Spotify plans almost to double its geographic footprint

According to the latest news, the Stockholm-headquartered audio streaming service, Spotify, plans almost to double its geographic footprint and launch into 85 more countries. Furthermore, the firm is going to add 36 languages to its platform in the process.

According to the company, the expansion into what is largely seen as developing countries across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, and the Caribbean, will allow additional billion people to use its platform.

In the next several days, audio streaming services will launch in countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Samoa, Jamaica, Bahamas, and Belize.

Spotify announced that these moves represent Spotify’s broader market expansion to date. Following the expansion, its service will be available in more than 170 countries.

The company launched in 2008, just a year after the first iPhone was released, and has gathered 345 million active users across 95 countries. Moreover, of those, 155 million are premium paying subscribers.

While Spotify started out as a music streaming platform, it now enables people to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, and meditations.

The firm has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to secure exclusive podcast series, such as a new show from Barack and Michelle Obama that will feature Bruce Springsteen.

The firm filed a complaint to the European Commission against Apple Music

Spotify faces intense competition from Apple, Amazon, and Google, which have launched their own music streaming services in the last years.

Spotify’s biggest rival is Apple Music, and Spotify is involved in a bitter antitrust dispute with Apple. The company doesn’t consider it’s fair that it has to pay Apple a commission, or what it sees as a “tax,” when users subscribe and pay for its service via Apple’s App Store. Significantly, the Swedish firm filed a complaint to the European Commission in March 2019, and a probe is ongoing.

Furthermore, Spotify’s share price declined by 4% to $350 on Monday, and it dropped another 0.5% to $348 in after-hours trading.