revenue

In a historic gain, Spotify saw a record increase of 38 million monthly active users at the end of 2025.

According to the streamer’s fourth-quarter earnings report released Tuesday, the Sweden-based company reported an 11% increase in monthly active users, bringing the total to 751 million. It’s the biggest net add in the company’s history. There was similarly a 10% increase in paid subscribers, rising to 290 million. Spotify’s total revenue also topped $5.3 billion, up 7%.

The company credits much of last quarter’s success to what it says was its biggest Wrapped campaign yet, which engaged 300 million users globally and had 630 million shares in 56 different languages. Spotify also expanded and enhanced tech features globally, like adding music videos and more access to audiobooks, for both premium and free subscribers.

“Today, what we’ve really built is a technology platform for audio — and increasingly, for all the ways creators connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder and executive chairman, in a press release.

“The next wave of technology shifts — AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content — these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media. The hard problems ahead — in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven’t built yet — we’re going to keep building the technology to solve them.”

The company’s operating income rose 47% to $834 million. At the end of the fourth quarter, there were 7,323 full-time employees globally.

Spotify’s ad-supported revenue was down 4%, with the company looking at a partial “offset by softness in pricing” for its music advertising. Its podcasts’ expansion was led mostly by sponsorships. But the revenue was similarly “offset by optimization of our podcasting inventory.”

Just in the last few months, Spotify has focused heavily on its podcasting services — in part by opening a new Hollywood studio, expanding creator monetization programs and premiering select video podcasts on Netflix in a new partnership.

On the music side, the streaming platform previously reported that it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry last year. That sum was the “largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history,” according to Spotify.

When the music streaming business model was first introduced, there was controversy about how much artists would earn from streams. But the company said independent artists and labels accounted for half of all royalties.

Founded in 2006, the company maintains a large presence in L.A.’s Arts District. Over the last two decades, it has become the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service. Beyond its music library, it now reports having more than 530,000 video podcasts and over 500,000 audiobooks in English-language markets.

Starting this month, Spotify also raised its prices for premium users to $12.99. For the first quarter of 2026, the company expects an increase of 8 million monthly active users, bringing its total closer to 759 million users and a smaller, 3-million bump in paying users. The company projects total revenue to stay consistent at around $5.3 billion.

Feb. 6 (Asia Today) — South Korean internet giant Naver said Thursday it has entered the era of 12 trillion won ($9.1 billion) in annual revenue, driven by strong growth in commerce and fintech and a renewed push to monetize artificial intelligence services.

Naver reported 2025 revenue of 12.35 trillion won ($9.15 billion) and operating profit of 2.21 trillion won ($1.64 billion), up 12.1% and 11.6%, respectively, from a year earlier, during its fourth-quarter earnings call. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 10.7% to 3.20 trillion won ($2.37 billion), while operating profit increased 12.7% to 610.6 billion won ($453 million), lifting the operating margin to 19.1%.

Commerce and fintech led the gains. Fourth-quarter commerce revenue surged 36% year-on-year to 1.05 trillion won ($780 million), while annual transaction volume on Naver’s Smart Store platform grew 10%. The company said revamped membership benefits and guaranteed delivery services helped strengthen user retention, while AI-driven personalized recommendations boosted conversion rates and advertising and commission revenue.

Fintech revenue also climbed sharply. Fourth-quarter payment volume rose 19% to 23 trillion won ($17.0 billion), bringing full-year fintech revenue to 1.69 trillion won ($1.25 billion). Chief Executive Choi Soo-yeon said platform trust and ecosystem-building efforts drove growth in transactions and new memberships.

During the call, Naver declared 2026 the first year of full-scale AI monetization. Choi said AI accounted for about 55% of advertising revenue growth last year, highlighting what she called tangible returns from the company’s AI investments.

Naver plans to roll out hyper-personalized AI agents across its services, beginning with a shopping agent for Naver Plus Store later this month following an internal beta test. Vertical AI agents covering restaurants, locations, travel and finance are set to follow later this year. In the second quarter, Naver will add an “AI tab” to its search results, while a unified intelligent assistant, dubbed “Agent N,” is scheduled for launch this summer.

The company also plans to begin monetization tests, including advertising within its AI briefing service, in the second half of the year. Choi said longer user engagement times could lift both ad pricing and effectiveness.

Beyond AI, Naver is advancing structural changes to secure future growth. Its financial unit is proceeding with the previously announced plan to bring crypto exchange operator Dunamu under full ownership, fueling market expectations of a won-based stablecoin and expanded use of Naver Pay’s 34 million-user ecosystem.

Naver is also expanding its cloud business, citing steady demand for GPU services, and plans to conduct outdoor proof-of-concept trials for robot delivery this year, drawing on experience gained in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Addressing regulatory issues, Choi said government-led foundation model initiatives are unlikely to materially affect Naver’s sovereign AI strategy or business-to-business revenue.

The company also strengthened its shareholder return policy. Naver said it plans to return 25% to 35% of average consolidated free cash flow over a three-year period from 2025 to 2027. For the 2025 fiscal year, it will propose dividends totaling 393.6 billion won ($291 million), or 2,630 won per share, subject to board approval. Beginning this quarter, Naver will reorganize its revenue disclosure into platform, financial and global challenge segments to improve transparency.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260206010002456

A record fiscal quarter for Walt Disney Co.’s theme parks division was dampened slightly by a streaming aquisition and a protracted fight with YouTube, the Burbank media and entertainment giant reported Monday.

Disney recorded overall revenue of about $26 billion in the three-month period that ended Dec. 27, up 5% compared to the previous year. Disney’s income before income taxes totaled nearly $3.7 billion, a 1% jump from the same time period last year. Earnings per share were $1.34 for the quarter, down from $1.40.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in a statement that he was “pleased” with the company’s start to the fiscal year and nodded at the transition ahead to a new CEO.

“As we continue to manage our company for the future, I am incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished over the past three years,” he said.

It was a big quarter for Disney’s experiences division, which includes its theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii.

The sector reported $10 billion in revenue, aided by a 1% bump in attendance at its domestic theme parks and higher guest spending. The launch of the new Disney Destiny cruise ship in November also helped boost operating income to $3.3 billion, a 6% boost compared to the previous year.

Disney’s box office success with billion-dollar hits like “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” helped propel revenue for its entertainment division by 7% to $11.6 billion. But costs related to its acquisition of a majority stake in FuboTV, as well as higher marketing costs in theatrical distribution and streaming services affected the sector’s operating income, which declined 35% to $1.1 billion.

The dip in operating income from the entertainment sector took a toll on the company’s total segment operating income, which was down 9% to $4.6 billion. That was also partly due to Disney’s contract dispute last fall with YouTube TV, which lasted for nearly 15 days and resulted in a blackout of Disney channels.

The temporary suspension of Disney channels on YouTube TV took a $110 million toll on operating income within Disney’s sports division, which was down 23% to $191 million. Sports revenue for the quarter totaled $4.9 billion, up 1% compared to the previous year.

Musk’s electric car company says it will invest $2bn in artificial intelligence start-up as part of pivot away from auto market.

Tesla has reported its first-ever decline in annual revenue on a busy day for corporate earnings that also saw the release of results from Microsoft, Meta and Samsung Electronics.

Elon Musk’s electric car company said on Wednesday that revenue fell 3 percent year-on-year to $24.9bn in the final quarter of 2025. Revenue for all of 2025 was $94.8bn, down from $97.7bn the previous year.

Net profit fell 61 percent to $840m in the quarter, taking profit for the year to $3.8bn, down sharply from $7.1bn in 2024.

The Austin, Texas-based company also revealed that it had agreed to invest $2bn in Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI – the developer of Musk’s controversial Grok chatbot – as part of a push to lessen its reliance on the auto market.

“Together, the investment and the related framework agreement are intended to enhance Tesla’s ability to develop and deploy AI products and services into the physical world at scale,” the company said in its earnings report.

Tesla shares rose about 2.2 percent in after-hours trading.

Also on Wednesday, tech giants Microsoft, Meta and Samsung reported strong earnings in their latest reports to shareholders.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported a profit of $22.8bn on revenue of $59.9bn in the October-December period, a 6 percent rise year-on-year.

Meta shares surged nearly 7 percent in extended-hours trading.

Microsoft said profit rose 60 percent to $38.5bn in the final quarter, based on revenue of $81.3bn.

“We are only at the beginning phases of AI diffusion and already Microsoft has built an AI business that is larger than some of our biggest franchises,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.

“We are pushing the frontier across our entire AI stack to drive new value for our customers and partners.”

Despite its strong earnings, Microsoft’s announcement that capital spending hit a record $37.5bn in the second quarter stoked fears of an AI investment bubble, sending stock prices sharply lower.

Microsoft’s shares fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Samsung Electronics, the biggest producer of memory chips globally, reported a profit of 20.1 trillion won ($13.98bn) on revenue of 93.8 trillion won ($65.6bn), a more than three-fold rise from the previous year.