STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA has crossed the half billion mark for monthly active users for the first time, helped by the music streaming company’s expansion into more markets, it said on Tuesday.
The number of monthly active users rose to 515 million in the first quarter, beating Spotify’s guidance and analysts’ forecast of 500 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Premium subscribers, who account for most of the company’s revenue, rose 15% to 210 million, topping estimates of 206 million.
Its premium subscriber forecast of 217 million for the current quarter also beat expectations of 212 million. The company sees monthly active users of 530 million for the second quarter.
Spotify last year laid out plans to get one billion users by 2030 and to reach $100 billion in annual revenue. It also promised high-margin returns from its costly expansion into podcasts and audiobooks.
The company’s quarterly revenue of 3.04 billion euros ($3.35 billion) missed analyst estimates of 3.08 billion euros, and it posted a bigger loss than expected.
Gross margin dipped to 25.2% from 25.3% in the year-earlier quarter.
Spotify’s current-quarter revenue forecast of 3.2 billion euros also missed expectations of 3.26 billion euros.
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(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; editing by Niklas Pollard and Mark Potter)
