Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2019 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Spotify's 2019 financial results question-and-answer session. A copy of the company's shareholder letter issued premarket open today is available on the Investor Relations website, investors.spotify.com. This call is being recorded, and an archived replay will be available on the IR site after the event concludes.

歡迎參加 Spotify 2019 年財務業績問答環節。本公司今天盤前發布的股東信副本可在投資者關係網站 investors.spotify.com 上查閱。本次通話正在錄音，活動結束後，將在投資者關係網站上提供錄音回放。

I will now turn the call over to Paul Vogel, Head of Investor Relations and FP&A. You may now begin your conference.

現在我將把電話交給投資者關係和財務規劃與分析主管保羅·沃格爾。現在您可以開始會議了。

Great. Thank you, and welcome to Spotify'S First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Daniel Ek, Spotify's CEO; and Barry McCarthy, Spotify's CFO.

偉大的。謝謝，歡迎參加Spotify 2019年第一季財報電話會議。今天和我們在一起的是Spotify的執行長Daniel Ek和Spotify的財務長Barry McCarthy。

First, I want to thank everyone for joining us this morning. We know it's been unconventional to do an earnings call premarket on a Monday, so we appreciate everyone making the time to be with us this morning. The format of today's call will be similar to prior quarters. Daniel will give a few brief opening remarks, followed by an online question-and-answer session. Questions can be submitted either through the widget alongside the website or by e-mailing directly to ir@spotify.com. We'll get through as many questions as we can. The call will last approximately 30 minutes.

首先，我要感謝今天早上到場的各位。我們知道在周一盤前進行財報電話會議是不尋常的，所以我們感謝大家今天早上抽出時間與我們一起參加。今天的電話會議形式將與前幾季類似。丹尼爾將作簡短的開場白，隨後進行線上問答環節。您可以透過網站旁邊的外掛程式提交問題，也可以直接發送電子郵件至 ir@spotify.com。我們會盡可能回答問題。通話時長約30分鐘。

Before we begin, let me quickly cover the safe harbor. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements, including projections or estimates about the future performance of the company. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed on today's call and in our letter to shareholders and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我們開始之前，讓我先簡單介紹一下安全港灣。在本次電話會議中，我們將發表前瞻性聲明，包括對公司未來績效的預測或估計。這些陳述是基於當前的預期和假設，但存在風險和不確定性。由於今天電話會議、致股東信以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中所討論的因素，實際結果可能與預期有重大差異。

During this call, we will refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliations between our IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our letter to shareholders, on the financial section of the Investor Relations page of our website and also furnished today on Form 6-K.

在本次電話會議中，我們將提及一些非國際財務報告準則（IFRS）的財務指標。有關我們採用國際財務報告準則 (IFRS) 和非國際財務報告準則 (non-IFRS) 財務指標的調節表，請參閱我們致股東的信函、我們網站投資者關係頁面的財務部分，以及今天在 6-K 表格中提供的相關資訊。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel.

接下來，我將把麥克風交給丹尼爾。

All right. Thanks, Paul, and thanks, of course, everyone joining today's call. We had a very strong quarter as most of our key metrics were at the high end or exceeded the top end of our forecast. In the quarter, we closed the previously announced acquisitions of Gimlet and Anchor and, in April, the recently announced deal for podcasts: 3 best-in-class podcasting companies. These deals will help accelerate our goal of becoming the world's #1 audio platform. We're also excited to share that we've reached 100 million Premium members. This is an important milestone in our mission to connect over 1 billion users with millions of artists. And we launched in India and -- in the first quarter, and we're really very pleased with the results there. We got more than 2 million users of Spotify today in India.

好的。謝謝保羅，當然也謝謝今天參加電話會議的各位。本季業績非常強勁，我們的大多數關鍵指標都達到了預期上限或超過了預期上限。本季度，我們完成了先前宣布的 Gimlet 和 Anchor 的收購，並在 4 月完成了最近宣布的播客交易：收購了 3 家一流的播客公司。這些交易將有助於加速我們成為全球第一個音訊平台的目標。我們也很高興地宣布，我們的高級會員人數已達 1 億。這是我們連結超過10億用戶與數百萬藝術家這項使命中的一個重要里程碑。我們在第一季在印度推出了產品，我們對那裡的業績非常滿意。今天，Spotify在印度的用戶數突破了200萬人。

Looking more broadly at the global music economy, it was really encouraging to see that 2018 industry data has shown strong growth across the music industry, led almost entirely by streaming, which accounted for 47% of all recorded music revenue. With physical and download revenue in decline, the 34% year-over-year growth in streaming is the engine driving the train, and Spotify continues to be the driving force that has made the music a growth industry again.

從更廣闊的視角來看全球音樂經濟，令人鼓舞的是，2018 年的行業數據顯示整個音樂產業實現了強勁成長，幾乎完全是由串流媒體推動的，串流媒體佔所有錄製音樂收入的 47%。隨著實體唱片和下載收入的下降，串流媒體年增 34% 成為推動音樂產業發展的引擎，而 Spotify 繼續發揮推動作用，使音樂產業再次成為成長型產業。

Related to this, the number of creators that are engaging directly with Spotify's platform continues to increase, growing to over 3.9 million this quarter. We're also seeing a significant growth in the discovery of new artists on Spotify. In Q1, we saw a 20% increase in the number of artists streamed on our platform year-over-year and a 29% increase in the number of artists with at least 100,000 listeners. We believe this engagement from artists, labels and publishers shows a strong sign that there's an increased appetite for more marketplace tools and services.

同時，直接與 Spotify 平台互動的創作者數量持續成長，本季已超過 390 萬。我們也看到，Spotify 上新藝人的發現量顯著成長。第一季度，我們平台上播放的藝術家數量同比增長了 20%，擁有至少 10 萬聽眾的藝術家數量同比增長了 29%。我們認為，藝術家、唱片公司和出版商的這種參與強烈表明，人們對更多市場工具和服務的需求日益增長。

With more than 50 million tracks now available on Spotify and growing by close to 40,000 daily, the discover tools we're building has never been more important to consumers and artists alike.

Spotify 上現在已有超過 5000 萬首歌曲，並且每天新增近 4 萬首，因此，我們正在開發的發現工具對於消費者和藝術家來說從未像現在這樣重要。

Overall, we feel really good about our first quarter results and remain very optimistic about the rest of the year and our long-term opportunity to become the world's largest global streaming audio company.

總體而言，我們對第一季的業績感到非常滿意，並對今年剩餘時間以及我們成為全球最大的串流媒體音訊公司的長期機會保持非常樂觀的態度。

And with that, let's open the floor for questions.

那麼，接下來就進入提問環節。

Great. Thanks, Daniel. Our first question comes from Ross Sandler at Barclays.

偉大的。謝謝你，丹尼爾。我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的羅斯桑德勒。

Connected speakers have been a nice tailwind for growth over the past few years. Do you think that changes for SPOT if the larger platform owners introduce new services, like Ad-Supported streaming? Or do you think it would continue to be accretive for growth rates? Any thoughts on Amazon's recent move? And how should we think about voice in general?

過去幾年，智慧音箱一直是推動成長的良好動力。你認為如果大型平台所有者推出新服務，例如廣告支援型串流媒體，SPOT 的情況會改變嗎？或者您認為它會繼續促進經濟成長？對亞馬遜最近的舉動有什麼看法？那麼，我們該如何看待聲音這個概念呢？

Well, we believe voice, really across all platforms, are critical area of growth, particularly for music and audio content. And we're investing in it, and we're testing ways to explore and refine our offering in this arena. One of the core pillars of our strategy, of course, is ubiquity. So we want to be on all major platforms that you can imagine. The only thing I would counter that saying is, while the growth rate of voice speakers is impressive, it's still very small when you compare it to mobile.

我們認為，語音技術在所有平台上都是至關重要的成長領域，尤其是在音樂和音訊內容領域。我們正在加大投入，並嘗試各種方法來探索和改進我們在這一領域的產品和服務。當然，我們策略的核心支柱之一就是無所不在。所以我們希望進駐你能想到的所有主流平台。我唯一要反駁的是，雖然語音助理的成長速度令人印象深刻，但與行動裝置相比，它仍然非常小。

Our next question comes Matt Thornton at SunTrust. In terms of music content cost, any update or color management can offer as the time line of negotiation of the deal with the labels, in appeal of the CRB ruling and the DOJ review of the consent decrees?

下一個問題來自 SunTrust 的 Matt Thornton。就音樂內容成本而言，任何更新或色彩管理能否作為與唱片公司談判協議的時間線，以應對 CRB 裁決的上訴和司法部對同意令的審查？

Well, as we've said before, the results of our renegotiations with the labels, the key pillar here is to drive the adoption of our marketplace strategy. That is the future for our margin growth. It's not about renegotiation of the deals. We're doing really well in terms of the build-out of the marketplace tools. We're doing really well with the music industry in the adoption and testing of those tools. And that's what I can share at this moment.

正如我們之前所說，我們與唱片公司重新談判的結果，關鍵在於推動我們市場策略的實施。這就是我們利潤成長的未來。這不是重新談判協議的問題。我們在市場工具的建置方面進展非常順利。我們在音樂產業推廣和測試這些工具方面做得非常出色。這就是我目前能分享的內容。

Sorry, let me just jump in on the CRB time line. That will be a long drawn-out process. It's just the nature of the beast.

抱歉，我只想插一句CRB的時間軸。這將是一個漫長的過程。這就是事物的本質。

Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan at UBS. On advertising, can you provide more detail on the ad pricing commentary from the earnings release? What happened and what was corrected in the go-to-market approach? And how should it impact future periods, starting in Q2? Second part, how would you contrast, frame the North America versus global ad opportunity on the platform?

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的艾瑞克·謝裡丹。關於廣告方面，您能否提供更多關於財報中廣告定價說明的細節？市場推廣策略中發生了什麼事？做了哪些改進？那麼，這將對從第二季開始的後續時期產生怎樣的影響？第二部分，您會如何比較和闡述北美與全球在該平台上的廣告機會？

Well, part one of the question, the softness we saw in the quarter, primarily in the U.S. business, was related to our sponsored sessions, which had been using performance pricing, which worked extremely well in Q3 and Q4 in high-demand periods and priced out of the marketplace in a slow-demand period in Q1, and we were slow to react and adjust our pricing, which we did in the third month of the quarter, but too late to fix the revenue shortfall. In any event, as I said in the commentary, the fix is in, and we're seeing strong revenue growth in Q2. So I'm relatively optimistic about that. As it relates to the second part of the question, U.S. versus rest of world revenue opportunity, well, it's -- U.S. is a large percentage of ad revenue base, so at least in today's world, as goes the U.S., so goes the -- the overall performance of the ads business. As we continue to grow in new markets and in Asia and in India, there will be some challenges in keeping pace with the growth from a revenue perspective, because those markets just simply don't have as developed an ad market as we have here in the U.S. And secondly, at least initially, our reach in those markets, it will be relatively small until we build critical mass. And until we build critical mass and have reach, the attractiveness of the platform to advertisers is relatively limited. So it's true in the United States as well. We will grow into the demand.

嗯，關於問題的第一部分，我們在本季看到的疲軟，主要體現在美國業務方面，這與我們的贊助課程有關。這些課程一直採用效果定價，在第三季和第四季的高需求時期效果非常好，但在第一季低需求時期，價格過高，失去了市場競爭力。我們反應遲緩，調整定價的速度也較慢，雖然我們在本季的第三個月進行了調整，但為時已晚，無法彌補收入缺口。總之，正如我在評論中所說，一切都已就緒，我們在第二季度看到了強勁的收入成長。所以我對此比較樂觀。至於問題的第二部分，即美國與世界其他地區的收入機會，嗯——美國佔廣告收入基礎的很大一部分，所以至少在當今世界，美國的情況如何，廣告業務的整體表現就如何。隨著我們在亞洲和印度等新興市場不斷拓展業務，從收入角度來看，我們將面臨一些挑戰，難以跟上成長步伐，因為這些市場的廣告市場遠不如美國發達。其次，至少在初期，在我們累積到某個規模之前，我們在這些市場的覆蓋範圍會相對較小。在我們累積到足夠的規模並擁有廣泛的影響力之前，該平台對廣告商的吸引力相對有限。在美國也是如此。我們將根據需求發展壯大。

Great. The next question comes from Mark Kelley at Instinet. You talked about better-than-planned promotions in the U.S. and Canada. Are there anything new you tried, whether it was a new acquisition channel or shifting ad budgets? Or is the strategy the same, but perhaps more effective?

偉大的。下一個問題來自 Instinet 的 Mark Kelley。您談到了在美國和加拿大開展的超出預期的促銷活動。您是否嘗試過任何新的方法，例如新的獲客管道或調整廣告預算？或策略相同，但可能更有效？

It was strong across the promotional base. Sometimes, some quarters, you have wind at your back, and we have the wind at our back this quarter.

它在推廣群體中表現強勁。有時，在某些方面，你會順風而行，而我們這方面就順風而行。

Next question comes from Doug Anmuth at JPMorgan. Can you help us understand the structure and economics of the Samsung partnership and how it shows up in SPOT financials?

下一個問題來自摩根大通的道格·安穆斯。您能否幫助我們了解三星合作的結構和經濟效益，以及它如何在SPOT的財務報表中體現出來？

It's really a distribution partnership across the -- whereas Samsung's main promise is, obviously, improving their product and our main promise is, of course, bringing more music to more products. It's a natural partnership. In terms of economics, I don't really have anything to share.

這實際上是一項跨領域的分銷合作——三星的主要承諾顯然是改進他們的產品，而我們的主要承諾當然是為更多產品帶來更多音樂。這是天作之合。在經濟方面，我沒什麼好分享的。

Yes, we don't talk about the specifics of any of our deals from a financial perspective.

是的，我們從不從財務角度談論任何交易的具體細節。

Our next question comes from Anthony DiClemente at Evercore. If ARPU declines are moderating, does that mean mix shift to Family plan, Student plan is getting into the later innings?

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Anthony DiClemente。如果 ARPU 下降速度放緩，這是否意味著家庭計畫佔比上升，學生計畫佔比下降的趨勢將進入後期？

Well, it means that we launched them a year ago, so we're a year in and so -- because we're lapping the launch of the plan, it has mathematically less of an impact on ARPU than it's had historically. So now the go-forward influence will have much to do with the geographic expansion of the business and not at all related to the rollout of Family plan and Student plan, which is daunting.

嗯，這意味著我們一年前推出了這些計劃，所以現在已經過去一年了，而且——因為我們是在計劃推出之後才開始實施的，所以從數學角度來看，它對 ARPU 的影響比歷史上要小。因此，未來的發展方向將更多地取決於業務的地域擴張，而與家庭計劃和學生計劃的推出完全無關，這令人望而生畏。

Our next question comes from Justin Patterson of Raymond James. More companies are investing in competing podcast product. How does that change content acquisition cost and the bid/ask spreads in deals you're evaluating? How do you feel about your competitive position?

我們的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 公司的 Justin Patterson。越來越多的公司正在投資開發與之競爭的播客產品。這會如何改變您正在評估的交易中的內容獲取成本和買賣價差？你如何看待自己的競爭地位？

Well, first and foremost, I think that there's a lot of podcast players out there, and that's certainly been true for quite some time. I think last time when I checked on the App Store, there were more than 60 or 70 of them. The truth is, while it's not that difficult to build a podcast player, it doesn't mean it will be successful. And as we've seen before on the App Store, it is really a very much -- a top of the pyramid game where there are few apps that have the majority of the traffic and we happened to be one of those apps. As we're looking at building this out, I think it's way too early to talk about pricing of deals. This is a very, very early market that we're seeing. And our view, obviously, is that while users are starting to flock to listen to podcasts, there's still tremendous amounts of growth, both in the U.S. and internationally. On the demand side and on the supply side, we don't think yet that the best talent has come to the podcast format, and we're seeing stronger and stronger growth on that side as well.

首先，我認為市面上有很多播客播放器，而且這種情況已經持續相當長一段時間了。我記得上次在 App Store 查看的時候，有六、七十個這樣的應用程式。事實上，雖然搭建播客播放器並不難，但這並不意味著它一定會成功。正如我們之前在 App Store 上看到的那樣，這確實是一個非常典型的金字塔頂端遊戲，少數應用程式佔據了大部分流量，而我們恰好就是其中之一。鑑於我們正在著手建立這個平台，我認為現在談論交易定價還為時過早。我們現在看到的還只是非常非常早期的市場。顯然，我們的觀點是，雖然用戶開始蜂擁而至收聽播客，但無論是在美國還是在國際上，播客市場仍然有巨大的成長空間。無論從需求端或供給端來看，我們認為播客這種形式還沒有吸引到最優秀的人才，而且我們也看到播客這方面的成長勢頭越來越強勁。

Next question related comes from Ben Swinburne at Morgan Stanley. Daniel, how would you assess Spotify's ability to curate and help users find podcasts they will enjoy? And is improving as nonmusic engagement a priority for the company?

下一個相關問題來自摩根士丹利的本·斯溫伯恩。丹尼爾，你如何評價 Spotify 在策劃和幫助用戶找到他們喜歡的播客方面的能力？提高非音樂用戶參與度是否是該公司的優先事項？

Yes, it's definitely a priority. Personalization is one of our core pillars of our strategy. And there, we are obviously really, really far along in music. Podcast is a much newer space for us. The way we merchandise podcast, the way we recommend podcast is completely different. We are working on that and improving quarter-over-quarter, and I think you can see it today in the product compared to last quarter that there's a tremendous amount of new things that are shipping. I think we went, in all honesty, from being an okay product at the beginning of 2018 to now a year later being best-in-class in this area. And of course, we want to expand on that and become an even better experience. And in there, personalization is absolutely key, and we think that there's -- we're still in the early innings.

是的，這絕對是優先事項。個人化是我們策略的核心支柱之一。很顯然，我們在音樂方面已經取得了非常非常大的進展。播客對我們來說是一個全新的領域。我們推廣播客的方式，我們推薦播客的方式，完全不同。我們正在努力改進，並且每個季度都在進步。我認為，與上個季度相比，您今天可以從產品中看出，我們推出了大量的新產品。說實話，我認為我們從 2018 年初的還算不錯的產品，到一年後的今天，已經成為該領域最好的產品了。當然，我們希望在此基礎上更進一步，提供更好的體驗。而個人化在其中至關重要，我們認為──我們仍處於起步階段。

Next question comes from Heath Terry at Goldman Sachs. You took steps with regulators to address what you see as anticompetitive issues with Apple. What responses have you seen from regulators to date? And what do you see as being the right outcome of this process?

下一個問題來自高盛的希思·特里。你已採取措施與監管機構合作，解決你認為蘋果公司存在的反競爭問題。迄今為止，監管機構做出了哪些回應？你認為這個過程的正確結果是什麼？

Well, we -- as everyone know, we filed our complaints with the European Commission. We cannot yet say what the results will be, because it's really under evaluation on their end, and we will probably know as -- because they have the same time as the rest of the market knows. What I can say personally from speaking to lots of regulators in and around that time as you think that there -- this is the moment where these issues needs to be debated, and I think that there's a willingness to engage on these questions.

如大家所知，我們已經向歐盟委員會提出了申訴。我們現在還不能說結果會是什麼，因為這確實還在他們那邊的評估中，我們可能也會和市場上的其他人一樣，在相同的時間內知道結果。就我個人而言，我當時與許多監管機構人員交談過，我認為現在正是討論這些問題的時刻，而且我認為各方都願意就這些問題展開討論。

And I would say lastly and while all that is pending, we continue to remain focused on winning in the marketplace.

最後我想說，雖然這一切都還懸而未決，但我們仍將繼續專注於在市場競爭中獲勝。

Next question comes from Rich Greenfield at BTIG. On Google, what's the key takeaway from the Home Mini partnership, especially in light of its expansion? Can it drive faster uptake of Family plans? How is consumption impacted in homes with or without Google devices? Simply put, what drove your desire to expand the partnership?

下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Rich Greenfield。關於谷歌，從與 Home Mini 的合作中，尤其是在其業務擴張的背景下，最重要的收穫是什麼？它能否加快家庭計畫的普及？擁有Google設備的家庭和沒有Google設備的家庭，其消費狀況會受到怎樣的影響？簡而言之，是什麼促使您想要擴大合作關係？

Well, we saw a strong growth in Q4, and that led to the expansion of the partnership. In Q1, we didn't grow as fast as we were expecting, because of some inventory shortages in the markets where we launched, which resolved itself later in the quarter. But overall, we think that promotional program has been quite effective for us to accomplish the strategic objective of expanding into voice-enabled products, and it drives user growth. And we like to like that value.

我們在第四季度看到了強勁的成長，這促成了合作關係的擴大。第一季度，由於我們在部分市場出現庫存短缺，我們的成長速度沒有達到預期，但這個問題在本季度後期得到了解決。但總的來說，我們認為該促銷活動對於我們實現拓展語音產品的策略目標非常有效，並且能夠推動用戶成長。我們喜歡這種價值觀。

Next question comes from Lloyd Walmsley at Deutsche Bank. Can you help us understand why the MAU number came in below the midpoint of the guide? To what extent is that weaker new MAUs versus attrition in older MAUs? Are some of the deals you're doing, like Google Home, Hulu bundling and Samsung, effectively increasing the pace of conversion from MAU to subscribers?

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的勞埃德‧沃姆斯利。您能幫我們了解為什麼月活躍用戶數低於指導值的中點嗎？新用戶月活躍度下降與老用戶月活躍度下降之間的關聯程度如何？你們正在進行的一些合作，例如 Google Home、Hulu 捆綁銷售和三星產品，是否有效地提高了每月活躍用戶轉換為付費用戶的速度？

Yes, we think there's really not much news about MAUs. We're mostly in the upper end of the range that we guided to. When came in at 217 million, I think The Street was at 218 million. Sometimes rounding helps you, sometimes rounding hurts you. So it's one of those quarters where we fell short, but it's of no consequence.

是的，我們認為關於每月活躍用戶數（MAU）確實沒有什麼新消息。我們目前基本上處於預期範圍的上限。當最終估值達到 2.17 億時，我認為華爾街的估值是 2.18 億。有時四捨五入對你有利，有時四捨五入對你不利。所以這是我們表現不佳的一個季度，但這無關緊要。

Next question is from Nick Delfas at Redburn. You've increased the number of artists on editorial playlists by 30% and number of songs discovered by 35%. Over what time period? And what effect has this had on the 3 majors' market share?

下一個問題來自 Redburn 的 Nick Delfas。你們讓編輯播放清單中的藝人數量增加了 30%，發現的歌曲數量增加了 35%。時段是多久？這對三大電信業者的市佔率產生了什麼影響？

We don't break out the numbers of any of our rights holders. What I can say and just to kind of up level the conversation as well, personalization is one of the core pillars of our strategy. So what we see is the user satisfaction is closely related to discovery. So if we are able to get customers to discover or rediscover content on Spotify, it drives a better user experience and better engagement, which, of course, leads to lower SAC, which, of course, leads to lower churn and higher lifetime value. It's really the same strategy that we apply to podcasts. So you should think about our podcasting strategy in the same way. If we have podcast content increases engagement through discovery, which leads to lower SAC, lower churn and then higher lifetime value. And it's a repeat-and-raise strategy.

我們不會公佈任何版權持有者的具體數字。我想說的是，為了提升對話的層次，個人化是我們策略的核心支柱之一。由此可見，使用者滿意度與使用者發現密切相關。因此，如果我們能讓客戶在 Spotify 上發現或重新發現內容，就能帶來更好的使用者體驗和更高的參與度，這當然會降低銷售獲取成本 (SAC)，而銷售獲取成本的降低又會降低客戶流失率，提高客戶終身價值。這和我們製作播客時採用的策略完全一樣。所以，你們也應該用同樣的方式來思考我們的播客策略。如果我們擁有播客內容，就能透過發現來提高參與度，進而降低銷售獲取成本、降低客戶流失率，進而提高客戶終身價值。這是一種重複加註的策略。

The next question comes from Matthew Harrigan at Buckingham. Anymore thoughts on how Article 17, formerly Article 13, could help Spotify to constrain free YouTube Music video usage in Europe?

下一個問題來自白金漢大學的馬修·哈里根。關於第 17 條（原第 13 條）如何幫助 Spotify 限制歐洲用戶免費使用 YouTube Music 視頻，大家還有什麼想法嗎？

I think it's really too early to say what the exact impact will be of Article 13 or 17, depending on which provision you're looking at. Now, our view is obviously that we want a landscape where we're competing on a level-playing field and where our rights holders are getting paid for their content. If Article 13 or 17 leads to more of that, we think we will do better. If it's -- if the question is how material is it, I think it's way too early to tell you.

我認為現在斷言第 13 條或第 17 條的具體影響還為時過早，這取決於你關注的是哪一條條款。現在，我們的觀點很明確，我們希望創造一個公平競爭的環境，讓版權所有者能夠獲得內容報酬。如果第 13 條或第 17 條導致更多此類情況發生，我們認為我們會做得更好。如果問題是——如果問題是它有多重要，我認為現在告訴你還為時過早。

Next question comes from Sumant Wahi at Fidelity. How are India subs growing? Why has your ARPU declined low single digits, given geo mix shift to lower ARPU geographies?

下一個問題來自富達投資的 Sumant Wahi。印度的訂閱用戶成長情況如何？為什麼你們的ARPU值下降了幾個位數，而地域構成卻轉移到ARPU值較低的地區？

Let me -- 2 parts. One is we're pretty excited about the growth in India, and it's faster than we were initially expecting. Two, price points in India are significantly lower than they are in the U.S. and that's true in Asia as well. And so if on day 1 we had 0 on and day 2 we had lots, the day 2 average company ARPU will be lower than it was on day 0. But margins across regions, independent of price points, are relatively equal. And so from a margin perspective, expansion in those regions works for the business, which is part of the launch there.

讓我來——共兩部分。一方面，我們對印度市場的成長感到非常興奮，而且成長速度比我們最初預期的要快。第二，印度的物價遠低於美國，亞洲其他地區的物價也是如此。因此，如果第一天銷量為 0，第二天銷量很高，那麼第二天的平均公司 ARPU 將低於第一天。但各地區的利潤率，與價格點無關，相對而言是相等的。因此，從利潤率的角度來看，在這些地區擴張對公司有利，這也是公司在這些地區啟動的一部分。

Next question from Maria Ripps at Canaccord. It's nice to see Spotify evolving different subscription plans. Can you comment on how has the duo plan been received so far and when we might expect to see the planned launch in the U.S. and other markets?

下一個問題來自 Canaccord 的 Maria Ripps。很高興看到Spotify持續推出不同的訂閱方案。您能否評價一下目前為止該雙人計劃的反應如何，以及我們何時才能在美國和其他市場看到該計劃的推出？

Well, just to level set with everyone, we piloted a Premium plan called Premium Duo for -- it's really built for 2 people living under the same roof, and we tested this in 5 markets, which is Colombia, Chile, Denmark, Ireland and Poland. And we're -- it's still early, but we're really encouraged by the early response and that we believe it's going to be accretive to our MAU and sub number, if we roll out this more widely.

為了讓大家了解情況，我們試行了一個名為 Premium Duo 的高級套餐——它實際上是為住在同一屋簷下的兩個人設計的，我們在 5 個市場進行了測試，分別是哥倫比亞、智利、丹麥、愛爾蘭和波蘭。雖然現在還處於早期階段，但我們對目前的回饋感到非常鼓舞，並相信如果我們更廣泛地推廣這項服務，它將會增加我們的每月活躍用戶數和訂閱用戶數。

Next question from Amy Yong at Macquarie. There seems to be increased competition, with Amazon looking to launch a subscription-based service and Apple bundling music and video. How do you prepare to face this?

下一個問題是來自麥考瑞大學的Amy Yong提出的問題。競爭似乎日益加劇，亞馬遜正計劃推出訂閱服務，而蘋果則將音樂和視訊捆綁銷售。你如何準備面對這一切？

Yes, I just think, again, competition is something that I've experienced, really, throughout the entire life of the company. It started back in the day with MySpace and Lala and a bunch of different competitors. But even back then, Apple, obviously, had iTunes and Amazon had a CloudWalker service and Google had not only YouTube, but a bunch of different streaming services. The point I'm trying to make is, we've always had competition. Competition has always come in the form of much larger player. That's not unusual to us, yet we keep on doing what we said we are going to do and keep on growing at more than 30% per year. And the point with that, I think, is that the music industry market is just way bigger than most people realize. There are billions of customers out there in the world that are consuming music today. Most of them are yet not in streaming. We are all, of course, trying to get the music industry into streaming. And that is the trend -- a secular trend that will keep going for at least another 5 to 10 years. And so competition is just not a big factor for us. It's really all about growth.

是的，我再次認為，競爭是我在公司整個發展歷程中一直經歷的事情。這一切要追溯到MySpace、Lala以及大量不同的競爭對手。但即使在當時，蘋果顯然也有 iTunes，亞馬遜有 CloudWalker 服務，而谷歌不僅有 YouTube，還有許多不同的串流服務。我想表達的觀點是，我們一直都存在著競爭。競爭總是以規模更大的競爭對手的形式出現。這對我們來說並不罕見，但我們仍然堅持做我們說過要做的事情，並保持每年超過 30% 的成長速度。我認為，關鍵在於音樂產業市場比大多數人意識到的要大得多。如今，全球有數十億消費者在消費音樂。它們中的大多數尚未上線串流平台。當然，我們都在努力推動音樂產業轉型為串流媒體。這就是目前的趨勢——一種至少還會持續5到10年的長期趨勢。因此，競爭對我們來說並不是一個重要因素。一切其實都與成長有關。

Next question comes from Michael Morris at Guggenheim. Did minimum guarantees to record labels for newer market launches, including India, negatively impact gross margins in Q1? If so, can you help quantify the impact and how long a drag it will be?

下一個問題來自古根漢美術館的麥可莫里斯。唱片公司為新市場（包括印度）發行唱片而支付的最低保證金是否對第一季的毛利率產生了負面影響？如果屬實，您能否幫忙量化其影響以及持續時間？

Yes. It did, and we won't quantify it. But in every market where we launched, including the U.S. when we first launched, there are minimum guarantees that are paid. We initially lose money in those markets. We grow our way into the MAU to breakeven and then eventually to profit building. So this is history repeating itself. And as long as we are able to achieve the growth objectives we set for the business, and we have consistently, then the markets where we are growing the business become profitable.

是的。確實如此，但我們不會對其進行量化。但在我們推出的每個市場，包括我們最初推出的美國市場，都有最低保證金需要支付。我們最初在這些市場中會賠錢。我們逐步提高每月活躍用戶數，達到收支平衡，然後最終實現獲利。歷史正在重演。只要我們能夠實現我們為公司設定的成長目標（而且我們一直都做到了），那麼我們正在拓展業務的市場就會獲利。

The next question comes from John Egbert at Stifel. Your letter discusses your ambition to develop a more robust advertising solution for podcasts. We've seen after the Luminary launch that some top podcast creators can be sensitive about where they host their content. Can you speak to top podcast creators whom you don't have an exclusive relationship with? What is their acceptance to Spotify potentially is selling incremental ad spots on their content? And how do you feel about the analytics they're able to see from listening on your platform?

下一個問題來自 Stifel 公司的 John Egbert。你的信中談到了你希望為播客開發更強大的廣告解決方案的雄心壯志。Luminary 發布後，我們看到一些頂級播客創作者對他們的內容託管平台非常敏感。您能否採訪一些您沒有獨家合作關係的頂級播客創作者？他們是否接受 Spotify 可能在其內容中出售增量廣告位？你對他們透過收聽你的平台而獲得的分析數據有何看法？

So just to level set with everyone, this is certainly still in the early innings, this whole space. But we see a tremendous reaction from the community of podcasters, both now in the recently rolled out tools, Spotify for Podcasters, where for the first time, really, podcasters are getting actionable insights into who's listening to their content. Most of the cases before, it ended up being regionally they could see that maybe there was someone in Russia or maybe there was someone in Spain that was listening to their content, but it really didn't have more actionable detail. Because Spotify is a logged in environment where we do have demographic data, we can share that. It's been very well received by the podcasting community. When it comes to monetization, it is true that a lot of podcasters are struggling and have to set up their own sales forces in order to succeed, creating revenue for themselves. We look at that long term as a massive opportunity, and podcasters are eager for us to get into this space. And I think advertisers alike is very eager for us to get into this space with all of the measurability tools and all those things that we're bringing to the industry.

所以為了讓大家明白，這整個領域目前還處於起步階段。但我們看到播客社群對此反應強烈，尤其是在最近推出的 Spotify for Podcasters 工具中，播客主播們第一次真正獲得了關於誰在聽他們內容的切實可行的見解。以前大多數案例最終都只能在區域層面上發現，他們可能看到俄羅斯有人在聽他們的內容，或者西班牙有人在聽，但實際上並沒有更多可操作的細節。因為 Spotify 是一個需要登入的環境，我們擁有人口統計數據，所以我們可以分享這些數據。它在播客界反響非常好。說到獲利，很多播客主播確實都在苦苦掙扎，必須建立自己的銷售團隊才能獲得成功，為自己創造收入。從長遠來看，我們認為這是一個巨大的機遇，播客界也渴望我們進入這個領域。我認為廣告商都非常渴望我們進入這個領域，將我們所有的可衡量性工具以及我們正在為這個行業帶來的所有東西帶入其中。

Let me add that Apple, of course, has historically been largest player in the podcast space. They don't have an advertising business, and there's been no innovation in podcast advertising in its entire history. So ads gets baked into RSS feeds and delivered to all listeners, regardless of their interest in or their demographic profile and any particular interest in any particular ad. So we're working hard on building digital ad sourcing technology, and we'll use that technology to dramatically revolutionize the ad experience of podcast for listeners.

我還要補充一點，蘋果公司歷來都是播客領域最大的參與者。他們沒有廣告業務，播客廣告在其整個發展歷程中也沒有任何創新。因此，廣告被嵌入到 RSS 來源中，並推送給所有聽眾，無論他們的興趣或人口統計特徵，以及他們對任何特定廣告的任何特殊興趣。因此，我們正在努力建立數位廣告投放技術，並將利用這項技術徹底改變播客聽眾的廣告體驗。

Next question comes from Brian Russo at Crédit Suisse. So far, your podcast investment team focused on English-language content. Can you talk about how you plan to benefit from your podcasting strategy in parts of the world that do not speak English?

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的布萊恩·魯索。到目前為止，你們的播客投資團隊主要專注於英語內容。您能否談談您計劃如何利用您的播客策略在世界上那些不講英語的地區獲益？

Well, our podcasting initiative is very much a global initiative. And as pointed out, I think, in our release, we had more than 15 shows that were exclusive to Spotify in Q1. Of those, I think, around half of them ended up being international ones, including in Poland and in the Nordics. So while our acquisitions have been focused on English-language content, I don't think you should read in too much to the fact that that's an English-only strategy. It's very much a global strategy.

嗯，我們的播客計劃是一項全球性計劃。正如我們之前提到的，我認為，在我們的發布會上，第一季我們有超過 15 場節目是 Spotify 獨家播出的。我認為，其中大約一半最終變成了國際項目，包括在波蘭和北歐的項目。所以，雖然我們的收購重點是英語內容，但我認為你不應該過度解讀，認為我們只採取英語策略。這完全是一項全球戰略。

Next question comes from Robert Coolbrith from Wells Fargo. Could you comment on churn? Why are you no longer seeing improvement in the churn rate? Are you still seeing churn rate improvements with newer user cohorts? Do you expect improvement in overall churn rate to resume at some point in 2019?

下一個問題來自富國銀行的羅伯特·庫爾布里斯。能否談談客戶流失率？為什麼客戶流失率不再改善？您是否仍看到新用戶群流失率有所改善？您預期整體客戶流失率會在 2019 年的某個時間點恢復改善嗎？

Yes, I think the long-term trend for churn will continue to be downward. Family plan, Student plan, it has lower churn. So if continue to see strong growth in those plans, you would expect that average to -- churn to decrease and due to aging in the base. Only reasons for -- the couple of reasons for increase in churn would be acceleration in growth, and we saw an acceleration in growth this quarter versus prior quarter. And then, secondly, we in some of our newer markets have gravitated towards shorter subscription plans. We're experimenting with weekly and daily, by way of example, which may cause us over time to rethink the definition of subscription, but -- so we see people coming in and out quickly. One last comment, and this is particularly important. In the latest quarter, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of rejoins. So 42% of gross adds in the quarter were previous users of the service, which means that more and more frequently, we're seeing former users come back and rejoin. And some of them may have left because their prepaid debit card expired. It looked like churn, but they re-upped the card and came back. Some are coming back just simply because it's a better service. So just to put that in perspective, the rejoin rate grew at 36% year-over-year, which is more than twice the rate year-over-year in gross additions. So yes, churn ticked up slightly, but more and more previous users are coming back, which will be an important contributor to growth.

是的，我認為客戶流失率的長期趨勢將持續下降。家庭套餐、學生套餐的客戶流失率較低。因此，如果這些計劃繼續保持強勁增長，則預計平均流失率將下降，這是由於基數老化所致。在導致客戶流失率上升的幾個原因中，只有成長加速這一少數幾個，而我們本季確實看到了成長加速，與上一季相比。其次，在一些新興市場，我們傾向於採用更短的訂閱方案。例如，我們正在嘗試按週和按日訂閱，這可能會隨著時間的推移讓我們重新思考訂閱的定義，但是——所以我們看到人們來來去去的速度很快。最後還有一點要補充，這一點尤其重要。在最近一個季度，我們看到重新加入的人數大幅增加。因此，本季新增用戶中有 42% 是該服務的先前用戶，這意味著我們越來越頻繁地看到以前的用戶回來重新加入。其中一些人可能因為預付借記卡過期而離開。看起來像是客戶流失，但他們重新充值了信用卡，然後又回來了。有些人回來只是因為這裡的服務更好。為了讓大家更清楚了解狀況，重新加入率年增了 36%，是新增會員年增率的兩倍多。所以，雖然用戶流失率略有上升，但越來越多的老用戶回歸，這將是成長的重要因素。

I'd just add one other thing. We did mention on the call -- on the Q4 call, that given the number of subscribers that came in, in Holiday period of Q4, as well as the uncertainty around how the Google Home campaign would go, that we did expect a slightly higher seasonal uptick in churn than we normally experience. It was actually a little bit better than expected on both of those fronts.

我還要補充一點。我們在第四季財報電話會議上提到，考慮到第四季度假日期間新增用戶數量，以及Google智慧家居推廣活動前景的不確定性，我們預期用戶流失率的季節性上升幅度會比往常略高。實際上，在這兩方面，情況都比預期的要好一些。

Yes, we had a slightly higher mix of 30-day promotions and 60-day promotions in some of those and 60 days, instead of 30, seen at the calling in the churn rate.

是的，在某些促銷活動中，30 天促銷和 60 天促銷的比例略高，而 60 天（而不是 30 天）的促銷活動導致客戶流失率上升。

A follow-up question from Ben Swinburne at Morgan Stanley. Can you earn economic rent from podcast you distribute, but are produced, owned by competitors? In other words, where will the value accrue longer term, the podcast network producer or the podcast distributor?

摩根士丹利的 Ben Swinburne 提出了一個後續問題。你能否從你分發的、由競爭對手製作和擁有的播客中獲得經濟利益？換句話說，從長遠來看，價值會在哪裡積累，是播客網絡製作方還是播客分發方？

Well, again, just to kind of level set, we're early in this space and the evolution of this space. Historically, however, on the Internet, charging for distribution has been a very difficult business model. And I would think that would be very unlikely. Now our strategy, in general, is our marketplace strategy, where we want to build better and better tools for creators to connect with users. We definitely think that the same marketplace tools and services that we're building out can be applied to podcasters as well and that's an opportunity, even on content that we do not own.

嗯，再次強調一下，我們在這個領域以及這個領域的發展初期還處於早期階段。然而，從歷史上看，在網路上，收取分發費用一直是一種非常困難的商業模式。我覺得這種情況發生的可能性非常小。現在，我們的整體策略是市場策略，我們希望為創作者打造越來越好的工具，讓他們能夠與使用者建立聯繫。我們堅信，我們正在建構的這些市場工具和服務同樣可以應用於播客製作者，這是一個機遇，即使是對於我們不擁有的內容也是如此。

And I would add from 40,000 feet, historically, what we're seeing is whoever -- the gross margin flows to whoever owns demand creation. So if you're the NFL, you don't need DIRECTV. You're going to own that margin wherever you get distributed. On the other hand, if you're one of now 500,000 podcasts going to 2 million podcasts, if we're able to own the consumer insights that inform us about where the demand is for that content, then the margin will flow to Spotify.

我還要補充一點，從 40,000 英尺的高空來看，從歷史角度來看，毛利總是流向那些擁有需求創造權的人。所以，如果你是 NFL，你就不需要 DIRECTV。無論你的產品透過何種管道分銷，你都將擁有那部分利潤。另一方面，如果你是目前 50 萬個播客節目之一，而這個數字正在增長到 200 萬個，如果我們能夠掌握消費者洞察，了解市場對這些內容的需求在哪裡，那麼利潤就會流向 Spotify。

We have time for just couple more questions. The next question comes from Robert [Elliott] from [Well Known] Partners. Given you're focused on being the leading player in audio-related media, how are you thinking about audiobooks?

我們還有時間再回答幾個問題。下一個問題來自 [Well Known] Partners 的 Robert [Elliott]。鑑於貴公司致力於成為音訊相關媒體領域的領導企業，您如何看待有聲書？

Right now, we're focused on podcasts. I think when you look at podcasts, however, the distinction of what is a podcast and what is an audiobook remains fairly opaque to us. As an example, one of the categories that tend to do really, really well in podcast that we're now a major player is in true crime. So what are true crime podcasts? I would say that they are very similar to audiobooks in that they're scripted contents, episodic, almost like chapters in a story. So I think that the definition of what is an audiobook, what is a podcast will more and more start blending, and we're going to see new formats at the end of this journey. And that's the exciting factor for me, certainly, as I look into and talk to podcast creators. It's just all the content and all the new innovation that's coming out there.

目前，我們專注於播客。但我認為，當我們審視播客時，播客和有聲書之間的差異對我們來說仍然相當模糊。舉例來說，在播客領域，我們現在已經佔據重要地位的一個類別是真實犯罪類播客，這類播客往往發展得非常好。那麼，什麼是真實犯罪播客呢？我認為它們與有聲書非常相似，都是有腳本的內容，分章節呈現，幾乎就像故事中的章節一樣。所以我認為有聲書和播客的定義會越來越趨於融合，最終我們將看到新的形式出現。對我來說，最令人興奮的是，當我研究並與播客創作者交談時，這一點尤其令人興奮。就是所有湧現的內容和所有新的創新。

Our next question comes from Richard Kramer. Guidance implies a large increase in COG/decline in gross margin in the second half of '19. Can you break that down to spending on content podcast, the effects on expected changes in licensing or other costs which scale with business growth?

下一個問題來自理查德·克雷默。業績指引暗示 2019 年下半年銷售成本將大幅上升/毛利率將下降。你能把這些支出細分為內容播客方面的支出，以及隨著業務成長而增加的許可或其他成本的預期變化的影響嗎？

What we've said previously is that if we weren't expanding in podcasts, you'd see margins remain steady. So none of the erosion in podcast relates to our expectations. For label renewals, we see that as steady as you go, at least in 2019. And then as we grow marketplace-related services, we expect to see margin improvements. So all the deterioration relates to a combination of geographic expansion in markets like India and the payment of minimum guarantees and, importantly, very importantly, increased investment in becoming a leading player in the podcast space.

我們之前說過，如果不拓展播客業務，利潤率就會保持穩定。所以播客產業的下滑與我們的預期無關。對於唱片公司續約而言，我們看到情況一直很穩定，至少在 2019 年是如此。隨著我們市場相關服務的發展，我們預期利潤率將會提高。因此，所有這些惡化都與在印度等市場的地域擴張、支付最低保證金以及非常重要的一點——加大投資以成為播客領域的領先企業——有關。

Next question comes from Justin Patterson at Raymond James. Is Hulu's international expansion an opportunity for Spotify? With Disney evolving its strategy for its streaming brand, how is the Hulu relationship changing?

下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Justin Patterson。Hulu的國際擴張對Spotify來說是個機會嗎？隨著迪士尼不斷調整其串流媒體品牌策略，它與 Hulu 的關係又將如何變化？

We have a great partnership with Hulu. We're really excited about the prospect of them starting their service internationally. We're obviously in discussions with them and the number of other partners to see if we can help them support their growth.

我們與Hulu建立了良好的合作關係。我們非常期待他們能在國際上開展服務。我們顯然正在與他們以及其他一些合作夥伴進行討論，看看我們是否可以幫助他們支持其發展。

We'll take our last question from [Posnit Hegno]. How will the absence of 2 major labels in India impact your growth capabilities there?

我們來回答[Posnit Hegno]的最後一個問題。印度市場缺少兩大品牌會對貴公司在印度的成長能力產生怎樣的影響？

Well, I think as evidenced by our growth, we're doing quite okay, and we're -- it's about expectations. So we're happy with the growth that we're seeing. Obviously, as before, the more content we could get on the platform, it typically leads to even faster growth.

嗯，我認為從我們的成長情況來看，我們做得相當不錯，而且——關鍵在於預期。所以我們對目前看到的成長感到滿意。顯然，和以前一樣，平台上的內容越多，通常就能帶來更快的成長。

Great. With that, everyone, we appreciate your time, and we look forward to speaking with you on our second quarter call in a couple of months. Thanks, everybody.

偉大的。各位，感謝你們抽出時間，我們期待在幾個月後的第二季電話會議上與你們再次交流。謝謝大家。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線了。