The Swedish streaming platform expects operating income of €620 million for the fourth quarter, slightly above market expectations of €618.6 million, and revenue of around €4.5 billion. 

Spotify forecasts total monthly active users (MAUs) to hit 745 million by year-end, ahead of the estimated 737.3 million.

The upbeat outlook follows a great third quarter that saw double-digit growth across key metrics. Premium subscribers climbed 12% year-on-year to 281 million, while total monthly active users rose 11% to 713 million. Revenue increased 7% to €4.27 billion, exceeding analyst expectations of €4.23 billion.

Gross margin improved to 31.6%, with operating income reaching €582 million. CEO Daniel Ek attributed the progress to better execution and a clear focus on long-term growth. 

“The business is healthy. We’re shipping faster than ever. And we have the tools we need – pricing, product innovation, operational leverage, and eventually the ads turnaround – to deliver both revenue growth and profit expansion,” Ek said. 

“It all comes back to user fundamentals and that’s where we are: 700 million users who keep coming back, engagement at all-time highs. We’re building Spotify for the long-term.”

Spotify has been repositioning its business to improve profitability after years of aggressive spending on marketing and content acquisition. The company recently increased the price of its premium individual plan and streamlined operational costs to strengthen its bottom line.

At the same time, Spotify has rolled out several updates aimed at enhancing user engagement. The long-awaited lossless audio feature, part of the new “Supremium” tier, launched in October, offering high-fidelity sound that rivals Apple Music’s and Amazon’s premium options. 

The tier also introduces advanced playlist tools, AI-powered recommendations, and wider audiobook access.

The audiobook segment is one of Spotify’s fastest-growing categories. Listeners in this segment jumped 36% year-on-year, while total listening hours grew 37%. The company has continued to expand its audiobook catalogue globally, making it a major complement to its music and podcast offerings.

Aiming to tap into younger audiences and enhance discovery, Spotify also partnered with OpenAI in October. The collaboration allows users to link their Spotify accounts within ChatGPT and request music or podcast recommendations through conversational prompts, an integration designed to increase engagement and retention.

Beyond product expansion, Spotify is entering a new phase of leadership. Starting January 2026, Daniel Ek will transition to Executive Chairman as the company adopts a co-CEO structure led by Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström. 

The restructuring aims to enhance innovation and simplify decision-making as Spotify pushes deeper into audiobooks, AI, and next-generation audio streaming.

With user growth speeding up and operational discipline improving, Spotify appears to be turning a corner from years of narrow margins to sustained profitability, preparing for a strong close to 2025 and a more balanced strategy.

This is one of the biggest steps yet in integrating digital payments with conversational technology.

Under this new arrangement, PayPal will adopt OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to power Instant Checkout, a feature that allows users to confirm orders and complete transactions inside ChatGPT without switching platforms. 

Beginning in 2026, PayPal’s extensive merchant network will be connected to OpenAI’s ecosystem, opening ChatGPT’s marketplace to tens of millions of businesses globally.

“Hundreds of millions of people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks, including finding products they love, and over 400 million use PayPal to shop,” said Alex Chriss, president and CEO of PayPal. 

“By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases.”

The integration will allow customers to pay using their PayPal wallets, providing access to multiple funding sources, including cards, bank accounts, and balances, while ensuring the company’s signature buyer and seller protections. 

PayPal will also handle payment processing for card transactions through its delegated payments API, streamlining every stage of the transaction process.

For merchants, the new system offers a direct route into ChatGPT’s massive user base. Small businesses and large retailers alike will see their product catalogues, spanning categories such as apparel, beauty, home improvement, and electronics, become searchable and purchasable within ChatGPT. 

PayPal’s ACP server will handle everything behind the scenes, from merchant routing to payment validation, removing the need for individual integrations.

Beyond commerce, PayPal is expanding its internal use of OpenAI’s technologies. The company plans to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise for its 24,000 employees, use Codex to support engineering tasks, and integrate OpenAI’s APIs across its operations. 

These tools are expected to enhance product innovation and improve customer service efficiency.

The partnership arrives at a time when AI-driven shopping assistants are changing online retail. Such systems can analyse user preferences, compare prices, and execute purchases autonomously, revealing the focus on agentic commerce, where digital assistants play an important role in buying decisions.

PayPal’s move is a turnaround strategy under Chriss, who has steered the company towards profitability and innovation after years of post-pandemic slowdown.

With this integration, PayPal aims to strengthen its presence “anywhere and everywhere that consumers want to pay,” as Chriss told analysts. 

Placing the company in direct competition with Google Chrome, the browser, now available globally on macOS, brings ChatGPT beyond its traditional chat interface and into the core of how users interact with the web. 

Atlas allows users to summarise webpages, compare products, analyse data, fill out forms, and even automate complex tasks. With its built-in “Agent Mode,” paid subscribers can delegate multi-step activities such as trip planning, online shopping, or research, all executed autonomously by ChatGPT.

In a live demo, OpenAI engineers showed ChatGPT finding an online recipe and purchasing all the required ingredients on Instacart, demonstrating the browser’s ability to handle tasks from start to finish. Versions for Windows, iOS, and Android are expected to follow soon.

Atlas is built on Chromium, the same open-source engine behind Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, ensuring full compatibility with existing websites. The browser also introduces browser memories, allowing ChatGPT to retain context from sites a user visits and use that information to provide smarter assistance later. 

Importantly, users maintain full control, they can view, archive, or delete these memories and browsing history at any time.

One early tester, college student Yogya Kalra, commended the tool’s seamless learning experience: “During lectures, I like using practice questions and real-world examples to really understand the material. 

“I used to switch between my slides and ChatGPT, taking screenshots just to ask a question. Now ChatGPT instantly understands what I’m looking at, helping me improve my knowledge checks as I go.”

According to OpenAI, Atlas is designed to create a more natural and interactive browsing experience by letting ChatGPT “come with you anywhere across the web.” The company says this integration will allow users to get work done faster, without constantly switching tabs or copying and pasting information.

Following the release, Alphabet’s shares fell by 1.8%. This reveals the market is uneasy due to the potential disruption to Google’s search advertising business. Analysts note that by embedding chat-driven search into a browser, OpenAI could eventually compete for a significant portion of Google’s ad revenue.

“Integrating chat into a browser is a precursor for OpenAI starting to sell ads, which it has yet to do so far,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. “Once OpenAI starts selling ads, that could take away a significant part of search advertising share from Google, which has around 90% of that spend category.”

Despite Chrome’s commanding 71.9% global market share, experts believe AI-native browsers like Atlas could gradually impact user behaviour, pushing the industry toward a more personalised, conversational web.

With the launch, OpenAI is leaping from being a software provider to owning part of the consumer interface. With over 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users, the company now has a massive base to build new monetisation channels, from search ads to productivity tools.

Atlas’s launch also stresses the competition between OpenAI and Google. In response to ChatGPT’s growing influence, Google has integrated its Gemini AI model into Chrome and introduced AI Overviews, blending chatbot-style summaries with traditional search results.

While Chrome still tops for now, Atlas shows browsing could become less about typing keywords, and more about having an intelligent assistant that understands, learns, and acts on behalf of the user.