Netflix sinking amid massive subscriber loss

In a latest bid, Netflix has axed 300 employees as the streaming platform is continuing to lose subscribers hundreds and thousands of subscribers. According to report published in Variety, of those losing their jobs will be in the US and from multiple different departments within the company.

A Netflix spokesperson to Variety, “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”.

Variety noted that this is the second mass layoff at the company in as many months. Netflix, which has roughly 11,000 staffers worldwide, laid off 150 employees and dozens of part-time and contract workers in May.

The cuts at the streaming giant come following dismal reports showing Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 and is expecting 2 million more to end their subscriptions in the second quarter. The major subscription losses dealt a blow to the company’s stock, which lost roughly 70 percent of its value.

In response to the subscription losses, Netflix reportedly looked to fast-track ad-supported content, according to a May report in The New York Times.

“Executives said they were aiming to introduce an ad-supported, lower-priced subscription tier in the last three months of the year, quicker than originally indicated”, the New York Times wrote.

According to industry insiders, one of the key reasons behind subscribers leaving Netflix is its catalogue, which mostly comprises old movies and Spanish series. Spanish series are too-lengthy with too many seasons and episodes, while actors and actresses are becoming common face everywhere. Even locations are same. Netflix fails to offer rich collection of contents to its subscribers. Almost similar thing is also happening with Amazon Prime, while some people said, subscribing to Amazon Prime is a total loss.

Meanwhile, Netflix is trying to overcome the situation by offering subscription at a cheaper cost while the company can earn revenue through ads. But that is another wrong idea, as most of the subscribers hate watching any content being disrupted by frequent ads.

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings told investors that Netflix would be introducing a similar offering “over the next year or two”, but now an internal memo appears to indicate that the change could happen by the end of this year instead.

The surprising internal revelation came after Netflix had promised subscribers for years it would never run ads on the platform, but more competition from streaming services like Disney, Paramount, Peacock, and others has seemingly caused Netflix executives to reevaluate their strategy.

Commenting on the current situation of Netflix, Sonjib Das, a film and drama maker in Bangladesh said, the streaming platform actually needs to focus on Asian countries and introduce English sub-titled contents in Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Tamil, Telegu, Punjabi, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean at an increased volume.

He said, Netflix is missing a great opportunity of entering the Bangla-speaking population of over 270 million. Introducing Bangla contents from Bangladesh and West Bengal in India would help Netflix in getting millions of subscribers from this region.

It may be mentioned here that, only in Bangladesh, a country with almost 180 million population, there are currently over 45 million people having access to internet, while there are roughly 41 million smartphone users. Once Netflix can penetrate into Bangladesh market through proper planning and by having an experienced content providing partner in Bangladesh, the company can make significant profit every year.