A month after the streaming giant said it was losing customers for the first time in a decade, Netflix has laid off approximately 150 employees.
The layoffs, which the entertainment behemoth announced on Tuesday, would mostly affect its California operations. They make up around 2% of the company’s North American workforce.
Netflix attributed the employment cuts to a drop in income.
This year, the streaming service is seeing a viewer exodus.
“These adjustments are generally motivated by business needs rather than individual performance,” the firm said in a statement. “This makes them extremely difficult because none of us want to say goodbye to such outstanding colleagues.”
Although it was not specified which sectors of the company would lose jobs, the Los Angeles Times stated that recruiting, communications, and the content department would all be affected.
Some folks also posted about their job loss on social media.
In April, the streaming behemoth stunned the industry by revealing that it had lost 200,000 members in the first three months of 2022, with another two million set to leave in the next quarter.
The announcement caused a sell-off among investors, with the company’s shares dropping 35% in one day. It is now worth $190 (£152), down 46 percent from its recent high.
While Netflix continues to be the obvious market leader with 220 million users worldwide, it has experienced severe competition in recent years with the introduction of alternative services such as Disney Plus, HBO, and Amazon’s Prime Video.
Last month, the corporation said that the situation in Ukraine and its decision to hike pricing in the United States had cost it customers.
It was claimed that leaving the Russian market had cost the firm 700,000 users.
In addition to employee cuts, the corporation is reducing content and limiting its own inventions. In an effort to save money, it terminated the creation of Pearl, an animated series produced by Meghan Markle.
According to some experts, Netflix has ran out of straightforward methods to build the business following a boom in sign-ups during the epidemic.
The business claims it is considering a more cost-effective ad-based approach, as well as tightening down on password sharing, which it claims has cost it 100 million homes.
Netflix isn’t the only company cutting jobs. In recent weeks, a number of US IT businesses, from start-ups to large names like Uber and Twitter, have announced hiring slowdowns or freezes, or, in the case of online auto sales firm Carvana, layoffs, blaming a slump.
