The Spotify share, which has already gone up 23 percent since the turn of the year, rises by another 8 percent in the negotiation on the New York Stock Exchange after the report was released.
Operating profit lifts to EUR 477 million – a new record and higher than the average forecast among analysts of 468 million, according to the Bloomberg news agency. But it is slightly lower than Spotify itself had expected.
Total revenues lifted 16 percent compared with the fourth quarter one year earlier, to EUR 4.2 billion. It was in line with the average forecast among analysts and slightly higher than Spotify’s forecast.
“Significant uncertainty”
In its forecast for the first quarter, Spotify flags for “significant uncertainty”.
But the streaming service expects a certain increase in the number of monthly users to 678 million in total, up with three million from the turn of the year. The number of premium users is expected to continue up to 265 million, an increase of two million.
According to Spotify, sales are expected to remain around EUR 4.2 billion in the first quarter, while the operating profit and the gross margin are pressed down to EUR 548 million and 31.5 percent respectively.
For the fourth quarter, Spotify reports a boost for the number of monthly users with 12 percent to 675 million. The number of paying subscribers, so -called premium users, increased 11 percent to 263 million.
The user increase was greater than expected. According to its forecast from November last year, Spotify estimated that the number of users would increase to 665 million, of which 260 million paying subscribers.