NETFLIX LOSES 200,000 SUBSCRIBERS

For the first time in more than 10 years, Netflix has not grown - it has lost at least 200,000 users, which has caused sharp reactions from the market and the company.

After disclosing that it lost subscribers for the first time in more than ten years and did not expand at all, losing roughly 200,000, Netflix declared that it will go after those who share accounts, but this is just one of the measures the network will do to remain a profitable business.

The period in which Netflix did not increase the number of subscribers for the first time in history was from the beginning of 2022 to the end of March, which caused a drastic drop in the company's shares of as much as 23%.

After the pandemic record jumps of Netflix subscribers, the management predicted that it would receive 2.5 million new accounts in the mentioned period, which not only did not happen, but a historical decline was recorded, and before that, a decline was registered only once, exclusively in the USA region in 2019, but globally Netflix has been growing steadily.

Unfortunately, instructed by this calculation, the company's management had to change the forecasts for the second quarter of 2022, so instead of growth, the company now predicts that the decline in subscribers will continue and that from April to June about two million people will leave the service.

The impact of competition and war in Ukraine

A significant number of Netflix subscribers have left the U.S.-Canada region, where the company recently raised subscription prices and this is, according to a report submitted to shareholders, the strongest reason for canceling subscriptions. 

Globally, Netflix has fallen by 200,000 when looking at the final numbers, but growth outside the U.S. and Canada has been large enough to cover 600,000 unsubscribed subscriptions, which has occurred since the Q4 period of 2021.

Also, the number of canceled subscriptions from Russia and Ukraine exceeded 700,000, which is another very bad result covered; yet, despite the significant growth that Netflix experienced over the previous three months, the growth was insufficient to cover all unplanned and planned losses (By increasing the subscription price, Netflix certainly knew that a number of users would not agree).

Netflix's problem is also the strengthening of competition, which is expanding globally. HBO Max is doing well around the world and is giving blockbuster premieres as early as 45 days after its theatrical release. 

Amazon Prime has also been successful, and even Disney + will be available here soon, as well as the ShowTime streaming service. Netflix has alternatives and people are happy to choose it, obviously.

The hunt for shared tasks begins

Netflix officially has over 222 million users and according to company estimates, at least another 100 million who share an account with some of these included in the first issue. 

Netflix has more than 30 million such accounts in the United States and Canada, and these are the markets in which the streaming company will first start hunting and closing such accounts.

In this case, both the owner of the account and the one who shares the order with him or her will lose.

The company has mechanisms to cancel and ban accounts shared between different users and will start implementing them immediately. Also, Netflix is ​​currently testing new types of accounts in Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica, which are officially shared for a much lower subscription than the basic one, but there are no indications when this model could be applied globally.