Screentime
Spotify Craters After Forecasting Slower Start to New Year
- Streaming service to add 12 million users in first quarter
- Company said it’s too soon to know impact of Joe Rogan boycott
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After a month of controversy involving podcast host Joe Rogan, Spotify Technology SA disclosed a more immediate business problem: a slowdown in its growth to start the year.
The company said it would end the first quarter with 418 million total users and 183 million paid subscribers, shy of Wall Street forecasts on both numbers. Spotify shares slipped as much as 23% in after-hours trading, erasing much of the gains made over the past two years, though partly recovered to an 8.7% drop at 4:37 a.m. in New York on Thursday.