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Swedish company Spotify aims for a billion users by 2030

Audio streaming platform Spotify said on Wednesday it aims to have one billion users by 2030, as well as an annual revenue of $100 billion within ten years.

Swedish company Spotify aims for a billion users by 2030

Co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek, speaking at an investor day event in New York, said the ambitious goal could be achieved in part through an expansion of Spotify’s portfolio of podcasts and audiobooks, while making the platform a one-stop shop for content creators.

“As the world’s creator platform, we will provide the infrastructure and resources that will enable 50 million artists and creators to grow and manage their own businesses, monetize their work, and effectively promote it,” said Ek.

The Sweden-based, New York-listed company reported 9.6 billion euros ($10.9 billion) in revenue for 2021, meaning it would need a nearly tenfold increase to hit the mark set out on Wednesday by Ek.

It also had 422 million users at the end of the first quarter of 2022, making it by far the world’s most frequented audio platform.

While in recent quarters the company’s gross margin (revenue minus costs directly related to its work) has hovered at around 26 percent, Ek said his goal was to reach 40 percent, also within ten years.

Spotify is also aiming for an operating margin (sales minus all costs before interest and taxes) of 20 percent, a figure implying the company would have become clearly profitable, which is not the case today.

In recent quarters, the online audio platform — now present in 183 countries and territories — has fluctuated between a modestly positive and slightly negative operating margin.

Spotify has invested more than $1 billion in acquiring notable podcasters as well as building a fully integrated podcast platform, from production to advertising management, to make it the world leader in the sector.

Last year, Spotify also bought the major audio book producer and distributor Findaway.

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Why North Korean hackers could leave Sweden short of alcohol this weekend

If you're thinking of quitting the booze, now may be a good time, as Sweden may run low on alcohol in just a few days.

Why North Korean hackers could leave Sweden short of alcohol this weekend

The reason? Problems down the distribution chain, as a result of a ransomware attack by a North Korean hacker group on Skanlog, a logistics firm that delivers to Sweden’s state-run alcohol monopoly Systembolaget, reports business site Dagens Industri.

Systembolaget confirmed to The Local that this may have a knock-on effect on supplies.

“This is one of our distributors, they deliver up to 25 percent of the alcohol. But we do have other suppliers as well, we have to scale up the deliveries. So I cannot say exactly what the shortage will look like in the stores,” Systembolaget press officer Sofia Sjöman Waas said.

Not only the weekend is coming up, but also Walpurgis Night on April 30th, a popular party day in university towns.

“It is too early to say what will happen. Small stores around the country have one delivery once a week and this might not affect you at all. Other stores have deliveries every day,” Sjöman Waas told The Local.

It’s unlikely that shelves will run completely dry, but some products – mostly wine, but also beer and liquor – may be out of stock.

“But in general our consumers don’t buy a lot. They come in, they buy a couple of bottles, and they consume it within a couple of days or a week,” said Sjöman Waas.

Article by Emma Löfgren and Gearóid Ó Droighneáin

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