for inorganic growth as well. So, we had a very sizable community of people that are either dropshipping or offer services related to dropshippers. And what we're doing with the addition of AutoDS is expanding this space also into the software solution, so that allows us to really double down and accelerate.





AutoDS is practically in the software space related to dropshipping, is the #1 player in the world. It's a fast-growing company, we love the team. It's extremely synergic with our business for a number of reasons. It allows us to double the non-drop shipping, e-commerce, social media, user-generated content and video categories, which is, as I've said, some of the fastest-growing categories on Fiverr. It's a community that we know very well and feel very strongly about, and I think competitively, it allows us to extend our offering and grow this further and also add to the value chain by providing more products for them. It's a community that is in many ways rooted in Fiverr origin, and we're very passionate to empower them. We talked about this idea of the Fiverr Millionaire Award, and this connects really to self-made people, people that have built their businesses and are able to grow it. And lastly, I think it creates a diversified revenue stream, adding its subscription base, which is another step towards making our business, not just the market base, but also a platform that provides spring answers with software solution on top of access to opportunities.

O
Ofer Katz
executive

I think the second part of the question is related to take rate and impact on financials. And I would start by saying that we are happy and proud to end Q2 above consensus both for revenue and EBITDA and I would be confident to reiterate the guidance for the year, both on revenue with a slight increase in the pattern -- a pattern range and reiterating the EBITDA. And I think this takes into consideration the fact and Micha referred to -- what Micha said earlier about June and July weakness result in weak joining of a few buyer -- of active buyers, compensated those by spender buyers, growing in double digits and take rate expansion. And I think that looking on spender buyer, spender buyer has a robust growth because we're investing in going that market for some time. It's a majority of investments with the add-on of the summer release, hourly rate features that we didn't have before, a loyalty program. Those type of features allow us to double down on the communities with a bigger wallet and increased engagement relationship experience to a new level.



And the second part that compensate on the active buyer is a take rate. And take rate has expanded over the last few years with new features that we have added alongside the marketplace. And now going all the way back with the Promoted Gigs and then Seller Plus and I think the AutoDS falls into the same bucket, allowing our community to further utilize our offering to make money. And by having said that, we anticipate that the integration of the community will take some time and then the benefit of the AutoDS will fall into the take rate with much of the opportunity ahead of us. You asked about 2025 and 2027. I think that we put some timeline to the 25% EBITDA in 2027. This is based on the assumption that we continue to grow and continue to improve EBITDA. I think that's what we've been doing ever since. There is no step function or [hockey stake]. It's just about continue to do what we are doing, and make sure that the fundamental continue to work.

Operator

And the question comes from the line of Jason Helfstein from Oppenheimer & Co.

U
Unknown Analyst

This is Steve Roman on for Jason. So just one question on the consolidated take rates. So where do you see the ceiling on take rate over time, kind of long-term as you kind of look towards that 2027 target or the '27 targets you put out today?

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Jason, thanks for the question. So essentially, the -- if you think about the two parts of take rate, there's a transactional portion of it. And then there's the added value services and products that we offer to our community. The transactional portion of it hasn't really changed and the growth that we're seeing is coming from the value-added products, so we haven't cut this. For as long as we can continue generating products that our community loves using in things that they're worth spending, we'll continue doing that, and we have quite a few in the pipeline. And therefore, we haven't cut it and the transactional portion has pretty much remained the same. So that's how we're thinking about this.

Operator

Now we're going to take the next question. And the next question comes from the line of Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan.

D
Douglas Anmuth
analyst

I just wanted to talk more about the summer product release first, the hiring of long-term freelancers. Micha, maybe you can just talk about what you've seen here in terms of demand from buyers just as you've built this product and kind of the drivers behind it? And then how we should think about monetization, is it still project-based or is there a different revenue structure there?

And then, Ofer, just on the full year outlook, maybe you can just talk a little bit more about what drives the confidence in the 4Q revenue acceleration.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Doug, thanks for the question. So, to the summer product lease, as we go upmarket and as we become more for our customers, they can envision doing more with us. In some cases, when you think about the predefined catalog of services, in some cases it's very hard for customers to define their need in the format of a well-defined service with the beginning and an end.



In some cases when they need to hire talent, all they know is that they need a highly qualified graphic designer for three months because they have a variety of projects some of them they're not even aware of what their specifics are but they know that they have a lot of pressure right now, and they need talent for the next couple of months. When that is the case the best way of doing that is not necessarily going through the gig or services catalog, but rather to find the right talent and engage in an ongoing arrangement, which is why we created this mechanism.



Now it's not competing with the services because when you know exactly what you need, and that is well defined and it has a beginning and an end, it's very easy for our community. They're very accustomed to providing the transparency and clarity of having a predefined scope of work where you know how long does it take and exactly how much it's going to cost. But these are the more variable tasks, the more variable ongoing projects.

And so, both the community from the supply side and the demand side have been asking for this and we're happy to get to the maturity of extending our marketplace into this platform idea that really allows multiple ways of engaging with talent and multiple ways of contracting and paying to talent, so we just launched it. The community is highly, highly excited about this, obviously, we're seeing a lot of transactions coming into the system already but since it's been about a week there are no numbers that we can talk about at this point.

O
Ofer Katz
executive

Yes. The second part, Doug, the question was about the confidence in Q4 and Q4 revenue. I think the confidence is based on what we are seeing, products that we have released and numbers of potential spender buyer growth and active buyer. I think that the current guidance implies more muted growth for [indiscernible]. And from a [Indiscernible] standpoint, we haven't taken into account any impact from product release. We do think that professional catalog and time-based contracts open up a full new world with [indiscernible] funnel traffic. Historically, we haven't competed in this area at all so there's definitely a potential to drive additional GMV uplift in the second half. So all in all, when we build the model based on what we see we think that the add-on of the AutoDS later this year to our audience will have a positive impact on top of everything that we are doing internally and the [summer] is a nice exit rate for this year.

Operator

Now we're going to take our next question and it comes from an of Andrew Boone from JMP Securities.

A
Andrew Boone
analyst

Micha, you've been fairly clear that AI has been a net page, but can you talk about what you're seeing on the simple tasks and whether there's a path to underlying stabilization for those categories? And then secondly, as you transition from a marketplace into more of a platform with software solutions, how should we expect that to manifest going forward? It sounds like AutoDS is going to be operating independently. How do you think about the synergies? And then how do you build out more software solutions and what's the obvious adjacencies that you're seeing there?

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Andrew, thanks for the question. So starting with AI. So essentially, AI continues to be net positive for us. We're seeing stabilizing and improving trends on simple services. We mentioned in the past that AI is impacting low ticket size job mostly so we continue to see improving trends on simple overall mix of projects. So the overall mix of projects shift towards higher-end skills. Now several quarters in, we are actually seeing that in our -- we're seeing this in our data. So, for example, writing and translation as a vertical is the vertical with the biggest exposure to AI impact. In Q2, we're actually seeing traffic in that vertical improved 10 percentage points in terms of year-over-year growth rate compared to Q1. And on complex services, they're still growing much faster than simple and neutral categories but the growth rate has moderated recently due to the volatility the we've been speaking about in June and July.



That said, with us now opening professions catalog and hourly contracts this will open up new funnels and create growth opportunities, especially for complex services categories. And remember that we have over 700 categories. So, our exposure to specific categories is relatively low and seasonal trends in category spend are a regular thing in our line of business. When we think about the overall mix complex is in the mid-30s of GMV and simple is about 20%, I would be careful about calling anything we've spoke about on June and in July, a trend because it's very hard to see stable things. Things seems to change over the year and as I've said, there's many reasons why that is and I would wait before we can actually quote it the trend.



The second question was transition to platform. So essentially, when you think about the progression, the way we have developed over the past couple of years, we started from being a gig market base where there's very well-defined services with timing and price associated with them and people can just come in and order. Over the years, we've been offering a long list of or a multi-solution -- building a multi-solution platform where our customers can actually engage in a multitude of ways with the talent on the platform depending on their needs. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to fit the solution with the right need. So what we've been doing with Fiverr Pro and Fiverr Enterprise, what we've been doing with project management, success management, the addition of agencies into the platform, Fiverr Pro, now the professions and the hourly based contracts, all of that complete a platform with multi-solutions for our customers' needs. On top of that, we have software solutions for specific needs that could be either our sellers or our buyers depending on the solution and AutoDS is a part of this.



So as I was saying in the beginning, dropshipping is a very lively, well-growing category for us by adding not just the community of AutoDS but they are software solution because this is what they are. They are a platform that solves all the needs of dropshippers were able to enjoy those synergies, offering software to our dropshippers and our freelancers and offer freelancing solutions and creative solutions for dropshippers that have the software but need help in managing their stores and growing their businesses and this together makes it highly synergic.

Operator

Now we're going to take our next question and the question comes from the line of Matt Farrell from Piper Sandler.

M
Matthew Farrell
analyst

Impressive free cash flow generation in the quarter, and congrats on completing the buyback for the $300 million of free cash flow over the next three quarters, should we be thinking about all of that being deployed in some way, just given where your balance sheet is today? And is the preference for continued buybacks or more M&A?

O
Ofer Katz
executive

Matt, did I assume you meant three years, $300 million or?

M
Matthew Farrell
analyst

Yes. The $300 million over the next three years, yes.

O
Ofer Katz
executive

Good. So I thought maybe you know something I don't know. But I think we laid off the capital allocation priorities in the shareholder's letter [indiscernible] extensive. I will name it now but again, that's a pretty extensive details and the shareholder letter. The way we see the capital allocation goes from investing products to drive growth. That's something that we've been doing for a while and will continue to do because we think the TAM is ahead of us, there's a lot of opportunity to capture. The second goes to optimize balance sheet and cash flow generation. I think a quick look into our balance sheet today shows we have a little bit over $700 million of cash and cash equivalents. And this is after we have completed the $110 million of buyback. So this $700 million allows us a lot of flexibility and also making sure we have enough liquidity to pay off if needed, the convert end of next year. And then if there is an opportunity for the value of the shareholders to do some more share buyback, if price is attractive, we may consider that.



And lastly, it's M&A. We've been [indiscernible] in the past and plan to continue and seek for alternatives for us to grow inorganic by M&A. You need to take into consideration that on top of the $700 million, we are generating free cash flow of approximately $18 million. So that as we look forward we're pretty positive and confident from cash point standpoint. And I think we intend to strategize our cash usage with the goal of driving steady and consistent free cash flow per share in the next three years. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks, with the current line of size, we believe we can drive a CAGR of 14% in free cash flow for the next three years and a similar trajectory for free cash flow per share.

M
Matthew Farrell
analyst

And maybe just one more. You mentioned not competing in the new long-term freelancer category until the recent product announcement. First, is there a way to size how big this opportunity is relative to the part of the market that you've been going after historically? And second, do you have to change your go-to-market strategy at all to compete in this new area with what I would assume to be a different set of competition to some degree?

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Yes. So I think when we look at this as we go up market, this opens up the ability to have a significantly larger ticket size projects that are, by definition, more longer-term or resemble more long-term freelancer hiring. And as a result of that, that has a number of implications. One, it allows to increase the top of funnel traffic because it allows us to get into more relevant keywords as we invest in the profession catalog. It allows us to exist also on certs that have to do with specific skills and not only on services. And lastly, also on conversion, it provides a way for buyers to search talent and initiate time-based contracts without having full scope and as a result, get into a more ongoing engagement. These are the types of engagements that Fiverr wasn't a part of. When you think about this competitively and what does it do to the market, we still think that the vast majority of opportunity is offline. It doesn't reside in specific marketplaces or platforms but it is actually pretty scarce, widely spread either in directories or in off-line ways of engagement. And we think that this is where the opportunity is in bringing that offline activity to the online, and this is why it is important for us to invest, again, to create this opportunity for top of funnel, relevant keywords to create more opportunity for new business traffic coming into Fiverr.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question and the question comes from the line of Marvin Fong from BTIG.

M
Marvin Fong
analyst

Just a couple for me. Just -- so curious on the volatility you saw in June and continuing into July. I know you said it was kind of across the top of funnel, but could you kind of speak to the larger businesses on your platform? I think in the past, you've worked things like to TikTioks and Deltas of the world, I mean, the larger organizations are you also seeing this level of volatility? Or is it isolated to SMB?



And then secondly, I know you referenced in your shareholder letter that Promoted Gigs and Seller Plus continue to do well. I'm just wondering if you could just drill a little deeper on that. I think in the past, you've given us some growth rates, but anything more you could share just on your view of that in the context of the choppiness we're seeing, freelancers leading into these type of services to grow their businesses even more. That would be helpful.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Thanks, Marvin. Thanks for the question. So, the -- when we look at our larger customers, that segment is growing faster than the rest. So yes, when we think about macro, macro does influence smaller businesses more. It should be said though and we called out that, for example, one of the things that were surprising that volatility is that categories like programming and technology, which are always growing, we're a little bit more volatile during that period of time. And again, I think I called out a number of statistics on professional hiring that I think are troubling and are saying that there is an impact of macro. That said, it is mostly top of funnel, meaning what you see is reduced levels of top-of-funnel traffic. Now, this doesn't necessarily touches our existing customers. Actually, if you think about it and you look at cohort behavior, actually, we're seeing cohorts behave better than before and I called out in previous earnings and that hasn't changed. Meaning that newer cohorts are spending more on their first purchase, first month, first quarter, first year and we're seeing those trends. So, it's less volatility of existing customers and those larger customers that work with us, in most cases, only extends the scope of work that they do. And yes, it is impacting SMB more than that. I think the second part of your question was about Promoted Gigs and Seller Plus?

M
Marvin Fong
analyst

Yes, just like your value-added services and stuff.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Yes, they're doing well. I think I said in the previous earnings when we gave a little bit more color in the form of actual number of growth, I said that there's a very nice road ahead for continued growth in both of these programs and that continues to be the case, right. Sellers are very eager to get in and obviously, these are -- in some cases, these are programs that are not open to all of them. The reason why they love using these products is -- it does create more income, it does create more value, more transparency, more analytics into their business. So we continue to create more ways for them to enjoy it in Promoted Gigs, increasing real estate in Seller Plus. In part of the summer release, we talk about starting to build a kick starter program that would provide more value to actually newer sellers, meaning it will help them start selling much faster and help them grow their business. So there's plenty of road ahead and we're not close to consuming the maximum potential of these programs.

Operator

And the last question for today comes from Lane of Rohit Kulkarni, Roth Capital Partners.

R
Rohit Kulkarni
analyst

A couple of them. I guess, like looking ahead, it feels like GAAP profitability is not too far in the future for you guys. Maybe talk about once you turn GAAP profitable how does that change your kind of philosophy of running the business? I see you already have put out bullish kind of free cash flow generation potential. But just it feels that the model brings us to GAAP profitability by end of this year and every quarter going forward so, I would love to get your take on that. And then in terms of this June, July trends, I know a lot has been asked and you have shared quite a few things. Perhaps, again, asking if there's a hard question, what gives you confidence that this volatility does not link that into August and September? Any leading indicators that you would point us towards?

O
Ofer Katz
executive

I'll take the first part on the gap. So, as we usually take and guide on long-term EBITDA and free cash flow, less than GAAP but we have done into get profitability already. So that's a good news. And as we look into the future we anticipate that the gap between the EBITDA and GAAP is going to decrease because of the share-based compensation that we are carrying from 2021. So that within 12 months ahead of us, what we anticipate is that the share-based compensation is going to be reduced from 18% of revenue as of now to 13%, which is pretty much in the range of the industry and GAAP EBITDA will grow side-by-side with EBITDA. I think we set the EBITDA target, the long-term target of '25 we now gave it a time line of 2027. Free cash flow follow EBITDA and I think that now that we are GAAP positive, I think we'll see improvement in GAAP income profitability over the next few quarters.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

And the next question about June and July trends. So it should be said -- as I've said that it's hard to call them a trend. There is some volatility, and that volatility is something that the guidance take into account. It does take into account that it's continuing into July and potentially impact on the second half of the year, hence, the updated color around active buyers. At the same time, spend per buyer take rate going up, which we think is going to cover it. And I mean, volatility might be influenced also as you think about how the year should we progress, on decisions about the interest rate and the outcome of the election in the U.S. So obviously, we're not profits, and it's very hard to know. But since we've taken into the guidance the possibility of this volatility continuing, but the confidence that we have on the spend per buyer and take rate, we believe that we're [Indiscernible].

Operator

I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Micha Kaufman for any closing remarks.

M
Micha Kaufman
executive

Thank you, [Indiscernible], for moderating the call today and thank you, everyone, for joining us. We're looking forward to seeing you in person very soon during the quarter. Thanks so much, and have a great day.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.

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