Prospectus Summary
Prospectus Summary This summary highlights information contained in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully read this entire prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto and the information in “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”Unless the context otherwise requires, we use the terms “Etsy,” “company,” “we,” “us” and “our” in this prospectus to refer to Etsy, Inc. and, where appropriate, our consolidated subsidiaries. See “—Glossary” for the definitions of the following terms: “active buyer,” “active seller,” “community,” “ecosystem,” “global-local,” “GMS,” “member,” “platform” and “visit.”
Our Mission
Our mission is to reimagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world.
We are building a human, authentic and community-centric global and local marketplace. We are committed to using the power of business to create a better world through our platform, our members, our employees and the communities we serve. These guiding principles are core to our mission:
Overview
We operate a marketplace where people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy unique goods. Handmade goods are the foundation of our marketplace. Whether crafted by an Etsy seller herself, with the assistance of her team or with an outside manufacturer in small batches, handmade goods spring from the imagination and creativity of an Etsy seller and embody authorship, responsibility and transparency. We believe we are creating a new economy, which we call the Etsy Economy, where creative entrepreneurs find meaningful work and both global and local markets for their goods, and where thoughtful consumers discover and buy unique goods and build relationships with the people who sell them.
Etsy was founded in June 2005 in Brooklyn, New York as a marketplace for handmade goods and craft supplies. From those beginnings, we have built an innovative, technology-based platform that, as of December 31, 2014, connected 54.0 million members, including 1.4 million active sellers and 19.8 million active buyers, in nearly every country in the world. In 2014, Etsy sellers generated GMS of $1.93 billion, of which 36.1% came from purchases made on mobile devices and 30.9% came from an Etsy seller or an Etsy buyer outside of the United States.
Our community is the heart and soul of Etsy. Our community is made up of creative entrepreneurs who sell on our platform, thoughtful consumers looking to buy unique goods in our marketplace, responsible manufacturers who help Etsy sellers grow their businesses and Etsy employees who maintain our platform and nurture our ecosystem.
Our business model is based on shared success: we make money when Etsy sellers make money. Our revenue is diversified, generated from a mix of marketplace activities and the services we provide Etsy sellers to help them create and grow their businesses. Marketplace revenue includes the fee an Etsy seller pays for each completed transaction and the listing fee an Etsy seller pays for each item she lists. Seller Services revenue includes fees an Etsy seller pays for services such as prominent placement in search results via Promoted Listings, payment processing via Direct Checkout and purchases of shipping labels through our platform via Shipping Labels. Other revenue includes the fees we receive from a third-party payment processor.
In 2014, Etsy sellers generated GMS of $1.93 billion, up 43.3% over 2013. In 2014, we generated revenue of $195.6 million, up 56.4% over 2013. In 2014, we generated a net loss of $15.2 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $23.1 million compared to a net loss of $0.8 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $16.9 million in 2013. See “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information and for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
Our Values
We are a mindful, transparent and humane business. We believe that business interests and social and environmental responsibility are interwoven and aligned and that the power of business should be used to strengthen communities and empower people.
We plan and build for the long term. We want to build a company that lasts, and we plan to measure our success in years and decades. Etsy sellers in particular depend on us and on our platform to grow their businesses, so we will strive to make decisions that are best for the long-term health of our ecosystem.
We value craftsmanship in all we make. Craftsmanship is the marriage of skill and passion. We believe every job at our company should demonstrate our commitment to craft. We are an engineering-driven company, and we think of our code as craft: we are makers of the products and services that our members use, and we approach the work we do with the same care and inspiration as do Etsy sellers.
We believe fun should be part of everything we do. Our mission includes fostering a world in which personal fulfillment is a key element of success. We believe that this way of working is connected and joyful. We strive to do excellent work and bring a sense of humor and playfulness to it.
We keep it real, always. We have the courage and the will to do business in ways that are unconventional and impactful. We strive to stay genuine, maintaining integrity, humility and sincerity in everything we do. When we feel that we are not being true to our values or our mission, we are not afraid to stop and change course.
Our Opportunity
We operate at the center of several converging macroeconomic trends in online and mobile commerce, employment, consumption and manufacturing. We believe that in combination these trends will benefit millions of people in our ecosystem around the world: Etsy sellers engaging in their creative passion, working for themselves and defining success on their own terms; Etsy buyers accessing a diverse, global marketplace of goods that have historically been found in highly fragmented markets; and, increasingly, responsible manufacturers using modern tools to craft goods in partnership with Etsy sellers.
Trends in Online and Mobile Commerce. Etsy sellers offer goods in dozens of online retail categories, including jewelry, stationery, clothing, home goods, craft supplies and vintage items. Euromonitor, a consumer market research company, estimated that the global online retail market was $695 billion in 2013, up from $280 billion in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 19.9%. This growth is expected to continue, with the global online retail market becoming a significantly larger portion of the total retail market, reaching $1.5 trillion by 2018, implying a 16.6% CAGR from 2013. Mobile commerce is also increasingly important in online retail. comScore estimated that since the first quarter of 2013, consumers visiting online commerce sites spent more than half of their browsing time on mobile devices; however, online commerce spending via mobile devices represented only 11% of total online commerce dollars in the third quarter of 2014.
Trends in Employment. Whether motivated by economic necessity or personal preference, a growing number of people are turning to self-employment for their livelihoods. In a 2012 survey of middle-class households in the United States by the Pew Research Center, 85% said that it was more difficult to maintain their living standards today than it was ten years ago. A study commissioned in July 2014 by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk estimated that 53 million Americans are working as freelancers. Women are also contributing to the trend towards self-employment. World Bank research shows that, in certain developing nations, over half of the women in the labor force are self-employed. We believe that many of these people have creative skills that could provide a foundation for entrepreneurship, but that they often have little or no experience running their own businesses, and they typically lack the marketing resources, the technological expertise and the manufacturing and logistics capabilities to turn their creativity into a business.
Trends in Consumption. Most large retailers today follow the same formula, emphasizing efficiency and scale and pressuring their suppliers to reduce their costs in order to serve mass-produced goods at the lowest-possible prices. We believe, however, that many consumers want to purchase goods that are unique and that reflect their personality and style, not simply mass-produced, generic goods. Some consumers want their purchases to reflect their values; they want to support retailers and suppliers that have responsible and sustainable policies toward their employees, their communities and the environment. Finding these goods can be difficult, as markets for such goods have historically been highly fragmented across boutiques, consignment stores and other venues and marketplaces.
Trends in Manufacturing. Because of advances in manufacturing technologies, individuals and small businesses now have the ability to manufacture goods in their homes and studios using tools such as computer-assisted design, 3D printers, computer-controlled routers and other machines at a fraction of the historical cost. We believe the decrease in the size and the cost of these tools will make it easier for creative entrepreneurs to start new businesses. We also believe that small-batch manufacturers will be able to use these new technologies to provide high-quality manufacturing services so that creative entrepreneurs can scale their own businesses.
Our Strengths
Our platform connects millions of Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers globally, making it one of the largest online marketplaces in the world. We have achieved our scale because of the following key strengths:
communities, in turn, have global reach and access through our platform. We believe our global-local marketplace creates strong competitive advantages outside the United States because our success is not dependent on scale in any given country.
Our Strategy: The Path Ahead We plan to continue connecting creative entrepreneurs, thoughtful consumers and responsible manufacturers and expanding the impact of our platform through the following key strategies:
Risks Associated With Our Business Our business is subject to numerous risks described in “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary and elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the more significant risks are:
See “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary for a more thorough discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties we face.
Our Corporate Information Etsy was incorporated in the state of Delaware in February 2006 as Indieco, Inc., and we changed our name to Etsy, Inc. in June 2006. Our headquarters are located at 55 Washington Street, Suite 512, Brooklyn, New York 11201. Our telephone number is (718) 855-7955. Our website address is www.etsy.com. The information contained in, or accessible through, our website is not part of, and is not incorporated into, this prospectus, and investors should not rely on any such information in deciding whether to invest in our common stock.
We use various trademarks, trade names and design marks in our business, including Etsy®, Code as Craft™ and Craft Entrepreneurship™. This prospectus also contains trademarks and trade names of other businesses that are the property of their respective holders. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks and trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, those other companies.
JOBS Act
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.0 billion or (c) in which we become a large accelerated filer, which means that we have been public for at least 12 months, have filed at least one annual report and the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last day of our then most recently completed second fiscal quarter, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. We refer to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 as the “JOBS Act,” and references to “emerging growth company” have the meaning associated with such term in the JOBS Act.
In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.
Glossary
The following terms are used throughout this prospectus:
The Offering
The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 195,258,466 shares of common stock (including preferred stock on an as-converted basis) outstanding as of December 31, 2014, and excludes:
Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus assumes:
Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data You should read this summary consolidated financial and other data in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2014, are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following tables also show certain operational and non-GAAP financial measures. See the accompanying footnotes and “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information. Our historical results and key metrics are not necessarily indicative of future results, and results for any interim period presented below are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any annual period. The consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013 have been revised to correct for the understatement of certain non-income tax-related expenses. See Note 15 of the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements.