Spotify gains more subscribers than expected
In the race with Apple and Amazon, the Swedish music streaming service Spotify has taken the lead and performed unexpectedly well in the Christmas quarter. The number of premium subscribers, which account for almost 90 percent of sales, soared by 29 percent to 124 million.
This was announced by the company on Wednesday. Turnover rose from October to December to 1.86 billion euros after 1.5 billion a year ago, almost reaching analysts' estimates. However, due to increased marketing costs, earnings per share were negative at 1.14 euros.
Spotify has a big lead over its two closest competitors: Apple Music had more than 60 million subscribers in June and Amazon had more than 55 million worldwide.
In the first quarter, Spotify expects a total of between 126 and 131 million Premium subscribers, which is in line with estimates of 128 million. However, the experts were more optimistic in terms of revenue: Spotify is targeting revenue of between 1.71 and 1.91 billion euros, while analysts expect revenue of 1.90 billion euros. (SDA)
