Netflix shares plunged Tuesday after the company revealed its subscriber count shrank in the first quarter of 2022.
This phenomenon of losing subscribers is the first time in a decade of a leading streaming television service. The company blamed the event of the suspension of its services in Russia on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Netflix counted the first quarter of 2022 with 221.6 million subscribers, slightly lower than the last quarter of the previous year.
The Silicon Valley tech company reported a net profit of $1.6 billion in the quarter just ended, compared with $1.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. Netflix shares fell about 25 percent to $262 in trading following the release of the earnings figures.
"We're not increasing revenue as quickly as we'd like," Netflix said in an earnings letter.
"Covid is clouding the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that much of our slowing growth in 2021 is due to the fading of Covid going forward."
Netflix believes there are several factors hindering its growth. First, the time it takes homes to gain access to affordable broadband internet and smart television services, as well as subscribers who like to share accounts with people who don't live in their homes.
The streaming giant estimates that while it has nearly 222 million households paying for its services, accounts are shared with more than 100 million other households that don't pay for television streaming services.
"Account sharing as a percentage of our paid membership hasn't changed much over the years. But, coupled with the first factor, it means it's harder to grow membership in many markets," Netflix said.
However, some netizens think that Netflix is losing a lot of subscribers due to the increasing subscription prices and the return to routine from online to offline after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year Netflix began testing ways to make money from people who like to share accounts, the company added a feature that allows subscribers to pay extra to add to other household subscriptions.
But clearly, the other bigger factor for Netflix is stiff competition from giants like Apple and Disney.
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