Spotify Q3 users beat forecasts, beat forecasts

In the quarter, the number of monthly active users increased to 489 million, beating Spotify's guidance and analysts' forecasts of 477.9 million.

The quarter's revenue was 3.2 billion euros, above analyst estimates of 3.16 billion euros.

Spotify said last year it planned to get 1 billion users and reach $100 billion revenue annually by the year 2030. It promised high-margin returns from its expansion into podcasts and audiobooks.

More than 4 million titles are currently held by the company, which has invested more than $1 billion in building out its podcast business.

The investments have hit the gross margins.

Last week Spotify announced it plans to lay off 600 employees as it tried to control its operating expenditure, which was twice the speed of its revenue last year.

Revenue is expected to grow faster than operating expenses in the year 2023 due to headcount growth and higher advertising costs.