Spotify exceeds 200 million subscribers

Music streaming giant Spotify's subscriber count grew to 205 million by the end of the fourth quarter last year, the Swedish company reported on Tuesday.
A total of 10 million subscribers were added in just three months.
The total number of users of both the paid and free versions of Spotify rose to 489 million from 456 million at the end of September.
For the current quarter, the number of subscribers is expected to increase by about 2 million and total users are expected to reach the 500 million mark.
Revenue grew by 18% year-on-year in the past quarter to around €3.17 billion ($3.43 billion).
Advertising revenues increased by 14% to €449 million.
In recent years, Spotify has invested heavily in podcasts, among other things, in order to build up another source of income in addition to its subscriptions.
The company reported a net loss of €270 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to the previous year's €39 million.
Last week, Spotify announced that it would cut 6% of its workforce, as founder and CEO Daniel Ek said that the service had grown too fast for its business during the pandemic boom.
As of December 31, the service had 10,151 employees, meaning the cuts are likely to affect around 600 people.