Inflation and money worries among consumers – none of this can deter the streaming leader. Subscribers continue to fly to Spotify. Only the advertisers are on the brakes.
The music streaming market leader Spotify does not see any weakening in the influx of subscription customers even in times of inflation and economic concerns. In the last quarter, the number of paying users increased from 188 to 195 million within three months – and thus a little more than the company had expected. By the end of the year, Spotify plans to have 202 million subscribers. The service then wants to have a total of 479 million users, after 456 million at the end of September.
Spotify revenue rose 21 percent year over year to just over $3 billion in the third quarter. The growth in advertising revenues slowed down significantly with an increase of 19 percent to 385 million dollars. Advertisers are reducing their spending across the board, and other online companies are also affected. Spotify relies on the expansion of advertising revenues, including from podcasts, in order to build an additional business pillar alongside the subscription business.
The bottom line was a profit of $22 million after being in the black from $160 million in the same quarter last year. Spotify shares temporarily lost around five percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Spotify on business for the past quarter