Where Will Spotify Be in 5 Years?
Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) faces both a bright and uncertain future. Founded by Daniel Ek in 2006, the Sweden-based music streaming service has grown to 271 million users in 79 markets across the world. The user base, proprietary content, and partnerships have helped to bring Spotify growth. However, Spotify also faces the world's most powerful tech names as peers. These conditions make it likely that Spotify stock will trade at higher levels five years from now if it can manage to fend off its large competitors.
The rise of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS and Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system turned Spotify into an app without an ecosystem. Since ecosystems place multiple functions under one umbrella, the prospects for Spotify became uncertain, as it was not linked to any OS.
Fortunately for its investors, Spotify did not cave to the pressure from Apple, Alphabet, or Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Instead, it found another big tech company with which to partner: Samsung. Now that Samsung installs Spotify on all Samsung Galaxy phones sold in the U.S., millions of users gain exposure to the product as well as a free trial of Spotify Premium. Many investors are bullish about the benefits of this partnership for Spotify.
Source Fool.com
