By Obinna Ezenwa
Netflix has said it has lost 200,000 members in the first three months of the year, and has experienced a fall of its subscribers for the first time in more than a decade.
The streaming company disclosed this on Tuesday, saying the declines came after the firm raised prices in key markets including the US and UK, while pulling out of Russia.
The company also warned that more losses are coming. It maintained it will start to crack down on account sharing as it pushes to sign up new members.
According to its estimates, more than 100 million households break its rules by sharing passwords.
Boss Reed Hastings said: “When we were growing fast, it wasn’t a high priority to work on [account sharing]. And now we’re working super hard on it.”
Lucas Shaw, writer, Screen time newsletter for Bloomberg news, told newsmen that password sharing had been an issue for Netflix “for a long time”.
“It feels like the company is trying to identify an area of potential growth.
“They’ve tried to curb password sharing in the past and had a very hard time.” he said.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said a surge in sign-ups it saw during the pandemic had “obscured the picture” and it warned that another two million subscribers were likely to leave in the three months to July.
“Our revenue growth has slowed considerably as our results and forecast below show,” the company said.
The last time the company lost members in a quarter was October 2011. It still boasts more than 220 million subscribers globally.
