Dubawa, an independent verification and fact-checking media network, has refuted a claim made by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia during the launch of the recently-held Ghana Music Xperience (GMX) streaming platform on October 30, 2024, in Accra.

Dr Bawumia had said at the launch of GMX that Spotify’s market value or cap is $80 billion.

His statement emphasised the need for a universal music app only for the Ghanaian community.

“Spotify is a music streaming app, but the value of Spotify today is $80 billion. Right, that’s $80 billion. The total value of the Ghanaian economy is $75 billion. So, Spotify alone, as one app, is worth more than Ghana’s total GDP. That is just one app, and it just tells you the power of apps in the economy or the global economy of today,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media service provider founded on April 23, 2006, by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.

As of June 2024, it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services, with over 626 million monthly active users comprising 246 million paying subscribers.

DUBAWA decided to investigate the facts concerning Spotify’s market value on the international stock market.

Verification

As of the close of Oct. 31, 2024, Google Finance, a platform designed to help users analyse and compare stocks and markets, listed Spotify’s market cap as $77.33 billion against Dr Bawumia’s $80 billion claim.

Also, Yahoo Finance, a rich resource of financial market data and tools to find compelling investments, listed the market value of music streaming Spotify as 77.331 billion as of the close of Oct. 31, 2024, unlike Dr Bawumia’s claim that it is $80 billion.

Similarly, The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper and news agency based in New York, founded by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser in 1889, also listed Spotify’s market value or cap as of Oct. 31, 2024, as $77.23 billion respectively.

Conclusion

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s claim, made during the launch of the local music streaming app GMX on Oct. 30, 2024, that Spotify’s market value is $80 billion is false.