The business of the streaming service giant Netflix is stagnating. For the first time, the number of subscribers has actually declined. The group reacts – and fires some of the employees.
The US streaming giant Netflix has embarked on an austerity course because of the poor growth prospects. The dismissals of around 150 “great colleagues” were “mainly due to the needs of the company and not to individual performance,” said a company spokesman for the AFP news agency on Tuesday. Employees in the USA were particularly affected. Netflix has also reduced its subcontracting work.
Netflix recently announced a loss in subscription numbers for the first time in more than ten years. That was a drop of 200,000 subscribers, less than 0.1 percent of the total subscriber base of 221.6 million. However, this was enough to cause concern among Netflix shareholders. “Slowing the growth of our revenue means we must also slow the growth of our expenses as a company,” the spokesman said.
Netflix: fight against illegal streaming
Among other things, Netflix is struggling with growing competition from new streaming services, such as those from Disney and Apple. In addition, the group has also identified the illegal sharing of user accounts as an obstacle to growth. The company estimates that more than 100 million households use Netflix without paying. The group now wants to take stricter action and offer new subscription models that allow sharing for a surcharge. He’s also considering an ad-supported model to drive prices down.
