Daniel Ek

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Daniel Ek
Daniel Ek (Interview).jpg
Daniel Ek, answering questions during an interview.
Born (1983-02-21) February 21, 1983 (age 34)[1]
Sweden
Nationality Swedish
Occupation CEO and Founder, Spotify
Net worth Increase US $800 million
Children 2

Daniel Ek is a Swedish entrepreneur and a technologist. Ek is best known as the co-founder and CEO of the popular music streaming service Spotify.[2]

Business career[edit]

He founded his first company in 1997 at the age of 14.[3] He was a part of the Nordic auction company Tradera (acquired by Ebay) and Advertigo.[citation needed]

In March 2006, Ek sold the company he founded, Advertigo, to TradeDoubler. The sale of the company, along with his previous work, had made him wealthy enough that he decided to retire, but returned to work a few months later after changing his mind.[4]

Also in 2006, Ek was briefly the CEO of μTorrent, working with μTorrent founder Ludvig Strigeus. This ended when μTorrent was sold to BitTorrent on December 7, 2006. Strigeus would join Ek as a Spotify developer.[5]

In 2006, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon set up Spotify AB in Stockholm, Sweden.[6] Lorentzon had previously worked at TradeDoubler, a company he co-founded.[7] In October 2008, the company launched its legal music streaming service Spotify. Initially, Spotify ran on a peer-to-peer distribution model, similar to uTorrent, but switched to a server-client model in 2014.[8] Daniel Ek currently serves as a CEO of Spotify.[9] In October 2015, Spotify Co-Founder Martin Lorentzon announced he would be stepping down as Chairman and Ek would be taking over alongside his current role as CEO.[10]

Personal Life[edit]

In 2016, Ek married Sofia Levander, his longtime partner, with whom he has two children.[11] At Ek's wedding Bruno Mars was invited to perform and Chris Rock officiated at Ek's wedding to longtime-girlfriend Sofia Levander, where he invited numerous guests including Mark Zuckerberg. [12]

Net Worth[edit]

As of 2017, Daniel Ek has an estimated net worth of over $800 million. His main source of income is Spotify, which is currently worth $8 billion and has over 40 million users. worldwide. Ek has also been awarded the tile "Billboard Power 100's New No. 1" and is on numerous "wealth charts". [12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Will Schmidt (21 Feb 2014). "Happy Birthday Daniel Ek!". Tech.Co. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  2. ^ Brendan Greeley (14 Jul 2011). "Spotify’s Ek Wins Over Music Pirates With Labels’ Approval". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  3. ^ "Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner : A Playlist for Entrepreneurs - Daniel Ek, Chi-Hua Chien (Spotify)". Retrieved 2012-05-22. 
  4. ^ John Seabrook (24 Nov 2014). "Revenue Streams". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  5. ^ Andy (12 Nov 2014). "Spotify Reminded of uTorrent Past After Branding Grooveshark ‘Pirates’". Torrent Freak. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  6. ^ Reuters (24 May 2016). "Spotify Subscriptions Boost Revenue But Operating Loss Widens". Fortune. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  7. ^ Robert Levine (5 Jun 2015). "Billboard Cover: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Taylor Swift, His 'Freemium' Business Model and Why He's Saving the Music Industry". Billboard. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  8. ^ Janko Roettgers (16 Apr 2014). "Spotify gives up on P2P technology for music streaming". GigaOm. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  9. ^ "Spotify Information". Retrieved 2009-09-19. 
  10. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon steps down as chairman, CEO Daniel Ek steps up". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-10-14. 
  11. ^ Unity Blott For Mailonline (30 Aug 2016). "Spotify founder marries his girlfriend in a stunning Lake Como ceremony in front of A-list guests including Mark Zuckerberg - and Bruno Mars is the wedding singer". Daily Mail. Retrieved 3 Sep 2016. 
  12. ^ a b "Billboard Power 100's New No. 1: Spotify Streaming Pioneer Daniel Ek". Billboard. Retrieved 2017-05-27. 


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