Roblox just hired an Amazon exec to unlock its next phase of growth

• Roblox has hired its first-ever chief growth officer.
• John Ciancutti joins from Amazon and will lead its discovery team and international expansion.
• Roblox has set a goal of capturing 10% of the global gaming content market.

Roblox just made a big hire it hopes can unlock its next stage of growth.

The online entertainment and gaming platform exclusively told CMO Insider it had appointed John Ciancutti as its first-ever chief growth officer.

Ciancutti is responsible for Roblox's discovery team, which works on its TikTok-like algorithm that recommends games and experiences to users most likely to play them. Roblox is a virtual universe available on mobile devices, desktops, and video game consoles that allows users to play and design games and other online experiences.

Ciancutti is also charged with leading the company's international growth, including its expansion in China.

He joins Roblox at a crucial moment.

The company recently lowered its 2026 revenue growth forecast as it prioritizes safety improvements, such as age-based accounts and mandatory age-verification checks. These are designed to limit adult interactions with children on the platform.

Roblox's daily active user count fell slightly to 132 million in the first quarter, from 144 million in the prior quarter and from a peak of 152 million earlier in 2025. Revenue in the first quarter grew 39% to $1.4 billion.

Roblox is branching out into new areas powered by AI, betting that the technology can attract a new wave of developers to its platform. Last month, it unveiled Roblox Reality, a new initiative designed to help creators build photorealistic games — a shift from the blocky, cartoon-style worlds that have long defined Roblox.

The company has set a long-term goal of reaching 1 billion users and capturing 10% of the global gaming content market. Roblox said it had a 3.4% market share at the end of 2025.

Ciancutti brings product experience from across Big Tech

Ciancutti brings a wealth of experience in building consumer products.

He most recently worked at Amazon, where he led product and engineering for Amazon Music. Prior to that, he founded the personalized audio news service 60dB, which was acquired by Google in 2017 and integrated into Google Audio News. Later at Google, Ciancutti held senior product and strategy roles within its search division. He also previously worked at Meta and Netflix.

Ciancutti told CMO Insider that he sees future growth opportunities in international markets, among older age groups, and in a more diverse set of experiences on the platform. Roblox said last month that users over 18 represented 26% of its US daily active users who had used its age-checking process.

Ciancutti said the strength of Roblox's creator ecosystem, which includes emerging developers and established studios, was one of the reasons he was drawn to the company.

"What stands out to me about Roblox is the breadth of what the platform has become — for players, creators, developers, and brands alike," Ciancutti said. "I think there's enormous potential to continue growing awareness across markets and audiences as the platform evolves."

Where Roblox's next growth spurts could come from

Michael Pachter, a gaming research analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in order to grow further and boost playing hours from users, the company should consider bringing on successful games from other platforms — such as "Fortnite," "Candy Crush," "League of Legends," "Call of Duty: Warzone" — onto Roblox.

"Those Roblox customers who play these other games on other platforms would likely migrate their gameplay to the Roblox platform, allowing Roblox to benefit from the player spending in each game," Pachter said.

Advertising is another major growth opportunity, Pachter said.

Roblox first introduced ads in 2023 and has steadily expanded the business with programmatic partnerships with adtech giants like Google and Amazon, rewarded video ads that give users in-game perks for watching, commerce integrations, and a new feature that lets brands place ads on the Roblox homepage. Creators can earn a share of ad revenue from their games in the form of Robux, the platform's virtual currency.

Pachter said that Roblox is too fixated on "seamless" experiences akin to product placement that keep users within the platform's walls, and hasn't focused enough on the type of interstitial advertising found elsewhere on the web, such as on YouTube or Instagram Reels.

"They have a multibillion-dollar opportunity here, but are not appropriately focused to exploit it," Pachter added.

In addition to Ciancutti's hire, Roblox said this week it had appointed four regional general managers to help lead its international push: Joost Hagesteijn in Europe; Sunil Rao in India; Diego Dzodan in Latin America; and Mohamed El Sheakh, who will lead its Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye region.

The post Roblox just hired an Amazon exec to unlock its next phase of growth appeared first on Business Insider