Netflix lays off 300 employees

With falling subscriber growth and declining share price, Netflix has yet again laid off 300 employees on Thursday. This is the second consecutive month the streaming giant has let go of its employees. Netflix said in a statement, "Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees. While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth."

Last month Netflix laid off 150 employees, including staff at Tudum, which was part of the company's marketing team. The company had announced in April that it had lost 200,000 subscribers and was anticipating losing another 2 million in the second quarter of this year. Netflix has a total of around 222 million subscribers. Meanwhile, the company's stock price which had fallen about 70% this year, was slightly lower on Thursday. 

To fight the company's financial struggles, Netflix said it would introduce a lower-price subscription tier that includes advertising. This decision has been a significant strategic pivot for the company, which had rejected adopting ads for years. Experts say this could also cannibalize Netflix’s existing user base, with current subscribers trading down for a lower-priced tier.

Source: The New York Times