Spotify expands to Russia and Eastern Europe

STOCKHOLM - Music streaming giant Spotify announced Tuesday it was launching its service in Russia and 12 other countries around Eastern Europe.

Spotify would become available to users immediately, according to a statement, which added that the Swedish streaming service was now accessible in 92 markets.

In addition to Russia, Spotify was rolling out in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

"Launching in these 13 markets is an important moment in Spotify’s journey, especially as we welcome fans and artists in growing music markets like Russia, where streaming is being widely adopted," Gustav Gyllenhammar, VP for Markets and Subscriber Growth, said in a statement.

Spotify said Russia is the 17th largest market for streaming, and is growing at a pace that would see it reach number 10 by 2030.

Spotify has been relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and even returned to profit in the first quarter of 2020.

In late April the music platform reported 286 million active users, of which 130 million were paying subscribers.

Agence France-Presse

Google to spend over $13-billion on US data centers, offices

Alphabet Inc's Google said on Wednesday it would spend more than $13 billion on data centers and offices in the United States this year.

"These new investments will give us the capacity to hire tens of thousands of employees, and enable the creation of more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.

With the new investment Google will now be in 24 out of the 50 states in the US

Google will continue to expand its presence in Chicago and Washington, and the company's workforce would double in Virginia and Georgia, according to the blog post.

The company said it had hired more than 10,000 people in the United States and made over $9 billion in investments in the last year.

For the fourth quarter, Google reported $31.07 billion in costs and expenses, up 26 percent from last year. Capital expenditure rose 64 percent to $7.08 billion.

Last week, Reuters reported Amazon.com Inc was exploring alternatives to locate part of its new headquarters in New York in case the plan fails due to local opposition.

Google has seen some pushback about its plans to expand in San Jose, near its Mountain View headquarters, but otherwise has not met strong local opposition.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Jollibee to build more stores in US, Canada

MANILA – Jollibee Foods Corp said Monday it planned to expand its stores in the US to 150 in 5 years and add 100 branches in Canada.

The country's largest fast food operator confirmed the expansions plans in a disclosure to the stock exchange. It was first reported on Bloomberg markets.

Jollibee aims to be among the world's top 5 quick service restaurant operators, according to the disclosure.

Jollibee had said it opened 192 stores in the first half of 2018, spending P8.3 billion in capital expenditures and acquisitions.

It also raised its stake in US burger chain Smashburger to 85 percent and announced plans for a Mexican food venture.

In October Filipinos lined up for Jollibee's first store in London, some of whom came from other parts of Europe. The company opened its first store in the continent, located in Milan, Italy, last May.

Jollibee marked its 1,000th store milestone in the Philippines in July 2017. It also has stores in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei.

Last May, Jollibee said it would invest 45 million Singapore dollars (P1.74 billion) in a private equity fund that is set to acquire the master franchise of Tim Ho Wan in the Asia Pacific.

The Filipino company is also eyeing British sandwich chain Pret A Manger, Reuters reported in late 2017.

source: news.abs-cbn.com