STOCKHOLMLOS ANGELES, Jan 31 Reuters Spotify Technology SA told investors Tuesday it would tighten spending and work to become efficient after a year of investments in technology and content.

Chief Executive Daniel Ek said the macro environment changed dramatically over the course of last year, setting the stage for belttightening.

In hindsight, I probably got a little carried away and overinvested relative to the uncertainty we saw shaping up in the market, Ek said during the company39;s fourth quarter investor call.

Spotify invested heavily in building up its podcast and audiobooks business in 2022, with operating expenses growing at twice the speed of its revenue. That set the stage for Spotify to lay off 600 employees this month and trim other costs.

The company said it expected gross margins to improve throughout the year, with the increased focus on efficiency and forecasts of growth in monthly active users. Spotify projected the number of listeners would reach 500 million in the current quarter.

We always knew that 2022 would be an investment year and 2023 will be a year where we would slow down the investments and thereby operating expenditure while revenue keeps on climbing, Chief Financial Officer Paul Vogel said in an interview.

Shares in the company rose 9 in early morning trading.

The number of monthly active users rose to 489 million in the quarter, beating Spotify39;s guidance and analysts39; forecasts of 477.9 million, helped by marketing…