Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Gaia's financials results for the second quarter ended June thirtieth, 2023. Joining us today are Gaia's CEO, Jirka Rysavy, and CFO, Ned Preston. Following some prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Before we get started, however, I would like to take a minute to read the Safe Harbor language. The following constitutes the Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The matters discussed today include forward-looking statements that involve numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties.
These include, but are not limited to, our ability to attract new members and retain existing members, our ability to compete effectively, including for customer engagement with different modes of entertainment, maintenance, and expansion of device platforms for streaming fluctuation, customer usage of our service, fluctuations in quarterly operating results, service disruptions, production risks, general economic conditions, future losses, loss of key personnel, price changes, brand reputation, acquisitions, new initiatives we undertake, security and information systems, legal liability for website content, failure of third parties to provide adequate service, future internet-related taxes, our founders' control of us, litigation, consumer trends, the effect of government regulation and programs, the impact of public health threats, including the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
Gaia assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Gaia's CEO, Jirka Rysavy. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm glad that we can report positive results. Revenue for the second quarter increased again sequentially to $19.8 million from $19.6 million. It's still down from the last quarter of $20.7 million due to post-COVID-19 subscriber construction was experienced industry-wide during 2022. Member count increased during the quarter by 8,000 to 774,500, with virtually all the growth coming from our direct subscribers. Our ARPU, which is showing steady growth, as it increased at from $7.95 in 2019 to $8.46 in 2020, to $8.60 in 2021, and $8.75 in 2022. It now shall be far-further supplemented by the launches of Gaia Marketplace, which is now rolling to a select group of our members.
The total operating expenses in the quarter were about $950,000 higher than in the year-ago quarter, still including a tail of the contracts and related expenses incurred as a result of our 20% staff reduction that was completed during the first quarter. While we've still reported GAAP loss, the company has returned to net cash generation. The cash balance in June 30 was $10.9 million. I would let now Ned now speak more about the results.
Thank you, Jirka. Revenues for the second quarter were $19.8 million, a slight sequential increase for the second consecutive quarter, continuing the return to growth in our member base during the first half of 2023. Compared to a year-ago quarter, revenues declined 4%, due primarily to the hard compare against Q2 2022, which benefited from the COVID-19 related subscriber growth experienced in 2020 and 2021. In the quarter, we continued to invest in and release new content, particularly to support our language expansion efforts. As a result of these strategic growth investments, gross margins were 85.7% during the second quarter of 2023. We expect them to remain at this level the near term as we expand our language offerings and tactically support the growth of the business.
Total member acquisition costs during the quarter were $8.2 million, or 41% of revenues, compared to $7.2 million in the year-ago quarter. In the quarter, we benefited from our efforts to optimize customer acquisition costs over the past several quarters, with per customer acquisition costs down 9% sequentially. In the second quarter, we experienced growth in our direct member base, which is a continuation from the first quarter. Additionally, we witnessed a return to growth among our largest third-party partners, which is a reversal of the contraction we experienced in the first quarter. The growth in both our direct member base and third-party member bases during the quarter is building our confidence that we are through the worst of the post-COVID-19 member unwinding.
Selling and operating expenses, including marketing and member acquisition costs in the second quarter, were $8.9 million or 45% of revenues, which is up slightly from the prior year period. This increase reflects the end of contracts and related expenses incurred as a result of the company's cost improvements that were completed during the first quarter. Corporate G&A and corporate expense in the second quarter were $1.5 million or 8% of revenues, down 15% from the prior year period. We expect to realize most of the benefits of the cost reductions undertaken in the first quarter in the second half of 2023 and anticipate the cost improvements will support the financial state of the business going forward.
During the second quarter of 2023, we recorded a net loss of $1.7 million or negative $0.08 per share, compared to the net income of $0.1 million in the year-ago period. The decline was primarily driven by the reductions in revenues between periods. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.1 million, or 16% of revenues in the quarter, and we generated free cash. Our deferred revenues for the second quarter were $15.5 million, an increase of $1.4 million from the year-ago period. We expect to continue to benefit from the inherent negative working capital cycle in our business model as we continue to grow our member base and revenues.
In addition, we expect to be in a position to continue generating cash flows from operations in excess of the cash flows we reinvest back into our content library and production enhancements going forward. Due to our in-house production capabilities and lack of contractual commitments tied to our content production, we have significant discretion in the amount and timing of our investments. This flexibility allows us to adjust our investment levels as needed to withstand a downturn in the macroeconomic environment, if necessary. Through the company's focus on accelerating growth and a return to positive operating margins, we have made tremendous progress over the past several quarters on numerous key areas of improvement for the business. With continued disciplined execution and the launch of Gaia Marketplace, we are well positioned to continue growing revenues and to remain cash flows positive going forward.
With that, I will hand it back to Jirka for some closing remarks.
Well, with the cost tail of our staff reduction now being gone, our annualized gross profit for employee recently reached all-time high of over $610,000. With the member growth in July running above the pace for the second quarter, plus Gaia Marketplace beginning to be rolled out to improve our ARPU and revenue, we can look for a stronger second half of the year. With that, that concludes our remarks, and I would like to open it for the question. Please, Maria, operator, please.
Thank you, sir. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Mark Argento, with Lake Street. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, Jirka. Hey, Ned. Yeah, just, just wanted to drill down a little bit on the Customer Acquisition or Subscriber Acquisition Cost. Are you seeing, you know, the, the cost to acquire in terms of going out buying keywords or other types of online ad spend? You know, what trends are you seeing there, and do you think it's sustainable to be able to kind of cost-effectively acquire at this point?
Hi, Mark. Thanks. We, generally, we'll see right now the Cost of Acquisition is definitely improved from the last year when this, you know, the overall environment was much more negative, still with the post-COVID-19. This year, we target generally about 39%-41% of revenue, depends on efficiencies. We were on higher end of it because the efficiency start to be good, and I kind of hope that that will kind of continue is where, where it is. Second, with COVID-19 gone, also seasonality came back, and second quarter was historically our, you know, slowest quarter, so we were pleased with the actual results.
I think as we are kind of focusing on some of new initiatives, we talk about it now for a little bit, for, you know, focusing on the members with higher retention, just rather than just low cost. It's definitely the overall growth start to be helped by the improved retention. This does it answer your question, or did I?
Yeah. No, that's... Yeah. No, that's helpful. It sounds like a little better environment hopefully continues there. Just, just shifting gears quickly, obviously, nice to see you guys cash flow positive in the quarter. Then you did, I think, in your prepared remarks, did you say you anticipate that, you know, being cash flow positive going forward? Is that what I'm hearing?
Yes. Yeah. Hey, Mark, it's Ned. Thanks for the question. That is correct. Q2 was a, a big transition quarter for us in moving to that positive cash, and we do anticipate, forecast that continuing for the second half.
Yeah, the improvement in the quarter between, from the first quarter was about $1.3 million in a positive way, direction. So we kind of hope that with the, all the tail of the staff reduction being gone, that obviously that will improve.
Great, it's good to hear. Just last one from me. In terms of the marketplace, could you just refresh us on, you know, what should we look for there in terms of a rollout or, you know, how does that stage out over the next quarter or two?
Yeah. We just kind of right now rolling it to small amount of people. We're putting it from about 10,000-20,000, our members, active members, and see kind of the response. We kind of know how to market because there are several way to display it, mostly, on a screen of those people as, as we can target. As we kind of looking a lot for, like, experience rather than products, our first product we attach to our Ancient Civilizations series, we also have a conference what's called Pre-Diluvian Civilizations. We going have be marketing a tour to presumably Egypt, which is probably about $8,000-$10,000, you know, range. We kind of obviously jobbing it out, we keep about 30% of that. That's what we'll be book as a, as a margin.
We won't book the whole price, only the 30% we keep. However, of that, you know, our members, if they're members, they get 10% discount, they come from our side. That's roughly how it goes. We're going to slowly increase the number of people, and when it's, you know, we see it's running smooth, we add other pro- experiences or potential some products. it's something what I think as we go to end of the year, it's, it should start to really meaningfully improved our ARPU and hopefully also the revenue, of course.
That's super helpful, I appreciate it. I'll hop back in the queue. Thanks.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Thierry Wuilloud with Water Tower Research. Please proceed with your question.
Yes, greetings, Jirka and Ned. Mark covered quite a few questions there, but I was curious, you had some good momentum, you told us, from the foreign language subscribers earlier this year. Is that continuing? Can you give us some color there?
Yeah, that's kind of started, you know, already like a couple quarters, and it's increasing. You know, we did invest in the languages over the last 2 years. As, you know, we were dealing with COVID-19, this was more the challenging marketing environment, and we didn't wanna fight it. We wanna rather reserve the cash last year. We did spend it on getting ready for the language offering, especially in the French and German, the Spanish was existing before. Obviously, those are the languages we kind of going there. Anytime you go to a new language, especially in so some European countries, we're kind of ahead of the curve. There's not a really strong, you know, offering on those languages. We so far see both acquisition cost and retention being better than in the U.S.
We probably spending more as a percentage of revenue in those countries than we spend in the U.S. right now. Overall, our international, kind of increasing. Our international membership, it's right now about 35% overall because our direct... Our third parties, like, you know, Amazon, YouTube, Comcast, they're all in English. If I take our percentage of our direct, it's probably more on the high forties as a percentage. Either way, if you look at Netflix, they're about 2/3. I expect over the next few years, our international percentage will grow, providing the trend, what we feel right now will sustain.
Great, thank you. In terms of your, I guess, not just your U.S., but, but all your subscribers, your members, do you have any color on consumption? Are you seeing more consumption of your, of your content or no real differences there, post the whole COVID-19 situation?
Well, I mean, during the COVID-19, which especially when we're talking, from mid-2021 to mid-2022, which we still compare it to, we had more viewing and more subscribers there. But, you know, after the post-COVID-19 wave, when those subscribers, you know, like everywhere, left. We kind of saw.
Mm.
Obviously, we kind of saw decrease the post-COVID-19, but I have to say that starting this year, in the first quarter, which is kind of going to, you know, the people start to have a free time last year. I mean, they could travel like they can do now. We actually see increases this year, again.
Okay.
We used to see it before COVID-19. In COVID-19, went quite high. Obviously, it came down. Now we see increases on the viewing again.
Okay. Any update on, Do you have some Event Plus, scheduled for the balance of the year? Can you give us some, some updates there?
Sure. We have about two weeks. We have our one of the main conferences, what we call Ancient Civilization, which is about 10, 11 speakers, which is kind of one of our, you know, key conferences. It's coming, I think, 12, 13 of August, with another one, like, a few weeks later. You probably see our cadence and promotion of all events plus will probably increase with the kind of, we obviously have a little bit of disruption through COVID-19, we're picking up where we kind of stopped before. I think it's, we didn't focus on it till beginning of this year, but I think the second part of the year, it will be, we focus on it.
I think with Gaia Marketplace getting launched, we also have a better way how to promote it.
Okay, great. Well, thanks. I appreciate the update.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Mark Argento, Lake Street. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys, just a quick follow-up. You know, kind of distilling everything down, maybe just an update on at 5, 10,000ft , kind of the strategy, you know, for the company here. You know, now that it looks like you're able to cost effectively acquire subs again, you're gonna lean into growth a little more aggressively. Maybe just, you know, maybe a little higher level, Jyrka, how you see the world right now and kind of where you guys are after, you know, the high and the low of the, you know, the COVID-19 and then the post-COVID-19 overhang, it seems like maybe we're kind of normalizing a little. You know, given the kind of the environment we're in and what you're seeing, what, you know, what's the, what's the higher level strategy at this point? Thanks.
Well, it's, it's just like from the, like, be as a CEO level, it's. I actually could see from my point that because now we kind of the, you know, the new team, as we have a couple of new additions, it's kind of start to click, and it's really good team, you know, as a chemistry-wise. I'm very pleased with that. Obviously, with the growth and increasing ARPU, it's. I feel pretty good about, you know, where we're heading. I think you can expect the company acceleration and producing saving positive cash flow. I think the, the question, cash flow versus growth, I think we wanna really, start to increase the growth, but at staying a positive cash flow.
Basically, we wanna stay in positive cash flow, and we generate more dollars, we put it back in the growth, but we do not go negative on free cash flow. I think that's pretty much where, where it is. It's pretty simple right now. You know, grow as fast as we can without going negative in the cash flow. The, the cost per employee, which is the gross profit per employee, which is $610,000, you start to be up there. As long as we can keep it on these levels, I think that, you know, the cash flow and profitability would kind of you know, come from there as well. I think it's grow as fast as we can and while staying positive cash flow is the strategy.
Mark, if I could, this is Ned. I'll just elaborate just a little bit. As, as the person that's just been here for a month, it's a big reason why I came to Gaia, just because of that leverage. I'm, I'm just very impressed with a company that, you know, runs with, you know, around 110, 120 full-time employees, driving over $80 million of revenue. The efficiencies that I've seen and the ability to pull the levers, when needed around increased marketing spend, for the right reasons, it, it really is impressive.
As I said in, in my commentary earlier, the, the, the continued execution against the existing plan, is, is, is very much what I, I look forward to here, but we, we just really look forward to the upside leverage of, of that model.
Also to mention, since Ned talked about leverage, you know, our, you know, as Ned mentioned, our gross margin came, you know, 90 basis points or something down. It actually was purely because we keep growing, you know, putting new content, and with the revenue slowdown last year, it changed a little, the ratio compare revenue. If you look at what we call net, we, we have basically a line, what we call a cash contribution. It's basically cash margin, that how much-what will cost to have a new customer? That's kind of the same number, but less amortization. That actually increased from 93% to 94% of revenue. From the cash point, our margins are actually expanding as we're talking free cash flow.
Very helpful. Good luck the rest of the way this year, guys. Thanks.
Thanks, Mark.
There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Jirka Rysavy for closing comments.
Well, thank you, everyone, for joining, and we look forward to speaking with you when we report our third quarter, which should be in early November. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.