
A Look Back at Online Marketplace Stocks’ Q4 Earnings: Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) Vs The Rest Of The Pack

As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q4. Today, we are looking at online marketplace stocks, starting with Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK).
Marketplaces have existed for centuries. Where once it was a main street in a small town or a mall in the suburbs, sellers benefitted from proximity to one another because they could draw customers by offering convenience and selection. Today, a myriad of online marketplaces fulfill that same role, aggregating large customer bases, which attracts commission-paying sellers, generating flywheel scale effects that feed back into further customer acquisition.
The 12 online marketplace stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.7% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.
Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 12.8% since the latest earnings results.
Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK)
Originally featuring a library that included many of founder Jon Oringer’s photos, Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) is now a digital platform where customers can license and use hundreds of millions of pieces of content.
Shutterstock reported revenues of $250.3 million, up 15.2% year on year. This print fell short of analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. Overall, it was a softer quarter for the company with a decline in its requests and a miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
Commenting on the Company's performance, Paul Hennessy, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are proud that Shutterstock achieved record revenues and Adjusted EBITDA in 2024. Our Content business grew on a year over year basis and each component of our Data, Distribution and Services business grew double digits or greater on a year over year basis and we expect continued growth across both of these offerings in 2025."

The stock is down 16.8% since reporting and currently trades at $20.34.
Read our full report on Shutterstock here, it’s free .
Best Q4: MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI)
Originally started as an online auction platform, MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) is a one-stop e-commerce marketplace and fintech platform in Latin America.
MercadoLibre reported revenues of $6.06 billion, up 37.4% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 2.8%. The business had an exceptional quarter with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ number of unique active users estimates.

Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 5.8% since reporting. It currently trades at $1,996.