Popular music streaming company, Spotify, which currently boasts over 200 million monthly active users and more than 100 million paying users, first touched down on Africa in 2018. And it perhaps shocked many when the platform chose South Africa over Nigeria as its first port of call.
It came as a shocker because Nigeria is the undisputed capital of music in Africa. A lot is happening in South Africa on the music front too and they surely score points for effort, but there’s hardly any argument around the fact that no other country has put African music, particularly Afrobeat, on the map like Nigeria.
So, it was sort of baffling that the Swedish music streaming giant opted for Mzansi over Naija when the latter seemed like the best candidate for a no-brainer.
What Spotify Said About Why They Chose South Africa Over Nigeria
As at the time of launching in South Africa, Michael Krause, Managing Director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Spotify, suggested that launching in South Africa made more business sense and the company was doing what’s best for it at the time.
“In terms of other African countries, we are always looking at the market for when is the right time in terms of catalogue, connectivity, etc,” he said. “Africa is a great continent and we are definitely looking to launch in more countries. Our product is mobile-centric and this is why we chose to start our journey here.”
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Claudius Boller, Managing Director for Middle East and Africa at Spotify, argued that the company chose South Africa because of several reasons especially its developed music market.
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Source: wetracker.com
