Netflix has laid off an additional 300 employees, about 3% of its workforce, marking the final round of a major layoff for the streaming giant.
“Both Teddy and I regret that we haven’t seen slower revenue growth earlier so we can provide a more gradual adjustment to the business,” Netflix co-executives Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos said in a blog post on Thursday.
216 affected employees were in the United States; 30 employees laid off in Asia-Pacific countries; 53 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; And 17 in Latin America, the memo says.
“We know these two rounds of layoffs have been very difficult for everyone, creating a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. We plan to return to more normal activities in the future. And as we scale back some areas, we also continue to invest significant amounts of money into our content and people – we plan to grow our employee base by ~1,500 to ~11,500 over the next 18 months,” wrote Hastings and Sarandos. .
A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement that the cuts were made in such a way that Streamer “increases costs in line with our slow revenue growth.”
In May, Netflix laid off about 150 employees for “slowing down revenue growth” rather than “individual work”, a Netflix spokesperson said at the time. Of the employees affected last month, 106 worked at Netflix’s Los Angeles office, according to an application filed with the California Department of Employment Development. In addition to full-time employees, many of whom were in the animation division, Netflix also laid off dozens of contractors who worked on the company’s social media and publishing channels, including those dedicated to lesser-known identities like the powerful Black Leader, With Everything. . , More and Netflix Gold .
The layoffs followed the next round of layoffs, resulting in the loss of many full-time contractors and employees at Tudum, a Netflix fan site run by the marketing department. The company debuted Tudum in December last year to produce consumer digital content in its titles. weird bridgetton things, ᲡLove is blind s Seeing sunset.
The shift comes as Netflix continues to struggle and respond to a more challenging streaming environment, where it competes with tech giants like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, as well as studio conglomerate platforms like Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, HBO. Max and Discovery+. . (In Nielsen’s April Game of Thrones poll, about 46% of respondents said it was “harder to find the streaming video content they wanted to watch because there are so many streaming services available.”)
On April 19, Netflix announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year, well below the additional expectations of its own subscribers. Netflix recently reported a loss of subscribers in late 2011, and for much of the last decade, the company was seen as a growth story that brought the industry to a streaming-oriented present. Streamer, which has about 222 million subscribers worldwide, also gave a lower forecast for the next quarter and said it was preparing to lose another 2 million subscribers.
And it responded by controlling costs and reviving customer growth.
Asked in a earnings call of about $18 billion in content spending this year, Sarandos said, “We will continue to increase our content spending compared to previous years.” CFO Spencer Neumann added that Netflix is ”retreating” its “content and non-content spending increases” while “still increasing our costs and continuing to make aggressive investments”.
The company also said it is working on ways to share passwords, noting that 100 million households share the service. And it pointed to aggressive expansion beyond its core subscriber business model through the introduction of mobile games, including adaptations of its own series such as queen’s play s money theft – Also plans for cheaper tiers with advertising. (Netflix’s “Basic” subscription plan is currently $9.99 and its “Standard” tier is $15.49.)
“We leave a large segment of consumers off the table, these are people who say, ‘Look, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don’t care about advertising,'” Sarandos said on a panel at Cannes Lions. on June 23. Sweater. “We are adding an advertising layer; We don’t add ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’ve added ads for people who say, “Look, I want a low price and I’m seeing ads.”
Since January 3, the first day of trading of 2022, the streaming giant’s shares have dropped about 70%, from $597.37 to $177.39 on June 23.
On June 14, the service received a downgrade from Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan, taking the company from “hold” to “sell” at $157. A few days ago, Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan cut the company from “neutral”. ” to “sell” and lowered the company’s price target from $265 to $186, saying, “We are concerned about the impact of the recession on consumers as well as rising levels. From the broadcast competitors of “Competition”.
Alex Veprin contributed to this report.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
