Spotify, a music streaming service, reported that its monthly active user base increased 20% to 456 million in the quarter that ended in September compared to the same period the previous year. This growth was attributed to a strong uptake in India following multiple marketing initiatives.
“Quarterly performance was positively impacted by better-than-expected intake in India as a result of a multimedia marketing campaign driving activations and reactivations,” the Stockholm-based company said.
Spotify India relies significantly on marketing and has devoted more than 80% of its annual budget to branding expenses since 2019. This is important as India is a price-sensitive market, and Spotify is up against local rivals like JioSaavn, Wynk, and Hungama. The company primarily makes money in India from subscriptions and advertising revenue.
Spotify’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Paul Vogel reiterated that in the previous quarters, the streaming service had been doing “incredibly well” in India and has “huge opportunities in the near future”.
With great development in the Latin American region, the streaming platform currently has over 195 paid subscribers globally for its Premium service.
“This was the largest Q3 net additions in our history and excluding our exit from Russia, our year to date net additions are at a record high and we expect this to sustain through year-end,” Vogel said in the investors presentation.
Its revenue increased by 21% year over year to just over €3 billion ($2.99 billion) in the quarter, and its advertising business grew by19%, driven mostly by double-digit growth in the podcasting business.
