The world’s number one audio platform, Spotify, announced on Tuesday that it had reached 205 million paying subscribers by the end of 2022, well beyond expectations, while mounting its losses.
The Swedish group has just announced a plan to cut almost 6% of its workforce to adapt its costs to its growth. Spotify boss and co-founder Daniel Ek had thus indicated a loss of around 600 jobs, out of a total of just under 10,000, to other big names in global technology.
Financial losses, subscriber gains
Spotify suffered a net loss of 430 million euros last year, much higher than in 2021 (34 million). Analysts on average expected a loss of $441 million in 2022, according to Factset. Annual turnover also slightly exceeded expectations, at €11.7 billion, an increase of 21% in one year.
The number of paying subscribers to the world leader in audio streaming increased 14% year-on-year to 205 million, compared to the 202 million forecast by analysts, driven by good growth in all regions and particularly in the group, according to the group. Latin America.
The total number of monthly users, including those of the free version, has reached 489 million and is expected to cross the 500 million mark by 2023, according to Spotify. The Stockholm-based but New York-listed platform was occasionally profitable in some sectors. But it has been posting losses steadily for several years, despite meteoric growth in subscriber numbers and a lead over competitors like Apple Music or Amazon Music.
Source: BFM TV
