Criteo’s revenue drops 10% year over year in the first quarter of 2020

Criteo this week announced the financial results for the first quarter ended on March 31. Criteo’s revenue decreased 10% year-over-year. Criteo’s revenue for the first quarter of 2020 was $503 million. Criteo’s revenue for the Q1 2019 was $558 million.

Criteo says coronavirus pandemic impacted the revenue for the first quarter in $24 million.

In the announcement Criteo says that it has “frozen substantially all hiring and travel expenses globally and have taken several additional cost containment measures, including reductions in marketing spend and events, third-party services, and hosting costs.”

“Q1 was a solid quarter amidst a challenging environment,” said Benoit Fouilland, Criteo’s CFO. “We’re hyper-focused on managing our cost base and protecting our profitability and financial liquidity.”

According to Criteo, all solutions outside of retargeting grew 49% year-over-year to 13% of total revenue. Criteo says it has added over 110 net new clients, but the same-client revenue declined 9% year-over-year, including 5 points because of the COVID-19 disruption.

Criteo’s header-bidding technology is integrated on 4,600 publishers across Web and App, and Criteo says it is reaching about 40% of all our publishers via Criteo Direct Bidder.