(BFM Stock Exchange) – In its now famous report on European competitiveness, the former president of the European Central Bank regretted that no company under 50 in Europe was more than 100 billion euros on the stock market. Spotify exceeded this brand last February. The Swedish company born in 2006 happily dominates the streaming market and sees its action flying by almost 60% in 2025.

Soon a year ago, in September 2024, the ex-president of the European Central Bank and former president of the Italian Council, Mario Draghi, delivered a shock report on the future of European competitiveness. The Transalpine economist drawn up a vitriol observation of dropping out of the old continent against the United States, evoking a “gap” between the two economic blocks.

“Innovative digital companies do not generally manage to develop in Europe and attract funding, which results in a considerable gap between the European Union and the United States in funding at a later stage,” he wrote. Mario Draghi underlined the difficulty of Europe to bring out champions in “young” sectors.

To support his point, Mario Draghi gave a glaring figure. Over the past 50 years, the European Union has not been able to create a group whose market capitalization (the total value of all shares) exceeds 100 billion euros. In comparison, all six American companies whose capitalization exceeds 1,000 billion euros have less than fifty years, he noted.

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No example until recently

To return to the observation of Mario Draghi on listed European companies, the economist wrote more specifically than no company “created from scratch” had passed the 100 billion euros in market capitalization over the last fifty years.

This nuance is important because it excludes several companies which have cheerfully exceeded 100 billion euros in market capitalization. This is the case of the ASML semiconductor group, certainly created in 1984 but which is actually resulting from the establishment of a joint venture between the electronics giant Philips, and the group of semiconductors ASMI (Advanced Semiconductor Materials International). Or still of LVMH, born in 1987 strictly speaking. But, again, it was then a merger between Louis Vuitton, and Moët Hennessy, whose origins date from the 19th and 18th centuries.

Finally Prosus, a Dutch investment company specializing in the digital economy, listed in Amsterdam and weighing 113 billion euros, is a subsidiary of the South African Naspers. The latter had decided to rate its international internet assets in 2019 apart.

Ultimately, when Mario Draghi published his report, his observation was right. No company under 50 and created from scratch exceeded 100 billion euros in market capitalization. Even if Sap was not far from having him lie. But the German group is a very small too old (1972) for that.

Almost a year later, the situation, however, changed. A recent European company and born in 2006 on the initiative of two Swedish entrepreneurs-engineers who are keen on music and frustrated with online piracy, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, crossed the 100 billion euros in market capitalization.

This European company is none other than Spotify, a group created, therefore, at a time when online music and streaming in particular, had the air of “far west”, especially in terms of copyright. Confidence in the music industry was then at the lowest.

An increase of 140% over a year

“I said to my team: ‘If we manage to give people the impression that they have all the music in the world on their hard drive, we will have created something much better than hacking’,” says in 2018 Daniel Ek, in a podcast broadcast (obviously) on Spotify.

Spotify fell on the stock market in 2018 and today weighs $ 136.8 billion

or 116 billion euros, market capitalization. The company has crossed the course of 100 billion euros recently, around last February. When Mario Draghi submitted his report on competitiveness in September 2024, the capitalization of the Swedish company was closer to 60 billion euros.

Since Spotify has been on the rise. Its action increased by 117.3% over a year and 56.3% since January 1. Important downside, however: although I European Spotify is not listed on the old continent but in New York.

This once again demonstrates the power to attract the American square compared to European scholarships. If only because the valuations obtained by companies in the stock market are much more generous.

“The level of higher evaluation multiple, PER (” Price-to-Earnings Ratio, Multiple of Action Profits, Editor’s note) of Eurostoxx 600 is 17, against 26 for S&P 500, is naturally the first factor of marketing and attractiveness, even if it is not necessary The American if you don’t have growth … Americana! “Written the authors of the Vernimmen letter in their last edition.

Growth, Spotify to resell. Revenues from the musical streaming site increased by 16% in the last quarter of 2024 then by 15% over the first three months of 2025. The company has compressed its costs in parallel, announcing a 17% reduction in its workforce at the end of 2023, or 1,500 jobs, after having already announced cuts of 800 posts the same year.

Logically, the company’s accounts have improved. Of a net loss of 532 million euros in 2023, Spotify increased to a profit of 1.14 billion euros in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, the increase in profitability continued, with an operating result multiplied by three and a profit up more than 12%.

A refuge value?

The 2024 results of Spotify had also been widely praised by the market, the title taking more than 13% on a single session, with the very first annual benefit of the company.

Spotify has harvested, beyond its efforts on costs, the fruits of its diversification towards audio books or even video podcasts. Last year, the company, for example, launched an application of video content video in the United Kingdom, creators of content paying a percentage of income to be present on this application.

Spotify’s paid subscriber base still believed 12% in the first quarter of 2025, for 16% in this category.

UBS believes that the Swedish company still has a field to grow, thanks to the segmentation of its offer, between free subscriptions but with advertising, and those paid with advantages (such as multiple accounts or parental control). The bank anticipates average growth in the company’s subscription income by 17% per year over the period 2023-2028.

In addition, Spotify, a bit like Netflix, is not directly exposed to American customs duties, and has thus been able to constitute a kind of refuge value in tech in the eyes of investors. The company “grows despite noise on macroeconomics”, noted UBS in April.

Bank of America underlines that the Spotify subscription model, given the great use that it offers to consumers, allows the company to display a defensive profile “in the current context of macroeconomic uncertainties”. Even if this unfavorable context can have an impact on advertising revenues, added the bank.

For Morningstar, the prospects of society are “radiant” because its activity turns out to be “healthy” and its competitive advantage is being strengthened. “Spotify is present in more than 180 countries and has nearly 700 million monthly active users and more than 250 million paid subscribers, more than double its competitors,” recalls the financial intermediary.

The company will publish its second quarter results on July 29, next Tuesday.