Starlink hits subscriber milestone as potential IPO looms

May 9, 2023 thejournalbiz

Starlink has hit a substantial subscriber milestone, largely thanks to its record user growth over the past six months.

SpaceX has been laboring toward profitability ever since its founding by Elon Musk.

Tweet on Starlink subscriber growth

SpaceX's @Starlink is seeing hyper growth, adding over ~3,600 new customers per day.

Customer total now stands at 1.5 million per SpaceX. pic.twitter.com/WLTN7l2rz4

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 6, 2023

Chart by B.Merrit

One of its primary tools to help achieve that financial success is its satellite internet service, Starlink. Now, as the service has grown in both coverage and offerings, it has reached a new subscriber milestone, which could be critical as the company probes a potential IPO.

According to SpaceX, initially reported by Sawyer Merrit on Twitter, Starlink has achieved a subscriber count of 1.5 million users and a record user growth of 3,600 new subscribers daily

In celebrating reaching this astronomical subscriber count, SpaceX has published a video to its Instagram showing off some of the incredible projects its Starlink service is being used for.

Helping to grow its subscriber count so substantially over the past six months has been the expansion of services and offerings from the internet provider. Most notably, by expanding into aviation and maritime use cases, SpaceX is poised to dramatically increase revenues from these typically internet-starved sectors.

Besides this growth in service,

Starlink has also dramatically increased internet speeds as it has worked to launch its next-generation satellites.

These satellites also are helping to ensure more consistent coverage in remote and hard-to-reach areas, which is precisely where Starlink customers want the service to operate.

Looking to the future, many believe that either SpaceX or its Starlink unit could come to the stock market through one of the most substantial IPOs in years.