STOCKHOLM, Jul 28 (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA beat Wall Street estimates of its second-quarter revenue on Wednesday as the streaming music company posted a 20% increase in paid subscribers to its premium service. , driven by demand in Europe and North America.
The upper end of the company’s current quarter forecast for revenue and premium subscribers also beat expectations.
Spotify expects revenues of between 2.31 billion and 2.51 billion euros and between 170 million and 174 million premium subscribers. Analysts, on average, expected a turnover of 2,390 million euros and 170.4 million subscribers.
COVID-19 continued to weigh on its performance in several markets, but revenue from its advertising business, which was hit by the pandemic last year, grew 110% to € 275 million.
Spotify has also been investing heavily in its podcasting business to compete with Apple, and in April launched a paid subscription platform for podcasters in the United States.
The company currently has 2.9 million podcasts on its platform and share of the service in general consumer hours reached an all-time high in the quarter.
His podcasts of personalities like Joe Rogan and Bill Simmons continue to attract more users. Revenue rose to 2.33 billion euros ($ 2.75 billion) for the quarter from 2.15 billion euros a year earlier, above the 2.29 billion euros expected by analysts, Refinitiv’s IBES data showed.
Premium subscribers, which account for the majority of the company’s turnover, reached 165 million, in line with analysts’ expectations.
Total monthly active users increased 22% to 365 million.
