The company said it lost 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter, falling well short of its forecast of adding 2.5 million subscribers. Suspending service in Russia after the Ukraine invasion took a toll, resulting in the loss of 700,000 members.
"Those who have followed Netflix know that I've been against the complexity of advertising, and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings."But, as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice." Mr Hastings told investors that the pandemic had"created a lot of noise," making it difficult for the company to interpret the surge and ebb of its subscription business over the last two years. Now, it appears the culprit is a combination of competition and the number of accounts sharing passwords, making it harder to grow.
Account-sharing is a longstanding practice, though Netflix is exploring ways to derive revenue from the 100 million households watching Netflix through shared accounts, including 30 million in the United States and Canada. The world's dominant streaming service was expected to report slowing growth, amid intense competition from established rivals like Amazon.com, traditional media companies such as the Walt Disney and the newly formed Warner Bros Discovery and cash-flush newcomers like Apple.
As growth slows in mature markets like the United States, Netflix is increasingly focused on other parts of the world and investing in local-language content.
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