JERUSALEM, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Wix.com ( WIX ), which

helps small businesses build and run websites, beat

fourth-quarter net profit expectations on Wednesday and said its

artificial intelligence and Studio products for designing

websites will help it reach revenue of $2 billion in 2025.

The Israeli company's earnings were $1.93 per diluted share,

excluding one-time items, up from $1.22 per share a year

earlier. Revenue for the October-December quarter grew 14% to

$460.5 million, with sales from partners such as agencies and

freelancers up 29%.

The company's Nasdaq-listed shares, up 6.2% so far in 2025

after a 74% jump in 2024, were up 6% in pre-market trading to

$242.

Analysts expected Wix to earn $1.59 per share, excluding

one-time items on revenue of $461.75 million, LSEG data showed.

Wix forecast 2025 revenue of $1.97-$2.0 billion, for annual

growth of up to 16%, noting it expects "almost no contribution

from new products" in 2025. It expects first-quarter revenue of

$469-$473 million, up 13-14%.

In 2024, Wix's revenue rose 13% to $1.76 billion.

"AI gives us another way to (build websites) in a very, very

effective manner," Nir Zohar, chief operations offer at Wix,

told a news conference, adding it would drive further success in

the next years.

The company had more than 282 million registered users

at the end of 2024, 6.2 million of them premium subscriptions.

"A website today is not what a website used to be 15

years ago," Zohar said. "People today really use their websites

as a full-on extension of their business capabilities."

Wix said it completed a $200 million share repurchase plan

in January, bringing the total repurchases since August 2023

to$725 million. Zohar said he expected more buybacks.