Roku proves it can hold its own against tech heavyweights

The cord has officially been cut. Roku, the hardware and software maker that lets you stream content to your TV, announced on September 1 it was going public. As we can see in this chart from Statista, the company has been holding its own against significantly larger tech companies that have much deeper pockets. According to data from comScore, Roku beat out Amazon, Google, and Apple for household penetration during April of 2017.

In its S-1 filing, Roku wrote that it has 15.1 million active user accounts, and streamed 6.7 billion hours of online video on its platforms during the first half of 2017. Although the company is losing money, its revenues rose to $199.7 million during the first half of this year, up 23% from the same period in 2016. This is not to say the company will remain in the lead. To survive it needs access to the content people want to watch. It currently must secure agreements with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and others,. If any of those companies decide they no longer want to work with Roku, the company could be in a tough spot.

Anaele Pelisson/Business Insider

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