It’s a tough life being Deezer. Forever the little brother of the streaming world, sitting on the sidelines watching your big, dumb, angry Swedish brother calling people names and picking fights with anyone who even looks in his direction.
But then you remind yourself that you’re French, and the French love you. Sure, maybe not as much as they love your brother - but maybe that’s fear, not love. While he might be bigger, you’re bigger where it matters - ARPU. And overall, your numbers might be dropping in some areas, but they’re growing fast in others.
Which is to say Deezer has announced its Q1 numbers.
They’re largely unremarkable: growth in some areas, drop offs in others. Deezer splits its users into two cohorts - direct subscribers and people who subscribe via partners. Deezer's direct ARPU, or average revenue per user, is slightly higher than Spotify’s - €5.1 vs €4.35. Partnerships - although landing at a lower ARPU - are booming, with 40.3% growth year-on-year. Direct subscribers in France are up a notch, a result of a focus on free to paid conversion initiatives.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is slightly down, but this is apparently inline with expectations, based on having a more targeted approach to RoW territories. Following a focussed expansion in Brazil and Mexico the company is now launching similar expansion in Chile. Projected forward on Q1 revenues this puts the company on track to bring in around €5530 million revenue in 2024.
