[UX Review] Spotify launches in Korea. Will it succeed?

I was excited when I heard Spotify launched its service in Korea this month. For anyone who is not familiar with Spotify, Spotify is a Sweden-based digital music service that allows you to stream millions of songs and other forms of media (like podcasts!).

I've been using Spotify for more than 6 years. I was there through all the major (and minor) changes and upgrades that they've been making to the app for the last half of the decade. Still to this day, Spotify is one of the most easy-to-use, intuitive apps that I've ever used.

What's more exciting than this news is Spotify's ambitious plan to launch in more than 80 countries in the next several days. 80 countries? That's a lot of countries to launch in within a few days. My immediate reaction to this was 'Have they already done user research in these countries before launching?'

My guess? Probably not.

If they're launching simultaneously in 80 countries, it's not very likely that they've conducted local UX research for each of the countries. Also, the Spotify app that is currently serviced in Korea is almost identical to the U.S. version.

I expected the app to be designed a bit differently to fit the unique cultural needs of Korean users. As the sixth-largest music market in the world, South Korea is one of the most valuable markets for music streaming services like Spotify. I personally enjoy using Spotify and love its design, but I've lived abroad for more than 10 years so my views don't necessarily represent those of most Koreans.

So will Korean users actually use and enjoy Spotify? Will Spotify be able to take over a good portion of the Korean market?

First, let's check out the stats.

Melon is the most popular music streaming service in Korea and currently has over 2.6 million paying users. Genie and FLO are also popular options among Korean consumers.

It will definitely not be easy for Spotify to win market share from its major competitors in Korea — namely Melon, YouTube, Genie, FLO.

Spotify has been very successful globally, but with fierce competition and Korea's unique music culture, South Korea might prove itself to be a challenging market to conquer.

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In my next post, I'll look at the difference between Spotify and the top 3 most widely used Korean digital music services (Melon, Genie, FLO), from a UX perspective!

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