Pandora just announced its co-founder Tim Westergren has stepped down as CEO, and now the streaming provider tells Billboard that it’s ending operations in Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and New Zealand were Pandora’s only international operations, meaning it will now only exist in the US. A Pandora spokesperson told Billboard that the decision came after heavy analysis, and that operations in the two countries will discontinue in the next few weeks. "While our experience in these markets reinforces the broader global opportunity long-term,” the rep said, “in the short-term we must remain laser-focused on the expansion of our core business in the United States."
Pandora’s current foothold in these two countries isn’t exactly clear, but AdNews reports that about 60 people work in the company’s Australian offices, and different reports place the user base anywhere between 1.2 million and 5 million.
Other streaming services have struggled to be viable in Australia: Guvera closed in 2016 and Deezer followed suit in 2017.
Shutting down the platform’s Australia and New Zealand operations comes after a series of deals Pandora has completed in an effort to help stabilize its balance sheet, including a recent $480 million investment by SiriusXM and selling its ticketing business, Ticketfly.