Netflix is dealing with a noticeable drop in subscribers and earnings and, to stem the damage, the streaming giant is currently forced to leave some employees at home. After an initial layoff at the end of April, which affected the writers of Tudum, today Netflix has terminated its contracts with 150 employeesmostly based in the United States.
A bad time for Netflix
In April, during the call with analysts, Netflix announced that its platform will be in the first quarter of 2022 it has lost about 200,000 subscribers. This is the first drop in subscribers in ten years of the company’s business: a bad blow for the streaming service.
The decline obviously disappointed the company’s growth expectations, which predicted an increase of 2.5 million new subscribers during the quarter, with Wall Street expecting 2.8 million instead. Netflix, on the other hand, had to deal with its first drop in users since its inception, according to the company increased competition and the big problem of sharing passwords.
The company, during the announcement of the numbers for the first quarter, explained that it expects to lose more users in the future. More precisely the forecasts indicate a decline of 2 million in the second quarter of 2022.
A new block of layoffs arrives to stem the decline in Netflix subscribers
This made the company look for some solutions to reduce costs, firing 150 employees, mainly based in the United States. The affected employees reportedly include a number in senior positions. It is the second round of layoffs in a short time for the company, which has around 11,000 employees. An unspecified number of personnel connected to the internal website, my attitudewas fired last month.
A spokesperson for the company said that the layoffs are directly linked to a slowdown in Netflix’s revenue growth. “As we explained on earnings, the slowdown in revenue growth means that we also need to slow down cost growth as a company. So sadly, today we are letting go of about 150 employees, mostly based in the United States, ”a spokesperson for Netflix told Engadget.
The streaming service recently decided to cancel some development projects. Among these we find Wings of Fire, executive producer Ava DuVernay; a series called Antiracist Baby and With Kind Regards From Kindergarten. Some Variety sources, however, claim that the reason for the cancellation is not related to cost cutting.
The streaming service would also be considering the addition of an inexpensive subscription that integrates advertising. This would allow subscribers to pay a lower price in exchange for watching certain commercials while using the content. Netflix is not the first to be interested in this type of subscription: recently Disney+ announced a similar subscription level, with advertising, for the end of 2022.