• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 14, 2018

Criteo S.A. reported better-than-expected financial results for the December 2017 quarter on Wednesday.

Net income (unadjusted) rose to $53 million -- up from $41 million in the year-ago quarter, compared with adjusted at $82 million from $55 million, respectively.

The company gave guidance on first-quarter 2018 revenue during the call, expecting it to reach between $230 million and $235 million, excluding traffic-acquisition costs.

Criteo CEO Eric Eichmann told Digital News Daily that the U.S. holiday season resulted in stronger-than-expected results. The company delivered on innovative platforms wrapped in data that drove 6% growth for clients on same–store sales, compared with 2016.

Results were partly based on technology improvements, better supply, and an increase in the number of publishers it works with — from 1,000 to 1,500. "One of the core assets we've been developing is the Shopper Graph, which is really taking all the data from all the retailers and clients we work with and augmenting it," he said. "Clients get the benefit from scale."

The Shopper Graph has three components: Identify Graph, Interest Map, and Measurement Network.

The Identify Graph now has 1.2 billion users with an average of three matches per user — all is non-identifiable information. "It doesn't identify the user," he said. "It's just a number, but I know that number is on three devices."  

Eichmann said the company continues to push toward innovation. "Several products didn't work out like we thought they would, which is part of innovation," he said.

Eichmann pointed to search as one of those products, which Criteo stopped supporting in the final quarter in 2017. The company also pulled back from working in China, although it keeps a presence in the country.  

Focusing on the domestic market, Criteo added 820 clients and introduced three new products. Sponsored Product grew at more than twice the rate of the core business. The product had a very good quarter in the United States. About six of its top 20 clients such as Hasbro and Google grew their ad spend with the company by more than five-times, year over year.

Customer Acquisition and Audience Match -- two products that launched in beta during the fourth quarter -- already had more than $3 million in revenue, ex-TAC.