Spotify grows on podcasts and surpasses Apple in some countries

Spotify has been working with podcasts for a number of years now, and they have been investing more and more in this area that Apple used to dominate. Spotify has spent millions of dollars to acquire original content and also improve their platform for users and creators.

According to a new report published today by Voxnest, Spotify has already become the most used application for listening to podcasts in some regions, taking Apple out of first place. The report mentions that Apple hasn’t announced any significant new features for its podcasts service in recent months, while Spotify has made big moves in that department.

From March to October of this year, Spotify has become the most widely used podcast app in several European countries. One of the most notorious cases is that of Sweden, considered one of the countries with the most podcast listeners, with about 36% of Swedes included in the statistics. Previously, the platform had already become the most popular among users in almost all Latin American countries.

With these achievements, Spotify surprised the shareholders and the company’s shares surged 19% at the end of October with the announcement of the platform’s growth in Q3 2019. Spotify’s CFO Barry McCarthy said in an interview that “podcasts will be as critical to Spotify’s business as the streaming of original shows and movies are for Netflix.”

Earlier this month, the company held its first worldwide podcast summit for Spotify for Podcasters in São Paulo, Brazil. While Apple has also held some events for podcasters, they are often more restricted — such as a WWDC special lab.

It is also important to remember that, at the same time, Apple had other concerns this year, like the launch of Apple TV+. While they have plans to invest in the production of original and exclusive podcasts, no other related announcements have been made by Apple so far.

The competition, of course, brings benefits to users, who now have more options to listen to their podcasts.