Web company research

SPOTIFY• Spotify is a music streaming application in which users can stream and listen to any

genre of music. Free accounts will have ad breaks between tracks and can only shuffle playlists/albums whereas premium accounts will have no ads and they can choose particular songs that they want to here.

• Spotify officially launched on October 7th 2008 but was set up0 and founded by a man named Daniel Ek in 2006.

Early Developments• Premium cards were offered for the 2009 Christmas season that allowed recipients to

upgrade an account to "Premium" status for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months• In April 2011, Spotify announced via a blog post that they would drastically cut the

amount of music that free members could access, effective 1 May 2011.• In April 2012, Spotify introduced the "Spotify Play Button"; an embeddable music player

that can be added to blogs, websites, or social media profiles, that lets visitors listen to a specific song, playlist or album without leaving the page

Spotify play button

SPOTIFY• In March 2013, Spotify removed the five-play restriction for free users in the UK• Upon its release in April 2013, the Daft Punk single, “Get Lucky", received the highest

number of first-day global streams for any song• In April 2016, Rihanna overtook Justin Bieber to become the biggest artist on Spotify,

with 31.3 million monthly active listeners• Spotify makes its money by selling premium subscriptions in which ‘listening offline’,

‘music download’ and ‘no-ad’ services are made available. A subscription to Spotify costs £9.99 per month.

• Spotify also makes money by selling advertisement spots to third party businesses• According to new reports, Spotify may now be worth more than the entire US music

industry. In 2015, Spotify neared a deal to raise $400 million in funding according to the Wall Street Journal, which would value the company at $8.4 billion.

• Spotify were criticised in March 2009, when a security flaw in the service was announced. This flaw supposedly meant that private account information of members registered prior to 19 December 2008 had been potentially exposed.

SPOTIFY

• Netflix is an American entertainment company founded on August 29, 1997.• The company was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings.• The site provides a platform to stream video/film content and allows members to

watch/stream films online on demand.• The initial idea behind Netflix included the concept of DVD sales and Rental.• On October 1, 2008, Netflix announced a partnership with Starz to bring 2,500+ new

films and shows to "Watch Instantly", under Starz Play.• In August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $1 billion to stream films

from Paramount, Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.• On July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans

into two separate plans: one covering the streaming and the other DVD rental services• Netflix’s net worth is currently $26.2 billion• Netflix makes money by charging viewers for a membership which allows them to watch

all films available on the application• A Netflix membership ranges from 5.99-8.99 pounds per month

• Skype is an application that provides users with the ability to video and voice call people on different devices all over the world

• Skype was created by the Swede Niklas Zennstrom and the Dane Janus Friis and first released in August 2003.

• In September 2005, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion• On 17 June 2013, Skype released a free video messaging service, which can be operated

on Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android and BlackBerry• On 15 September 2015, Skype announced the release of Mojis, "a brand new way to

express yourself on Skype.“• On 27 October 2016 Microsoft launched Skype for Business for Mac• Using the $8.5 billion price as the likely sale price, eBay gets $2.55 billion for its 30%

stake in Skype.• The way the company makes money is by charging small fees for other services. Making

calls from Skype to a mobile phone that does not have Skype, or to a landline phone, will cost users. They either pay one cent per minute, or they can pay a flat monthly rate that changes depending on the country.