Image by Deepanker Verma from Pixabay.

Asian Tech Press (Sep 22) -- Spotify Technology SA (SPOT:New York) is on the verge of surpassing Apple Inc in terms of podcast listenership this year worldwide, according to an analysis by eMarketer.

Back in 2019, another study showed that Spotify has surpassed Apple in terms of podcast listeners in South America and Europe.

The Swedish streaming pcompany is expected to reach 28.2 million users by the end of 2021, according to the latest eMarketer analysis. By comparison, Apple Podcasts, a media player application developed by Apple, should reach 28 million subscribers by the end of this year. It's a small gap, but still enough to put Spotify in the top spot.

The study also shows that about 40% of U.S. Internet users listen to a podcast at least once a month, and that number is expected to grow to 45% by 2024.

In addition to Apple and Spotify, YouTube and Google are becoming popular platforms for U.S. podcast listeners.