Podimo Surpasses 1 million Paying Subscribers in its first Five Years
Feb 24, 2025
Copenhagen, Denmark - 24. February, 2025 - Podimo has reached 1 million paying subscribers globally. This milestone reflects the company’s dedication to supporting local podcast creators, helping them find new listeners and offering the best monetization opportunity in our markets, while in turn providing listeners with access and connection to the most important local stories and voices of the day.
Founded in Denmark in 2019, Podimo has since expanded to six markets in Europe and across Latin America, and continues to show substantial growth across all the markets in which it operates. This early milestone has been achieved through Podimo’s deep understanding of local markets along with the contributions of its strategic acquisitions including Dag en Nacht Media, Tonny Media, and PodAds. Podimo has already become profitable in three of its markets, and expects to grow dramatically by the end of 2025.
One of the key drivers behind Podimo’s success has been its ability to curate and deliver content tailored to the unique tastes and preferences of each region’s listeners. “Reaching 1 million paying subscribers is a massive achievement from our humble beginnings in Denmark, and a testament to our model and strategy of investing in local content and building strong relationships with local creators. By bringing this approach to many markets, we have cemented ourselves as a global player,” said Morten Strunge, CEO and Founder of Podimo. “Many thought podcast subscription was a niche thing. It’s not. 1 million is just the tip of the iceberg, and it proves that the ceiling for this business is incredibly high when we can effectively showcase the right content to the right audience,” Strunge added.
Beyond the Nordics, Podimo is seeing significant momentum in regions like the Netherlands, which launched only 2.5 years ago and is already profitable. “Our growth goes well beyond the Nordics. The majority of our subscribers come from our other markets, where we’re generating 10-15x more revenue per listener than advertising and putting that directly back into creators’ pockets. This is about more than just business—it’s about sharing great content with people and making sure creators get the support they deserve,” said Strunge.
Over the past two years, Podimo has been investing heavily in its product, with significant upgrades to the user interface, resulting in a 45% increase in overall listening on the platform in 2024. Subscribers enjoy 20 hours of content a month, across 3-4 exclusive shows per week. This has been driven by improvements in our personalized recommendations and interactive community features including comments, in-show emojis, polls and fan profiles.
As Podimo continues its upward trajectory, the company remains focused on innovation and content quality. Podimo’s future includes further investment in local talent along with in-depth narrative formats, deeper integration of product features, and expansion into new markets. “Our mission is to become the go-to destination for spoken audio entertainment and preferred partner for creators, and we’re confident that we’ll continue to reach new heights as we evolve.”
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(PR please hyperlink your release and Q&A here)
Germany Press Release
Spain Press Release
Growth comparison numbers (not to be shared but for context)
Bookbeat - 915k in 10 years (as of Feb 2024)
Luminary - 200K subscribers in 5 years TD (estimated)
PodMe - 200k in 8 years (as of Sept 2022)
Spotify - 1M paying subscribers in 3 years (music)
Storytel - 2.3M in 20 years (as of Oct 2024)
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PR Plans:
Global (Spokesperson: Morten) - Exclusive targets: FT, Reuters, WSJ, Wired, Bloomberg, Techcrunch
DK (Spokesperson: Morten) - Exclusive targets: Finans, MediaWatch, Børsen (declined), Berlingske (pending)
DE (Spokeperson: Friedhelm, Morten?) - DWDL, De Welt
ES (Spokeperson: Isabel) -
FI (Spokesperson: Morten & Johannes) - Exclusive pitch to Helsingin Sanomat Visio (business section of #1 daily newspaper)
NL (Spokesperson: Flo or Morten) - NRC, BNR, Volkskrant, FD
NO (Spokesperson: Fride) - Exclusive pitch D2(declined), E24.
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Q&A
You mention Denmark and the Netherlands in your announcement. What about your larger markets, is this a small rich country kind of service or also for the broader world?
A: Whether you're selling shoes or a podcast subscription service there are always certain markets that will be more challenging than others. If you look at individual markets as investment cases we’re showing healthy growth rates by any standards.
Q&A - Global Subscriber Milestone
Q: Congratulations on reaching 1 million global subscribers! Can you share the breakdown of subscribers by region or market?
A: Thank you! While we're excited to announce our global milestone, we prefer to focus on our overall growth rather than specific market breakdowns. We’ve seen strong growth across all of our key regions, and this milestone reflects the strength of our global strategy and content offerings. We won't stop here, we won't be happy until it reaches its full potential.
Q: Which markets contributed most significantly to reaching this subscriber milestone?
A: Each of our markets has shown remarkable growth and engagement. Our success is driven by our commitment to local content and creators, which resonates across all regions. We’re proud to say that every market has played an important role in achieving this milestone.
Q: Can you provide more details on how specific markets have performed?
A: While we aren't sharing specific numbers by market, we can say that our focus on local content, language, and cultural relevance has been key to our global success. In particular, markets where we've invested heavily in exclusive content and partnerships with creators have shown impressive growth.
Q: Which regions are growing the fastest for you right now?
A: We’re seeing consistent growth across Europe and Latin America, with strong engagement in both mature and emerging markets. Our strategy of tailoring content to the specific preferences of each region has been a driving factor in our success.
Q: Why are you withholding regional subscriber numbers?
A: We prefer to focus on our overall global growth and the impact we’re having as a company. Our goal is to provide a cohesive experience for creators and listeners, and our global subscriber base reflects the success of that strategy. Keeping the focus on the big picture allows us to emphasize our mission and growth trajectory.
Q: What has been the primary driver of your global growth?
A: Our growth has been fueled by a few key factors: our commitment to providing exceptional, local spoken-word content, investing in creators through monetization opportunities, and offering an elevated listening experience through both curated and AI-driven recommendations. This global strategy has helped us reach a broad audience while staying connected to local markets.
Q: Do you expect to continue seeing growth at this pace?
A: We’re confident in our continued growth trajectory. As we expand into new markets and deepen our relationships with creators and listeners, we expect to see ongoing momentum. We’re always exploring new ways to enhance our platform and deliver value to both creators and subscribers.
Q: Can you share any insights into which types of content or genres are most popular globally?
A: We’ve seen strong engagement across a range of genres, including true crime, lifestyle, and storytelling. What’s really exciting is how local preferences vary by region—our ability to cater to those preferences with local content has been a key driver of our success.
Q: How does your global subscriber growth impact your investment in content creation?
A: Reaching this milestone allows us to continue investing in high-quality, exclusive content, both locally and globally. It reinforces our commitment to empowering creators through monetization and reaching even more diverse audiences with great storytelling.
Q: Are there any new markets you plan to enter soon?
A: While we’re focused on deepening our presence in our current markets, we are always evaluating opportunities for future expansion. We’ll continue to assess where we can bring value and where there’s strong demand for our unique content offerings.
Q: How does this milestone compare with competitors in the podcast and audiobook industry?
A: We’re proud to be one of the fastest-growing subscription services in the podcast and audiobook space. Our focus has always been on creating the best experience for creators and listeners, and this milestone reflects the success of that mission. We see our growth as a testament to the quality of our content and the strength of our platform.
Q: What are your future goals after reaching this subscriber milestone?
A: Our goal is to continue delivering great content that inspires, entertains, and engages listeners around the world. We’ll keep focusing on local content, supporting creators, and enhancing the user experience. Ultimately, we aim to become the go-to platform for spoken-word entertainment globally.
Q: Are you profitable yet?
A: Over the past year we have made significant progress towards becoming a profitable, cash positive business. We are currently profitable in 3 of our markets, with an aim to achieve profitability across all of its markets by the end of 2025.
### NOTES NOT FOR USE ###
Growth 2 ways:
We’ve seen tremendous growth in benelux through our first acquisition of D&N and through this new partnership with Tonny Media (M&A scalable side to this business)
One of the things that’s really cool to see is even though Denmark compared to many European countries a relatively small place, it’s cool to see that even though we’ve had so much growth here already, we've had some of our best years of growth in these recent few quarters so it shows for this cap for this business is pretty high. The listeners are there. It's just a matter of not just finding the right content or building the right product but getting better at showing what great content we have and tapping into that unlocks the true potential of this business.
Key messages from Menno
• Podimo continues to be on a strong growth trajectory.
• The growth we've seen is across all markets in which we operate.
• This excites us given that we've been in Denmark for 5 years and still see strong growth ahead of us there, with some of the last few months being the months of highest intake since we've launched this service
• We also see good momentum beyond the Nordics, where we've seen amazing growth in for example NL.
• NL is a region that launched 2.5yrs ago and is already running free cashflow positive.
• This is especially interesting given that it is a market where we operate with local labels, obtained through M&A.
• This shows that our model is ripe for vertical integration and that M&A can play a role in fast forwarding a future market state with better content for listeners as well as unlocking higher monetization for the creators