Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Julianne, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Spotify's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions)

早上好。我叫 Julianne，今天我將擔任您的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Spotify 的 2022 年第二季度財報電話會議和網絡直播。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Bryan Goldberg, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Goldberg, you may begin.

我現在想將電話轉給投資者關係主管 Bryan Goldberg。戈德堡先生，你可以開始了。

Thanks, operator, and welcome to Spotify's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us today will be Daniel Ek , our CEO; and Paul Vogel, our CFO, We'll start with opening comments from Daniel and Paul. And afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions. Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com, S-L-I-D-O.com, and using the code #SpotifyEarningsQ222. Analysts can ask questions directly into Slido, and all participants can then vote on the questions they find the most relevant. (Operator Instructions) If for some reason you don't have access to Slido, you can e-mail Investor Relations at ir@spotify.com, and we'll add in your question.

感謝運營商，歡迎參加 Spotify 2022 年第二季度收益電話會議。今天加入我們的將是我們的首席執行官 Daniel Ek；和我們的首席財務官 Paul Vogel，我們將從 Daniel 和 Paul 的開場白開始。之後，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。可以通過訪問 slido.com、S-L-I-D-O.com 並使用代碼 #SpotifyEarningsQ222 提交問題。分析師可以直接向 Slido 提問，然後所有參與者都可以對他們認為最相關的問題進行投票。 （操作員說明）如果由於某種原因您無法訪問 Slido，您可以通過 ir@spotify.com 向投資者關係部發送電子郵件，我們將添加您的問題。

Before we begin, let me quickly cover the safe harbor. During this call, we'll be making certain 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, in our shareholder deck and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我們開始之前，讓我快速覆蓋安全港。在這次電話會議中，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來業績的預測或估計。這些陳述基於當前的預期和假設，這些預期和假設受到風險和不確定性的影響。由於今天的電話會議、我們的股東資料和提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論的因素，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

During this call, we'll also refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliations between our IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our shareholder deck, in the Financials section of our Investor Relations website and also furnished today on Form 6-K.

在本次電話會議中，我們還將參考某些非 IFRS 財務指標。我們的 IFRS 和非 IFRS 財務指標之間的對賬可以在我們的股東資料中找到，在我們的投資者關係網站的財務部分，也可以在今天的 6-K 表格中提供。

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

有了這個，我會把它交給丹尼爾。

All right. Hey, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I hope you had a chance to take a look at our new approach to sharing our earnings results. We would love any feedback you have. Because as I mentioned on our Investor Day, we want to improve how we communicate with you. And I see this revised format as an important first step, and Paul will speak to this further in a few minutes.

好的。大家好，感謝您加入我們。我希望您有機會了解我們分享收益結果的新方法。我們希望您有任何反饋。因為正如我在投資者日提到的，我們希望改善與您溝通的方式。我認為這種修改後的格式是重要的第一步，Paul 將在幾分鐘後進一步談到這一點。

And with that, let's jump into the quarter. We had another very strong quarter in Q2, building on the momentum and success we've now seen for 4 consecutive quarters. The acceleration in our user growth continued. And we had a very strong beat on MAU growth, coming in about 5 million users ahead of forecast. As a reminder, this was one of the weak spots for us in Q2 of 2021, so I'm really glad to see the hard work from our teams has paid off.

有了這個，讓我們進入這個季度。在我們連續 4 個季度看到的勢頭和成功的基礎上，我們在第二季度又經歷了一個非常強勁的季度。我們的用戶增長繼續加速。我們的 MAU 增長非常強勁，超過預期的用戶數達到了約 500 萬。提醒一下，這是 2021 年第二季度我們的弱點之一，所以我很高興看到我們團隊的辛勤工作得到了回報。

In addition, our global subscriber growth exceeded expectations by 1 million, while revenue was in line. Going forward, while the macro environment continues to present uncertainty, we're currently not seeing any material impact on our expectations for users or subs growth from the economic downturn. In fact, we're seeing several markets trending ahead of our forecasts. That said, in anticipation of a potential slowdown, we already shared that we proactively reduced our hiring by 25% and instituted a double down weekly revenue monitoring. I've said this before, I do believe only the paranoid survive, and we're preparing as if things could get worse. But it's hard to be anything but optimistic given what I'm currently seeing.

此外，我們的全球用戶增長超過預期 100 萬，而收入符合預期。展望未來，雖然宏觀環境繼續存在不確定性，但我們目前沒有看到經濟下滑對我們對用戶或用戶增長的預期產生任何實質性影響。事實上，我們看到幾個市場的趨勢超出了我們的預測。話雖如此，由於預計可能出現放緩，我們已經分享說我們主動減少了 25% 的招聘，並製定了每周雙倍收入監控。我之前說過，我相信只有偏執狂才能生存，我們正在準備，好像事情會變得更糟。但考慮到我目前所看到的情況，很難保持樂觀。

Looking further ahead, recession or not, my confidence in our business and the unique Spotify machine that we're building is really unwavering. Audio is growing and Spotify with it. Hopefully, after last month's Investor Day, this is a term you're all familiar with. And for those needing a refresher, we believe the Spotify Machine is what differentiates us from other tech platforms. It leverages one consumer experience, powered by 3 revenue-generating business models: subscriptions, ads and Marketplace. And as I detailed last month, we're confident in our ambitions to get to 1 billion users by 2030, while at the same time, we are also focused on improving our gross margins and continuing to generate positive free cash flow. And this rinse-and-repeat approach and the machine behind it that bundles multiple business models with multiple verticals into one user experience is what we will continue to invest in.

展望未來，無論經濟是否衰退，我對我們的業務和我們正在打造的獨特 Spotify 機器的信心確實堅定不移。音頻正在增長，Spotify 也隨之增長。希望在上個月的投資者日之後，這是一個大家都熟悉的術語。對於那些需要復習的人，我們相信 Spotify Machine 是我們與其他技術平台的不同之處。它利用一種消費者體驗，由 3 種創收業務模式提供支持：訂閱、廣告和市場。正如我上個月詳述的那樣，我們對到 2030 年達到 10 億用戶的雄心充滿信心，與此同時，我們還專注於提高毛利率並繼續產生正的自由現金流。這種反复沖洗的方法及其背後的機器將多種商業模式與多個垂直領域捆綁到一個用戶體驗中，這是我們將繼續投資的內容。

Not only will this investment benefit Spotify and its shareholder, but it also creates tremendous upside for listeners, artists, songwriters, creators and advertisers. And for those who want to learn more, I'd really encourage you to go to our investor site to catch a replay of our recent event. We highlight the big bets we're making, the incredible opportunity on the horizon and detail how we're measuring success.

這項投資不僅會使 Spotify 及其股東受益，而且還會為聽眾、藝術家、詞曲作者、創作者和廣告商帶來巨大的收益。對於那些想要了解更多信息的人，我真的鼓勵您訪問我們的投資者網站以重播我們最近的事件。我們強調了我們正在進行的大賭注、即將到來的難以置信的機會，並詳細說明了我們如何衡量成功。

And with that, I'll hand it over to Paul to go deeper into the numbers, and then Bryan will open it up to the Q&A.

有了這個，我將把它交給 Paul 來更深入地研究數字，然後 Bryan 將打開它進行問答。

Great. Thanks, Daniel, and thanks, everyone, for joining us.

偉大的。謝謝丹尼爾，也謝謝大家加入我們。

As Daniel mentioned, we have moved away from our shareholder letter, transitioning to a slide-based presentation. Our goal is to make our performances easy to understand as possible, and we hope this new format resonates with the investment community. Please reach out to me or the IR team with any feedback.

正如丹尼爾所說，我們已經從股東信中轉移到基於幻燈片的演示文稿。我們的目標是讓我們的表現盡可能易於理解，我們希望這種新格式能引起投資界的共鳴。如有任何反饋，請與我或 IR 團隊聯繫。

And now turning to the quarter. I'd like to add a bit more color on our strong operating performance and what we're seeing with respect to the macro environment and to touch upon our outlook.

現在轉向本季度。我想為我們強勁的經營業績以及我們所看到的宏觀環境增加一點色彩，並談談我們的前景。

Let's first start with our strong user performance. Total monthly active users grew to 433 million in Q2. This result was 5 million ahead of our guidance, and was the largest Q2 net additions in our history after adjusting for our exit from Russia and the March outage, which we discussed prior.

讓我們首先從我們強大的用戶性能開始。第二季度的月活躍用戶總數增長到 4.33 億。這一結果比我們的指導值高出 500 萬，是我們歷史上最大的第二季度淨增加，這是在我們調整了我們之前討論的退出俄羅斯和 3 月停電之後。

Moving to Premium. We finished the quarter with 188 million subscribers, 1 million ahead of guidance, thanks in part to broad-based strength across regions, particularly in Europe and Latin America, where upside was helped by an extra week of promotional activity and traction in our multiuser products like Family Plan and Duo.

移至高級版。我們在本季度結束時擁有 1.88 億訂戶，比預期高出 100 萬，部分歸功於跨地區的廣泛實力，尤其是在歐洲和拉丁美洲，我們的多用戶產品額外一周的促銷活動和牽引力幫助了這些地區的上漲比如家庭計劃和二重奏。

Revenue finished ahead of guidance, which was helped by currency movements. And we saw another strong quarter in advertising, which grew 31% year-on-year.

收入超出預期，這得益於貨幣走勢。我們看到了廣告業又一個強勁的季度，同比增長 31%。

With respect to gross margin, on a reported basis, Q2 finished below guidance, but gross margin was modestly ahead of our expectations when adjusting for onetime charge related to our decision to stop manufacturing Car Thing as well as the positive net royalty impact we saw from prior period accrual adjustments.

在毛利率方面，據報導，第二季度的業績低於預期，但在調整與我們決定停止製造 Car Thing 相關的一次性費用以及我們從中看到的積極淨特許權使用費影響時，毛利率略高於我們的預期前期應計調整。

So looking specifically at Car Thing. Our decision to stop manufacturing the device was made based on a few factors. First, we tested a number of price points. And we frankly haven't seen the volume at the higher prices that would make the current product financially viable. Second, rising inflation and component costs, coupled with the expanded lead time needed to order parts, has significantly altered the risk reward of continuing to lean into further product development. Our decision resulted in a onetime charge of EUR 31 million, impacting gross margin by 109 basis points in this quarter. Our decision will minimize further gross margin impact and cash flow expenditures moving forward.

所以專門看Car Thing。我們決定停止製造該設備是基於幾個因素。首先，我們測試了一些價格點。坦率地說，我們還沒有看到能夠使當前產品在財務上可行的更高價格的數量。其次，通貨膨脹和零部件成本上升，加上訂購零件所需的交貨時間延長，已經顯著改變了繼續傾向於進一步產品開發的風險回報。我們的決定產生了 3100 萬歐元的一次性費用，本季度的毛利率影響了 109 個基點。我們的決定將進一步減少對毛利率的影響和未來的現金流支出。

As we discussed during our recent Investor Day, much of our operating expense growth we saw in Q2 was a result of decisions we made through the end of 2021, mainly to expand our global sales team, invest in our platform and increase marketing to drive user growth. We've also added incremental costs associated with our acquisitions of Podsights, Chartable and Whooshkaa. And lastly, while we did forecast higher growth, a significant portion of our operating expenses are in U.S. dollar denominated. And foreign exchange movements added nearly 1,000 basis points of growth in expenses, and this was more than expected.

正如我們在最近的投資者日所討論的那樣，我們在第二季度看到的大部分運營費用增長是我們到 2021 年底做出的決定的結果，主要是為了擴大我們的全球銷售團隊、投資我們的平台並增加營銷以推動用戶生長。我們還增加了與收購 Podsights、Chartable 和 Whooshkaa 相關的增量成本。最後，雖然我們確實預測了更高的增長，但我們很大一部分運營費用是以美元計價的。並且外匯變動增加了近1000個基點的支出增長，這超出了預期。

And despite the increase in operating expense, we generated our ninth straight quarter of positive free cash flow. And we're looking at our free cash flow growth on a trailing 12-month basis, which smooths out seasonality, it shows a very consistent trend. We have averaged over EUR 200 million of free cash flow for the past 3 years. We believe this is really a key way of looking at our business and also smooth out the lumpiness that we see quarter-to-quarter.

儘管運營費用增加，但我們連續第九個季度產生了正的自由現金流。我們正在關注過去 12 個月的自由現金流增長，這消除了季節性，它顯示出非常一致的趨勢。過去 3 年，我們平均擁有超過 2 億歐元的自由現金流。我們相信這確實是看待我們業務的一種關鍵方式，也可以消除我們看到的季度間波動。

So looking at Q3 and beyond. As Daniel said, we continue to monitor the global macro outlook, but to date, have seen no real impact on our user or subscriber outlook. Specifically, we expect to see another quarter of accelerating MAU net adds and expect subscriber net additions similar to Q3 of last year.

所以看看第三季度及以後。正如丹尼爾所說，我們繼續關注全球宏觀前景，但迄今為止，我們的用戶或訂戶前景並未受到任何實際影響。具體而言，我們預計將看到另一個季度的 MAU 淨增加量加速，並預計用戶淨增加量與去年第三季度相似。

On the Premium side, which is still the majority of our revenue, we expect ARPU to be up in the mid-single digits. And for advertising, we did see some softening in trends over the last 2 weeks of June. But with that as context, we still expect solid growth in Q3, albeit slower than we might have forecast earlier in the year. Our gross margin outlook of 25.2% for Q3 is in line with our full year commentary and reflects our expectation for continued core operating improvements across our music and podcasting business, offset by select growth initiatives. We anticipate elevated operating expense growth consistent with Q2's run rate for the next few quarters, with the benefits of our previously announced 25% slowdown in new headcount additions showing up later in the year. Currency will continue to be a negative drag on OpEx as well.

在仍占我們收入大部分的高級版方面，我們預計 ARPU 將達到中個位數。對於廣告，我們確實看到 6 月最後兩週的趨勢有所減弱。但在此背景下，我們仍預計第三季度將實現穩健增長，儘管增速低於我們今年早些時候的預測。我們對第三季度 25.2% 的毛利率前景與我們的全年評論一致，反映了我們對音樂和播客業務持續核心運營改善的預期，但被精選的增長計劃所抵消。我們預計未來幾個季度的運營費用增長將與第二季度的運行速度一致，而我們之前宣布的新員工人數增長放緩 25% 的好處將在今年晚些時候出現。貨幣也將繼續成為 OpEx 的負面拖累。

In closing, despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment, we continue to be highly encouraged by the trends we have seen year-to-date. And with that, I'll hand things back over to Bryan for Q&A.

最後，儘管宏觀經濟環境不確定，但我們仍然對今年迄今所看到的趨勢感到非常鼓舞。有了這個，我會把事情交還給 Bryan 進行問答。

All right. Thanks, Paul. And again, if you've got any questions, please go to slido.com, #SpotifyEarningsQ222. (Operator Instructions)

好的。謝謝，保羅。同樣，如果您有任何問題，請訪問 slido.com，#SpotifyEarningsQ222。 （操作員說明）

And our first question today is going to come from Matt Thornton on Premium subscribers. Can you provide some color on what you're seeing in terms of gross intake and churn? And what impact the extra week of promotion had on second quarter and the 3Q outlook?

我們今天的第一個問題將來自高級訂閱者的 Matt Thornton。您能否就您所看到的總攝入量和流失率提供一些顏色？額外一周的促銷活動對第二季度和第三季度前景有何影響？

Yes. So in general, really positive trends. So we still know -- we haven't seen any change at all in the trajectory of gross intake or churn. We don't give out specific churn numbers. But I can tell you, churn was in line with expectations and down on a year-over-year basis. And so no impact on either of those.

是的。所以總的來說，非常積極的趨勢。所以我們仍然知道——我們根本沒有看到總攝入量或流失率的軌蹟有任何變化。我們不會給出具體的流失數字。但我可以告訴你，流失率符合預期，並且同比下降。所以對其中任何一個都沒有影響。

And the extra week, it definitely helped a little bit in the quarter. I would say some of the outperformance came from the extra week, but not all of it. But we see that carrying through into Q3. And so the Q3 number, the expected growth in Q3 is the same that we thought heading into Q3 as it is heading -- sorry, heading into Q2 as it is heading into Q3. So the outperformance was strong in Q2, and we also see strong growth in Q3 as well.

額外的一周，它肯定在本季度有所幫助。我會說一些出色的表現來自額外的一周，但不是全部。但我們看到這一直延續到第三季度。所以第三季度的數字，第三季度的預期增長與我們認為進入第三季度的預期增長相同 - 抱歉，進入第二季度，因為它正在進入第三季度。因此，第二季度的表現強勁，我們也看到第三季度的強勁增長。

All right. We've got another question here in the queue from Matt Thornton. This one is on our Live initiatives. What's been the early uptake and reaction from artists or content creators? How are we driving awareness? And what's been the early willingness of artists and fans to want to sell and buy Live experiences via Spotify?

好的。我們在隊列中還有一個來自 Matt Thornton 的問題。這是在我們的 Live 計劃中。藝術家或內容創作者的早期接受和反應是什麼？我們如何提高意識？藝術家和粉絲想要通過 Spotify 銷售和購買 Live 體驗的早期意願是什麼？

Yes. I would just really kind of say, it's early days on experimentation on our Live initiatives, both the sort of physical and digital ones. We've been experimenting quite a bit during the pandemic. Obviously, it's been hard to do that with physical live events, but we did a bunch of them on the digital side.

是的。我只想說，我們的 Live 計劃還處於早期實驗階段，包括實體和數字計劃。在大流行期間，我們一直在做很多試驗。顯然，通過實體現場活動很難做到這一點，但我們在數字方面做了很多。

I think the reality is much of those learnings are inconclusive because much of the world that we're in now, in a sort of post-pandemic world, if you can call it that, it's just very different from the experiences that people were willing to pay for and experience during the pandemic. So we're in the early days of learning and iterating.

我認為現實情況是，這些學習中的大部分內容都是不確定的，因為我們現在所處的大部分世界，在一個大流行後的世界中，如果你可以這麼說的話，它與人們願意的經歷非常不同在大流行期間支付和體驗。所以我們正處於學習和迭代的早期階段。

What gives me optimism is really kind of looking at how prevalent this format is in many Asian markets, however. So there, you see a great bunch of everything from live shopping to formats where you see NFTs, you see consumers wanting to participate in the live stream with their favorite creators. So there's a lot of innovation that's going on in Asian markets in the space. That's where we're looking at for inspiration. But it's not something that you should expect to be a rapid improvement in the near quarters, but this is a multiyear effort from us.

然而，真正讓我感到樂觀的是這種格式在許多亞洲市場中的流行程度。所以在那裡，你會看到各種各樣的東西，從現場購物到你看到 NFT 的格式，你會看到消費者希望與他們最喜歡的創作者一起參與直播。因此，該領域的亞洲市場正在進行大量創新。這就是我們正在尋找靈感的地方。但這不是您應該期望在最近幾個季度迅速改善的事情，但這是我們多年的努力。

Okay. Next question from Rich Greenfield on new verticals. At your Investor Day, you talked about new categories, having closed on your audiobooks acquisition. How should we think about the impact of this new category in the back half of '22? And when should we expect to hear more about the other categories you teased at the Investor Day?

好的。 Rich Greenfield 提出的下一個關於新垂直領域的問題。在你的投資者日，你談到了新的類別，已經結束了你的有聲讀物收購。我們應該如何看待這個新品類在 22 年下半年的影響？我們什麼時候應該期待聽到更多關於你在投資者日取笑的其他類別的信息？

Yes. So we're very pleased in closing Findaway. So happy to do that. Integration work now, and starting to work with the team. You should see us quite imminently get something to market. So think sort of coming -- early coming months, coming weeks, something to the market, and then rapidly improve and iterate upon that proposition. But the reality is you'll probably see more of the full extent in the first half of '23 of the audiobook efforts.

是的。所以我們很高興關閉 Findaway。很高興這樣做。現在整合工作，並開始與團隊合作。您應該會看到我們很快就會將產品推向市場。所以想想即將到來的——未來幾個月，未來幾週，一些東西進入市場，然後迅速改進和迭代這個提議。但現實情況是，您可能會在 23 年上半年的有聲讀物努力中看到更多完整的內容。

And it's really kind of first half of '23 to second half of '23, you'll start seeing some of our work in some of the other categories that we're doing as well. But there's nothing that I can announce at this point about what those will be or what kind of investments we're doing in those categories at this moment. But we're experimenting with them. We do plenty of experiments and bets internally. And '23 will be a very big year for Spotify.

這真的是 23 年上半年到 23 年下半年，你會開始看到我們在其他一些類別中的一些工作，我們也在做。但目前我無法宣布這些將是什麼，或者我們目前在這些類別中進行什麼樣的投資。但我們正在試驗它們。我們在內部進行了大量的實驗和賭注。 23 年對於 Spotify 來說將是非常重要的一年。

Okay. And our next question will be from Maria Ripps on the ads business. Your music advertising business saw double-digit growth in CPMs and a mid-single-digit increase in impressions. Can you share your thoughts on opening up more ad impressions? And can that be an additional growth driver? What's -- where is your ad load today versus where you'd like it to be?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Maria Ripps 關於廣告業務的問題。您的音樂廣告業務的每千次展示費用實現了兩位數的增長，展示次數也實現了中個位數的增長。你能分享你對打開更多廣告印象的想法嗎？這可以成為額外的增長動力嗎？什麼 - 您今天的廣告負載與您希望的位置相比在哪裡？

Yes. So I'd say if you take a step back and look at advertising in general, I think there's a number of factors that we think will grow the ads business. I think for us, we're focused on a couple of things. One is just growing overall for users and for user growth. Two is actually on the engagement side. So one of the best ways to actually get increased inventory is to increase engagement.

是的。所以我想說，如果你退後一步，從整體上看廣告，我認為有很多因素我們認為會發展廣告業務。我認為對我們來說，我們專注於幾件事。一個是用戶和用戶增長的整體增長。二是實際上在訂婚方面。因此，實際增加庫存的最佳方法之一是增加參與度。

So we're constantly improving and testing products within the free offering. And you'll continue to see more innovation on the free side to drive more usage and more engagement because we think that's actually the best way to increase impressions, is actually to have people come back more often and to actually see both the engagement up and the DAU-to-MAU ratio improve from that stand.

因此，我們不斷改進和測試免費產品中的產品。而且您將繼續在免費方面看到更多創新，以推動更多使用和更多參與，因為我們認為這實際上是增加印象的最佳方式，實際上是讓人們更頻繁地回來並實際看到參與度和從那個立場來看，DAU 與 MAU 的比率有所提高。

We don't really talk about ad loads. We think there's probably some room to expand it over time. A lot of it will depend on the product and the person and sort of how we dynamically serve ads to different people at different times and in different amounts. And so you'll see us continue to innovate on kind of how and when we sell ads to individuals.

我們並沒有真正談論廣告負載。我們認為隨著時間的推移，它可能還有一些擴展空間。其中很大一部分將取決於產品和人，以及我們如何在不同時間以不同數量向不同人動態投放廣告的方式。因此，您會看到我們在向個人銷售廣告的方式和時間方面不斷創新。

All right. Next question from Justin Patterson on our gross margin and advertising business. Paul, in the wake of the CRB ruling and in an uncertain advertising market, how should we think about the puts and takes toward gross margin ahead? And then related to advertising, what gives you confidence that podcasting is not viewed as an experimental channel for advertisers?

好的。賈斯汀帕特森的下一個問題是關於我們的毛利率和廣告業務。保羅，在 CRB 裁決之後和不確定的廣告市場中，我們應該如何考慮未來毛利率的看跌期權？然後與廣告相關，是什麼讓您確信播客不被視為廣告商的實驗渠道？

Yes. So with respect to the CRB ruling, so at a high level, we have been accruing at the rates that were reaffirmed. And so there's really no major change to anything from a forecasting perspective or from a modeling perspective. There was some modest benefits to us, both retroactively and prospectively, based on some of the nuances within the language. So that's a little bit of what you saw in the positive accruals that we accounted for in Q2. And there'll be a minor small benefit to gross margin moving forward, but it's pretty minor. So for the most part, the ruling has a pretty minimal impact on our numbers or our forecasts.

是的。因此，關於 CRB 的裁決，在較高的水平上，我們一直在以重申的利率計提。因此，從預測的角度或建模的角度來看，任何事情實際上都沒有重大變化。基於語言中的一些細微差別，對我們有一些微不足道的好處，無論是追溯性的還是前瞻性的。這就是你在我們在第二季度考慮的積極應計項目中看到的一點點。向前發展的毛利率會有一點小好處，但這非常小。因此，在大多數情況下，該裁決對我們的數字或預測的影響非常小。

And then with respect to advertising and podcast not being experimental, I mean, I'll start. I don't know if Daniel have any comments on this. We've seen strong -- continued strong growth on the podcasting side, significant year-over-year growth. Again, we're seeing increased number of advertisers, increased demand. So we've just seen a really strong growth. We think it's becoming a core buy for people. It's always tough to know. But we're really encouraged with the trajectory and the year-over-year growth we saw again in Q2.

然後關於廣告和播客不是實驗性的，我的意思是，我會開始。我不知道丹尼爾對此有何評論。我們已經看到播客方面持續強勁增長，同比增長顯著。同樣，我們看到廣告客戶數量增加，需求增加。所以我們剛剛看到了非常強勁的增長。我們認為它正在成為人們的核心購買。總是很難知道。但我們對第二季度再次看到的軌跡和同比增長感到非常鼓舞。

Yes. My only addition is, if you think about it broader and not just around podcasting, but think about audio more as a category, what are the very unique things about audio and the properties around audio is really how differentiated it is from all the other media that's out there. So to take that into consideration, there is no other media format that can reach consumers in the car. The car is a massive use case, particularly in North America. Radio usage is going down. Digital consumption of content is going up. It's quite obvious that audio ads is going to be a very dominant driver for reaching people lest they're in the car.

是的。我唯一的補充是，如果您將其考慮得更廣泛，而不僅僅是圍繞播客，而是將音頻更多地視為一個類別，那麼音頻的獨特之處是什麼，而圍繞音頻的屬性實際上是它與所有其他媒體的區別就在那裡。因此，考慮到這一點，沒有其他媒體格式可以接觸到車內的消費者。汽車是一個巨大的用例，尤其是在北美。無線電使用率正在下降。內容的數字化消費正在上升。很明顯，音頻廣告將成為吸引人們的主要驅動力，以免他們在車內。

Similarly, when you think about -- as people are walking around outside, more and more of us with our headphones and earbuds in, there's a huge opportunity in local advertising, too. I believe that audio is the primary beneficiary of that.

同樣，當你想到——隨著人們在外面走來走去，越來越多的人戴著耳機和耳塞，本地廣告也有巨大的機會。我相信音頻是其中的主要受益者。

So as you think about it from a structural standpoint, I think it's -- and more from a first principle standpoint, I think it's kind of obvious that audio and audio advertising is going to be a massive sort of category in and on itself because it reaches people at times where no other mediums reach them and they have certain properties that other mediums don't have.

所以當你從結構的角度考慮它時，我認為它是 - 更多地從第一原則的角度來看，我認為音頻和音頻廣告本身將成為一個巨大的類別，因為它在沒有其他媒介能夠接觸到他們的時候到達人們，並且他們具有其他媒介所沒有的某些屬性。

And then you have, in addition to that, lots of qualitative factors that people -- when you see host-read ads, when you see it adjacent to the first-party data about the topics that we're seeing people engage with, you're seeing great response for advertisers in addition to that.

然後，除此之外，你還有很多人們的定性因素——當你看到主機閱讀廣告時，當你看到它與我們看到人們參與的主題的第一方數據相鄰時，你'除此之外，廣告商的反響也很好。

And so we are seeing, despite a very dire macro environments, advertisers take up to the format really, really well. And I think that's a testament to -- that the product is actually working. And we've talked about this before. But the retention of the advertisers that we have is also going up, and that clearly shows that the format is working for them.

所以我們看到，儘管宏觀環境非常糟糕，廣告商還是非常非常好地接受了這種格式。我認為這證明了——該產品確實有效。我們之前已經討論過這個問題。但是我們擁有的廣告客戶的保留率也在上升，這清楚地表明這種格式對他們有用。

Okay. Next question from Rich Greenfield. You're generating cash and you're sitting on nearly EUR 3 billion of cash on the balance sheet. With investors continuing to dislike your stock because you are investing to win audio long term, how do you think about share repurchases given where your stock is trading here?

好的。 Rich Greenfield 的下一個問題。您正在產生現金，並且在資產負債表上坐擁近 30 億歐元的現金。由於投資者繼續不喜歡您的股票，因為您正在投資以贏得長期音頻，鑑於您的股票在這裡交易，您如何看待股票回購？

Yes. I mean not surprisingly, we talk about cash and capital allocation all the time. Given the uncertainty on the one hand, and also given some of the acquisitions we made and the pipeline we've had, I knew it was coming from an acquisition. We've been comfortable with the cash we've had on hand. And obviously, with interest rates rising and some of the uncertainty, it's always safer to have a little more cash on hand and not ever need to have to go back to the market for anything we wanted to do, either internal investments, which obviously, we're making a lot, or continued M&A, which we've done as well.

是的。我的意思是毫不奇怪，我們一直在談論現金和資本配置。一方面考慮到不確定性，而且考慮到我們進行的一些收購和我們擁有的管道，我知道它來自收購。我們對手頭的現金感到滿意。顯然，隨著利率上升和一些不確定性，手頭有更多現金總是更安全，而且我們不需要回到市場做任何我們想做的事情，無論是內部投資，顯然，我們做了很多，或者繼續併購，我們也做過。

So we think about it all the time. We obviously are fully aware of where our stock price is and fully believe in the opportunity of how big this opportunity is in front of us. And so it's something we weigh all the time. We do have an authorization in place. And we're always just looking to maximize the capital allocation the way we think is best to run the business.

所以我們無時無刻不在考慮。我們顯然完全了解我們的股價在哪裡，並且完全相信這個機會擺在我們面前的機會有多大。所以這是我們一直在權衡的東西。我們確實有授權。我們一直在尋求以我們認為最適合經營業務的方式最大化資本配置。

My only addition to that would be, if you think about it, there's 3 ways we can utilize our cash. One is obviously invest in our business, the second is to do share buybacks and the third is to do dividends, in that order. Every now and then, we see more opportunities to continue to invest in the business than we do in share buybacks or dividends. And this is one of those moments.

我唯一的補充是，如果您考慮一下，我們可以通過 3 種方式利用我們的現金。一個顯然是投資我們的業務，第二個是進行股票回購，第三個是分紅，按照這個順序。與股票回購或股息相比，我們時不時地看到更多繼續投資該業務的機會。這是那些時刻之一。

And so for all of those reasons, we're investing in the business. And we feel really good about it, with the expansion of the formats that we're going into, with the podcast investments we've been making, et cetera. So we feel the more prudent thing is to keep investing in the business rather than doing share buybacks or anything else.

因此，出於所有這些原因，我們正在投資這項業務。我們對此感覺非常好，隨著我們將要進入的格式的擴展，以及我們一直在進行的播客投資等等。因此，我們認為更謹慎的做法是繼續投資業務，而不是進行股票回購或其他任何事情。

Okay. Next question from Matt Thornton. On advertising, what are the key drivers of ad growth through second half '22? For example, international, recent measurement acquisitions, political, World Cup or anything else?

好的。 Matt Thornton 的下一個問題。在廣告方面，22 年下半年廣告增長的主要驅動力是什麼？例如，國際、最近的測量收購、政治、世界杯或其他什麼？

Why don't I start and then you, Paul, can kind of chime in. So I think the primary thing, and we said this before, is that -- and we talked a little bit about this during our Investor Day, too. So the #1 part is still that a lot of our inventory just isn't available to advertisers just yet. So we're expanding the amount of inventory that's available. That's going to be by far the single biggest contributor to the growth of the ad business.

我為什麼不開始，然後你，保羅，可以插話。所以我認為主要的事情，我們之前說過，就是——我們在投資者日也談到了一點。因此，#1 部分仍然是我們的很多廣告資源還沒有提供給廣告商。因此，我們正在擴大可用的庫存數量。到目前為止，這將成為廣告業務增長的最大貢獻者。

And then in addition to that, you mentioned some sort of onetime events that typically are very strong for ad businesses, like elections and sporting events, et cetera. Those are obviously going to be impactful for Spotify, too. But I think in essence, it's really about increasing the inventory available for advertisers and increasing the targeting so that they can drive even better results. Those are the top ones.

除此之外，您還提到了一些通常對廣告業務非常有利的一次性事件，例如選舉和體育賽事等。這些顯然也會對 Spotify 產生影響。但我認為從本質上講，這實際上是為了增加廣告商可用的庫存並增加定位，以便他們能夠帶來更好的結果。這些是頂級的。

I don't know, Paul, if you wanted to add anything.

我不知道，保羅，如果你想補充什麼。

Yes. No. Just to sort of touch on these specific questions. I think a lot of the investments we're making, international will really bear fruit in 2023. Maybe some at the tail end of this year, but definitely more from that standpoint. The political is new for us. We've just entered back in there. We're doing it in kind of a targeted smaller way. So we'll see how impactful that is. Actually, at this point, we honestly don't know.

是的。不，只是想談談這些具體問題。我認為我們正在進行的很多國際投資將在 2023 年真正取得成果。也許在今年年底會有一些，但從這個角度來看肯定會更多。政治對我們來說是新的。我們剛剛回到那裡。我們正在以一種有針對性的更小的方式來做這件事。因此，我們將看到它的影響力。實際上，在這一點上，我們真的不知道。

And as Daniel said, I think on the measurement side, that's definitely been a help, and we'll continue to lean into improving measurement and tracking and attribution and all the things that advertisers are looking for. And that's actually been a driver of growth for us.

正如丹尼爾所說，我認為在衡量方面，這絕對是一種幫助，我們將繼續致力於改進衡量、跟踪和歸因以及廣告商正在尋找的所有東西。這實際上是我們增長的驅動力。

Okay. We've got a question from Mario Lu on operating expenses. Historically, we've seen operating income dollars improve sequentially from the second quarter to the third quarter. And the third quarter guidance calls for negative sequential growth. So outside of FX, are there incremental investments, content or OpEx, to call out that would -- to cause this decline?

好的。我們有一個來自馬里奧·盧的關於運營費用的問題。從歷史上看，我們已經看到從第二季度到第三季度的營業收入美元連續增長。第三季度的指引要求連續負增長。那麼在外匯之外，是否存在增量投資、內容或運營支出，以表明會導致這種下降？

Yes. I mean for starters, it's hard to not include FX. FX is going to have a pretty significant impact on Q3. It's about an $80 million headwind in Q3 or higher expense growth just based on FX. And so just to sort of refresh, and most people know this, but we report in euro, and pretty much every currency that we operate in, particularly the U.S. dollar, has appreciated relative to the euro. So we definitely see some benefit on the revenue side from currency, but we see an even bigger drag on the OpEx side from currency.

是的。我的意思是對於初學者來說，很難不包括 FX。外匯將對第三季度產生相當大的影響。僅基於外匯，第三季度或更高的費用增長約為 8000 萬美元。所以只是為了刷新一下，大多數人都知道這一點，但我們以歐元報告，而且我們經營的幾乎所有貨幣，尤其是美元，都相對於歐元升值。因此，我們肯定會看到貨幣對收入方面的一些好處，但我們看到貨幣對運營支出方面的拖累更大。

We've got -- if you look at revenue and gross margin, they're fairly matched up from a revenue and cost perspective, not perfectly but fairly matched up. but they're not matched up on a revenue and OpEx side. And so we do have a disproportionate amount of our operating expense denominated in U.S. dollar relative to revenue. And so that is hurting us and will hurt us more than we expected in Q3 based on how much currency and FX have moved.

我們有——如果你看一下收入和毛利率，從收入和成本的角度來看，它們是相當匹配的，不是完全匹配，但相當匹配。但它們在收入和運營支出方面並不匹配。因此，相對於收入，我們確實有不成比例的以美元計價的運營費用。因此，這對我們造成了傷害，並且對我們的傷害將超過我們在第三季度基於貨幣和外匯變動的預期。

Outside of that, it's kind of the same things I mentioned. We had already planned over -- probably 6 months ago to continue to grow that -- our global sales force and as well as increase marketing to grow users, particularly in some of our newer markets. And that hasn't changed. So those would be the 3 factors that are impacting OpEx in Q3.

除此之外，這與我提到的相同。我們已經計劃好了——可能是在 6 個月前繼續增長——我們的全球銷售隊伍，以及增加營銷以增加用戶，特別是在我們的一些新市場。而這並沒有改變。因此，這些將是影響第三季度運營支出的 3 個因素。

Okay. Next question from Justin Patterson on subscriber conversion opportunities. Daniel, MAU growth in the rest of world continues to be a bright spot, but sub conversion is still in the early innings. What do you need to do from a pricing and plan perspective to convert those MAU into more subs?

好的。賈斯汀·帕特森（Justin Patterson）關於訂閱者轉換機會的下一個問題。 Daniel，世界其他地區的 MAU 增長仍然是一個亮點，但子轉換仍處於早期階段。從定價和計劃的角度來看，您需要做什麼才能將這些 MAU 轉換為更多的訂閱者？

Yes. So I think the first piece of context I just want to give everyone, because I think it's very important, is what generally happens is what we call the bandwagon effect at Spotify. And one likes to believe that there's a one-to-one analogous part where both of these 2 trends have been linear of user growth and then subscriber growth.

是的。所以我想我想給大家的第一條背景，因為我認為它非常重要，通常發生的就是我們所說的 Spotify 的潮流效應。人們喜歡相信有一個一對一的類似部分，這兩種趨勢都是用戶增長和訂閱者增長的線性關係。

But what actually happens is we typically have gone between a sort of flip-flop of focus on each. So in some points of the Spotify history, we focus more on user growth, and some point -- part of the history, we focus more on conversion because that became a bigger priority.

但實際發生的情況是，我們通常會在關注每個人的觸發器之間切換。因此，在 Spotify 歷史的某些方面，我們更關注用戶增長，而在某些歷史時期，我們更關注轉化，因為這成為了更重要的優先事項。

But the trend line that we've seen now, as indicated since really our launch in 2008 is, once we go through these growth spurts in MAU, it always, always leads to better subscriber numbers over time. So it's really just a bandwagon effect. It just takes time. And depending on where those customers come from, we then have to sort of figure out, okay, well, how do we best convert them? And the team gets focused on that. And it usually lags about a year from when we get them until we start seeing sort of material improvement here.

但我們現在看到的趨勢線，正如我們在 2008 年推出以來所表明的那樣，一旦我們經歷了 MAU 的這些增長突增，隨著時間的推移，它總是會帶來更好的訂戶數量。所以這實際上只是一種潮流效應。只是需要時間。根據這些客戶的來源，我們必須弄清楚，好吧，我們如何最好地轉換他們？團隊專注於此。從我們得到它們到我們開始在這裡看到某種物質改進通常會滯後大約一年。

So I look at this as -- I don't know what the specific pricing and plans will be, if it might even be a more of a marketing challenge in some of these markets, et cetera. But I think the general recipe is, the team has been very much focused for the past year in growing users. I'm very, very proud of their work. And I'm very, very pleased with the results we're seeing of that effort, as you can see about the reacceleration of MAUs.

因此，我將其視為-我不知道具體的定價和計劃將是什麼，是否在某些市場等中甚至可能成為更大的營銷挑戰。但我認為一般的秘訣是，在過去的一年裡，團隊一直非常關注用戶的增長。我為他們的工作感到非常非常自豪。我對我們看到的這項努力的結果感到非常非常滿意，正如你所看到的 MAU 的重新加速。

At our scale, to reaccelerate MAUs, it's very, very difficult to do. It's not very many platforms that do that. We are doing that right now. And we are very, very positive over the impact that, that will have for the remainder of the year, as you can see in our guidance, too. So that's probably the #1 takeaway you should take from this entire earnings call.

在我們的規模上，要重新加速 MAU，這是非常非常難以做到的。這樣做的平台並不多。我們現在正在這樣做。正如您在我們的指導中看到的那樣，我們對今年剩餘時間的影響非常非常積極。所以這可能是你應該從整個財報電話會議中獲得的第一大收穫。

What will happen subsequently is, as this trend line now keeps going, now the team is going back to, okay, well, how do we convert more of these people into paying customers? And that's what the team will be working on now, too. If history is any indicator of the future, what will happen is, roughly a year from now, you'll start seeing probably an acceleration in subscriber growth as evident from that. That's what's happened in the past. I believe that's what's going to happen now, too. Exactly how that will happen, I don't know. And I've never known that in the history. We just have figured out various pricing plans and/or different payment methods. The team is very resourceful when it comes to stuff like that.

隨後會發生的事情是，隨著這條趨勢線現在繼續前進，現在團隊又回到了，好吧，好吧，我們如何將更多的這些人轉化為付費客戶？這也是團隊現在要做的事情。如果歷史是未來的任何指標，那麼將發生的事情是，大約一年後，您可能會開始看到用戶增長的加速，這一點很明顯。這就是過去發生的事情。我相信這也是現在將要發生的事情。這究竟會如何發生，我不知道。而我在歷史上從來不知道這一點。我們只是想出了各種定價計劃和/或不同的付款方式。當涉及到這樣的事情時，團隊非常足智多謀。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Deepak on marketing. With the Barcelona partnership kicking off in July, can you talk about your expectations for subscribers and MAUs from it in the second half of the year? And can you also help us size the incremental impact on OpEx from the partnership for the second half?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Deepak 關於營銷的問題。隨著巴塞羅那合作夥伴關係在 7 月開始，您能否談談您對下半年訂閱者和 MAU 的期望？您能否幫助我們確定下半年合作夥伴關係對運營支出的增量影響？

All right. So I'll do the first part and Paul can do the second part about the OpEx. So as a general reminder, one of the reasons why we're so excited about the Barcelona partnerships is just really around the impact the club has around the world in particular, in LatAm, but in Southeast Asia, our #1 growth markets that we have. But also, in particular, with the younger audiences, Gen Zs that the club has. So it's really kind of a perfect overlap when we think about where their strengths are and what our future growth opportunities lies as well.

好的。所以我會做第一部分，Paul 可以做關於 OpEx 的第二部分。所以作為一般提醒，我們對巴塞羅那合作夥伴關係如此興奮的原因之一就是俱樂部在世界各地的影響，特別是在拉丁美洲，但在東南亞，我們排名第一的增長市場有。而且，尤其是俱樂部擁有的年輕觀眾，即 Z 世代。因此，當我們考慮他們的優勢在哪里以及我們未來的增長機會在哪裡時，這確實是一種完美的重疊。

So a good framing for investors will probably be to look at this as, this gives us a tremendous amount of exposure organically to a customer base that's notoriously difficult to market towards in many markets, which is very, very hard to reach them in. So we believe relative to other marketing initiatives that this partnership should be more accretive than any other source that we could reach these customers in. But that's obviously something that will have to be proven out. That's the thesis through which we entered the partnership in.

因此，對於投資者來說，一個好的框架可能是將其視為，這讓我們有機地接觸到一個在許多市場上很難向其推銷的客戶群，這是非常非常難以接觸到他們的。所以我們認為，相對於其他營銷計劃，這種夥伴關係應該比我們可以接觸到這些客戶的任何其他來源更具增值性。但這顯然是必須證明的事情。這就是我們進入合作夥伴關係的論文。

And so the team is working on that. And you can see it in many social channels already. I would just highly recommend you to go to both Instagram and YouTube and all, TikTok and all these channels and subscribe to the FC Barcelona social channels and see the amount of content that they're putting out now. That's jointly with the Spotify team, where music and soccer/football is coming to life. And the social engagements are just off the chart.

所以團隊正在努力解決這個問題。您已經可以在許多社交渠道中看到它。我強烈建議你去 Instagram 和 YouTube 以及所有，TikTok 和所有這些頻道，訂閱巴塞羅那足球俱樂部的社交頻道，看看他們現在發布的內容量。這是與 Spotify 團隊共同合作的，音樂和足球/足球在這裡栩栩如生。社交活動剛剛超出圖表。

So, so far, so good. but the expectation you should have is not that this will come into fruition in the second half of this year. This is a multiyear partnership. We will take the second half of this year to learn and iterate on what works. And you should see in '23 that hopefully get ramped by us, doubling down on what worked, stop doing what didn't work, and it's trial and error.

所以，到目前為止，一切都很好。但你應該期待的並不是這會在今年下半年實現。這是一個多年的合作夥伴關係。我們將在今年下半年學習和迭代什麼是有效的。你應該在 23 年看到，希望我們能加強，加倍努力，停止做沒有用的事情，這是反複試驗。

The most important thing is we have a very, very great partnership team from our side, and we have a great partnership team from the Barcelona side that are focused on delivering results. That's why I feel good about the partnership. And yes, it's early innings. But if this proves out to be right, you should see it as being probably the most efficient channel that we can reach Gen Z in LatAm and Southeast Asia. That's the way -- that's the thesis through which we entered the partnership in.

最重要的是，我們有一支非常非常棒的合作團隊，我們也有一支來自巴塞羅那的優秀合作團隊，他們專注於交付成果。這就是為什麼我對這種夥伴關係感覺良好的原因。是的，這是早期的一局。但如果事實證明這是正確的，您應該將其視為我們可以接觸到拉丁美洲和東南亞 Z 世代的最有效渠道。就是這樣——這就是我們進入合作夥伴關係的論文。

And Paul, I don't know if you want to talk about the specifics around the OpEx.

還有Paul，我不知道你是否想談談OpEx 的細節。

Yes. I'll add a couple of things. First, in general, I'll just echo what Daniel said. Follow on social media. If you guys don't know, Barcelona is out playing a bunch of friendlies in the U.S. They've been in Miami. They've been in Vegas. They'll actually be at Red Bull stadium in New York this upcoming Saturday. It's been great. The combination of athletes love musicians and musicians love athletes, and the mutual love we've seen on social media has been pretty fun to watch. So that's actually been great.

是的。我會補充幾件事。首先，總的來說，我只是附和丹尼爾所說的話。關注社交媒體。如果你們不知道，巴塞羅那在美國打了一堆友誼賽，他們一直在邁阿密。他們一直在維加斯。他們實際上將在即將到來的星期六出現在紐約的紅牛體育場。太棒了。運動員愛音樂家和音樂家愛運動員的結合，我們在社交媒體上看到的相互愛很有趣。所以這實際上很棒。

And just to echo Daniel's point in terms of the reach. Our data would suggest that Barcelona as a club reaches over 700 million unique people per year. And as Daniel mentioned, many of them in Latin America and emerging markets, and places where our next real phase of growth is going to be. So we're super excited about that.

只是為了回應丹尼爾在覆蓋範圍方面的觀點。我們的數據表明，巴塞羅那作為一個俱樂部，每年能接觸到超過 7 億不同的人。正如丹尼爾所提到的，其中許多在拉丁美洲和新興市場，以及我們下一個真正增長階段的地方。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。

And then from an OpEx standpoint, we've absorbed, I would say, probably about 80% of the incremental costs. We've reallocated other funds previously. But there will be about 20% of our cost is going to be incremental. So that is a little bit of the marketing spend in the back half of the year as some of the costs related to that. And then again, as we get into 2023, we'll be able to sort of cycle through. And as Daniel said, we'll be reallocating some marketing dollars to sort of fully cover the incrementality of Barcelona.

然後從運營支出的角度來看，我們已經吸收了大約 80% 的增量成本。我們之前已經重新分配了其他資金。但是我們將有大約 20% 的成本是增量的。所以這是下半年營銷支出的一小部分，因為一些成本與此相關。再說一次，隨著我們進入 2023 年，我們將能夠循環往復。正如丹尼爾所說，我們將重新分配一些營銷資金，以完全覆蓋巴塞羅那的增量。

All right. Next question from Steven Cahall on gross margin. The vast majority of your gross profit comes from Premium subscribers. And Premium subscribers by region are slowly skewing more towards LatAm and rest of world. Does the growth in these regions represent -- or excuse me, present any Premium gross margin mix headwinds?

好的。 Steven Cahall 關於毛利率的下一個問題。您的絕大部分毛利潤來自高級訂閱者。並且按地區劃分的高級訂戶正逐漸向拉丁美洲和世界其他地區傾斜。這些地區的增長是否代表——或者對不起，是否存在任何溢價毛利率組合逆風？

The short answer is no. We don't really have any impact from that at all from a Premium perspective.

最簡潔的答案是不。從高級的角度來看，我們根本沒有任何影響。

Okay. And actually, conveniently, there's a follow-up from Steven Cahall in the queue. On Premium -- on pricing. Premium ARPU reportedly benefited from price increases in the quarter. Are you considering any in the U.S.? And how did churn perform in regions where you implemented price increases?

好的。實際上，方便的是，隊列中有來自 Steven Cahall 的後續跟進。關於溢價——關於定價。據報導，高級 ARPU 受益於本季度的價格上漲。你在美國考慮嗎？在您實施提價的地區，客戶流失的表現如何？

I'll start, and if Daniel has any comments. So first just on churn, in general, we've seen no impact in churn. Most of the price increases we launched are now a couple of quarters old. And we've talked about that over the last couple of quarters, that we saw no material change in churn relative to any of our price increases. And just in general, just as a macro question, which I think we addressed earlier, but we haven't seen any impact at all in churn, either with respect to some of the questions we're getting about the macro uncertainty. So the churn levels have been right in line with expectations. And as I said, our core churn has been -- was down year-on-year in Q2 versus Q2 of last year.

我會開始，如果丹尼爾有任何意見。所以首先只是在客戶流失方面，一般來說，我們沒有看到客戶流失方面的影響。我們推出的大部分價格上漲現在已經過去了幾個季度。在過去的幾個季度中，我們已經討論過這一點，相對於我們的任何價格上漲，我們都沒有看到客戶流失的實質性變化。總的來說，就像一個宏觀問題，我認為我們之前已經解決了這個問題，但我們根本沒有看到客戶流失有任何影響，無論是關於我們遇到的一些關於宏觀不確定性的問題。因此，客戶流失水平符合預期。正如我所說，與去年第二季度相比，我們的核心客戶流失率在第二季度同比下降。

And then on price increases, we obviously aren't commenting on anything. We've talked at the Investor Day about our belief that we have pricing power over time. That being said, there's a lot of macro uncertainty. And so we're always going to be smart about how and when we implement anything.

然後關於價格上漲，我們顯然沒有對任何事情發表評論。我們在投資者日討論過我們相信隨著時間的推移我們擁有定價權。話雖如此，存在很多宏觀不確定性。所以我們總是會很聰明地知道我們如何以及何時實施任何事情。

So I don't know, Daniel, if you have anything to add to that.

所以我不知道，丹尼爾，你有什麼要補充的。

No. I would just say, we feel really confident in our ability, of the value that we're providing to consumers. And that over time, we should be able to translate that value into price increases. But given the macro uncertainty in the marketplace, we're obviously going to be very careful before making any such moves. So long term, we definitely believe we have pricing power, short term. Obviously very concerned about the uncertainty in the marketplace, and we're going to evaluate that uncertainty into any decisions we make.

不，我只想說，我們對自己的能力和為消費者提供的價值充滿信心。隨著時間的推移，我們應該能夠將該價值轉化為價格上漲。但鑑於市場的宏觀不確定性，我們顯然會在採取任何此類行動之前非常小心。所以從長遠來看，我們絕對相信我們在短期內擁有定價權。顯然非常關注市場的不確定性，我們將在我們做出的任何決定中評估這種不確定性。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Ben Swinburne on advertising. How are you innovating in the Spotify Audience Network to attract more third-party publishers who have other options to monetize? And in addition, can you talk about the opportunity to build meaningful revenue off Spotify through the Spotify Audience Network?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Ben Swinburne 關於廣告的問題。您如何在 Spotify Audience Network 中進行創新以吸引更多有其他變現選擇的第三方發行商？此外，您能否談談通過 Spotify Audience Network 從 Spotify 獲得可觀收入的機會？

Yes. I mean look, I think it's a couple of things. I think one is, if you look at the acquisitions we've made, those have been geared towards bringing more measurement, more attribution, more personalization for advertisers, so that the value that they get on Spotify is higher, which will bring more people into SPAN and more people want to put their inventory into SPAN. So it's really about, I guess, kind of the obvious, which is continuing to build out the ad tech, the ad stack, both through our own internal development as well as some of the acquisitions we've made, integrating those in and then offering those up to a wider array of advertisers. We're going to continue to increase and build out our self-serve tools, which will bring in more small and midsized advertisers. And so all of that will go towards bringing in both more publishers to opt-in and more advertisers who can both effectively and easily advertise on Spotify.

是的。我的意思是看，我認為這是幾件事。我認為一個是，如果你看看我們所做的收購，那些旨在為廣告商帶來更多的衡量、更多的歸因、更多的個性化，因此他們在 Spotify 上獲得的價值更高，這將帶來更多的人進入 SPAN 並且更多的人希望將他們的庫存放入 SPAN。因此，我想，這真的很明顯，它正在通過我們自己的內部開發以及我們所做的一些收購，繼續構建廣告技術、廣告堆棧，然後將它們整合到將這些內容提供給更廣泛的廣告商。我們將繼續增加和構建我們的自助服務工具，這將吸引更多的中小型廣告客戶。因此，所有這些都將用於吸引更多的出版商選擇加入，以及更多能夠在 Spotify 上有效且輕鬆地做廣告的廣告商。

Yes. I would just probably add, if you think about it, it's a trifecta of 3 things. So it's -- the trifecta: what us as a platform can contribute, it's the number of advertisers and the number of publishers. So what we can add to the table is obviously all the things that Paul talked about: better data, better targeting abilities, better formats. That should mean advertisers get a better deal. And if there's enough advertisers, it should also means the publishers are getting a better deal. But in addition to that, we also have a pretty sizable ad sales team now, which help cover a lot of advertisers and publishers relationships in many markets around the world. And that's something that we tend to always underestimate, but it's a very powerful thing. Like on the audio network side, there's no platform that can truly get to this scale in as many markets as Spotify does.

是的。我可能會補充一下，如果您考慮一下，這是三件事的三連勝。所以它是 - 三重奏：我們作為一個平台可以貢獻的，是廣告商的數量和出版商的數量。所以我們可以添加到表格中的顯然是保羅談到的所有內容：更好的數據、更好的定位能力、更好的格式。這應該意味著廣告商可以獲得更好的交易。如果有足夠多的廣告商，這也應該意味著出版商得到了更好的交易。但除此之外，我們現在還擁有一支相當規模的廣告銷售團隊，這有助於覆蓋全球許多市場的許多廣告商和出版商關係。這是我們往往低估的東西，但它是非常強大的東西。就像在音頻網絡方面一樣，沒有任何平台可以像 Spotify 那樣在眾多市場中真正達到這種規模。

So when you're a publisher and if, let's say, you have audience in many more markets, I just don't see any alternative to Spotify. Because frankly speaking, we have more data to bring to the table. That should mean better results for advertisers. So advertiser are getting better value. And because we have our sales force in many markets, we can also help sell their inventory in many more markets than say they could do on their own or even through a much smaller reseller of their inventory. So bar sort of host-read ads, which are perhaps more sort of unique and novel in their delivery, on scale, Spotify should win with all the advantages that we bring to bear.

因此，如果您是出版商，並且假設您在更多市場擁有觀眾，我只是看不到 Spotify 的任何替代品。因為坦率地說，我們有更多的數據要擺在桌面上。這對廣告商來說應該意味著更好的結果。因此，廣告商獲得了更好的價值。而且因為我們在許多市場都有我們的銷售人員，我們還可以幫助他們在更多的市場銷售他們的庫存，而不是說他們可以自己做，甚至可以通過他們的庫存的小得多的經銷商來做。因此，禁止主機閱讀廣告，在規模上可能更加獨特和新穎，Spotify應該憑藉我們帶來的所有優勢獲勝。

And those are kind of the similar talking points on SPAN, too, because even though they're off platform, we can still leverage a lot of what we know around our audience and our sales force and what we know around advertisers as well and bring that to bear for people off the platform, too.

這些也是 SPAN 上類似的談話要點，因為即使它們不在平台上，我們仍然可以利用我們對受眾和銷售人員的了解以及我們對廣告商的了解，並帶來這也適用於平台外的人。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Mario Lu on market penetration. Much of the MAU growth in the second quarter came from Latin America and rest of world versus lower growth from North America and Europe. How should we think about user saturation in the developed Western markets and growth there going forward?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Mario Lu 關於市場滲透率的問題。第二季度 MAU 的大部分增長來自拉丁美洲和世界其他地區，而北美和歐洲的增長較低。我們應該如何看待西方發達市場的用戶飽和度和未來的增長？

I'll start and then maybe, Paul, you can add. Obviously, naturally so. When you think about the TAM, the emerging market or rest of world is obviously far greater in future potential than the existing markets. The inverse is probably set in the short term to revenue potential. So the way I think about it is, if you create a mental model, the near, mid and long term and then think about sort of developed and developing or rest of world, and then you think about sort of growth in users and growth in revenue, I think you'd see most in the near to mid term, most of the user growth should come from more of the emerging markets than not. But given what we talked about during our Investor Day, we think more of our revenue story in the near to mid term should come from our already developing markets -- sorry, developed markets.

我會開始，然後也許，保羅，你可以添加。顯然，自然如此。當您考慮 TAM 時，新興市場或世界其他地區的未來潛力顯然遠大於現有市場。短期內可能與收入潛力相反。所以我的想法是，如果你創建一個近期、中期和長期的心智模型，然後考慮某種發達和發展中或世界其他地區，然後你會考慮用戶的增長和用戶的增長收入，我認為你會在近期和中期看到最多，大部分用戶增長應該來自更多的新興市場。但鑑於我們在投資者日期間所討論的內容，我們認為我們在中短期內更多的收入故事應該來自我們已經發展中的市場——抱歉，發達市場。

And the great story there is that we believe we can upsell more of these into podcasting, which means more people will spend more time. And then subsequently, audiobooks, which also means that they'll spend more time and increase our revenue opportunities there, too.

很棒的故事是，我們相信我們可以將更多這些內容追加銷售到播客中，這意味著更多的人會花更多的時間。然後是有聲讀物，這也意味著他們將在那里花費更多時間並增加我們的收入機會。

And then overall, on the platform growth side, we think, obviously, more of the user growth should come from emerging markets where they're more mid to long term in terms of monetization opportunities. So it is true that developed markets were slowing down. The flip side is not on the revenue side. We have lots of opportunities there still. And then on the emerging market side, we have probably more work to do on the monetization side, and that will take a little bit longer, but that's the mid- to long-term story.

總體而言，在平台增長方面，我們認為，顯然，更多的用戶增長應該來自新興市場，這些市場在貨幣化機會方面更具中長期。因此，發達市場確實在放緩。另一方面不在收入方面。我們仍然有很多機會。然後在新興市場方面，我們在貨幣化方面可能還有更多工作要做，這將需要更長的時間，但這是中長期的故事。

Okay. Next question from Ben Swinburne on audiobooks investment. So now that you've closed on Findaway, can you give us a sense of the investment needs for audiobooks over the next 12 to 18 months? And should we be thinking about this vertical materially impacting OpEx or gross margin in 2023?

好的。 Ben Swinburne 提出的下一個關於有聲讀物投資的問題。那麼既然你已經關閉了 Findaway，你能告訴我們未來 12 到 18 個月對有聲讀物的投資需求嗎？我們是否應該考慮在 2023 年對運營支出或毛利率產生重大影響的垂直行業？

I'll start, and then Paul maybe can add. So we're obviously super early in the integration efforts with Findaway. We're still trying to create any plans. But just like you should imagine, and as we've talked about before, you should imagine us to start experimenting, getting this up and live. If we're seeing great results, we will double down on that investment. And that might, in turn, obviously, impact OpEx. However, the gross margin considerations for this vertical will be substantially different than other verticals, and that should be positive to us.

我先開始，然後 Paul 可以補充。因此，我們顯然在與 Findaway 的整合工作中處於領先地位。我們仍在努力製定任何計劃。但就像你應該想像的那樣，正如我們之前談到的那樣，你應該想像我們開始試驗，讓這個開始並生活。如果我們看到了很好的結果，我們將加倍投資。顯然，這反過來可能會影響運營支出。然而，這個垂直行業的毛利率考慮將與其他垂直行業大不相同，這對我們來說應該是積極的。

Yes. And the only thing I would add is, I think Daniel mentioned that with Findaway having closed, our expectation is that the first iteration of audiobooks will occur in Q3. And so you can assume that there's been some of the OpEx that we've talked about has gone to making sure that we've been building up the resources, that potential to quickly integrate Findaway. And so there's been some expense already that we've incurred to sort of build out the team and be prepared for Findaway. And then again, as it ramps, we'll give you more guidance as we get closer to 2023 when we give that guidance.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，我認為 Daniel 提到 Findaway 已經關閉，我們的期望是有聲讀物的第一次迭代將在第三季度出現。因此，您可以假設我們已經討論過的一些 OpEx 已經用於確保我們一直在建立資源，以及快速整合 Findaway 的潛力。因此，我們已經花費了一些費用來建立團隊並為 Findaway 做好準備。再說一次，隨著它的增加，我們將在接近 2023 年時為您提供更多指導。

All right. We've got time for one more question, and that's going to come from Doug Anmuth on net additions. Do you still expect 2022 MAU and subscriber net additions to be in line with 2021 levels? And what factors would change your view here?

好的。我們有時間再回答一個問題，這將來自 Doug Anmuth 關於淨增數的問題。您是否仍預計 2022 年 MAU 和用戶淨增加量與 2021 年水平一致？哪些因素會改變您對這裡的看法？

Yes. So let's start with MAU first. I think as you've seen both now through Q2 and then our guidance for Q3, we're pacing pretty well for MAU through the -- for the year. And while we aren't giving Q4 guidance, you can -- the numbers would definitely imply that we're on pace to do kind of similar to or better than that for 2022 on the MAU side.

是的。因此，讓我們先從 MAU 開始。我認為，正如您從現在到第二季度以及我們對第三季度的指導所看到的那樣，我們今年的 MAU 節奏相當不錯。雖然我們沒有給出第四季度的指導，但你可以——這些數字肯定意味著我們在 MAU 方面的步伐與 2022 年類似或更好。

And on the sub side, we've done really well on subs as well. There's -- when you kind of think about those numbers, there's some moving parts with respect to pulling out Russia as well as some of the expected growth we had in Russia for 2022 as well. So on the sub side, I'd say, yes, kind of, I'd say, roughly similar types of growth when you kind of normalize for the Russia stuff. On the MAU side, we definitely look like we're kind of on pace to do a little bit better than what I said already.

在潛艇方面，我們在潛艇上也做得很好。有 - 當你考慮這些數字時，有一些關於撤出俄羅斯的活動部分以及我們在 2022 年在俄羅斯的一些預期增長。所以在次要方面，我會說，是的，當你對俄羅斯的東西進行正常化時，我會說大致相似的增長類型。在 MAU 方面，我們肯定看起來比我已經說過的要好一點。

All right. Great. So that's going to conclude our Q&A session on today's call. And I'll turn it back over to Daniel for some closing remarks.

好的。偉大的。以上就是今天電話會議的問答環節。我將把它交還給 Daniel 做一些結束語。

All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining the call.

好的。好吧，謝謝大家加入電話會議。

And I just want to close by saying that I'm really confident and I have a lot of optimism in our business. And hopefully, this quarter was just a great testament to all of that. And I look forward to the rest of the year.

最後，我只想說我真的很有信心，而且我對我們的業務非常樂觀。希望本季度能夠很好地證明這一切。我期待著今年剩下的時間。

And for more detail, please do check out For the Record podcast that should be dropping tomorrow or the day after. So thank you, everyone, for joining.

有關更多詳細信息，請查看明天或後天應該發布的 For the Record 播客。所以，謝謝大家的加入。

All right. And that concludes today's call. A replay will be available on our website and also on the Spotify app under the Spotify Earnings Call replay. So thanks, everyone, for joining.

好的。今天的電話會議到此結束。重播將在我們的網站以及 Spotify 應用程序上的 Spotify 收益電話重播下提供。所以，謝謝大家的加入。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。