Netflix sacks 300 more employees. Blame nosediving shares, subscriber drop
Netflix. Photo: Unsplash
On June 23, Netflix announced that it is further laying off 300 more people from its workforce, primarily in the US. In May, the streaming giant had laid off about 150 people from its US workforce.
Back in April, for the first time Netflix had reported a drop in it subscribers and the announcement caused the company’s stock to lose 70% of its value in 2022.
'Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees. While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth. We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition,' a Netflix spokesperson told Variety
Some of the reasons why there has been a drop in subscribers are: increased competition from Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, the war in Ukraine and account sharing between users.
Netflix also announced in March 2022 that it would begin a global crackdown on account password sharing and conducted a test in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica to prevent people from password sharing.
The test results ended up being unfavourable for the company as many users would much rather delete their accounts than pay for infringing Netflix’s policy of not sharing your password with other individuals.
While many suspect that the people who are being laid off from Netflix majorly belong to underrepresented groups such People Of Colour (POC), Netflix has denied all such reports and said that its diversity focused channels are a priority.
Re: Netflix laying off a ton of POC and/or LGBTQ employees. I’ve witnessed companies do something similar during a mass layoff, claiming their IDs weren’t targeted, just that they weren’t in core positions. If all your POC/LGBTQ employees aren’t in core positions, then... Well.
— Adam Sass ? Preorder 99 BOYFRIENDS ? (@TheAdamSass) May 18, 2022
While the company lost nearly 2,00,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, it expects to lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.