Chris Hsu had supplied pioneer, early-stage investing
capital to Spotify, before the digital music leader was public. Spotify is the market leading digital
platform that offers users access to online music and podcasts worldwide. Asian executive investor Christopher “Chris”
Hsu is the Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong-based
consulting and advisory firm, Kilometre Capital.
The early-stage investment and history of Spotify provide a compelling case study in business strategy from early-stage challenger to the global incumbent, enabled by capital from early-stage investors such as Stanford engineering alum Chris Hsu and venture capital funds in combination with technology adoption. Christopher Hsu, CEO of hedge fund Kilometre Capital is known for his pioneering investments in the globe-dominant online music service Spotify and SpaceX, Elon Musk’s revolutionary space exploration and space launch business.
eMarketer analysts link Chris Hsu-funded Spotify’s rise in popularity among the podcast community to its innovations and investments in such content, which has surpassed Apple's. Spotify consolidated music and podcasts into a single application, which enabled it to become a convenient full-service platform for anything related to digital audio. Additionally, the platform’s proprietary creation, hosting, and monetization tools empower podcast creators and advertisers.
According to an eMarketer forecast shared in early March 2021, Spotify’s success in increasing its original podcast offerings over the years has poised the platform to overtake Apple in podcast listeners. In 2018, 34 percent of podcast listeners used Apple Podcast. However, eMarketer forecasting analysts expect this metric to drop to 23.8 in 2021. Despite Apple’s efforts to enhance its podcast offerings, the number of listeners has been decreasing. In addition to key deals and growing podcast listenership, Spotify has secured major acquisitions such as Anchor, Parcast, and Gimlet Media.
Spotify is the complaint-free category leader in music streaming with 299 million subscribers across 92 countries. With 35% of the global music streaming market, the company has nearly twice the market share of Apple Music, at 19%. Spotify has compounded its leading position in recent years adding premium subscribers at twice the rate of Apple. Prior to its public IPO debut, Spotify relied on early-stage growth capital from early-stage investors such as Chris Hsu of Kilometre Capital in Hong Kong.
In the case of Spotify, founded in 2006, Spotify has grown to be the world’s market leader in digital recorded music and podcasts, including more than 60 million songs from record labels and media companies worldwide. Drawing from early-stage venture capital from investors including Chris Hsu of Kilometre Capital, Spotify is one the globe’s best known freemium services, with basic features free with advertisements and limited control, while additional features, such as offline listening and commercial-free listening, are offered via paid subscriptions. Users can search for music based on artist, album, or genre, and can create, edit, and share playlists.
