Spotify back in red as users exceed 300 million
Music streaming giant Spotify said on Thursday that its number of monthly active users passed the 300-million-mark in third quarter, even as it plunged back into the red.
Spotfity said in a statement that the number of monthly active users rose by 29 percent to 320 million in the three months to September, of whom 144 million were paying subscribers, an increase of 27 percent.
Spotify, headquartered in Stockholm but listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is hoping to reach between 340-345 million monthly active users and 150-154 million paying subscribers by the end of the year.
At the same time, the streaming service said it booked a net loss of 101 million euros ($118 million) in the June-September period, down from a net profit of 241 million euros a year earlier.
In contrast to many companies, Spotify said it managed to escape much of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a trend that is set to continue.
"From a content consumption standpoint, global consumption hours surpassed pre-Covid levels during the quarter, and all regions have fully recovered," Spotify said.
In recent years, Spotify has tried to expand from merely offering music by investing hundreds of millions of euros in podcasting.
