Losing can make giants reconsider their stature. Case in point, Netflix.
For the first time in 10 years, the world's most popular streaming platform did the opposite of gaining subscribers, making it realize that it's not as invulnerable as it believes.
Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, had a word with shareholders during the company's most recent quarterly earnings call. Hastings revealed that Netflix had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, and it will only get worse. After steadily gaining subscribers for the past 10 years, Hastings added that the platform will lose at least two more million accounts in the next quarter despite the return of Stranger Things, Ozark, and Better Call Saul, among others.
However, Hastings doesn't believe that the platform's diminishing numbers are the result of its competitors offering similarly compelling content for less. Instead, Hastings pointed out that the issue is with account sharing. Hastings explained that out of the 222 million paying households that watch Netflix, an additional 100 million homes are using shared accounts. This would imply that Hastings believes Netflix could reel in a hundred million more subscribers (or at least close to it) if everyone paid for their subscriptions individually, which is wishful thinking.

