Truecaller AB Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple. Let's do them perhaps one by one. If we start on the Google changes mid-October, given that it happened halfway through the quarter, could you provide us some sort of breakdowns or details as to how we should think about it moving forward as it gives full effect? And then considering that it happened halfway through the quarter, presumably the latter parts of the quarter saw less dependency of the two large platforms than the early parts of the quarter. So could you tell us how large share of sales went through the platforms towards the latter parts of the quarter?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Okay. Okay. And just a brief follow-up on that. I mean, given that the quality of the click-through improves, should you -- should one expect you to be able to recoup some of the volume loss on CPM?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Okay. Okay. And then I'm a [tiny] bit surprised about the fact that you're referencing the algo change more than -- well, you haven't spoken too much about the impact of tariffs on the general macro economy in India. I'm a bit surprised by that. But we've also seen recent tax cuts and positive implications on things like discretionary spend in India. I know it's very, very early days, but do you see any impact sort of in the last couple of days/week from the tax cuts?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Okay. That's very clear, Rishit. And then just finally for me, I'd love to hear a little bit about your thinking and what the discussion is with the Board of Directors as to new financial targets, given that you set yours in connection with the IPO, things have changed, Truecaller has grown, pivoted, et cetera, et cetera. Should we expect any new financial targets anytime soon?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Okay, thank you.

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Thank you.I'll go one at a time as well, if I may. I just want to try again on the algorithm change, please. How much revenue do you think you lost as a consequence of this? And what I don't understand is how -- is it something that you need to fix? Is this something that you need to live without? So this is a permanent change and you simply have to find something unrelated to mitigate it. And then how long would that take? So can I stop there for this topic, please?

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Sorry, what is that in absolute terms, Odd? We don't really know the absolute numbers.

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Well, I'm asking because I can't. I don't know how much that particular partner contributed to the overall sales. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 28, 2025 / 12:00PM, TRUEb.ST - Q3 2025 Truecaller AB Earnings Call

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Okay. And then in terms of -- do you fix this or you -- do you mitigate it?

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Okay. An easy question now before the, I guess, more difficult one. The easy question is direct sales, what proportion of the ad revenue in the third quarter came from direct sales, please?

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : 10%. Okay, thank you. And then I think in the statement, you talk about the ad revenue per DAU on average for the quarter being down 15%, partly because of the issue that we just discussed, but also because Africa has lower GDP for the time being. Odd, you mentioned about ad revenue at the end of the quarter rather than on average and we should go off that going forward. I have no idea what that was. Was it -- can you give us an idea of what that was? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 28, 2025 / 12:00PM, TRUEb.ST - Q3 2025 Truecaller AB Earnings Call

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Well, you said that the ad revenue per DAU was down 15% on average for the quarter, right? And you said that the quarter was strong to begin with, and it was impacted at the end. So at the end of the period, I presume that ad revenue per DAU was down significantly more than 15%. I mean, at the end of the day, all I'm trying to do is when this call ends, this metric was down 7% in the first quarter, 5% in the second quarter and 15% in the third quarter. And I have no idea how to extrapolate from these three numbers to forecast ad revenue per DAU in Q4 and next year?

Question: John Karidis - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : It does. Thanks, Odd. Thank you, Rishit.

Question: Thomas Nilsson - Nordea Markets - Analyst : Thank you for taking my question. Given the record 310,000 subscriber additions this quarter, how sustainable do you think this pace of net adds is?

Question: Thomas Nilsson - Nordea Markets - Analyst : Okay. And the second question, if I may. How close are you to achieving feature parity with Android? And what would you say are the next key monetization steps for iOS in 2026?

Question: Thomas Nilsson - Nordea Markets - Analyst : Okay, thank you.

Question: Daniel Thorsson - ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA - Analyst : Yes, and thank you very much, Richard. First, a question on premium here. What activities are your key drivers today to convert users into premium users? And also a follow up on that, is the reason mainly that users wanting an ad-free experience? Or do you see any other feature accelerating as a reason recently? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 28, 2025 / 12:00PM, TRUEb.ST - Q3 2025 Truecaller AB Earnings Call

Question: Daniel Thorsson - ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA - Analyst : Yeah, I see. That makes sense. And then a second one on the cost side here. Employees up with 14 people in Q3 on the back of 17 net adds in Q2, which is a bit more than previous quarters. You talked about in the beginning your path for more growth here. You will continue to invest. But where do you invest this product-wise, but also geographically? And should we expect it to continue at roughly this pace ahead in the coming quarters?

Question: Daniel Thorsson - ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA - Analyst : Yeah. And should we expect it to continue at roughly this pace for the coming quarters?

Question: Daniel Thorsson - ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA - Analyst : Yeah, I see. Thank you very much.

Question: Erik Larsson - Seb Enskilda (London) - Analyst : Good afternoon. I just have a follow-up on the most recent question here, specifically more though on direct advertising. It's clear you have ambitions here, but I just wanted to hear sort of how many people do you have working with direct ads? Where do you see this going within the couple of one, two years, maybe just as a way to quantify this ambition?

Question: Erik Larsson - Seb Enskilda (London) - Analyst : Okay, is it possible (multiple speakers) -- okay. Is it possible to ballpark like how big is the team today? Where is the starting point? I mean, it sounds like it used to be a handful of people only.

Question: Erik Larsson - Seb Enskilda (London) - Analyst : Okay, thanks for that color. That was all from me.

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I have a few. I'll go one by one, please. With regards to the direct ad sales, I think you mentioned 10% to 15%, I think you mentioned a similar sort of figure, 10% to 15% of the ad revenues comes from direct. I think you mentioned a similar sort of figure last quarter as well, if I'm not wrong. So are you not -- I mean, if you just calculate that, that basically means you've actually not grown on that direct sales. Is that right? Because given you've been focusing on this for a while, just wondering why you haven't grown if my calculation is indeed correct.

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Okay, okay. Thanks. And what's the reason given by your ad partner on the algorithm change? Could it also happen with other partners as well? And I had a follow-up question on the impact, but I think you kind of answered that already with the other people.

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Yeah, I understand that. But did they give you a reason? Like, I mean, they must tell you something, right?

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Post the change. Post the change, you didn't get any reason?

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Okay. All right. With regards to the premium subscribers, you said that you aim to maintain a similar level of growth as you have so far. Do you need to continue to spend a similar level on marketing expenses going forward as well to do that? If not, how are you going to sustain that?

Question: Bharath Nagaraj - Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Analyst : Understood. Very helpful. Thank you.

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Hey, guys, just a quick follow-up. I mean, that the magnitude of the revenue drop with the DSP that changed the algo [makes] the question of like how are their policies now compared to other DSPs? Do you see a risk that others will align their policies with the change made because the 1/3 drop from that specific platform seems quite hefty?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : But just to test my numbers with you Odd a little bit, and I appreciate that answer. But if you -- going into Q3, the two DSPs, the two main ones constituted say, 50% of total and then the larger one, which made the changes constitute, say, 2/3 of that, that implies like a 10% headwind on advertising revenues solely stemming from the policy change. Is that ballpark correct?

Question: Ramil Koria - Danske Markets Equities - Analyst : Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.