While Spotify’s market expansion drive is ambitious and will help push the company to maintain a better global streaming audience, the platform has other tech behemoths offering similar services to compete with.
Swedish audio streaming and media services provider Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT) is planning a global expansion to new markets. The company’s plans were made known on Tuesday at a live streaming event that featured Justin Bieber, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle.
Spotify was founded in 2008, and through its existence, the firm has gained a fair share of the global streaming market. As detailed by the company, it has as many as 345 million Monthly Active Users spread across 93 countries.
Through the expansion, Spotify will be making its foray into 85 more nations, adding 36 languages to its platform in the process. Amongst the emerging markets being targeted in the coming days include Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Bahamas, Tanzania, Bhutan, Belize, Pakistan, and Samoa. The company’s overall expansion drive is centered on tapping new opportunities in developing countries across Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean, in a bid to reach over 1 billion users globally
“These moves represent Spotify’s broadest market expansion to date,” Spotify said. By the time the company has implemented the new growth strategy, it will have a presence in over 170 countries. Additionally, the emergence into new territories is billed to inspire the addition of new music genres.
“So as we enter new markets, we’ll accelerate the discovery of more genres like K-Pop, reggaeton, and amapiano that have earned a place in the global music arena,” the company said. Amapiano is a genre of music that emerged in South Africa.
Spotify Has Other Tech Giants to Battle With in New Markets
While Spotify’s market expansion drive is ambitious and will help push the company to maintain a better global streaming audience, the platform has other tech behemoths offering similar services to compete with.
Of these competitors, Apple Music from Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon Music from Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Google Play Music from Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) are amongst the most important.
Spotify is reportedly in an antitrust dispute with Apple over commission charges the iPhone producer charges for payments made via Apple Pay. The legal issues date back to 2019 when the Swedish firm filed its complaint with the European Commission, and a probe is currently ongoing.
The digital tech ecosystem is dynamic in nature and new service offerings to a broader audience may be the core hack to drive growth in the music streaming niche. Following its expansionary plans, Spotify will be looking to increase its premium paying subscribers from the current tally of over 155 million it currently boasts of.
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