Hans-Holger Albrecht, CEO of Deezer, agrees : “It is true that some of our competitors have very deep pockets,” he said, in an allusion to Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA). “But, at the end of the day, it [the money] is not everything. And a high level of competition is not something new ” in streaming music. In spite of the start arrow, Amazon Music, Deezer has “continued to show strong growth in [its] sales,” says Mr. Albrecht in the World. “25 % between 2016 and 2017 “, he said, without confirming the estimate of analysts of 300 million euros for 2017.
With 500 employees, the platform is present in 180 countries. “France is our main market,” says the CEO, ahead of Germany and Brazil. It ensures to continue its development in Latin America and in the Asia-Pacific region, thanks to a strong bet in front of the catalogues and local artists.
According to Mr. Albrecht, Deezer today has 14 million active users each month. At the end of November 2017, it said more than 6 million pay-off. Already ally Orange, who provided him with a contingent of users, Deezer has launched, by the end of 2017, a partnership with Fnac to try to boost its subscriptions.
This platform of music born in France in 2007, a pioneer in the adventure of the streaming and co-founded by Daniel Marhely and Jonathan Benassaya, has largely been overtaken by Spotify – the Swedish, born a year after Deezer, now has 71 million paying subscribers – and has to engage in unequal competition in the face of the GAFA. Moreover, under his hat of chairman of the lobby streaming european, the Digital Music Europe, the CEO of Deezer had, in November 2017, asked the eu authorities ” to ensure that competition is fair in the music at the level of regulations and the…
