Netflix Lost $54 Billion Overnight

Netflix the groundbreaking streamer has had a series of bad news this year and it’s damaging to the company’s stock value taking a huge hit. In January they posted their most major loss after disclosing they didn’t hit their subscriber numbers, and now they’ve eclipsed that bad news with their first-quarter report of 2022 which showed they’ve lost 200,000 subscribers and anticipate losing 2 million more next quarter.

Naturally, shareholders didn’t much care for that news, and as stocks were sold off, the price was 35.1% in a single day. That translates to $54.4 billion market value lost in one day. Coupled with the January hit, Netflix has lost a 65% of its value as a company in the last six months.

There is a variety of reasons why this is happening. We’re fully entering a post-lockdown world where a Netflix subscription isn’t as important as it was two years ago, for one thing, while the costs of basic needs are growing across the country. There are many other cheaper streaming options that seem to be more plugged into the water cooler conversation side of things, as well, like Disney+, HBO Max, and Apple TV+ which are all growing their subscriber base instead of shedding them.

They’re heavily considering eliminating the password sharing that’s been created into the service since the start, estimating that as many as 100 million homes are streaming Netflix this way. They’re also thinking about a less expensive tier that would force you to watch ads.

That they think this would appeal to those who have been password sharing and might eventually get them to subscribe is stupid. Netflix has been steadily increasing its prices, and if they block password sharing all they’re going to do is get rid of more subscribers.

Listen, I get it. These are people who are using the service without paying for it, but the problem is that was a feature built into Netflix from the beginning. It gave the service a lot of value if parents could let their college kids log into their account, and Netflix loved it because they were growing so quickly that all that did was help make them the behemoth they are today. Taking that away now, especially as basic subscription costs keep going up, only removes that perceived value, and like it or not, Netflix isn’t the only name in town anymore. Their competition is smoking them in terms of content that people give a crap about. It’s easier than ever for a disgruntled Netflix subscriber to cut that service off and get two other services for the same price they were paying for Netflix.

All that said, Netflix is still the founder of the streaming trend and some of their biggest fish are coming back this year like “Stranger Things,” so counting them out would be stupid.