Hello and welcome to Deezer's 25 full results presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by raising your hand inside the webcast player. You can also submit written questions through the box under the player. I will now turn it over to your host, Alexis Lanternier, Deezer CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Deezer fiscal 2025 results conference call. Moving on to slide three. I'm Alexis Lanternier, the CEO of Deezer. Today, Carl and I will present Deezer 2025 results. I will start with the key highlights of the year, and then Carl will then go into more details on our 2025 performance. After that, we'll discuss 2026 outlook and the strategy. At the end of our presentation, we will answer your questions. Moving to slide four. 2025 was a pivotal year with all targets met or exceeded. We posted revenue of EUR 534 million, in line with our expectation, stability year-over-year at constant currency. We saw strong momentum in our direct subscriber base. France accelerated direct user acquisition to 8.6% growth year-over-year, reaching 3.8 million subscribers.
We turned back to growth in rest of the world at 7.7% after stabilizing for several quarters. Most importantly, we reached a major achievement in our profitability, exceeding our financial guidance. Adjusted EBITDA improved by EUR 14 million year-over-year, reaching EUR 10 million in 2025 compared to minus EUR 4 million in 2024. This reflects the successful execution of our strategy as well as strong financial discipline throughout the year. We also delivered positive net income for the first time in Deezer history at EUR 8.5 million, compared to negative EUR 26 million in 2024, and generated positive free cash flow for the seventh year in a row. As a result, our cash position is very robust at EUR 65 million at year-end. Moving to slide five. Over the past years, we've been able to fundamentally turn the company around. We grew the business while achieving profitability.
Our business model is sustainable, and we are now there. Today, we are in a much stronger position. The work we have done over the past few years gives a similar path to create strategic optionality for the future. Three levers for this ambition. First, our leadership in France, combined with the ability to reach younger audiences. Second, our unique partnership DNA, which give us the ability to capture new monetization models as the music ecosystem evolves. Third, the opportunities ahead of us in AI, where we believe we have the asset and capabilities to keep a leadership role in the music industry. The next step for us is now to crystallize that optionality. Moving on to slide six. Let's now spend a few minutes discussing the key business highlight of the year. Slide seven.
Our strategy is clear and very focused, and after just one year of implementation, it's already delivering tangible results. First, we saw continued subscriber growth momentum in France and rest of the world. This was mainly driven by our efforts on brand differentiation, in particular as a result of, one, our leadership role in AI music content and the scale of our UCPS model to ensure fair artist remuneration. But also continuing innovation to deepen user engagement and foster more authentic connection between fan and artist. Second, we saw positive dynamic in our partnership segment, marked by the renewal of 10 major distribution partners, representing more than 60% of our partnership revenues, as well as the expansion of our white label offerings with renewal and new signings. Slide eight. Let's now have a deeper look at our action on AI transparency and fair artist remuneration.
Throughout this year, we remain committed to building a fair, transparent and sustainable music ecosystem. As the presence of AI-generated content has significantly accelerated in music streaming, Deezer has confirmed its leadership by introducing its proprietary detection technology. This is a first in the streaming industry. Our advanced AI detection technology now identifies approximately 60,000 AI-generated tracks daily, representing 39% of all content submissions. AI-generated tracks are excluded from recommendation and properly tagged, ensuring transparency for user while safeguarding creators' interest. We also found that up to 85% of the stream on AI-generated tracks could be fraudulent, and these streams are demonetized from the royalty pool to avoid dilution of real artist earnings. On the remuneration side, our artist-centric payment system now cover more than 85% of platform streams, including all three majors and a growing number of independent aggregators.
This reflects our ongoing commitment to fairness in artist remuneration and the fight against royalty fraud. These efforts have also strengthened Deezer's brand, with our share of voice in France improving by six points versus 24, and more than 2,200 articles published on Deezer and AI music. Moving on to slide nine. Over the year, we continued to differentiate our product with a series of innovations, focused on customization, control, and social sharing, driving engagement and relevance, particularly among younger generations. First, My Deezer Year was a major success with over 4 million unique users and more than 5 million shares, demonstrating the viral potential of these models. Building on this momentum, we launched My Deezer Months, a more regular format to keep this engagement going throughout the year.
Second, we rolled out a series of advanced personalization tools and features, allowing users to fine-tune their app and their listening experience, making it their own. These personalization options have already been adopted by more than 1 million unique Gen Z users, confirming the relevance of this approach for this demographic. Third, Deezer Club continued to deepen fan artist connections with over 1 million users' participation in contests, now offering exclusive access, pre-sale, and VIP experience over the past 12 months. Moving on to slide 10. On the partnership front, we continue to roll out our strategy with the ambition to build a sustainable, profitable leg. First, we renew 10 major distribution agreements, representing a significant share of our partnership revenue, among which Orange and Bouygues, and confirming our ability to foster a lasting relationship with our partners.
We also signed six new partners across new verticals, Molotov TV, Coriolis Mobile, Fitness Park, Chippu, Nolej and EDF. Beyond distribution, we are expanding our technology content and expertise to power music experiences for brands, retailers, and professionals. We renewed our partnership with Sonos in the U.S. and launched Deezer for Professionals. This concludes the section on business highlights, and now I will hand it over to Carl for the finance section.
Thank you, Alexis, and good morning, everyone. Let's discuss our 2025 results and move to slide 12. Our subscriber base amounted to 9.1 million at the end of 2025. First thing to say is that we no longer present like for like figures as we stop the adjustment we used to make on our subscriber base due to inactive family accounts. In this slide, we see two separate trends. First, the continued positive momentum in direct, up 8.3% year-over-year. Direct performance continues to be driven by steady subscriber growth in France, reaching 8.6% growth to 3.8 million subscribers. Rest of the world returned to growth this year, reaching 1.9 million subscribers without new marketing spend, reflecting the success of our strategy and visibility of our PR initiatives international.
On the right-hand side of the page, the decline in partnership subscribers due to residual headwinds as the Meli+ deal is still phasing out. That being said, we're starting to see stabilization quarter-over-quarter. Turning to ARPU, we can see several mix effects as ARPU in partnerships improved 8.6% year-over-year due to our mix of deals, while direct ARPU slightly decreased by 2% year-over-year on the back of the success of our family offers. Moving on to slide 13. In 2025, we reported revenue of EUR 534 million, flat year-over-year at constant currency and nearly stable at current rates, in line with expectations. Looking at the segment breakdown on the left-hand side of the slide, our direct revenue grew by 2.2%, reflecting the continued growth of our subscriber base in France.
Other revenues, which mainly include advertising and ancillary revenues, grew by 17.9%, reflecting the performance of our white label solutions. These segments offset the anticipated decline in partnerships revenue. Excluding the Meli+ impact, partnerships revenue is stable. Now turning to the geographic view on the right-hand side of the slide. In France, revenue increased by 3.9% year-over-year, supported by the solid momentum in direct subscribers. In the rest of the world, revenue declined by 8.8%, largely due to the Meli+ impact. This was partially offset by the gradual ramp up of other partnerships, as well as good traction in the other agreements through Sonos Radio. Moving on to slide 14.
Adjusted gross profits amounted to EUR 135.5 million in 2025, compared to EUR 133.7 million in 2024, representing an increase of 1.3%, benefiting from B2C growth and the positive impact of white labeling solutions, as well as the optimizations of terms. Adjusted gross profit margin increased across all segments and came at 25.4% in 2025. Partnerships adjusted gross profit margin came at 21.7%, up 0.1 points, benefiting from better mix. Moving on to slide 15. During the year, we maintained strong cost discipline, reducing operating expenses by more than EUR 12 million year-over-year. This efficiency is structural and had a direct positive impact on the sharp improvement of our profitability over the period.
We achieved a EUR 2 million reduction in marketing and trial spend by optimizing our investments in the partnership segment while continuing to support our direct segment in France with a greater focus on digital. As a result, marketing expenses represented 7.4% of revenue compared to 7.8% one year earlier. In parallel, staff and G&A expenses were reduced by EUR 9 million, now accounting for 16.1% of revenue compared to 17.7% a year ago. Moving on to slide 16. Now let's look at the key milestone achieved this year in terms of profitability. Looking at the bridge on this slide, the key drivers behind the performance were a EUR 2 million increase in adjusted profits and continued cost discipline with EUR 12 million in operating expense reductions over the period.
As a result, we significantly improve adjusted EBITDA by EUR 14 million year-over-year with a strong acceleration in H2. Our adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 10 million in 2025 compared to EUR -4 million in 2024. Now, turning to our cash position on the next slide. At the end of 2025, we delivered a robust cash position of EUR 65 million compared to EUR 62 million one year earlier. Looking at the bridge, this performance reflects both the positive contribution from adjusted EBITDA and the improvement in working capital. Our net cash position amounts to EUR 57 million, an improvement of EUR 10 million year-over-year after repayment of EUR 7 million of the French state-guaranteed loan during the period. This solid liquidity position gives us the flexibility to resume a phase of selective investment in key markets in 2026 while preserving break-even, and this is a natural transition to the next section.
I will now let Alexis conclude on the 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Carl. Moving on to slide 19. Thanks to the great progress we've made, Deezer is now entering its next chapter with solid foundation. First, a profitable business model and the ability to generate positive free cash flow on a sustainable basis. Second, a strong commitment to financial discipline and a solid cash position. Third, a strategic design for long-term value creation. From a strategic standpoint, at a testament phase, we know where we are headed and how we plan to get there. In 2026, we'll continue to execute on this roadmap. We are ready to reinvest cautiously in key markets while maintaining a disciplined and focused approach to preserve our fundamentals. Moving on to slide 20. Looking at our 2026 priorities, this year will mark the continuation of our new strategic cycle.
First, we will focus on our direct subscriber growth by sharpening Deezer differentiation as a strong, vocal brand that champions artists and authentic fan connection. Second, we intend to leverage our partnership DNA to build a profitable B2B segment, as our new business models will continue to improve margin and efficiency. Our proprietary streaming technology will power white label solution and partnerships, bringing high-quality music experiences to new markets. We want to make Deezer the most trusted music platform for fan, artist, and partner worldwide, continuing to lead the way in helping music thrive. Moving to slide 21. Looking ahead to 2026 guidance, from a revenue perspective, we expect our revenue to be flat year-over-year, taking into account visible headwinds in our partnership segment. On the bottom line, we are entering a cycle of sustainable profitability.
We will maintain strict financial discipline, balancing a new selective investment phase with sustained positive EBITDA and positive free cash flow. To conclude, the combination of strong fundamentals, disciplined execution, and targeted investment phase position us well for a trajectory of profitable growth in the coming years, and we are fully committed to delivering this mission. Thank you for your attention. Carl and I will now open the discussion for questions.
Thank you very much. So far, we don't have any questions, and I would like to remind the participants, if they would like to ask a question, they can only press the raise hand button under or inside the player. We'll give it a moment to assemble the Q&A session.
We can start with the question that are online. The first question from Matthias Wu is, can you give us some color on the AI fraud detection monetization for B2B target revenue model?
Just to remind everybody on this AI fraud detection model that we built, it started as a need for Deezer, as we saw a lot of song coming on our catalog, more and more, and that were AI, that were not great quality. We had to build this tool. We saw a lot of fraud on those songs, so the idea was to create a tool that enabled us to prevent them from, you know, damaging the user experience. That was the initial thing. It was a tool for us. We launched it in January last year. We started to remove some from the recommendation, tag them on the app. There was a lot of appetite from the user to know, a lot of appetite from the music industry to understand what was going on. We started to share numbers.
We demonstrated that our technology was the best because it was tested on a large scale, and as a result, it created a lot of interest from other players in the industry, which is why we decided two months ago to start to license this technology. In terms of revenue, we are not yet in the position to be able to forecast. It's early days. We have a lot of interest, that we can say. It will be meaningful in terms of revenue compared to the overall Deezer revenue. It's not very likely. However, it will be, you know, high profitability type of revenue, so that will help us fund our R&D on this topic to stay in the lead in terms of AI detection for the future. Second question.
Other platforms have raised prices in the past month. Are you planning to increase prices in 2026? We are obviously looking at that. It's a trend that is likely to continue increasing prices. As we are in a very competitive environment, of course, we need to be very mindful of our positioning. We'll consider a price increase in the coming months and years for sure. The exact timing of it will clearly depend on the competitive environment. Nothing that we can say with certainty and not yet planned in our 2026 forecast. Next question is, can you remind us of the use of cash on the balance sheet? Our thought is that the priority is disciplined capital allocation with, of course, a focus on value creation.
First, we ensure that we maintain a strong liquidity buffer. Second, we reinvest selectively in high return opportunities. Beyond that, we remain opportunistic, of course, through either small targeted M&A or over time, potentially, returning capital to shareholders.
Thank you. We will take our first question from the webcast from Eric Rovere. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Thank you for taking my question. Can you hear me? Yes? Can you hear me?
Yes, yes.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. Well, two questions. First one is on the reinvestment in selected markets in direct segments. France is obviously the priority, but could you give us more details about other countries? I imagine that Brazil could be one of them. Second question is on the partnership segment. Over the last three years, since Mercado Libre, you haven't announced any major partnership like RTL or Mercado Libre. Could you give us a comment about the kind of potential partnerships that you could sign in the future? Should we expect now more, well, smaller partnerships, a sum of smaller partnerships rather than big ones like RTL and Mercado Libre?
Are you going to rely more on the white label model in partnerships? Thank you.
Thank you very much for the questions. Investment in selected markets, what we have seen as we share in the numbers that we've seen growth potential in the rest of the world. Of course, as you said, France is the top priority, and we'll continue to invest in France. We are very happy with the results of 2025, where we see based on SNEP numbers that we are likely to gain market share, which is obviously a very good momentum. In the rest of the world, we see growth coming, thanks to the improvements we made on the tool and the brand positioning and the defense of the artists. We are monitoring basically where we see the most traction, and we selectively invest in these markets when we see that the investments are profitable.
You're right to point out Brazil, but it's not the only country. There are a few markets. It may actually evolve quite dynamically based on the results we see. That's why we're not gonna give too much detail. It's globally, you know, it's developed markets where we have already a good presence. That's for the investment in selected markets. On the second question around the partnership, I think you're completely right to point out that we have put in place a very efficient commercial machine to deliver more partnerships. And we target in priority more mid-size partnerships to be less dependent on one single partnership.
We see that it's you know those partnership takes time out to materialize but we are confident and we see a healthy pipeline and hopefully more to announce on top of the one we just announced more to announce next quarter.
Okay. Thank you.
I didn't mention white label, but you're right. Also white label, same thing. For us, AI detection is part of it. Sonos is definitely the main example that we have now to share. Same thing, healthy pipeline of discussion. Obviously, take even more time because it requires tech integration usually. But we're confident that that's something we want to keep developing because we see that as obviously a market where there is less intense competition than B2C. We are keen to continue to push our advantage here.
Thank you.
All right.
Next.
Yeah. We don't have any questions from the webcast, so if you wanna take any written questions.
Yes, sure. Next question is, given the trends of music and your own momentum, are the 2026 guidance too conservative? What are the key data points to monitor for the coming year? On that, well, full year 2026 revenue is expected to be flat compared to 2025. First, I think, we should point out, as Alexis mentioned, that we're not factoring an increase in NRPU in 2026, although remaining flexible. That's part of the explanation. We're seeing strong momentum in direct, but as we mentioned, have some residual headwinds from Meli+ that are still expected in H1 2026. Of course, the ability to offset this impact and go beyond will depend on new signings and ramp-up of partnerships.
We've seen very good progress already in 2025, but as we mentioned, those are deals that usually take time to sign and ramp up. Next point, on can you make a point on fiscal deficit? What are the amounts activated? Indeed, we turned a profit in 2025, and we started using the tax loss carry forward that we have on the balance sheet that are actually very significant. Right now we've only used a very tiny part of that, and going forward, we expect to continue to use those tax loss carry forward against the profits that will materialize.
Next question is: What's the main reason to have a net result of EUR 16 million in H2 versus -EUR 8 million in H1? I think two main factors. First, the significant profitability improvement over H2, because in H2, in terms of adjusted EBITDA, we reported EUR 8 million, which is quite an acceleration when comparing with the EUR 2 million we had in H1. That's part of the explanation. Second explanation is indeed the fact that we've been able to reverse some historical provisions related to historical liabilities, which again boosted the net income in H2. I think another question, can you discuss partnership opportunities going forward? I think we already covered that one. Pricing as well.
We have a question on free cash flow leverage into next year, and notably, what other levers do you have to convert to profitability? Is it fixed cost stability for the next year? I think on that one, right now we are at a level in terms of figures where we think the business is sustainable, and we have basically the resources we need to achieve our plans. We're happy about that. I think another point we need to keep in consideration is that we still have EUR 7 million debt that we will repay in 2026. Starting 2027, we have additional capital that we can potentially deploy.
Third point is obviously we're constantly looking to optimizing the conversion of the free cash flow compared to adjusted EBITDA, and that goes through, notably, everything that relates to our working capital. Last question: Can you please add some detail on the outlook for gross margin and the tailwind and headwinds to revenue growth in 2026? I think the revenue question we covered as part of the guidance. And on the gross margin, we're not providing a guidance in terms of gross margins for 2026, there is nothing we can really point out at this stage. Do we have other questions on the line?
No, we don't have any more questions from the webcast, so I will hand it back over to you.
All right. Thanks everyone for attending this call. Have a good day.