In the past few weeks, Netflix has suffered its first-ever significant subscriber loss in a decade, and hence its stock value rapidly plummeted.

 

Netflix revealed that it had lost over two hundred thousand global subscribers in the year’s first quarter, and it is estimated that they will lose a further two million subscribers by the end of next month. Consequently, on Tuesday, Netflix stock closed at 348.42 dollars per share and the following day plummeted by one hundred dollars, which is the lowest it’s been since 2018. Furthermore, it then declined by another twenty-five dollars, closing at 226.19 dollars on Wednesday.

 

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix put their loss of subscribers down to four main factors: Uncontrollable factors, Password sharing, Competition, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Firstly, Netflix said that uncontrollable factors have heavily influenced recent events and that it’s becoming “increasingly clear that the pace of growth into our underlying addressable market (homes with broadband) is partly dependent on factors we don’t directly control, like the uptake of connected TVs (since the majority of our viewing is on TVs), the adoption of on-demand entertainment, and data costs.”

Secondly, it is estimated that over thirty million households in the USA and Canada are not monetised because of account sharing, thus leading to an incredible amount of lost money.

Thirdly, Netflix admitted that the inevitability of other streaming platforms such as HBO Max, Apple TV+, Discovery+, Paramount+, and Peacock catching up with them. However, many media analysts aren’t convinced that Netflix’s competition is significant factor for their recent stock plummet.

 

Finally, suspending all Netflix content in Russia resulted in the loss of well over seven hundred thousand subscribers in the first quarter. However, despite Netflix gaining half a million subscribers back, they were still left with a two hundred thousand subscriber deficit.

 

Furthermore, Netflix has also suffered publicly at the hands of Elon Musk who satirically poked fun at its woes, even going so far to call Netflix ‘unwatchable’. Only to escalate the situation and raise tensions, the Tesla CEO stated that “the woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable” in response to a tweet regarding Netflix’s dropping share prices and loss of subscribers.