Deezer has begun to refocus on its main market. stock.adobe.com
The French music streaming platform had a difficult start on the stock market and lost some 200,000 subscribers worldwide.
The French music streaming platform Deezer widened its net loss to 168 million euros in 2022, the year of a difficult start on the stock market, and began to refocus on its main market, according to its financial results published on Tuesday. The company’s net loss, which amounted to 123 million euros the previous year, includes exceptional costs following the merger with the listed company I2PO.
The competitor service of the giant Spotify lost some 200,000 subscribers (-2.2%) worldwide and concentrated its marketing investments towards France, where its number of live users increased by 8% over the period, to reach 3.5 million. “Most importantly, we secured funding for the company by going public over the summer and are back to very healthy double-digit growth.“Commented Jeronimo Folgueira, the leader of Deezer, interviewed by AFP.
The evolution of the share price, divided by more than 3 since July in the wake of all technology stocks, has been “disappointing“, he acknowledged, “but we think that if we realize [une bonne performance] and the market recovers, there is great upside potential“. In 2022, following several price increases, Deezer’s turnover increased by 13%, to 451 million euros.
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The company forecasts an annual increase in sales of more than 10% until 2025 and aims to achieve a positive operating result by this time. The platform also wants to innovate and has notably invested in Driift, a British specialist in live concert broadcasting. In June, it broadcast the performances of Marseille rappers Jul and Gazo. The company has also launched musical quizzes, the translation of lyrics or the identification of a title by humming the melody.
«We have a lot of unique features and we continue to work with labels to give artists new possibilities to monetize their audience.“, explained Jeronimo Folgueira. Finally, Deezer, which generates more than 26% of its revenue through its partnerships with companies and operators, plans to market certain artificial intelligence services, such as the recognition of music or the division of music between the vocal parts and instrumental.