King, the make of the popular mobile game Candy Crush, just filed to raise $500 million in an IPO.
Their growth numbers are insane. Here are the key numbers.
Note the revenue chart. In Q4 2012, total revenue was $71 million. A year later, that jumped to $632 million. And the margins are big. On that $632 million in revenue, they booked $269 million in profit.
It's worth noting that several metrics actually show a tiny dip in Q4 vs. Q3 of last year, which might raise an eyebrow.
These infographics from the filing also give some information:
King
King
Meanwhile, you should read their risk factors. The basic gist is that the company's growth is insane, but that it's basically a one-hit wonder, and it may be hard to keep that up.
We have experienced significant rapid growth in our operations, and we cannot assure you that we will effectively manage our growth.
We have experienced a period of significant rapid growth and expansion in our operations that has placed, and continues to place, significant strain on our management and resources. For example, our staff headcount and the scope and complexity of our business have increased significantly, with the number of employees increasing from 144 as of December 31, 2011 to 665 as of December 31, 2013, and we expect headcount growth to continue for the foreseeable future. Since October 2011, we have also opened five more game studios in Europe to support our growth and game development. The growth and expansion of our business and headcount create significant challenges for our management and operational resources. We cannot assure you that this level of significant growth will be sustainable in the future. In the event of continued growth of our operations, our information technology systems or our internal controls and procedures will need to be scaled to support our operations. In addition, some members of our management do not have significant experience managing a large global business operation, so our management may not be able to manage such growth effectively. We also recently hired our Chief Financial Officer in October 2013. To effectively manage our growth, we must continue to improve our operational and management processes and systems, and identify, hire, integrate, develop and motivate a large number of qualified employees. If we fail to do so, our ability to grow our business could be harmed. As our organization continues to grow, and we are required to implement more complex organizational management structures, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain the benefits of our corporate culture, including our ability to quickly develop and launch new games. This could negatively affect our business performance.
A small number of games currently generate a substantial majority of our revenue.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, our top three games Candy Crush Saga, Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Heroes Saga accounted for 95% of our total gross bookings (across the web and mobile channels in the aggregate), with Candy Crush Saga accounting for 78% of our total gross bookings (across the web and mobile channels in the aggregate) or 86% and 58% of our mobile channel and web channel gross bookings, respectively. During 2013, we had fewer games launched on the mobile channel than on the web channel. In future periods, we expect Candy Crush Saga to represent a smaller percentage of our total mobile channel gross bookings as we diversify our mobile game portfolio. If the gross bookings of our top games, including Candy Crush Saga are lower than anticipated and we are unable to broaden our portfolio of games or increase gross bookings from those games, we will not be able to maintain or grow our revenue and our financial results could be adversely affected.