Netflix has laid off about 150 people, mostly in the United States, as the streaming service company faces slowing business growth.
The layoffs represent approximately 2 percent of the company’s workforce in the United States and Canada.
“These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues,” Netflix said in a news statement. “We’re working hard to support them through this very difficult transition.”
The job cuts come as Netflix reported its first loss of subscribers in more than a decade and forecast deeper losses in the coming quarter. It said the war in Ukraine and fierce competition contributed to the loss of customers.
As a result of its declining growth, Netflix said it would introduce a cheaper, ad-supported tier and look more closely at its spending.
“We’re trying to be smart about it and prudent in terms of pulling back on some of that spend growth to reflect the realities of the revenue growth of the business,” Netflix Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann told investors during the company’s most recent earnings call.
Netflix reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2022 — its first decline in paid users in more than a decade. Netflix is forecasting a paid subscriber loss of 2 million for the second quarter.
First quarter revenue of Netflix increased nearly 10 percent to $7.87 billion. Net income of Netflix fell 6.4 percent to $1.6 billion, down from $1.7 billion the year prior.
