Roblox, the Gaming Site, Wants to Grow Up Without Sacrificing Child Safety
The company, which went public earlier this year, has lessons for other internet outfits aiming to attract younger users even as its own audience gets older.
SAN FRANCISCO — As Dave Baszucki, the chief executive of the gaming company Roblox, took the stage at a conference hosted by his company on Thursday, he reflected on how much had changed for Roblox since its last in-person event two years ago.
In March, Roblox debuted on Wall Street. As of Friday, it was worth $44 billion and more than 43 million players used it each day — more than double the number of daily users it had two years ago. One of the most striking differences, though, was the age of the crowd of hundreds of game developers to whom Mr. Baszucki was speaking in Fort Mason, a former military base along San Francisco’s waterfront.
Not long ago, the crowd might have been made up mostly of children. On Thursday, many were young adults. And as they have grown up, Roblox, a colorful, blocky platform that offers millions of online games of all types, from exploring tropical islands to fostering digital pets, has attempted to grow up with them.
