Spotify earlier released its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, with revenue reaching 36.4 billion euros, a 20% increase over the same period last year, and net profit reaching 1.97 million euros, a significant increase compared to the loss of 2.25 million euros in the same period last year.
Spotify's monthly active users reached 6.15 million in the first quarter of this year, a 19% year-on-year increase. Spotify expects this number to reach 6.31 million in the next quarter. The number of paying subscribers reached 2.39 million, a 14% year-on-year increase. Spotify expects this number to reach 2.45 million in the next quarter.
Prior to this, Spotify increased its monthly subscription fees, expanded its podcast market, added a new e-book paid subscription option in the US market, andLayoffsMeasures such as these are taken to reduce operating costs and thereby improve overall profitability.
Previously, because of a lawsuit filed by Spotify, the European Commission imposed a fine of up to 18 billion euros (about 19.5 billion US dollars) on Apple on the grounds that it affected the development of streaming music services on the App Store, which was much higher than the previous estimate of nearly 5 million euros.
However, in a subsequent statement, Apple emphasized that the App Store helped Spotify and Europe promote the booming digital music market. It also stated that developers only need to pay platform fees to Apple when users pay to purchase apps from the App Store or pay for digital products or services within the app.
Developers do not have to pay any fees if they sell physical goods within the app, use the app for free, or even place advertisements within the app. Spotify sells subscription services through its official website, not through the app, so Apple does not charge it any fees.
Apple further stated that the Spotify App has been downloaded, updated, or re-downloaded more than 1190 billion times on Apple devices, and is available on the App Store in 160 countries and regions around the world. Apple has even created value for it in various ways without charging it any fees, and Spotify has not paid any fees to Apple.
Apple alleged that Spotify wanted to obtain more resources and even wanted to rewrite the App Store usage rules in a way that was more favorable to it. It even claimed to the EU that the stagnation of the digital music market was due to Apple's impact on competition. However, Spotify's continued growth and the fact that other digital music services were eclipsed was actually due to the App Store.
Apple even pointed out that there is no evidence that the consumer market has been affected. European consumers have more choices in the digital music market, which has continued to grow in recent years. At the same time, Spotify's number of subscribers has increased from 8 million to nearly 2500 million in the past eight years, and the number of active listeners has exceeded 1.6 million, making it the biggest winner. There is no evidence that Apple has affected competition in this market.
