Roku, the streaming device company, has some growing revenue, but its other statistic may surprise you.

Roku, today, announced its earnings, beating Wall Street expectations and throwing technologists into a frenzy.  First, the financial stuff.  The company had $136.6 million in revenue this quarter, selling $61.5 million worth of devices, a staggering amount for a company whose sole product is streaming boxes. Notable is the $71.5 million the company took in with licensing fees and advertising.  This is a big indicator as to the success of Roku integrated TV’s; such as those sold by Best Buy private label, Insignia, as well as Chinese manufacturer, TCL.  Despite big numbers, the company still posted a loss of $6.9 million, not surprisingly.  All this is good, but it’s what they told us next that surprised us.

Accounts are growing and people are cutting the cord:

Interestingly, the company did announce that they have 21 million active accounts.  And while this may not seem a surprise, the fact that 50% of those accounts are from people who have either cut the cord or have never even signed up for a cable TV package is, in fact, surprising.  “Nearly half of our roughly 21 million active users have cut the cord or have never had a traditional pay TV subscription, which means that they simply cannot be reached through linear TV,” said the company in a statement found on their site (link here).  This growth is helped by having a wide variety of devices for everyone’s budget.  And with the aforementioned Roku TV’s, people can find the product without needing to acquire a device.  TCL’s P-Series is considered one of the best budget TV’s from last year with Roku built right in.

But what about that loss?

With cable companies expected to raise rates this year, the success of Roku is only limited by the company.  The company has relationships with AT&T owned DirecTV Now and Dish’s Sling TV.  With their strong retail presence, it’s only a matter of time before the company becomes a powerhouse in TV.  Clearly, it’s the winner with cord-cutters.  Overcoming a loss is the next step. However, if things grow as they have, Roku could displace cable companies all together.  This won’t happen for a while, however.