Recently, Spotify announced that they will be expanding into Asia and appointing Dan Brody, an ex-Googler who has also lived and worked in Asia for 10 years, as the General Manager for Asia-Pacific. Dan Brody himself, according to his LinkedIn profile, has held a number of high-level positions in China, the latest being CEO of the Koolanoo Group, which owns and operates several websites in China.
Spotify has enjoyed success in some EU countries, and has had a lot of success with their US launch, especially since integration with Facebook. They enjoy partnerships with all four major labels, which are Universal Music Group International, EMI Music International, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment; and also partner with The Orchard and Merlin Networks, which are essentially aggregators for independent musicians and labels.
While the Facebook integration will surely be a boon for Spotify considering that Asia has 3 of the top 5 Facebook user countries in the world, the tricky thing is the music content itself, especially in Indonesia as the largest Facebook user country in Asia. Referring to the Techcrunch article, Dan Brody is already in Australia to talk to potential recruits, and looking to hire in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. I'm just not sure that's enough, especially if they want to capture Indonesia.
read the rest of the post here, on Dailysocial.net.
To Western companies coming to markets like Vietnam: good luck competing against free, pirated music (a la Zing).
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