INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
few observers would have believed in that future
venture funding war chest
co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki
thoroughly fleshed out (if not as fleshy) as their offline, real life.But the next decade at Roblox will also be its most challenging time
yet, as it seeks to expand from 90 million users to, potentially, a billion or more
To do so, it needs to pull off two coups.First, it needs to expand the age range of its players beyond its current tween and teen audience
Second, it must win the international market
Accomplishing both of these will be a puzzle with many moving parts.What Roblox is todayOne thing Roblox has done very well is appeal to
kids within a certain age range
The company says that a majority of all 9-to-12-year-old children in the United States are on its platform.Within that youthful segment,
Roblox has arguably already created the human co-experience category
school without necessarily interacting with the game mechanics at all.What else separates these environments from what you can see today on,
say, the App Store or Steam? A few characteristics seem common.For one, the environments look rough
principles now espoused by nearly every game company
Tutorials are infrequent, user interfaces are unpolished, and one gets the sense that KPIs like retention and engagement are not being
Roblox is just in a similarly early stage
Over half of its players are on smartphones, where they could have chosen a free game that looks more polished, like Fortnite or Clash of
[Kids] have much more homework, and structured activities like theater after school.One of the big unmet needs we solve is to give kids a
be easy to point at Roblox and laugh off its ambitions to win over people of all ages
one demographic have a good chance of winning others.Roblox has also proven its ability to evolve
Roblox now has far more girls playing than the typical game platform.Evolving to new demographics
