Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I would like to welcome you to Full Year 2023 Earnings Call of Huuuge Games. The speakers today are Wojciech Wronowski, the CEO, and Marek Chwałek, EVP Finance. The call will start with a presentation from the company, followed by Q&A. For the Q&A session, we'll be joined by Erik Duindam, the COO, and Maciej Hebda, SVP Strategy and Planning. The presentation will be available for download on our website after the call. You're also welcome to type in the questions in the chat box while the presenters are speaking. So with that, I'll pass the line over to Wojciech to start the presentation. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello everyone, thank you all for tuning in. Wojciech Wronowski speaking, the CEO of Huuuge. Today, alongside Marek Chwałek, our Treasurer and EVP of Finance, we are going to summarize our operational and financial achievements for the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2023. Next, we'll provide our outlook for 2024. The presentation will be, as always, followed with a Q&A session. Let's start with the fourth quarter of 2023 highlights. 2023 has been a standout year for us, underscored by our strategy focus on profitability. I'll be diving into key factors behind our success in the following slides. We have managed to achieve record high profits, significant headcount and cost reductions, and we have been able to stabilize or grow the underlying operating KPIs of our core games.
Huuuge closed 2023 with an Adjusted EBITDA of $108 million and net operating cash flow of $82 million, demonstrating our consistent ability to deliver high profitability and robust cash generation. We successfully launched a substantial share Buyback program worth $150 million, reaffirming our commitment to increasing shareholder value. We are pleased to announce a second share buyback of $70 million starting in a few days. You can find all the details in a recently published invitation to sell, as well as our IR website. Deploying a total value of $220 million within nine months back to shareholders demonstrates our firm belief in the company's capacity to continue cash generation and its promising future. Looking at our core franchises, the main KPIs have stabilized, setting a solid foundation for the future. We plan to significantly increase our marketing spend in 2024.
Within the current market condition, Huuuge is strongly positioned and, as you can see, has the flexibility to decide among potential capital deployment options. Let me bring you up to date in regards to the core franchises and development of new games. I'll start by highlighting that the revenue from our main franchises in Q4 2023 remained on the same level compared to the previous quarter and has shown stability across the past four quarters. In the first quarter of 2023, we have made thorough changes to our marketing department. We have introduced new operational structures and appointed new leadership. These changes have been well received, with the updated team demonstrating notable progress in increasing our investment in marketing in the second half of 2023 while still keeping the paybacks within our set tolerance levels. We expect to increase the UA spend in 2024 significantly. Moving on to our operational KPIs.
In 2023, our flagship game's operational performance was stable, with a steady rise in daily users over the last 3 quarters. In the fourth quarter 2023, we recorded a 1% rise in both DAU, daily active users, and RPU, average revenue per paying user, compared to the previous quarter. The steady performance reflects our loyal and engaged user base. Our engagement and monetization efforts have paid off as well. The launch of the loyalty program and upgrade to the economy in August have made a positive impact, increasing both player retention and monetization. We've seen also an increase in our player base trends, thanks to our marketing efforts, which boosted our average monthly installs by 68% since the start of the year. In short, our core franchises are maintaining solid KPIs. With our strategic initiatives, we are poised for ongoing growth and stronger user engagement.
Now, let's shift our attention to the direct-to-consumer segment. Our webshop revenue has shown promising growth, accounting for over 8% of total revenue in Q4 2023, and has improved to almost 9% in the recent months. We anticipate the revenue percentage from this segment will reach low teens by the end of the year. We are now exploring new third-party solutions aimed at improving user experience, expanding geo-coverage, diversifying payment options, and upgrading logging systems. Currently, in the testing phase, these initiatives promise to significantly elevate our customer engagement and satisfaction. Overall, our ongoing investments in the direct-to-consumer segment and strategic responses to regulatory changes underscore our commitment to long-term growth. Now, I would like to discuss our pods, small specialized development teams that we set up in Q1 of 2023. Each pod focuses on mastering a specific genre. Throughout 2023, we tested multiple prototypes and soft-launched a few games.
While some were discontinued, others have evolved or pivoted. We are currently working on four games. two of the games are currently in soft-launch, with another soon reaching the same milestone. As soon as we observe material success, we will share detailed updates and insights about these games. Now, let's delve into our financial performance. Marek, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Wojciech. Hello everyone, good afternoon. I'll cover the financial section of this presentation. Next slide, please. Thank you. Wojciech has already highlighted our financial achievements for 2023, and I'm pleased to share that our Adjusted EBITDA hit $108 million, with net cash flow from operations reaching over $82 million. Our company stands out in the gaming industry for its exceptional ability to generate cash, evidenced by net operating cash flow to Adjusted EBITDA conversion rate exceeding 76% last year. Following the completion of a $150 million Share Buyback, our end-of-year balance sheet showed a robust $152 million in cash and equivalents. This enables us to proceed with our second Share Buyback in nine months, amounting to $70 million, set to commence in four days.
Now, I will delve deeper into our financial specifics and discuss 2023 and the fourth quarter performance in more detail on the following slides. In 2023, our financial situation was affected by several important factors, causing our total revenue to go down, especially because we stopped supporting games like Traffic Puzzle. However, we have seen a slight recovery in revenue in the second half of the year, while our EBITDA remained quite stable across all quarters. Our UA marketing campaign spending saw a significant decrease year over year, but as we continue to optimize our marketing mix and paybacks, we strategically started ramping up spend throughout the year. In the second half of 2023, we have notably increased UA campaigns by 52% compared to the first half of the year.
The restructuring we undertook in the first quarter of 2023 led to a notable reduction in our global workforce, resulting in considerable savings across both research and development and general administrative expenses. These savings were a direct result of our efforts to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Our effective tax rate for 2023 amounted to 17%, which is similar to the rate a year ago. The growth in EBITDA for 2023 was primarily driven by operating expenses and user acquisition spend optimization, showcasing our ability to adapt to a changing market landscape. Now, let's move on to the balance sheet. Next slide, please. During 2023, the structure of the balance sheet has undergone changes on both sides, primarily due to a share buyback resulting in a $150 million decrease in the cash balance and a corresponding adjustment in equity.
Despite the share buyback, our cash balance remained robust, standing at $152 million at the end of 2023. Our trade and other receivables increased by over 26% as compared to the end of 2022, mostly due to the Apple payments calendar, which seems to have changed permanently. Since this change, we expect to see in accounts payables two months of Apple-related revenues at the end of each reporting period. Our trade and other payables decreased by almost 30%, attributable to a reduction in performance bonus accruals and the settlement of liabilities associated with the strategic option review process at the end of 2022. Turning to the next slide, we can expand a bit on our cash position and cash flow generation. Net operating cash flow experienced a significant year-over-year increase, largely following the trends of adjusted EBITDA and signaling our operational efficiency.
Investment cash flow turned positive, driven largely by interest received from short-term bank deposits and money market mutual funds, which significantly exceeded investment in software and equipment. The financing cash flow was notably influenced by a $150 million share buyback in the third quarter of last year, reaffirming our commitment to increasing shareholder value. Turning to the next slide, let's discuss our outlook for 2024. We are setting the stage for innovation across our core products, particularly by integrating unique social features into Huuuge Casino and Billionaire Casino to keep us ahead in the social casino industry. Our focus is on rolling out new features that highlight our commitment to innovation and community engagement.
Financially, we expect a slower first half of the year in terms of revenue, with a recovery anticipated in the second half due to new feature launches, leading us to project an overall stable revenue for the year. Our marketing spend is set to increase, building on the successful strategies from the second half of 2023. Operational expenses are projected to remain stable, with no significant changes in our staffing structure. However, our investments in growth are likely to lead to a decrease in Adjusted EBITDA and its margins, a strategic choice aimed at securing long-term advancement. In essence, 2024 is poised to be a year of strategic innovation, with more focus on investments while maintaining robust profitability. Handing over to Wojciech.
Thank you, Marek. Thank you for tuning in and for your support. If there is anything we would like you to remember, it is these four key takeaways. KPI of our core games stabilized in 2023. The number of daily active users has increased for three consecutive quarters. In 2023, the company generated over $108 million in adjusted EBITDA and generated over $82 million in cash. The company is well positioned and has a strong cash position. At the end of 2023, we had $152 million in cash. This enables us to announce a second large-scale buyback in nine months' time. In 2024, we'll continue investing and focusing on our core franchises. We are increasing the marketing spend and doubling down on innovation in our games. Thank you all again. We can proceed to Q&A.
Thank you very much for the presentation. We'll now be moving to the Q&A part of the call. If you're dialed in via the telephone, please press Star two for any questions. That's Star two. If you're dialed in via the web, you may ask a voice or a text question. We already acknowledged the text questions if you've asked them earlier in the call. Okay, we will take the first question from Jamie Johnson from Volt Equity. There are three questions. I'll take them one by one. The first question is, what is the status around the browser version of the games? From what I understand, it is still not launched broadly.
Yeah, I'll take this one. It's Wojciech. Our dot-com version, which is also playable on mobile, is still in a testing phase for a limited player base right now. We are expecting it to be widely available in the next several months.
Okay, thank you. The second question from Jamie Johnson from Volt Equity is, do you still see the same strong pattern for KPIs since the improvement of the in-game economics from the summer?
So yes. First of all, economy changes effects were off after a few months. Q4 KPIs were still stable, and those economy changes are regular updates and are part of our economy management. We are doing them 1-2 times a year to course-correct or improve the monetization.
Okay, thank you very much. We'll now be moving from the question from Mr. Grzegorz Balczewski from Trigon. How does revenue guidance for 2024 take into account the potential impact of Google's privacy policy changes?
Erik, you want to take this one?
Yes, sure. It's hard to say when exactly Google's privacy policy changes will take into full effect. In general, we're well prepared for it with all of our marketing models and in-game modeling and stuff like that. Generally, we take this into account, but it's hard to say if there will be any impact still in 2024 in terms of the privacy policy. We don't immediately expect a high impact on revenue in general.
Okay, thank you. Apologies, we have one additional question from Jamie Johnson. How do you look at the market from M&A right now compared to previous years?
Yeah, Erik, please continue.
Yeah, so we see that the valuations have generally come down, and there's still a gap between public and private markets. The VC funding is also still not back to where it used to be. So the way we see it is there's more early-stage opportunities for us, and this is also one of the things we're focusing on.
Okay, thank you very much. Next question comes from Mr. Michał Wojciechowski from Ipopema Securities. Good morning. What's the reason for marketing spending increase planned this year? Do you see higher profitability of your games, lower competition on the market, lower CPIs, or something else?
Go ahead, Erik.
So as Wojciech said earlier in the presentation, we've significantly changed our marketing team and setup, and this was last year in 2023. When we also reduced our marketing spend quite significantly and changed our channel mix on the marketing side. So we've been growing this again throughout the quarters last year and are now expecting, again, in 2024, to keep doing this. This is mostly following the performance within our paybacks because our marketing mix and abilities have simply improved. That's the main reason that we are following the money and investing more there at a rate that is good for us in terms of our paybacks and expectations.
Okay, thank you very much. Next question comes from Mr. Grzegorz Balczewski from Trigon. Does Apple's recent proposal to enable monetization apps outside the App Store and Apple's payment system somehow affect the future development of your DTC channel?
Marek, you want to tackle this one?
Yeah, gladly. So first of all, we are closely monitoring this change in Apple policy. We need to remember that it went live only recently. It's perhaps too early to conclude what will be its final version, but it's rather an opportunity than a risk for us. We need to also remember that the new terms have not been yet approved by the EU Committee. And finally, we don't expect any negative impact to our DTC as we don't link the DTC directly from our apps. Thank you.
Okay, we have a follow-up question from Mr. Grzegorz. Intended scaling of UA spending, to what % versus revenue level is spending planned to increase?
Maciej?
Sure, but perhaps I'll take this one. This is Maciej here. So we have answered these questions referring to paybacks. So essentially, we will be following the money. When paybacks are satisfactory, we will be increasing spend. We don't want to guide a specific number, but I would broadly say high teens as a guideline in terms of percentage of revenue for this year. And also because I can see a similar question from Piotr Poniatowski, so I'll just reiterate. Are you going to exceed the 20% threshold? Again, we will follow the paybacks depending on the situation, adjust the spend, but I would say broadly high teens as percentage of revenue.
Okay, thank you very much. It's a follow-up question again from Mr. Piotr Poniatowski from mBank. Could you give us some comment regarding M&A market right now? Do you have any shortlist, doing any due deals, and so on?
I'll take this one. We are constantly evaluating multiple opportunities, and we cannot comment on the details.
Okay, thank you. If there are any additional questions, please press Star two or feel free to ask in the chat box. We'll just give a moment or so for going on to the next questions. Okay, we have a follow-up question from Piotr Poniatowski. A little bit more color about any new games?
So we are working on four games at the very moment. Two of them are currently in soft-launch, and one will enter a soft-launch in the next three to four weeks. It's too early to discuss very specific details. If there will be some kind of a commercial success, we are going to definitely update everyone about the progress.
Okay, thank you very much. We'll just give another few more minutes for additional questions to be answered. Please stand by for any additional questions. We're just considering a few more questions. Please stand by on the line. Okay, we have a question from Ms. Maria Mickiewicz from Wood. Could you please comment on the trading update year to date? What scale of year-on-year pressure on revenues are you seeing?
Okay, so perhaps I'll take this one. This is Maciej here. So first of all, we will actually report our preliminary Q1 revenue in around three weeks or so, so the news will be out shortly. And all of you are most likely following the Sensor Tower reports and other external providers of data, so it's probably not a surprise that we are seeing a slight decline in Q1 so far versus Q4. I would say that this is somewhat a seasonal effect, but also as we are guiding for the full year, we expect the first half of the year to be slightly weaker than the second half. And this is mostly driven by the calendar of our future rollout.
Okay, thank you very much. Please stand by for additional questions. Okay, thank you very much. It looks like we have no further questions. I'll be passing the line to the Huuuge Games team for their concluding remarks.
Thank you. We really appreciate your support and feedback. Thank you for joining and spending the time with us. Please join our next quarterly update. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you very much. This concludes today's conference call. We'll now be closing all the lines. Thank you and goodbye.