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Upwork(UPWK -3.06%)

Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Aug 07, 2024, 5:00 p.m. ET

Upwork(UPWK -3.06%)

2024 年第二季度財報電話會議

2024年8月7日，美東時間下午 5:00

Prepared Remarks:

主要發言:

Operator

操作員

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Upwork second-quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

大家好，感謝您的耐心等待。歡迎參加 Upwork 第二季度財報電話會議。此時，所有與會者都處於聽取模式。演講結束後，將進行問答環節。

[Operator instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jacob McQuown, vice president to deputy general counsel. Please go ahead.

[操作員指示] 請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。現在我想把會議交給今天的發言人，Jacob McQuown，副總顧問副總裁。請發言。

Jacob McQuown -- Vice President to Deputy General Counsel

Jacob McQuown -- 副總顧問副總裁

Thank you. Welcome to Upwork's discussion of its second quarter 2024 financial results. Joining me today are Hayden Brown, Upwork's president and chief executive officer; and Erica Gessert, Upwork's chief financial officer. Following management's prepared remarks, they will be happy to take your questions.

謝謝。歡迎參加 Upwork 關於 2024 年第二季度財務業績的討論。今天與我一起的有 Upwork 總裁兼首席執行官 Hayden Brown，以及 Upwork 首席財務官 Erica Gessert。在管理層做完準備好的發言後，他們將樂意回答您的問題。

But first, I'll review the safe harbor statement. During this call, we may make statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact. These statements are not guarantees of future performance but rather are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions.

但首先，我將回顧免責聲明。在本次通話中，我們可能會就與我們業務相關的事項發表前瞻性聲明，這些聲明屬於聯邦證券法下的前瞻性聲明。前瞻性聲明包括除歷史事實陳述之外的所有陳述。這些陳述並非對未來業績的保證，而是受各種風險、不確定性和假設的影響。

Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to our SEC filings available on the SEC website and our Investor Relations website as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings press release. Additional information will also be set forth in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2024. In addition, reference will be made to certain non-GAAP financial measures.

我們的實際業績可能與前瞻性聲明中反映的預期有實質性差異。有關可能影響我們實際業績的重要風險和其他重要因素的討論，請參閲我們在 SEC 網站和投資者關係網站上可獲得的 SEC 備案文件，以及今天財報新聞稿中討論的風險和其他重要因素。有關非 GAAP 財務指標的信息，包括與其最直接可比的 GAAP 財務指標的調和，可在今天下午發佈的新聞稿中的我們投資者關係網站 investors.upwork.com 找到。除非另有説明，報告的數字均與 2024 年第二季度或 2023 年第二季度進行比較時進行了四捨五入。自由現金流是一個非 GAAP 數字，所有其他財務指標均為 GAAP，除非作為非 GAAP 添加。現在，我將把電話交給 Hayden。

Information regarding non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon on our Investor Relations website at investors.upwork.com. Unless otherwise noted, reported figures are rounded in comparison to the second quarter of 2024 or to the second quarter of 2023. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP figure, and all other financial measures are GAAP unless added as non-GAAP. Now, I'll turn the call over to Hayden.

Hayden Brown -- 總裁兼首席執行官

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

歡迎大家參加 Upwork 的 2024 年第二季度財報電話會議。Upwork 強大而穩健的業務繼續在營收和利潤兩方面呈現出引人注目的增長特徵。我們第二季度的營收達到 1.931 億美元，同比增長 15%。我們持續致力於提高盈利能力，體現在我們有史以來最高的季度 GAAP 淨利潤達到 2,220 萬美元，而調整後的 EBITDA 為 4080 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 21%，較去年同期的 8.5% 有所提高。

Welcome, everyone, to Upwork's second quarter 2024 earnings call. Upwork's strong and durable business continues to deliver compelling growth characteristics on both the top and bottom lines. Our second quarter revenue reached $193.1 million, marking a 15% year-over-year increase. Our continued commitment to enhancing profitability was demonstrated by our highest-ever quarter of GAAP net income at $22.2 million, while adjusted EBITDA was $40.8 million, a 21% adjusted EBITDA margin, up from 8.5% in the second quarter of last year.

我們在實現這一營收增長並超越盈利目標的同時，在一個對大大小小企業都變得更具挑戰性的動態宏觀經濟環境中運營。這種具有挑戰性的環境在第二季度顯示出比預期更軟的頂部漏斗活動。我們內部跟蹤的軟度的一個領先指標是尋求工作的客户，這是一個衡量參與導致新合同的客户數量的指標。在第一季度，這一數字環比增長 11%，而在第二季度，這一數字環比下降 6%，特別是在五月和六月，以及活躍客户向非常小的企業的混合轉變。

We delivered this revenue growth and outperformed our profitability goals while operating in a dynamic macroeconomic environment that has become more challenging for businesses, large and small. This challenging environment showed through with softer top-of-funnel activity than expected in the second quarter. A leading indicator of the softness that we track internally is client-seeking work, which is a measure of the number of clients engaging in an action that leads to a new contract. In Q1, this number accelerated 11% quarter over quarter, while in Q2, this number decelerated 6% sequentially, with particular impact in May and June, along with a mix shift of active clients toward very small businesses.

雖然我們讚賞小企業的韌性在我們平台上表現優於其他羣體，但小企業在每份合同的較低支出和每位客户的較少合同的歷史特徵導致我們對今年剩餘時間的業績預期更加謹慎。我們認為，基於我們在第二季度觀察到的宏觀經濟條件導致的客户活動變化，這些變化將在 2024 年餘下時間內持續存在，並已將這些變化納入降低的 2024 年全年營收指引中，同時重申我們的 2024 年全年調整後 EBITDA 指引。Upwork 的盈利市場模式和我們持續的紀律執行為我們提供了獨特的競爭和財務優勢，我們正在繼續利用這些優勢。我們先進的技術平台和全球雙邊市場使我們能夠成為連接高技能自由職業人才與客户的唯一在線目的地，以滿足他們希望工作的全部方式。

While we applaud the resiliency of smaller businesses outperforming other cohorts on our platform, small businesses' historical characteristics of lower spend per contract and fewer contracts per client lead us to have more caution about performance expectations for the remainder of the year. We believe it's prudent to assume that the changes in client activity due to macroeconomic conditions that we observed in Q2 will remain for the rest of 2024, and we have factored those changes into lowered 2024 full-year revenue guidance while reiterating our 2024 full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance. Upwork's profitable marketplace model and our continued disciplined execution provide us with a distinct competitive and financial advantage, which we are continuing to leverage. Our advanced technology platform and global two-sided marketplace enable us to serve as the singular online destination to connect highly skilled freelance talent with clients in the full range of ways they want to work.

我們的數字也證明了我們在從線下、模擬和數字招聘和人員配置來源中贏得份額方面的持續成功，我們超越了更廣泛市場趨勢。Upwork 受益於持續不斷的朝向高質量、具有成本效益、靈活的替代傳統全職和臨時人員配置方法的持久性轉變。無論是在絕對還是相對基礎上，我們都處於持續強勢地位，盈利能力和自由現金流動態反映了我們業務模式的基本優勢。創新增長繼續是 Upwork 的首要任務，使我們能夠在宏觀經濟復甦後實現最佳表現。

Our numbers also evidence our continued success in winning share from offline, analog, and digital hiring and staffing sources as we outperform broader market trends. Upwork benefits from the ongoing enduring secular shift toward a high-quality, cost-effective, flexible alternative to traditional full-time and contingent staffing approaches. We are in a position of continued strength, both on an absolute and relative basis, with growing profitability and free cash flow dynamics that reflect the fundamental advantages of our business model. Innovation for growth continues to be paramount for Upwork, positioning us for peak performance once the macro rebounds.

We continue to invest in multiple revenue and GSV growth levers to maintain our position as an industry leader and translate that leadership position into top and bottom-line growth, supported by continued healthy take rate expansion. These levers include: First, continuing to leverage Upwork's intrinsic ability to shapeshift to wherever the market demand for skills is with the current focus on making Upwork the preeminent destination for AI talent and work; second, improving customer productivity, engagement, and work outcomes in our products by infusing AI-powered features and user experiences built on Uma, Upwork's mindful AI; third, our continued expansion into our enterprise TAM through the right products, partnerships and integrations; fourth, acquiring new clients cost-effectively in that scale by launching new distribution channels through partnerships; and fifth, continuing to drive marketplace quality, efficiency, and adoption of value-added services via our ads and monetization efforts. I'll touch on progress for each of these GSV and revenue-enhancing levers. Based on a long track record of serving clients with access to the talent, it is always most relevant for the skills they need today.

我們繼續投資於多個收入和 GSV 增長槓桿，以保持我們作為行業領導者的地位，並將這一領導地位轉化為頂線和底線增長，持續健康的收費率擴張提供支持。這些槓桿包括：首先，繼續利用 Upwork 的固有能力，在當前專注於使 Upwork 成為人工智能人才和工作的首要目的地，以適應市場對技能需求的變化；其次，通過注入基於 Uma 的人工智能功能和用户體驗來提高客户的生產力、參與度和工作成果，Uma 是 Upwork 的專注人工智能；第三，通過正確的產品、合作伙伴關係和整合，持續擴大我們在企業 TAM 中的份額；第四，通過啓動新的分銷渠道，通過合作伙伴關係以成本效益的方式大規模地吸引新客户；第五，通過廣告和貨幣化努力，繼續推動市場質量、效率和增值服務的採納。我將介紹每個收入和 GSV 增長槓桿的進展情況。基於長期為客户提供人才訪問的記錄，對於他們今天所需的技能，這總是最相關的。

Clients are coming to us for professional, skilled, and knowledgeable and transforming their AI dreams into realities. From building and deploying Gen AI chatbots to training and tuning data and prompts for LLMs, to delivering marketing or back-office projects to integrate the latest AI-enabled capabilities, businesses are realizing the need to supplement their internal capabilities and know-how by looking externally to find talent and solutions that deliver on the promise of AI-driven productivity and innovation. This is where Upwork has a tremendous structural advantage. Compared to studies that show only 15% of corporate employees have the AI-related skills and training they need, more than half of freelance professionals on Upwork are already familiar with and using AI tools to deliver high-quality outcomes.

客户來找我們尋求專業、熟練和知識淵博的人，將他們的人工智能夢想變成現實。從構建和部署 Gen AI 聊天機器人到為 LLMs 訓練和調整數據和提示，再到交付營銷或後勤項目以整合最新的人工智能功能，企業意識到需要通過外部尋找人才和解決方案來補充他們內部的能力和專業知識，實現人工智能驅動的生產力和創新的承諾。這就是 Upwork 擁有巨大結構優勢的地方。與顯示只有 15% 的公司員工擁有他們所需的人工智能相關技能和培訓的研究相比，在 Upwork 上超過一半的自由職業專業人士已經熟悉並使用人工智能工具，以交付高質量的成果。

It's no surprise then that a recent report from our Upwork Research Institute found that nearly half, 48%, of C-suite executives have already brought in freelancers to get delayed AI-related projects back on track. Upwork is serving a range of businesses, including leading companies like Scale AI, with the expert talent they require for their AI initiatives, and we are evolving our offerings to meet this growing market demand. While GSV from AI-related work was up 67% year over year in Q2, what excites us most is the opportunity ahead for this business and our customers. The tangible benefits for talent on our platform who are leaning into these opportunities are compelling.

因此，最近我們的 Upwork 研究所的一份報告發現，將近一半，48%，的 C 級高管已經引入自由職業者來推動延遲的人工智能相關項目。Upwork 為一系列企業提供服務，包括領先公司如 Scale AI，為他們的人工智能倡議提供所需的專業人才，我們正在不斷發展我們的產品以滿足這一不斷增長的市場需求。雖然與去年同期相比，Q2 的人工智能相關工作的 GSV 增長了 67%，但最讓我們興奮的是這個業務和我們的客户前景。對於我們平台上利用這些機會的人才來説，實實在在的好處是令人信服的。

As just one example, freelance professionals, working on AI-related projects, earned 47% more per hour than those working on non-AI-related projects in Q2. Our second ongoing growth lever is improving customer productivity and enhancing engagement through our own AI-powered product features. During the second quarter, we announced Uma, Upwork's mindful AI, to underpin key steps in the hiring and matching process and serve as an always-on indispensable work companion. Our vision for Uma is to transform the way work is done on Upwork by more seamlessly augmenting the power of people and AI working together.

舉一個例子，Q2 在從事人工智能相關項目的自由職業專業人士每小時的收入比從事非人工智能相關項目的人高出 47%。我們的第二個持續增長槓桿是通過我們自己的人工智能產品功能提高客户的生產力和增強參與度。在第二季度，我們宣佈了 Uma，Upwork 的專注人工智能，用於支持招聘和匹配過程的關鍵步驟，並作為一個始終如一的不可或缺的工作伴侶。我們對 Uma 的願景是通過更無縫地增強人與人工智能共同工作的力量，從而改變在 Upwork 上的工作方式。

Although this product is still in its early days and has launched only in select use cases, we've seen demand growing with a 23% quarter-over-quarter increase in users interacting with Uma in Q2. Over time, we see Uma changing the game for customers, both making our platform easier to use and improving the quality of work outcomes. We also continue to innovate our offering on behalf of our enterprise clients. The large enterprise market is not a monolith but is comprised of multiple large subsegments, with clients that prioritize their needs differently.

儘管這個產品仍處於早期階段，僅在特定用例中推出，但我們看到需求在 Q2 與 Uma 互動的用户增長了 23%。隨着時間的推移，我們看到 Uma 將改變客户的遊戲規則，使我們的平台更易於使用，並提高工作成果的質量。我們還在代表我們的企業客户創新我們的產品。大型企業市場並不是一個單一體，而是由多個大型子市場組成，這些客户對其需求的優先級不同。

So, we have been strategically addressing that diversity of business needs. This quarter, we successfully began testing a new bifurcation of our solutions for enterprise clients in which we have ring-fenced existing functionality and pricing in one offering and winnowed down a more limited set of functionality and alternative pricing to target a subset of enterprise buyers. During testing, this approach yields higher total conversion for our sales team with 46 combined enterprise deals closed in the quarter, 27 for the new offering, and 19 for our traditional enterprise standard and compliance products. This dual-track approach is giving us good insights on how to move forward with modifications to our pricing and packaging to reaccelerate enterprise growth, and we will have further updates in the coming quarters.

因此，我們一直在戰略性地解決這種多樣化的業務需求。本季度，我們成功開始測試為企業客户提供新解決方案的新分流，其中我們在一個方案中設定了現有功能和定價，並在另一個方案中精簡了一組更有限的功能和備選定價，以針對一部分企業買家。在測試過程中，這種方法使我們的銷售團隊的總體轉化率更高，本季度共關閉了 46 筆企業交易，其中 27 筆是針對新方案，19 筆是針對我們傳統的企業標準和合規產品。這種雙軌方法為我們提供了關於如何修改我們的定價和打包以重新加速企業增長的寶貴見解，我們將在未來幾個季度提供進一步更新。

During the second quarter, Labelbox, Builders FirstSource, and Guidepoint were among the new Enterprise Solutions clients we added. Further advancing our existing enterprise solutions partnerships, this month, we announced a new partnership with Beeline, one of the largest and most familiar BMS providers. We've also built on our MSP partnership with KellyOCG by enabling our first joint clients, including NASDAQ, to incorporate and access the high-quality talent pool we have on Upwork. These steps indicate our agility and further lay the foundation for unlocking this large market opportunity.

在第二季度，Labelbox、Builders FirstSource 和 Guidepoint 是我們新增的企業解決方案客户之一。為進一步推進我們現有的企業解決方案合作伙伴關係，本月，我們宣佈了與 Beeline 的新合作伙伴關係，Beeline 是最大和最知名的 BMS 提供商之一。我們還通過使我們的首批聯合客户（包括納斯達克）能夠整合和訪問我們在 Upwork 上擁有的高質量人才庫，加強了與 KellyOCG 的 MSP 合作伙伴關係。這些舉措顯示了我們的靈活性，並進一步奠定了開拓這一巨大市場機會的基礎。

Historically, Upwork's primary method of acquiring and converting clients has been on our website and mobile apps, attracting them through word of mouth, SEO, and paid acquisition channels. With our broad partnership strategy, we see a new avenue for cost-effectively attracting and converting new clients at scale by embedding Upwork experts and innovative experiences for businesses in the third-party ecosystems wherein those prospective clients encounter the need for expertise in real time. Upwork is already home to huge communities of experts in everything from GoDaddy, WordPress, and website development, to Shopify, e-commerce, and other e-commerce platforms, to social media management, project management, and a massive middle and long tail of knowledge work specialties. Our strategy is to light up these communities of experts inside third-party ecosystems to places where they can enable partners and their customers to succeed.

歷史上，Upwork 主要通過我們的網站和移動應用程序獲取和轉化客户，通過口碑、搜索引擎優化和付費渠道吸引他們。通過我們廣泛的合作伙伴策略，我們看到了一種新的成本效益高的吸引和轉化大規模新客户的途徑，即在第三方生態系統中嵌入 Upwork 專家和創新體驗，讓那些潛在客户在實時遇到專業需求時能夠接觸到。Upwork 已經匯聚了龐大的專家社區，涵蓋從 GoDaddy、WordPress 和網站開發，到 Shopify、電子商務和其他電子商務平台，再到社交媒體管理、項目管理以及大量的知識工作專業領域。我們的策略是將這些專家社區引入第三方生態系統，讓他們能夠在那裏幫助合作伙伴及其客户取得成功。

The starting point in engagement does not need to be on Upwork for significant value to be created. In the past quarter, we more than doubled our number of partner deals and May brought the highest monthly revenue derived from partnerships that we've seen to date. Today, partnerships combined contribution to our GSV is small, but it is growing. As we further accelerate this partner program over future quarters, we will reach orders of magnitude more businesses and prime position to leverage Upwork for their work needs.

參與的起點並不一定要在 Upwork 上，也能創造重要價值。在過去的一個季度中，我們的合作伙伴交易數量翻了一番，五月帶來了迄今為止我們見過的合作伙伴帶來的最高月收入。如今，合作伙伴的貢獻對我們的總服務交易總額貢獻雖小，但正在增長。隨着我們未來幾個季度進一步加速合作伙伴計劃，我們將觸及數量級更多的企業，並處於利用 Upwork 滿足他們工作需求的最佳位置。

Finally, a critical lever for us as we continue to lean into building more value-added sources for customers that improve the overall quality and efficiency of the marketplace, while also expanding our take rate, are our ads and monetization features, including subscriptions. Q2 was a quarter of record experimentation velocity for us in this area, and we saw a notable success and updates to our pricing and packaging. In the marketplace, we added more connects and our AI-powered Upwork Chat Pro app to the Freelancer Plus subscription, while increasing our price point to one with the additional value we are delivering. These changes contribute to our highest take rate ever.

最後，作為我們繼續努力為客户構建更多增值來源、提高市場整體質量和效率、同時擴大我們的收費率的關鍵槓桿，我們的廣告和變現功能，包括訂閲服務，發揮着重要作用。第二季度對我們來説是記錄性實驗速度的一個季度，在這一領域，我們看到了顯著的成功和定價和打包的更新。在市場上，我們增加了更多的連接和我們的 AI 驅動的 Upwork Chat Pro 應用到自由職業者 Plus 訂閲中，同時將我們的價格定位提高到一個能夠體現我們提供的附加價值的水平。這些變化導致了我們有史以來最高的收費率。

75% year-over-year revenue growth in asset monetization products and a 68% quarter-over-quarter increase in Upwork Chat Pro daily active users in Q2. Asset monetization products continue to be one of our fastest-growing revenue streams. This is another area where the progress made is significant and yet the runway ahead is even more promising. UpWork is demonstrating our position to capture long-term growth from secular tailwinds, even while navigating a choppy environment in the near term, staying the course and executing unwaveringly on our profitability goals.

資產變現產品的年增長率達到 75%，第二季度 Upwork Chat Pro 每日活躍用户環比增長 68%。資產變現產品繼續是我們增長最快的收入來源之一。在這一領域取得的進展顯著，但前景更加光明。即使在短期內面臨波動的環境，Upwork 正在展示我們抓住長期增長機遇的位置，堅定地執行我們的盈利目標。

We are excited to drive this business to tremendous scale, building on our formidable assets and momentum, continuing to invest in growth, and creating meaningful leverage increases every year toward our 35% five-year adjusted EBITDA target. We are thrilled to be in a position to innovate work with and for our customers using our distinct differentiators of talent, technology, and know-how. With that, I will turn it over to Erica to review our financials.

我們對將業務發展到巨大規模感到興奮，藉助我們強大的資產和勢頭，繼續投資增長，並每年創造有意義的槓桿增長，朝着我們的 35% 五年調整後 EBITDA 目標邁進。我們很高興能夠利用我們的人才、技術和專業知識這些獨特優勢，與客户一起創新工作。現在，我將把話題轉給 Erica 來審查我們的財務狀況。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Thanks, Hayden. As Hayden outlined, we're excited about the strength of our business model, the opportunities ahead for Upwork, and our ability to generate durable, profitable growth in a tough macro. Our model is highly profitable, with gross margins over 77% in the second quarter, expanding adjusted EBITDA margins, and increasing free cash flow. We are steadfast in our goal to reach 35% adjusted EBITDA margin in the next five years while increasing our operating leverage every year along the way.

謝謝，Hayden。正如 Hayden 所概述的，我們對我們的商業模式的強勁性、Upwork 未來的機遇以及我們在艱難宏觀環境中實現持續盈利增長的能力感到興奮。我們的模式非常盈利，第二季度毛利率超過 77%，擴大了調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，並增加了自由現金流。我們堅定地致力於在未來五年內達到 35% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率目標，同時每年增加我們的營運槓桿。

Now, I'll review a few highlights from our most recent results. Revenue grew 15% year over year to $193.1 million in the second quarter and was driven in part by the flat fee pricing structure we started last year as well as sustained momentum from our ads and monetization products. Marketplace revenue was $166.8 million and grew 17% year over year. In our enterprise business, total enterprise revenue remained flat at $26.3 million in Q2.

現在，我將回顧我們最近業績的一些亮點。第二季度收入同比增長 15%，達到 1.931 億美元，部分原因是去年開始的固定費用定價結構，以及我們的廣告和變現產品持續的勢頭。市場收入為 1.668 億美元，同比增長 17%。在我們的企業業務中，第二季度總企業收入保持在 2630 萬美元的水平。

Within our Enterprise Solutions products, customer spend and behavior remained consistent with Q1 trends, and with the current high interest rate environment, which is impacting corporate spending. Managed services revenue showed strength in the quarter, growing on a year-over-year basis, reflecting increasing demand for work product delivery and the signing of six new managed services MSAs in the past few quarters. While Q1 of this year saw strengthening top-of-funnel activity on Upwork, in Q2, we saw a softening of these trends as well as a mix shift to very small businesses, which affects our average contract size. This activity is a flow-through from broader macroeconomic trends.

在我們的企業解決方案產品中，客户支出和行為與第一季度的趨勢保持一致，受當前高利率環境影響，這影響了企業支出。託管服務收入在本季度表現強勁，同比增長，反映了對工作產品交付的需求增加，以及在過去幾個季度簽署的六份新的託管服務協議。儘管今年第一季度在 Upwork 上的頂部活動有所增強，但在第二季度，我們看到這些趨勢有所減弱，同時也出現了向非常小型企業的轉變，這影響了我們的平均合同規模。這種活動是更廣泛宏觀經濟趨勢的反映。

As a result, Upwork's GSV declined 2.7% and GSV per active client declined 5% year over year. In spite of these temporal macro-related challenges, we're pleased with our ongoing ability to perform better than many traditional staffing, temp services, and job board companies due to our differentiated tech-enabled marketplace business model. Even with these pressures, active clients were up 6% year over year to $868,000, with both new acquisition and retention benefiting us on a year-over-year basis. Our marketplace take rate was at an all-time high of 18% in Q2, up 30 basis points from Q1.

因此，儘管受到暫時的宏觀相關挑戰，Upwork 的總服務交易總額同比下降了 2.7%，每個活躍客户的總服務交易總額同比下降了 5%。儘管面臨這些壓力，活躍客户同比增長了 6%，達到 868,000，新客户獲取和留存都使我們受益。我們的市場收費率在第二季度達到歷史最高水平，為 18%，較第一季度提高了 30 個基點。

We are confident we have additional capacity to grow our take rate, and our approach to this is focused on pricing to value. We continue to test and experiment with a wide variety of monetization strategies on the platform, and these tests are supporting our belief that we have significant opportunities to increase our take rate in the future. As we do this, we will always balance the opportunities we see to monetize the unique platform experiences we enable with marketplace health and growth. In Q2, we saw sustained momentum from our ads and monetization products, with Freelancer Plus subscriptions growing 28% year over year, contributing to what continues to be our highest growth revenue stream.

我們有信心擁有額外的增長空間來提高我們的收費率，我們的方法是專注於定價與價值相匹配。我們繼續在平台上測試和嘗試各種各樣的貨幣化策略，這些測試支持我們的信念，即我們在未來有顯著增加收費率的機會。在這個過程中，我們將始終平衡我們看到的貨幣化機會與市場健康和增長之間的關係。在第二季度，我們從廣告和貨幣化產品中持續看到動力，Freelancer Plus 訂閲同比增長 28%，為我們持續增長的最大收入來源做出了貢獻。

Non-GAAP gross margin continued to improve, both on a year-over-year and sequential basis to 77.6%. Non-GAAP operating expense was $112.2 million in the second quarter, representing 58% of revenue compared to $115.7 million, or 69% of revenue, in the prior year as we continue to successfully reduce operating costs. For the second quarter, non-GAAP R&D expense was $44 million, increasing 21% year over year as we continue to accelerate our pace of innovation and invest in technology. We expect R&D to be higher in absolute dollars year over year but decline as a percentage of revenue throughout 2024.

非通用會計毛利繼續改善，同比和環比均達到 77.6%。第二季度非通用運營費用為 1.122 億美元，佔收入的 58%，而去年同期為 1.157 億美元，佔收入的 69%，我們成功地繼續降低運營成本。第二季度非通用研發費用為 4400 萬美元，同比增長 21%，因為我們繼續加快創新步伐並投資於技術。我們預計研發費用在絕對金額上將同比增加，但在 2024 年全年將隨着收入比例下降。

Non-GAAP sales and marketing expense of $43.9 million declined 22% year over year, and we expect to maintain a similar level of spend as a percentage of revenue for the remainder of the year. Our provision for transaction losses, or PFTL, remains low at $1.8 million for Q2, approximately 1% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $40.8 million in the second quarter, representing adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.1%. Our profitable business model generated our highest quarter of GAAP net income ever and continued to generate GAAP earnings-per-share growth, which includes the impact of stock-based compensation.

第二季度非通用銷售和營銷費用為 4390 萬美元，同比下降 22%，我們預計在今年剩餘時間內保持類似的支出水平佔收入的比例。我們的交易損失準備（PFTL）在第二季度仍然很低，為 180 萬美元，約佔總收入的 1%。調整後的息税折舊及攤銷前利潤（Adjusted EBITDA）在第二季度為 4080 萬美元，代表 21.1% 的調整後 EBITDA 毛利。我們盈利的商業模式創造了有史以來最高的季度 GAAP 淨收入，並繼續產生 GAAP 每股收益增長，其中包括股權報酬的影響。

For the second quarter of 2024, GAAP net income was $22.2 million and fully diluted GAAP earnings per share was $0.17. Free cash flow for the second quarter was $33.5 million, the result of the high free cash flow yield inherent in our business model. We also returned $33.1 million to shareholders through share repurchases, representing nearly 100% of the free cash flow generated during the second quarter. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were approximately $497.7 million at the end of the second quarter.

2024 年第二季度，GAAP 淨收入為 2,220 萬美元，全攤薄 GAAP 每股收益為 0.17 美元。第二季度的自由現金流為 3350 萬美元，這是我們商業模式固有的高自由現金流收益的結果。我們還通過股票回購向股東返還了 3310 萬美元，幾乎相當於第二季度產生的自由現金流的 100%。截至第二季度末，現金、現金等價物和可市場化證券約為 4.977 億美元。

Turning to guidance. We are providing a more tempered revenue outlook for the remainder of the year based on the data points we have seen since May and no expectations of improvement to the current macro environment. By maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year, we are increasing our margin outlook. This is due to the strong focus on cost discipline across our business.

關於展望。我們根據自 5 月以來看到的數據點和對當前宏觀環境沒有改善的預期，為今年剩餘時間提供了更為謹慎的收入展望。通過保持我們全年調整後 EBITDA 的指引，我們提高了我們的毛利展望。這是由於我們在業務各個環節上強調成本紀律。

Our ability to produce growing margins in this environment gives us confidence in our long-term adjusted EBITDA margin goal. We believe our balanced focus on growth and profitability and growing margins with a high free cash flow yield will produce strong shareholder returns over time. For the third quarter of 2024, we expect to produce revenue in the range of $179 million to $184 million, representing 3% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. For adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter, we are guiding to a range of $36 million to $39 million, which represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20% at the midpoint.

在這種環境下產生增長的毛利能力使我們對我們的長期調整後 EBITDA 毛利目標充滿信心。我們相信我們在增長和盈利能力上的平衡關注，以及高自由現金流收益的毛利增長，將會隨着時間的推移產生強勁的股東回報。對於 2024 年第三季度，我們預計收入範圍在 1.79 億美元至 1.84 億美元之間，中間值代表同比增長 3%。至於第三季度的調整後 EBITDA，我們指導範圍為 3,600 萬美元至 3,900 萬美元，中間值代表調整後 EBITDA 毛利率為 20%。

For the full year 2024, we anticipate revenue between $735 million to $745 million, representing 7% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Contemplated in our revenue guidance are some near-term headwinds from anti-circumvention initiatives, which we expect will help to improve customer experience and platform quality while stimulating long-term growth of our marketplace. We expect our take rate for the rest of the year to remain stable with what we saw in Q2. As a result of our ongoing cost discipline and the strength of our model, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be within a range of $140 million to $150 million, increasing our adjusted EBITDA margin outlook.

對於 2024 全年，我們預計收入在 7.35 億美元至 7.45 億美元之間，中間值代表同比增長 7%。在我們的收入展望中考慮到了一些近期的反規避舉措帶來的阻力，我們預計這將有助於改善客户體驗和平台質量，同時刺激我們市場的長期增長。我們預計今年剩餘時間的收費率將與第二季度保持穩定。由於我們持續的成本紀律和我們模式的強勁性，我們預計全年調整後 EBITDA 將在 1.4 億美元至 1.5 億美元的範圍內，提高了我們的調整後 EBITDA 毛利展望。

As a reminder, GSV and revenue growth, and consequently adjusted EBITDA margins, are affected in the fourth quarter of this year by the fact that there are fewer Sundays in the quarter this year versus last year. Because of the timing each week when our clients are billed, the number of Sundays in any set period affects our revenue and GSV recognition in that period. Excluding the structural impact, our GSV growth rate for the year would be approximately one point higher. We expect full-year 2024 non-GAAP diluted EPS to be between $0.90 and $0.94, up from our guidance last quarter of $0.88 to $0.92.

作為提醒，由於今年第四季度的星期日較去年較少，GSV 和收入增長，因此調整後 EBITDA 毛利受到影響。由於每週客户結算的時間，任何一段時間內的星期日數量都會影響該時期的收入和 GSV 認定。排除結構性影響，我們全年的 GSV 增長率將約高出一個百分點。我們預計 2024 全年非通用攤薄每股收益將在 0.90 美元至 0.94 美元之間，高於上一季度的指引範圍 0.88 美元至 0.92 美元。

For the full year, weighted average shares outstanding will decline to a range of $139 million to $143 million, down from our previous guidance last quarter of $140 million to $144 million. Our profitable marketplace enables us to achieve durable profitable growth in the near and long term. We can increase profitability and free cash flow while continuing to invest in innovative solutions that will unlock new S-curves of growth for Upwork. Regardless of the macro environment, we will continue innovating and strengthening our position as a market leader, while producing steady and significant operating margin and free cash flow on an ongoing basis.

全年，加權平均流通股數將下降至 1.39 億至 1.43 億股，低於我們上一季度的指引範圍 1.4 億至 1.44 億股。我們盈利的市場使我們能夠在短期和長期內實現持續盈利增長。我們可以在繼續投資於創新解決方案的同時增加盈利能力和自由現金流，這將為 Upwork 開啓新的增長曲線。無論宏觀環境如何，我們將繼續創新並鞏固我們作為市場領導者的地位，同時持續產生穩定且顯著的運營利潤和自由現金流。

As always, I want to close by thanking our incredible team at Upwork for their contributions this quarter and their unparalleled creativity, focus, and pace of execution. I am proud to be a part of this great team. With that, we would be happy to take your questions.

最後，我要感謝我們在 Upwork 的不可思議團隊在本季度的貢獻，以及他們無與倫比的創造力、專注力和執行速度。我為能成為這個偉大團隊的一員感到自豪。有了這些，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。

Questions & Answers:

問題與回答：

Operator

運營商

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question comes from Andrew Boone of JMP Securities. Your line is open.

謝謝。[運營商指示] 請稍候，我們正在整理問答名單。我們的第一個問題來自 JMP 證券的 Andrew Boone。請發言。

Andrew Boone -- Analyst

Andrew Boone -- 分析師

Thanks so much for taking my questions. Hayden, in your prepared remarks, you talked about the health of the platform in terms of balancing take-rate initiatives and monetization products. Can you just speak to that in terms of how you are viewing things like Connects and pushing more monetization on to freelancers as well as also making sure that there is plenty of liquidity for the platform as well as supporting more first-time freelancers?

非常感謝您提問。Hayden，在您的開場發言中，您談到了平台的健康狀況，涉及到平衡收費率倡議和貨幣化產品。您能否就此談一下，您如何看待像 Connects 這樣的項目，以及如何推動更多的貨幣化給自由職業者，同時確保平台有足夠的流動性，支持更多首次自由職業者？

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hayden Brown - 總裁兼首席執行官

Thanks, Andrew. I'd say the work we've done so far has been incredibly successful and provides the blueprint for how we want to continue driving in balancing the factors that you're outlining because we are laser-focused on expanding take rate while making these initiatives accretive from a marketplace health and quality perspective. What we look at here is things like Connects and subscriptions and value-added services that we're enhancing the platform with really are ways for us to improve signal quality in the marketplace for us to also give talent and clients more control over when, where, and how they want to engage and to be featured or propose themselves with more priority for work, things like that. And so, really, these are features and functionality in a large part or are in service of our marketplace health goals.

謝謝，Andrew。我想説，我們迄今為止所做的工作非常成功，併為我們繼續推動平衡您所概述的因素提供了藍圖，因為我們專注於擴大收費率，同時使這些倡議從市場健康和質量的角度具有增值性。我們在這裏關注的是像 Connects 和訂閲以及增值服務這樣的項目，我們正在通過這些方式改善市場的信號質量，讓人才和客户更多地控制他們想何時、何地以及如何參與，並提供更多優先權進行工作或提出自己的方式。因此，實際上，這些功能在很大程度上是為了實現我們的市場健康目標而提供服務。

And monetization is, in some cases, just a byproduct of how these work most effectively and really can be capitalized on for customers and for us. Stepping back and looking more broadly at the ads and monetization opportunity we have, we know that given where we are today and when we compare our opportunity to other two-sided marketplace businesses, there is a lot of run room here. And we also know specifically about features and functionality, whether it's in value-added services or further enhancements to subscriptions that there's a long road map here that we can execute on. So, we feel great about the opportunity to continue to expand and build on what we've done and really continue to expand take rate in a way that is really valuable and healthy for the marketplace and for customers.

在某些情況下，貨幣化實際上只是這些項目如何最有效運作的副產品，並且確實可以為客户和我們所利用。回顧並更廣泛地看待我們在廣告和貨幣化機會方面，我們知道，鑑於我們今天的位置，以及當我們將我們的機會與其他雙邊市場業務進行比較時，這裏有很大的發展空間。我們也明確知道，無論是在增值服務方面還是進一步增強訂閲方面，都有一個我們可以執行的長期規劃路線圖。因此，我們對繼續擴大和建設我們所做的工作感到非常滿意，並且真正繼續擴大收費率的機會，這對於市場和客户來説非常有價值和健康。

Andrew Boone -- Analyst

Andrew Boone - 分析師

That's helpful. And then I wanted to ask about partner deals. Hayden, as you roll out more of these deals, can you talk about what's been successful and how that paints the picture for where you guys want to pursue additional deals going forward? Thanks so much.

這很有幫助。然後我想問一下關於合作伙伴交易的事情。Hayden，在您推出更多這些交易時，您能談談哪些方面取得了成功，以及這如何描繪了您們未來希望追求額外交易的情況嗎？非常感謝。

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hayden Brown - 總裁兼首席執行官

We view the partnership opportunity as very large, and there's certainly a lot of ways to look at this. OpenAI was our launch partner for this bigger program and really provided the starting point for the momentum that we've been building in that now we have. I'd say what success looks like for us is really using this partnership muscle that we've been building over the last few quarters to build this highly scalable, very cost-effective, new way for us to bring client demand to our talent. And the unlock for us is that we don't need all of these clients to come and know about our brand or register and start with an account on Upwork for them to find success and for them to find our talent.

我們認為合作伙伴機會非常廣闊，而且肯定有很多看待這個問題的方式。OpenAI 是我們這個更大項目的啓動合作伙伴，實際上為我們目前所擁有的勢頭提供了起點。我想説，對我們來説，成功的定義實際上是利用我們過去幾個季度一直在打造的這種合作伙伴關係力量，建立這種高度可擴展、非常具有成本效益的新方式，讓我們將客户需求引入我們的人才。我們的突破在於，我們不需要所有這些客户都來了解我們的品牌，或者註冊並在 Upwork 上開户才能找到成功，找到我們的人才。

So, we're really turning our model around and bringing our talent out into the ecosystem through these partners and leveraging some of these marquee partnerships like the OpenAI one to generate what has become a very successful and fast-moving funnel here of partners who are coming to us and saying, "Hey, can we get in on some of this action?" Because these partners have ecosystems of clients and customers who themselves have needs that these partners have not always had a good way to service. So, this is what's contributed to May being the highest monthly revenue partnership month we've seen to date and the fact that in the past quarter, we doubled the number of partner deals and are still building from there. So, it is still early in the opportunity, but we do see that this could be a very exciting trajectory around client acquisition and a different model for us to go forward.

因此，我們真的正在改變我們的模式，並通過這些合作伙伴將我們的人才引入生態系統，並利用一些像 OpenAI 這樣的知名合作伙伴，產生了一個非常成功且快速發展的潛在合作伙伴渠道，這些合作伙伴來找我們，説：“嘿，我們能參與其中嗎？” 因為這些合作伙伴擁有客户和顧客生態系統，這些生態系統本身有需求，而這些合作伙伴並不總是有很好的方式來滿足這些需求。因此，這就是導致五月成為迄今為止我們看到的最高月度收入合作伙伴月份的原因，以及在過去的一個季度中，我們將合作伙伴交易數量翻了一番，並且仍在繼續發展。因此，這個機會仍處於早期階段，但我們確實看到這可能是一個非常令人興奮的客户獲取軌跡，並且對我們前進的不同模式有所幫助。

Andrew Boone -- Analyst

Andrew Boone - 分析師

Thank you.

謝謝。

Operator

運營商

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bernie McTernan of Needham and Company. Your line is open.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 Needham and Company 的 Bernie McTernan。您可以發言了。

Bernard McTernan -- Analyst

Bernard McTernan - 分析師

Great. Thank you very much. Just a couple for me. And maybe we know the answer just based on the guide, but I just wanted to clarify.

非常感謝。我只有幾個問題。也許我們已經根據指南知道答案了，但我只是想澄清一下。

If the trends that you saw in June continued into July and August on -- at the bookings level, and then the guidance for take rate to be flat sequentially or for the remainder of the year relative to 2Q, is that just thinking about in this kind of top-line bookings environment is not right to be leaning in a monetization, or is there anything else we should be thinking of? And then sorry, one last clarification, just the 100-basis-point impact to GMV growth given the one last Sunday in the fourth quarter, is that for the full year or just the fourth quarter thinking about the year-over-year growth?

如果您在六月看到的趨勢持續到七月和八月的預訂水平上，以及指導中提到的收費率在剩下的一年中相對於第二季度保持不變，這是否只是考慮在這種頂線預訂環境中不適合依賴貨幣化，或者我們應該考慮其他因素？然後抱歉，最後一個澄清，隻影響 GMV 增長 100 個基點的因素是因為第四季度最後一個星期日，這是針對全年還是僅針對第四季度考慮的？

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert - 首席財務官

Yeah. Sure, Bernie. So, in terms of the -- back on the line there. In terms of the trends that we saw on top-of-funnel, first and foremost, we actually saw very strong top-of-funnel demand signals in Q1, and we really saw that that starting to turn in kind of mid-May and then into June and July.

是的，Bernie。關於那裏的情況。在頂部信號方面，首先，我們實際上在第一季度看到了非常強勁的頂部信號需求，我們確實看到這種情況在五月中旬開始轉變，然後進入六月和七月。

We did see those trends get slightly worse in June and July. And so, this is really what we're basing our guidance on. We fully contemplated this impact in our guidance and in fact, are now contemplating no improvement to these trends going forward. So, in that way, I think we feel like we've fully derisked our guidance for the year.

我們確實看到這些趨勢在六月和七月略有惡化。因此，這確實是我們指導的基礎。我們在指導中充分考慮了這種影響，事實上，我們現在正在考慮這些趨勢不會有所改善。因此，在這方面，我認為我們感到我們已經為今年的指導完全消除了風險。

On your question in terms of the take rate trends, yes, I mean, I think we're just being prudent, again, kind of anticipating the trends that we're seeing and just looking at top-of-funnel trends, both on kind of the demand side as well as this mix shift and expecting that we'll see a little bit lighter usage in some of the ads products as well. And then on the Sunday effect question, yes, that's -- the one-point impact is for the full year.

關於您提到的收費率趨勢問題，是的，我認為我們只是謹慎行事，再次預期我們所看到的趨勢，並且仔細觀察頂層趨勢，無論是需求方面還是這種混合轉變，並且預計我們也會在一些廣告產品中看到一些輕微的使用減少。至於週日效應的問題，是的，這一點影響是全年的 1 個百分點。

Bernard McTernan -- Analyst

伯納德·麥克特南 -- 分析師

Got it. Thanks, Erica.

明白了。謝謝，Erica。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Sure.

當然。

Operator

運營人員

Thank you. Our next question comes from Maria Ripps of Canaccord. Your line is open.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 Canaccord 的 Maria Ripps。請發言。

Maria Ripps -- Analyst

瑪麗亞·裏普斯 -- 分析師

Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. First, sort of understanding that you're breathing in a tough macro environment, can you maybe just talk about your ability to sustain your EBITDA guidance? And as we look at your P&L, sort of what are some areas that you can optimize here in the near term without sort of impacting future growth as the environment improves? And then I have a quick follow-up.

非常感謝您回答我的問題。首先，我們知道您在一個艱難的宏觀環境中運營，您能談談您如何保持調整後的 EBITDA 指引的能力嗎？當我們審視您的損益表時，有哪些領域可以在短期內優化，而不會影響未來增長？然後我有一個簡短的追問。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Yeah. Just in terms of maintaining the adjusted EBITDA guidance, I mean, look, this is an inherently profitable business, and we've made a tremendous amount of progress with the cost discipline muscle that we've implemented as a business. We're obviously continually making progress both on the gross margin line as well as on the opex line. And so, we feel really, really confident that we can continue to do so.

是的。關於保持調整後的 EBITDA 指引，我認為，這是一個固有盈利的業務，我們通過實施的成本紀律機制取得了巨大進展。我們顯然在毛利線和運營支出線上不斷取得進展。因此，我們非常有信心能夠繼續這樣做。

We're at 77.5% gross margin now. And we do still have some continued optimization that we can do that we're working on, on rates with hosting costs, other things like that. And then just as a reminder to everyone, we're continuing to invest in growth. Our R&D expense was up 21% year over year in Q2, and we are very, very focused on investing in the growth levers that will grow GSV into the future.

我們現在的毛利率為 77.5%。我們仍然可以繼續優化一些方面，比如與託管成本等費率的工作。並且只是提醒大家，我們繼續投資於增長。我們的研發支出在 Q2 同比增長了 21%，我們非常專注於投資於將來增長 GSV 的增長槓桿。

So, we think we know we can do both. We can continue to optimize in areas that are kind of lower ROI spend for us, optimized on the G&A line and other places, and produce that growing operating margin while investing in growth.

因此，我們認為我們可以做到兩者兼顧。我們可以繼續優化一些對我們來説回報較低的領域，在 G&A 線和其他地方進行優化，並在投資增長的同時產生增長的運營利潤。

Maria Ripps -- Analyst

瑪麗亞·裏普斯 -- 分析師

Got it. That's very helpful. And then secondly, could you maybe talk about any recent developments as it relates to AI tools and functionality? And I know you highlighted a few in the press release. And is there any way to sort of quantify the impact of AI on your overall business?

明白了。非常有幫助。其次，您能談談最近與 AI 工具和功能相關的任何進展嗎？我知道您在新聞稿中強調了一些內容。有沒有辦法量化 AI 對您整體業務的影響？

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

海登·布朗 -- 總裁兼首席執行官

Sure, Maria. In terms of the AI tools and functionality, I'd say we're very pleased with how the features and functionality we're launching, including things like our Uma, AI work companion, as well as Upwork Chat Pro, which is an AI-enabled feature for freelancers in particular, to leverage that throughout the work journey on Upwork, these are all getting very strong adoption and continue to be advancing even though they're still in their early stages. We've seen a 23% increase between Q1 and Q2 in users interacting with Uma. We also saw a 68% increase in freelancers using Upwork Chat Pro on a daily basis.

當然，瑪麗亞。關於 AI 工具和功能，我可以説我們對我們正在推出的功能和功能感到非常滿意，包括我們的 Uma AI 工作伴侶，以及 Upwork Chat Pro，這是一個專門為自由職業者設計的 AI 功能，可以在 Upwork 的工作過程中利用，這些功能都得到了很強的採用，並且即使它們仍處於早期階段，也在不斷發展。我們在 Q1 和 Q2 之間看到 Uma 與用户互動增加了 23%。我們還看到自由職業者每天使用 Upwork Chat Pro 增加了 68%。

So, these are kind of positive signals that this is an effective strategy for us that is going to continue to enhance the experience and our metrics and really is giving us confidence in the road map that we're executing. In terms of AI impact on the overall business, here's one way to think about ring-fencing the negative impact, which I think we get a lot of questions about. As the world is undergoing an AI transition, and inevitably on that journey, some of the old ways of working will get left behind. The segment of jobs in our marketplace that are less complex and hypothetically, most easily disrupted over time by AI, are jobs and Upwork with less than $300 of spend, which comprised just under 5% of our GSV today.

因此，這些都是積極的信號，表明這對我們來説是一種有效的策略，將繼續增強體驗和指標，真正讓我們對正在執行的路線圖充滿信心。關於 AI 對整體業務的影響，這是一個思考消除負面影響的方式，我認為我們收到了很多關於這方面的問題。隨着世界正在經歷 AI 轉型，不可避免地，在這個旅程中，一些舊的工作方式將被拋棄。我們市場中那些不太複雜、理論上最容易被 AI 隨着時間推移所取代的工作部分，是在 Upwork 上花費不到 300 美元的工作，這部分目前僅佔我們 GSV 的不到 5%。

To be clear, we are not yet seeing a broad-based AI impact overall in this small job segment. Now, if you look within the small job segment, the current impact from AI is much more limited and is most visible in a couple of categories. Writing and translation is obviously where it's most evident, and that's just as we've expected and seen over multiple quarters now. In writing and translation and elsewhere, we continue to see, at this point, a positive AI-driven mix shift away from simple, very low-effectiveness jobs, to complex, more valuable, higher-paying work.

明確一點，我們還沒有在這個小工作部分整體上看到廣泛的 AI 影響。現在，如果您看看小工作部分，AI 目前的影響要小得多，主要集中在一些類別上。寫作和翻譯顯然是最明顯的領域，這正如我們多個季度以來所預期和看到的。在寫作和翻譯以及其他地方，我們繼續看到，目前，由於新的工作出現，編輯和翻譯人員的每份合同工作時間、每份合同支出都在增加，因為他們實際上正在與 AI 合作並補充 AI 提供的成果。因此，這些因素真正證明了 AI 相關機會，我們期望通過提供人類專業知識來受益，這種專業知識在我們市場中的所有類別中都受到重視，因為人類正在與 AI 工具在生態系統中合作。我們看到的是 AI 更多地增強人類，而不是取代他們。

And this transition has started in the past. In the past quarter, we saw hours per contract in writing, we saw spend per contract in translation, all increasing because of the new work that's emerging for editors and translators who are actually working with and supplementing the outputs delivered by AI. So, these factors are really a testament to the AI-related opportunity that we expect to benefit from by offering the human expertise that is so valued across all of our categories in the marketplace as humans are working with AI tools in the ecosystem. And what we see is AI augmenting humans much more so than replacing them.

瑪麗亞·裏普斯 -- 分析師

Maria Ripps -- Analyst

非常感謝。非常有幫助。

Great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful.

海登·布朗 -- 總裁兼首席執行官

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

謝謝，瑪麗亞。

Thanks, Maria.

運營人員

Operator

謝謝。下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Josh Chan。請發言。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Josh Chan of UBS. Your line is open.

喬希·陳 -- 分析師

Josh Chan -- Analyst

您好。下午好。感謝您回答我的問題。我想知道您在 Q2 中看到的軌跡能否再詳細談一下。

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the trajectory that you saw through Q2.

是五月或六月出現了一次性下降，然後從那裏保持平穩，還是緩慢放緩？我想澄清一下您的指引，這是否意味着從當前水平保持平穩，還是意味着隨着您談到維持當前趨勢，繼續放緩？謝謝。

Was it kind of like a one-time step-down in May or June and then kind of flat from there, or was it like a slow easing? And then I guess just to clarify on your guidance, I guess, does that imply a flat-lining from current levels, or does it imply kind of continuing slowing as you talk about maintaining the current trends? Thank you.

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So, maybe to take a step back and talk about kind of the transition from Q1 to Q2, we saw a really promising top-of-funnel demand signals in Q1, our client-seeking work metric, which is a leading indicator for us on overall demand on the platform and growth on the platform was up 11% in Q1. And that trend really started to reverse around mid-May, and then we saw a declining trend into June and July. And again, we saw a couple of factors here.

是的。因此，也許可以退後一步，談一談從第一季度到第二季度的過渡，我們在第一季度看到了一些非常有前景的頂層需求信號，我們的客户尋求工作指標，在我們平台整體需求和增長方面是一個領先指標，在第一季度增長了 11%。這一趨勢在五月中旬開始逆轉，然後我們看到在六月和七月出現了下降趨勢。再次，我們在這裏看到了一些因素。

We saw overall demand signals decline. And then we also saw a mix shift to -- we saw strong growth from very small businesses and lower demand from larger customers, which is really understandable given the high interest rate environment that we're operating in. Since smaller businesses tend to have lower spend characteristics overall, this mix shift impacts our GSV per active, which is what's making us more cautious about the outlook for the rest of the year.

我們看到整體需求信號下降。然後我們還看到了一個混合轉變，我們看到來自非常小型企業的強勁增長，以及來自較大客户的需求下降，這在我們所處的高利率環境下是可以理解的。由於較小企業通常具有較低的整體支出特徵，這種混合轉變影響了我們每活躍用户的總交易價值，這讓我們對今年餘下時間的前景更加謹慎。

Josh Chan -- Analyst

Josh Chan -- 分析師

Thank you. Thanks for the color. And then in terms of your expense management, very impressive in this environment, when demand eventually returns, will you need to undergo like a period of added spend, or how are you thinking about that trajectory as demand eventually bottoms and gets better? Thank you.

謝謝。感謝您的解釋。關於您的費用管理，在這種環境下表現非常出色，當需求最終恢復時，您是否需要經歷像增加支出這樣的時期，或者您是如何考慮需求最終觸底並改善的軌跡的？謝謝。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Yeah, sure. I mean, we're very, very proud of the cost discipline that we've implemented. I think we're doing a great job at it, and I'm really proud of the team here for working so hard. We are very committed to continuing to grow operating leverage as we continue down this path.

是的，當然。我們為我們實施的成本紀律感到非常自豪。我認為我們在這方面做得很好，我為這裏的團隊如此努力工作感到自豪。我們非常致力於在繼續這條道路的同時繼續增長運營槓桿。

And even as demand returns, I think we'll be very moderated in the way that we invest. We've built a very, very good, for example, performance marketing engine, with very kind of clear parameters in terms of yield and ROI, and we'll continue to invest that way as we go forward. So, I don't necessarily see the need to ratchet up significantly our spend as demand returns, but we'll assess it as we go.

即使需求回升，我認為我們在投資方面會非常謹慎。例如，我們建立了一個非常出色的營銷引擎，具有非常明確的收益和投資回報率參數，我們將繼續以這種方式投資。因此，我並不認為在需求回升時有必要顯着增加支出，但我們將隨着情況的發展進行評估。

Josh Chan -- Analyst

Josh Chan -- 分析師

Perfect. Thank you for your time and the color.

非常感謝您的時間和解釋。

Operator

運營人員

Thank you. Our next question comes from Matt Farrell of Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 Piper Sandler 的 Matt Farrell。請發言。

Matt Farrell -- Analyst

Matt Farrell -- 分析師

Thanks for taking my question. I'd love to understand a little bit more about the bifurcation of the enterprise pricing strategy. What kind of went into that? You obviously hit on some early results, but how should we be thinking about that helping to drive an acceleration in the enterprise business over the next couple of quarters?

感謝您回答我的問題。我想更多地瞭解企業定價策略的分化。是什麼導致了這種情況？您顯然提到了一些早期結果，但我們應該如何考慮這有助於在未來幾個季度加速企業業務的發展？

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hayden Brown -- 總裁兼首席執行官

Sure, Matt. Our view on this is the enterprise TAM is so attractive, and we're really positioned well to work aggressively to keep unlocking it. With the pilot we ran in the last quarter, you're right, we saw some promising signals, and we're still in testing and really using the learnings from those signals to inform where we go next from here. I'd say because of where we are with that work, the insights have been really strong, but we're not yet expecting the same level of performance every quarter in terms of the type of new logo conversion that we saw in the last quarter carrying forward.

當然，Matt。我們對此的看法是企業 TAM 非常有吸引力，我們定位良好，積極努力不斷開拓。在上個季度我們進行的試點項目中，您是對的，我們看到了一些有希望的信號，我們仍在測試中，並且真正利用這些信號的經驗教訓來指導我們接下來的方向。因為我們在這方面的工作進展，洞察力非常強大，但我們還沒有預期到每個季度都會看到與上個季度相同水平的新標識轉化帶來的業績持續增長。

But we do think it's critical in this environment and every environment to remain really agile in unlocking the market opportunity. And that's really what we're focused on doing because we see opportunities both to increase conversion and expand the number of logos in the enterprise space that we have as well as unlock share of wallet. And that's where we're focused. So, I think it's too soon to say more specific than that, but that is actually where we're laser-focused, and the results, I think, are showing that from the agility.

但我們認為在這種環境和任何環境中，保持在開拓市場機會方面非常靈活至關重要。這正是我們專注於做的，因為我們看到增加轉化、擴大我們在企業領域的標識數量以及開拓市場份額的機會。這是我們專注的地方。因此，我認為現在説得更具體還為時過早，但這確實是我們聚焦的地方，而結果也表明我們在靈活性方面表現出色。

Matt Farrell -- Analyst

Matt Farrell -- 分析師

And then kind of following up on some of the questions on the full-year guide. Based on my math, it assumes a pretty significant deceleration in GSV as you move through the rest of the year. I guess, how does the macro, both on the small and the enterprise customers, different? How is it different than previous cycles of slowing? It seems like it's much more intense this time around than it has been in the past, but would love just any more clarity on spending patterns and the assumptions that are embedded in GSV. Thanks.

接着是關於全年指引的一些問題。根據我的計算，它假設在年底時 GSP 會出現相當大的減速。我想知道，無論是對小型客户還是企業客户，宏觀經濟情況有何不同？與以往的放緩週期有何不同？這次似乎比以往更加嚴重，但希望能更清楚地瞭解支出模式和嵌入在 GSP 中的假設。謝謝。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Maybe I'll start, and Hayden, feel free to add on. So, a couple of things here. Like I said, the guidance is based on essentially bringing forward the kind of lower trends that we saw exiting Q2 and even into Q3 for the rest of the year. So, that's what we're basing it on.

也許我先説一下，Hayden，隨時可以補充。這裏有幾點。就像我説的，指引基本上是基於我們在第二季度結束甚至進入第三季度看到的較低趨勢。這是我們基於的。

It's kind of the June and July trends, and we really wanted to make sure that we were not anticipating any improvement to the macro from what we've been seeing in the last couple of months. And so, like I said, to that effect, we do think we've effectively derisked the back half of the year. Just in terms of how macro is impacting kind of spending on the platform, I would say, look, writ large, high interest rates impact demand on the large and medium business customer spend, inflation impacts demand on the small business and consumer side. And these both impact GSV and they have compounding effects, right, over time.

這是六月和七月的趨勢，我們真的希望確保我們不會預期到宏觀經濟會有任何改善，與我們在過去幾個月看到的情況相比。因此，正如我所説，為此效果，我們認為我們已經有效地降低了年底的風險。就宏觀經濟如何影響平台支出而言，我想説，總體而言，高利率影響大中型企業客户支出的需求，通貨膨脹影響小型企業和消費者方面的需求。這兩者都會對 GSP 產生影響，並且隨着時間的推移會產生複合效應。

And I think we've been able to weather the storm really well for the past few years as we've been going through this, and now we're starting to see some of those compounding effects, I think, really effect on the demand on the platform. But we've been able to grow revenue in this environment due to some of the investments we've made in high-growth categories and our ads and monetization strategy, and we do anticipate that some of those things will also get share with benefits in 2025 and beyond.

我認為我們過去幾年在經歷這一切時表現得非常出色，現在我們開始看到一些這些複合效應，我認為這確實對平台上的需求產生了影響。但由於我們在高增長類別、廣告和貨幣化策略方面的一些投資，我們已經能夠在這種環境中實現收入增長，我們也預計其中一些因素在 2025 年及以後也會帶來收益。

Operator

運營人員

Thank you. And our next question comes from Marvin Fong of BTIG. Your line is open.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Marvin Fong。請發言。

Marvin Fong -- Analyst

Marvin Fong -- 分析師

Good evening. Thanks for taking my question. So, I guess just to kind of maybe round out the whole discussion about the state of the world. Anything you could add in terms of categories or even geography areas that might be trending particularly weak or maybe even relatively stronger relative to kind of the overall marketplace? And then I have a follow-up.

晚上好。感謝您提問。我想總結一下關於世界形勢的討論。您能否就可能在某些類別或地理區域方面趨勢明顯疲弱或相對較強的問題進行補充？接着我有一個後續問題。

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

海登·布朗 - 總裁兼首席執行官

Marvin, what we're seeing is from a category standpoint, the tech industry broadly in the macro at large is being hit harder from a job openings perspective. So, we are seeing that that is flowing through to some extent in terms of demand for tech jobs on our own platform being a bit weaker. And that's consistent with the macro trends. We also know that that impact, however, is not totally uniform.

馬文，從類別的角度來看，整體宏觀範圍內的科技行業在職位空缺方面受到了更嚴重的打擊。因此，我們看到這在一定程度上影響了我們平台上對科技工作的需求有所減弱。這與宏觀趨勢一致。我們也知道，這種影響並不是完全均勻的。

There are some subcategories within our own tech category on our platform that are performing better. So, it's a bit uneven, but that's, I'd say, one theme. The bright spots in terms of categories definitely are the strength in AI-related work. That grew 67% year over year.

在我們平台上的科技類別中，有一些子類別表現更好。因此，情況有些不均勻，但我想説的是，一個主題是明顯的。在類別方面，明顯的亮點是與人工智能相關的工作實力。這一領域的增長率達到了 67%。

And we're seeing emerging growth in subcategories even within these AI-impacted slices of the business like rating and translation, whereas even as automation is happening, new growth shoots are popping up. So, that's the category story. To the question of geos or other segments, I'd say we saw U.S., Germany, and U.K. as a bit more impacted than other countries globally in terms of client demand.

我們看到在這些受人工智能影響的業務領域內，甚至在自動化進行的同時，新的增長點也在湧現，比如評分和翻譯等子類別。這就是類別的情況。至於地理位置或其他細分市場，我想説，我們看到美國、德國和英國在客户需求方面受到的影響要比全球其他國家更大一些。

And again, I think that's indicative of kind of what's going on broadly in those economies.

而且，我認為這反映了這些經濟體整體上正在發生的情況。

Marvin Fong -- Analyst

馬文·方 - 分析師

Yeah. OK. Perfect. That makes total sense.

好的。好的。這完全合理。

And I did want to also follow up on the bifurcated enterprise. So, I'm just curious exactly what is it about -- or how should we sort of think about the less -- the lower feature version? I mean, what is it that makes it more palatable? Is it some of maybe the upfront cost, or is it a take rate being lower? What exactly is it that's going to draw these more on the fence kind of enterprises? And then just part B of that question, is there any risk in your mind that some of your existing enterprise customers that are on the full-feature version, that they might opt for the less full-feature version? Thanks.

我也想就分化的企業進行跟進。我只是好奇，究竟是什麼讓較低功能版本更具吸引力？也許是一些前期成本，或者是佣金率較低？到底是什麼會吸引那些搖擺不定的企業？然後問題的第二部分，您是否認為您現有的全功能企業客户可能會選擇較低功能版本？謝謝。

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

海登·布朗 - 總裁兼首席執行官

Yes. I understand the concern. I can tell you there's no risk of cannibalization here. What we are doing is really leveraging the art of getting the packaging, the pricing, the whole structure absolutely right to meet the different subsegments that exist within enterprise.

是的。我理解您的擔憂。我可以告訴您，這裏不存在 cannibalization 的風險。我們正在充分利用包裝、定價和整體結構的藝術，以完全滿足企業內存在的不同子細分市場。

And previously, we had more or less like one offering to target with, and now we have more tools in our toolkit. And again, we're not -- this was one first iteration at this, really aimed at optimizing landing these new customers and expanding their share of wallet, which is something that we want to be absolutely best-in-class at. So, we learned a bunch of things. I would say we're not compromising margins or take rate or kind of the effectiveness of our overall business and its profitability.

以前，我們更多地是針對一個目標提供一種產品，現在我們在工具箱中有更多工具。而且，我們並沒有——這是我們第一次嘗試，真正旨在優化吸引這些新客户並擴大他們的市場份額，這是我們希望在絕對最佳水平上做到的。因此，我們學到了很多東西。我想説的是，我們並沒有犧牲利潤率、佣金率或整體業務的有效性和盈利能力。

But we are determined to nail how we get these packages and pricing absolutely right to unlock this market.

但我們決心要確保我們如何完全正確地制定這些套餐和定價，以開拓這個市場。

Marvin Fong -- Analyst

馬文·方 - 分析師

That's great. Thanks for the color, Hayden.

太好了。謝謝您的解釋，海登。

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

海登·布朗 - 總裁兼首席執行官

Sure.

當然。

Operator

運營商

Thank you. [Operator instructions] And our next question comes from John Byun of Jefferies. Your line is open.

謝謝。[運營商指示] 我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 John Byun。請發言。

John Byun -- Analyst

約翰·邊 - 分析師

Hi. Thank you. This is John Byun on behalf of Brent Thill. On the macro and GSV growth, I mean, what sort of actions could you take, or what could help resume the growth there? I mean, will it require a low interest rate or some other either external or specific factors to you? And then on the EBITDA margin further expansion, I think in the past, you've mentioned that there was still room to optimizing R&D.

您好。謝謝。我是代表 Brent Thill 的約翰·邊。關於宏觀和 GSV 增長，我想問一下，您可以採取什麼樣的行動，或者什麼可以幫助恢復增長？是需要低利率還是其他外部或特定因素？此外，在調整 EBITDA 邊際進一步擴張方面，我記得您過去提到過仍有優化空間的研發。

Wondering how you still view that. If not, then where are there still big pockets we can optimize more between the different opex lines? Thank you.

想知道您對此仍然持何種看法。如果不是的話，那麼我們在不同運營支出線之間仍有哪些大的領域可以進一步優化？謝謝。

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

海登·布朗 - 總裁兼首席執行官

John, we don't have to wait for a better macro to return for our GSV investments to pay off. We expect the levers we're investing in now based on the early stages they're in now to have impact in 2025, even if a challenging macro persists. And certainly, they will perform better when the macro improves. So, our growth will come from enterprise initiatives, including the pricing and packaging work, which unlocks logos and wallet share as well as amplification from the VMS and MSP program.

約翰，我們不必等待宏觀環境改善才能讓我們的 GSV 投資產生回報。我們預計我們目前正在投資的槓桿，在目前的早期階段將在 2025 年產生影響，即使挑戰性的宏觀環境持續存在。當宏觀環境改善時，它們肯定會表現更好。因此，我們的增長將來自企業倡議，包括定價和包裝工作，這將解鎖標識和市場份額，以及來自 VMS 和 MSP 計劃的放大效應。

The AI and Uma-powered performance improvements we're making on our platform, from partnership efforts that drive new client acquisition at scale, from the scaling of AI talent and work-related GSV in our marketplace, which is growing at a rapid pace. These efforts are all in their early execution this year, and we never expected them to have a significant 2024 impact. In 2025, they will be beneficial. And they will also be enhanced by the asset monetization work, which will be an additional tailwind, as well as anti-circumvention efforts, which will be favorable next year on GSV and revenue.

我們正在進行的 AI 和 Uma 動力性能改進，從推動規模化新客户獲取的合作努力，到在我們的市場上擴大 AI 人才和與工作相關的 GSV，這一切都在今年的早期執行階段，我們從未指望它們在 2024 年產生重大影響。到 2025 年，它們將是有益的。它們還將受益於資產變現工作，這將是一個額外的助推力，以及反規避努力，這將在明年對 GSV 和收入產生積極影響。

So, we feel great about our portfolio of opportunities and the ongoing strong execution we have behind every single one of them.

因此，我們對我們的機會組合和我們在每一個機會背後的強勁執行感到非常滿意。

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

艾瑞卡·蓋瑟特 - 首席財務官

And I'll just answer on the adjusted EBITDA margin expansion question. Yes, we absolutely do have more optimization to go in the R&D line. We are continuing to grow that line. And I think you can expect that we are going to continue to invest on -- in innovation on the platform.

我只想回答一下關於調整後的 EBITDA 邊際擴張問題。是的，我們在研發領域還有更多的優化空間。我們將繼續在創新平台上投資。

We think that that ongoing innovation and investment in technology are the ways to grow this business. And so, you will see that line continue to grow some on a year-over-year basis but not nearly to the extent that it has in the past. So, we've been growing over 20% of the year for the past few years in R&D. And we're taking a really surgical approach.

我們認為持續創新和對技術的投資是推動業務增長的途徑。因此，您會看到這一領域的增長在逐年增加，但遠不及過去的程度。因此，過去幾年我們在研發方面的增長超過了 20%。我們採取了非常精準的方法。

We're going kind of project by project and looking through and cutting back where we're not seeing the ROI profile that we want along the time horizons that we want. And again, we also have optimizations that we can take in continuing to improve on our gross margin line. And then I think there's definitely a way to go in G&A as well.

我們逐個項目地進行審查，削減那些沒有達到我們期望的投資回報率且時間跨度不符合要求的項目。此外，我們還可以優化繼續改善毛利率。我認為在一般行政和管理費用方面還有很大的改進空間。

John Byun -- Analyst

John Byun -- 分析師

Thank you.

謝謝。

Operator

運營人員

That concludes Upwork's second quarter 2024 earnings call. [Operator signoff]

以上是 Upwork 2024 年第二季度收益電話會議。 [運營人員簽退]

Duration: 0 minutes

時長：0 分鐘

Call participants:

與會者:

Jacob McQuown -- Vice President to Deputy General Counsel

Jacob McQuown -- 副總顧問

Hayden Brown -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hayden Brown -- 總裁兼首席執行官

Erica Gessert -- Chief Financial Officer

Erica Gessert -- 首席財務官

Andrew Boone -- Analyst

Andrew Boone -- 分析師

Bernard McTernan -- Analyst

Bernard McTernan -- 分析師

Bernie McTernan -- Analyst

Bernie McTernan -- 分析師

Maria Ripps -- Analyst

Maria Ripps -- 分析師

Josh Chan -- Analyst

Josh Chan -- 分析師

Matt Farrell -- Analyst

Matt Farrell -- 分析師

Marvin Fong -- Analyst

Marvin Fong -- 分析師

John Byun -- Analyst

John Byun -- 分析師

More UPWK analysis

更多 UPWK 分析

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Prepared Remarks:

主要發言:

Questions & Answers:

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Call participants:

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Upwork (UPWK) 2024 年第二季度財報電話會議實錄