Daniel Ek (born 21 February 1983) is a Swedish billionaire entrepreneur and technologist. He is the co-founder and CEO of music streaming service Spotify
What is Daniel Ek’s Net Worth?
Daniel Ek is a Swedish billionaire technologist and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $5 billion. Daniel Ek co-founded and serves as the CEO of the music streaming service Spotify. Spotify was founded in 2006 but was exclusively available in Europe for several years.
Today Ek owns around 9% of Spotify. When Spotify went public in April of 2018 at a valuation of $28 billion, Ek was left with a paper net worth of around $2.6 billion. At the time of the IPO, Spotify had 71 million paying subscribers and $5 billion in annual revenue.
Before Spotify Daniel had a senior role in the Nordic auction company Tradera, was the CTO of the game and fashion community Stardoll, and was the CEO of the adware client uTorrent. Ek also founded the online advertising company Advertigo, which sold to TradeDoubler in 2006.
Early life and education
Ek grew up in the Rågsved district of Stockholm, Sweden. He started coding and building websites at 13, showcasing his exceptional skill in the digital sphere. His early obsession with technology laid the foundation for later undertakings, some of which leading to success. He graduated from high school in IT-Gymnasiet in Sundbyberg in 2002, and subsequently studied engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, before dropping out to focus on his IT career.
Business career
Career
Ek served in a senior role at Nordic auction company Tradera which was acquired by eBay in 2006. He additionally served as the CTO of the browser-based game and fashion community Stardoll and later started another company Advertigo, an online advertising company. Advertigo was sold to TradeDoubler in 2006, after which, Ek briefly became the CEO of μTorrent, working with μTorrent founder Ludvig Strigeus. This ended when μTorrent was sold to BitTorrent on December 7, 2006. Strigeus would later join Ek as a Spotify developer.
Spotify
The sale of Advertigo as well as his previous work made Ek wealthy enough that he decided to retire. However, after a few months, he realized he wanted a new project, leading to his founding Spotify. Ek first had the idea for Spotify in 2002 when peer-to-peer music service Napster shut down and another illegal site Kazaa took over. Ek said he “realized that you can never legislate away from piracy. Laws can definitely help, but it doesn’t take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify.”
Ek incorporated Spotify AB with Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006. Lorentzon had previously worked at and co-founded TradeDoubler which had acquired Ek’s previous company Advertigo. In October 2008, the company launched its legal music streaming service Spotify. Initially, Spotify ran on a peer-to-peer distribution model, similar to μTorrent, but switched to a server-client model in 2014. Ek serves as CEO of Spotify. 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. As of April 2019, Spotify has 217 million active users and as of June 2017 had raised over $2.5 billion in venture funding.
In 2017, Ek was named the most powerful person in the music industry by Billboard.
In May 2022, Ek invested an additional $50 million to acquire more Spotify shares, citing an optimistic future outlook for the streaming giant. Spotify at that time had 182 million paying subscribers and was growing at 15% year on year.
Advertigo and uTorrent
The first company founded by Ek was Advertigo, an online advertising company. In 2006, it was purchased by the Swedish digital marketing company TradeDoubler. Following this, Ek temporarily became the CEO of the proprietary adware client uTorrent, working alongside the company’s founder Ludvig Strigeus. Ek left his position when uTorrent was acquired by BitTorrent in December of 2006.
Tradera and Stardoll
One of Ek’s first major positions in the professional world was at Tradera, a Swedish-based online marketplace that was founded in 1999. He served a senior role at the company, which sells both new and secondhand items such as clothing, electronics, and art. The service accommodates both commercial and private sellers, and allows international buyers to participate through a registered PayPal account. Tradera was eventually acquired by eBay in 2006.
Another venture Ek was involved in was Stardoll, a browser-based game and fashion community he served as the CTO of. As part of the community, players are able to create their own virtual dolls, or choose existing celebrity dolls to dress up in different styles of makeup and clothing. Players can use in-game currency to buy beauty, apparel, and decor items, and can also participate in numerous challenges and mini-games. While open to everyone, Stardoll is particularly focused on providing a space for teenagers and young women to express themselves and socialize with others from around the globe.
Political positions
In 2016, Ek and fellow Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon wrote an open letter on the blogging platform Medium to the Swedish government saying that if certain changes to Swedish law regarding housing, taxation, and education are not made, Spotify will be forced to relocate from the country. More specifically, Ek claims that the high taxes in Sweden on stock options makes it difficult to incentivize programmers to work at startups when startups have trouble competing with larger companies on salary. Moreover, Ek claims the Swedish permitting policy is overly restrictive, limiting the supply of affordable housing.
Personal life
In 2016, Ek married Sofia Levander, his longtime partner, at Lake Como. At Ek’s wedding, Bruno Mars was invited to perform and Chris Rock officiated; he invited numerous guests, including Mark Zuckerberg. Ek and his wife have two children together.
Ek is a lifelong supporter of Premier League club Arsenal, and, in April 2021, expressed an interest in purchasing the football club if it were put up for sale. In May 2021, Ek made an offer to buy the club for approximately £1.8 billion, which was rejected by the owners
