Spotify’s Subscribers And Users Are Growing Faster Than Expected

(CTN News) – It was announced on Tuesday that Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab had increased its monthly active users and subscribers in all regions during the fourth quarter, which was ahead of estimates, and that revenue trends and profitability are also looking promising.

As part of its strategy to grow its user base to 1 billion by 2030, the music streaming service has branched out into podcasts and audiobooks. As part of the company’s efforts to boost profits and improve efficiency, it has increased prices for its subscribers and laid off thousands of employees.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, Spotify’s monthly active users grew by 23% to 602 million, beating analysts’ expectations of 601.33 million and Spotify’s own guidance for the quarter.

According to the IBES data from LSEG, the number of premium subscribers at the company, which makes up most of the company’s revenue, has risen by 15% to 236 million, surpassing estimates of 235.1 million.

It is expected that the number of premium subscribers in the current quarter will reach 239 million, which is more than expected at 238.3 million.

Despite this, the company’s forecast for total users and revenue for the first quarter of the year was below expectations from Wall Street.

Spotify’s estimate of 618 million monthly users for the first quarter of 2017 fell short of estimates of 618.8 million customers. Despite expectations of 3.64 billion euros, the company expects revenue to reach 3.6 billion euros ($3.86 billion).

There was a loss of 75 million euros in the company’s fourth quarter, compared to a loss of 231 million euros in the previous quarter.

As a result of its latest round of layoffs announced in December, Spotify had forecast a fourth-quarter operating loss of 93 million euros to 108 million euros.

Its revenues rose 16% to 3.67 billion euros, but missed estimates of 3.72 billion due to foreign exchange losses.

As a result of re-accelerating music advertising revenues, ad-supported revenue grew by 12% from a year earlier. Podcast advertising also increased by double digits during the period.

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