Netflix sinks 37% after falling number of subscribers

shares left more than 37% of their value this Wednesday after the opening of Wall Street, after the

entertainment platform

confirmed the loss of

paying users during the first quarter of 2022 and anticipated a decline of another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.

This is the first drop in subscribers suffered in a decade.

In the first three months of 2022, Netflix trimmed its worldwide subscriber base to 221.64 million, an increase of 14 million paying users or 6.7% from the first quarter of 2021, but a drop of 200,000 subscribers compared to the fourth quarter of last year, its first decline in a decade.

In addition, the multinational anticipates that its number of subscribers worldwide

, when it expects to have 219.64 million subscribers, around 2 million paying users less than in the first quarter.

Netflix has pointed out that its first quarter results reflect the impact of

and the liquidation of all Russian payment accounts, which resulted in the loss of 700,000 subscribers, without which the platform would have increased in half a million users its number of subscribers.

Despite this loss of subscribers, the company's revenue figure in the first quarter increased by 9.8%, to 7,293 million euros and the multinational is confident that between April and June billing will grow by 9.7% year-on-year, up to 7,464 million euros.

However, the platform has acknowledged that revenue growth "has slowed considerably", pointing to the difficulties in increasing its turnover related to a relatively high penetration in households, when

is included , combined with the competition.

"We are not increasing revenue as fast as we would like," admitted the company, which is studying ways to monetize those households that enjoy the Netflix service through shared accounts and that the company estimates at around 100 million potential additional users.

In this sense, the co-CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, admitted during a conference with analysts that the company is studying the launch of a lower cost plan that would include the viewing of commercials.

"It's not a short-term solution, because once you start offering a lower priced plan with ads as an option, some consumers take it up. And we have a large installed base that is probably very happy where it is," the executive said. underlining that, in terms of profit potential, the online advertising market has advanced.

"We're probably not that far along, but no, I think it's pretty clear that it's working for Hulu. Disney is doing it. HBO did it. I don't think we have much doubt that it works," Hastings added.

"So I think we'll really get in," he said, clarifying that users who prefer to enjoy the service without ads will be able to continue doing so, while if they prefer to pay a lower price in exchange for viewing ads, it will also be possible.

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