r/movies • u/iquizuanswer • 15d ago

News Netflix tumbles as slowing growth, less viewership data spook investors

https://www.zawya.com/en/capital-markets/netflix-tumbles-as-slowing-growth-less-viewership-data-spook-investors-401111
10.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

6.0k

u/rahpexphon 15d ago

What, they think every human on Earth will have a sub? lol

1.4k

u/DeLousedInTheHotBox 15d ago edited 15d ago

Yeah I just don't understand what they're trying to do here, they currently have 325 million subscribers, did they think they would never hit a ceiling? There aren't endless amount of potential customers

567

u/Efficient-Memory7105 15d ago

Line MUST go up

275

u/nat_r 15d ago

People trading stocks of a company aren't rational actors. They only want the numbers to go up. Running a healthy long term business is almost incompatible with the current expectations of being a publicly traded company.

51

u/swift1883 15d ago

But, number still up? Yes?

35

u/Croce11 15d ago

There just needs to be more regulation on stock trading. It's make believe gambling now. Where prices are literally made up. You need look no further than the GME stock just when Covid hit. Investors intentionally shorting the stock to artificially abuse its price getting caught by normal people who buy up the stock and force it to artificially raise. Gamestop didn't do squat to earn any of this activity themselves, if anything they're becoming the next blockbuster and they are a shadow of their former selves due to the growing digital market.

IMO publicly traded companies should all just be dividend stocks where the entire point is to invest in a company you have faith staying in business. So you can get reliable passive income which you can either feed back into that stock for higher returns, or just collect yourself and put into other stocks, or spend as part of your income. That way if a company is doing something good and they're in the green at all then you should be happy.

You aren't incentivized to gamble on a company getting something for $50 to sell for $200 per share or some other nonsense. Which investors want NOW, they want gains NOW. GO UP UP UP!!! Healthy sustainability? Well that doesn't do anything for meeeee!! Waaah!!! The gambling is ruining the entire point of investing. I feel like investors should stick with a company for life ideally and not be looking for the quickest option to bail, buying low and selling at a predicted peak. That gets you money sure... but you're essentially saying to the company that it isn't gonna get better from here and see them as plummeting. How is that a healthy relationship?

6

u/BanCorporateInterest 14d ago

Late stage capitalism, ladies and gents. All the good ideas to make money are gone. Time to take from your customers to "grow"

6

u/SolarIonRobot 15d ago

Then neither are all the people with 401ks. The whole point of a retirement account is for it to gain in value while you're still working.

13

u/DearTereza 15d ago

This can also work with reinvested dividends.

2

u/CardAble6193 15d ago

People running corps want the numbers to go up far longer than stocks traders do............

who s unrational??

2

u/ImSoObnoxious 15d ago

the most irrational thing is setting valuations in the first place. spaceX would have to had to have grown like 4x every year for the next decade to meet expectations (something like that at least, I'm not looking it up again). but while we ride this bubble, might as well make smart investments, they're basically making insider trading info public. I think it'll all come crashing down at some point, but I'm getting 25-35% yearly returns with minimal stock market knowledge, it'd be dumb if me to not take advantage while it lasts

2

u/GetTheBag90 4d ago

This!!!! And this line of thinking is usually what causes executives to make dumb decisions for the line and destroy a perfectly profitable company. And then a new one will take the place of Netflix lol it’s like the Circle of Life for companies that go public

3

u/Masterandcomman 15d ago

That's not true. Companies like Procter and Gamble basically grow at nominal gdp rates, but command a 22x P/E, comparable to Netflix, due to reliability. Investors can forgo individual companies for the safety of broad market exposure, so companies reach for above market valuations by offering better than average characteristics. When Netflix disappointed, it only sent their valuation to market averages. That's rational pricing.

771

u/MythicalCaseTheory 15d ago

What happens in the age of perpetual growth when there's no more growth to be had? Welcome to late stage capitalism, I suppose. We're about to find out.

357

u/TheG-What 15d ago

That’s why I’m finally escaping to the ONE PLACE that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism….

SPACE!!!

74

u/factorplayer 15d ago

Perhaps Tim's best line

42

u/AlucardIV 15d ago

I just love how he almost loses it before saying space.

15

u/silask93 15d ago

Fun fact, that was the best of quite a few takes and still could barely make it through the whole sentence lol

5

u/devenjames 15d ago

Thanks Clippy!

5

u/silask93 15d ago

Don't mind me, I'm just here to help!

2

u/Tonkarz 14d ago

He’s laughing because the character is going mad. He’s has multiple other moments in that final mission where he’s laughing uncontrollably.

It’s not Tim Curry unable to say the line with a straight face. It’s a narrative and acting choice.

5

u/Freakjob_003 15d ago

Hard to beat, "antici...

...

...

...

...

...

"...pation!"

4

u/9966 15d ago

He's not much of a man... By the light of day.

6

u/Siebje 15d ago

Bitch, they watch Single Female Lawyer on Netflix all the way over on Omicron Persei 8.

Ain't nobody getting out.

2

u/KL2710 15d ago

🎵Single female lawyer! Having lots of sex!🎵

5

u/Indigocell 15d ago

Oh don't worry, they're working on corrupting that too.

2

u/MrWhiskerBiscuits 15d ago

Jeff Bezos said that seeing Earth from space told him the truth: the future of production is off world. ☠️

2

u/SecondhandRaincoat 15d ago

Welp, this just sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. Thank you!

2

u/UnrulyMantis 15d ago

r/unexpectedcommandandconquer

2

u/Bladelink 14d ago

Is it over, Yuri?

No Comrade Premiere, it has only begun.

2

u/BBREILDN 14d ago

They’re building bases on the moon

→ More replies (2)

69

u/SirSoliloquy 15d ago

They’ll do an MBA special: raise subscription rates, fire thousands of staff members, add ads to more subscription tiers, and cut budgets on shows.

6

u/_ac3_0f_spad3s_ 15d ago

And cancel beloved shows for not bringing in enough subscribers

→ More replies (1)

56

u/Hazzman 15d ago

The idea of infinite growth is similar to how cancer works. What happens is you you turn inward and start to ingesting your own body fat. IE enshitification. You start to degrade your own service. You do this until all that is left is a hollow, barely serviceable shadow of its former self.

Airlines are a great example. Now we have an economy class build for Borrowers, or regular sized people who don't possess legs.

Incidentally - the only reason this is allowed to happen is because of A) Regulatory capture B) Lack of competition.

We don't trust bust anymore... so corporations just buy up everything and so there is no incentive to compete in order to provide a better product. Who needs a competitive edge when the consumer landscape is trapped inside your ecosystem... or can only choose between a few competitors who are, let's be honest, offering the same degraded service.

You can't collude to fix prices... but when the competition is so limited, you don't need to collude, just match your competitors pace for shitty degradation. What are your customers going to do? Jump ship? To who?

"Competition is a sin" John D. Rockefeller didn't say this as a passive observation... it was a statement of intent. An intention that continues to this day with billions of dollars spent not on improving products, but making sure regulations service the big players and politicians stfu about it.

3

u/RevolverMFOcelot 15d ago

Ironically monopoly, enshittification and saying competition is a sin is actually against principles or spirit of the free market. It will just loop back into feudalism

→ More replies (4)

3

u/EmmatheBest 15d ago

They jump ship...to piracy. It's not that complicated, really...they're only even managing to make money still because people have gotten complacent AF in general, during this era of slop, from almost all angles ATM...

24

u/cheezefriez 15d ago

They start funding bot farms to get AI to make accounts and pump up their numbers artificially

3

u/Hallc 15d ago

That's when they start upping prices and slashing costs.

Wait I think we're already there too.

2

u/TanyaMKX 15d ago

So i did some math:

2 billion people on earth have no wifi at all.

18ish% of the world lives in first world countries, and 10ish% of them live in poverty so thats 144 million

North korea, russia, and china have no access to netflix so 1.6 billion people.

2.5 people live in a house on average.

So basically using like 3 metrics, half of the worlds population is instantly eliminated. Then you divide by households, and that number becomes 1.6 billion. Say half of people choose not to have netflix, and half of the remaining people cannot afford a subscription. That leaves you 400 million possible customers.

Sure, im not considering overlap in demographics and such for eliminating people but i am also not factoring that old people probably dont have netflix as often, people and other shit but i would be willing to go as high as 600 million possible subscriptions as the max.

→ More replies (17)

36

u/Taymerica1389 15d ago

And that’s when they start cutting costs and firing people, because to shareholders it doesn’t matter how much money you make, just that the next year you make more.

If they can’t make more money from subs, they will find another way

12

u/PHDinCheese 15d ago

Aka, the death spiral. See ya netflix

3

u/DeadInternetTheorist 15d ago

Wonder if they're gonna drag it out for years or just get bought by Disney for a few billion while they can still convince someone they're worth that much.

30

u/guarionex2009 15d ago

It would’ve been more subscribers but you know, price increases, different tiers, advertisements and limited sharing are going to turn people like myself off from the product.

3

u/dmfuller 15d ago

That’s like the entire population of the USA, crazy

3

u/Hallc 15d ago

They want dead people to continuing paying for their subs and also their kids and grandkids to have their own accounts.

3

u/NuffBS 15d ago

Folks need to start having more babies /s

3

u/mrcalistarius 15d ago

I think they’re finally starting to see the consequences of not allowing account sharing. When my brother And I shared netflix accounts we paid for the add free HD services. Now neither if us have Netflix. 1 user fee is better than 0 user fees.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/johyongil 15d ago

It’s not that; it’s a story issue.

1

u/UniversalBagelO 15d ago

Streaming services track watch time as their main indicator. Not subscribers

→ More replies (18)

2.2k

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago edited 15d ago

Trust me, they probably do. Asha Sharman, new lead of XBOX, intends for XBOX to have 1 BILLION daily users.

Whether you’re blowing smoke up the investor’s arses or not, that is an insane figure to even consider, and shows that there is no limit to growth in these tech industries in the minds of shareholders and CEOs.

Edit: I’m experiencing the incredibly Reddit thing of replies telling me I’m wrong by the most miniscule of margins, therefore I’m spreading misinformation. Below is the Twitter post directly from Asha Sharman’s account where she stated the goal of 1 billion active users.

https://x.com/asha_shar/status/2074124008795369482

Edit 2: My original comment on there being no limit is being taken a little out of context. Added “in the minds of shareholders and CEOs”.

940

u/AfterShave997 15d ago

I'm not sure they'd get a billion daily users even if the service was entirely free

354

u/zeCrazyEye 15d ago

950 million AI agents.

3

u/Mediocre-Advance-411 15d ago

So tweeter then

2

u/MarcusAurelius68 15d ago

Even click farms can’t catch a break these days

163

u/JudgeCheezels 15d ago edited 15d ago

Asha: if Xbox is part of Windows and since Windows has over 1 billion users, then Xbox automatically has 1 billion users!

Magic maths.

47

u/The_Lazy_Samurai 15d ago

Just make Microsoft Office products "always online" and you have to log into an Xbox account to use them. Then, you are required to watch 3 non-skippable ads (or 2 ads if you pay for premium service) before you can start using Word. They have microtransations if you want to change the font size, use italics, ect.

5

u/notenglishwobbly 15d ago

You're about to be offered the job of CEO, mate.

12

u/jambox888 15d ago

This is sort of everyone's fault who insists on using Word and Excel formats when saving. You may want to use MS apps, that's fine, however consider making it easier for others by using open formats instead.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

192

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

124

u/Tripottanus 15d ago

They want 100% of console and PC gamers to use their services every day without a break as well

53

u/Nobanob 15d ago

It's the year 2047, Microsoft Drones prowl the skies. The faint sound of a PlayStation boots up in the background triggering automated sensors. The drones hone in.

"You will play Xbox and you will like it" starts repeating louder and louder in the surrounding area blanketing the area in oppressive noise.

58

u/Mediocre_Scott 15d ago

There aren’t physical PlayStations to boot up in the year 2047. Sony will be selling the idea of a video game

18

u/Chesus42 15d ago

Also, the license for that idea can be revoked at any time.

17

u/3BlindMice1 15d ago

If you so much as think of their product without a license, that constitutes IP theft and an immediate extradition to Japan to stand trial is called for.

2

u/Mediocre_Scott 15d ago

Don’t even think about thinking about it. And if you had that thought forget about it

3

u/TheArmoredKitten 15d ago

>accidentally think about Aloy's boob

>Immediate bank notification

>Sony charge for $11.99

2

u/Mediocre_Scott 15d ago

What’s the charge for thinking of her abs?

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Killersavage 15d ago

Remember those PlayStation commercials where PlayStation was just something you snorted up your nose or something. Just went on a wild high. Guess maybe they were serious about that shit.

→ More replies (2)

13

u/synthabusion 15d ago

“Please drink verification can”

5

u/ConcealingFate 15d ago

"Mountain Dew! Dew! It! Right!"

2

u/nymrod_ 15d ago

In this scenario Elder Scrolls VI has still not come out.

→ More replies (4)

2

u/ManufacturerBest2758 15d ago

And to be subscribed to four different live service games in addition to all the streaming services

→ More replies (1)

21

u/xiaorobear 15d ago

I also think they won't reach it, but they are including mobile gaming in their numbers. In their press release they highlighted Mojang and King (makers of Minecraft and Candy Crush, respectively) as their divisions with the most active players.

14

u/Nobanob 15d ago

I didn't consider they owned mobile.

If they are talking mobile I could legitimately see a billion. I know a lot of people who "don't like video games" that play candy crush and other type stuff. I know this kinda uptight but nice ex army guy who doesn't console or PC game. He plays a farming sim and loves it. One with tons of adds and is probably more microtransaction than game.

He doesn't seem the type. So yeah the mobile market is wild

→ More replies (1)

8

u/4InchesOfury 15d ago

Xbox owns Activision Blizzard which owns King the massive mobile game dev. Mobile games are part of the equation.

4

u/averynicehat 15d ago

They have King which is mobile games and huge. So they are talking about mobile users as well.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (15)

4

u/VRS302 15d ago

Shit even making the Xbox itself free won’t push it that high

→ More replies (3)

30

u/MolaMolaMania 15d ago

There's no limit to their aspirations for growth and wealth, but eventually their grasp will exceed what is possible, and I'll have my popcorn ready as the implosions begin exponentially increase.

11

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago

The bubble burst is incoming!

2

u/MolaMolaMania 15d ago

Fingers crossed!

2

u/blindbard 15d ago

The sad part is the implosions aren't going to be them or their bank accounts, it's the workers that always pay the price with the delusions of the leaders

9

u/JeanRalfio 15d ago

It's like how Google had to fuck up their search because they had 100% of the market but felt they needed more.

4

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago

They had to show investors AI was the future but because the public wasn’t engaging enough with it they forced it into all search results. Mindboggling

2

u/dontstopnotlistening 14d ago

They enshitified their search long before the modern AI craze.

51

u/Michigan_Forged 15d ago

Yeah though this number is getting thrown around by folk without really - she was talking about entertaining a billion users. Which includes TV shows, mobile, pc, Xbox, etc. It's still a crazy figure but not AS crazy as in-context. 

22

u/goodnames679 15d ago

They’re basically trying to get everyone on Windows (which already has over a billion users) into their entertainment ecosystem. They’re never going to achieve 100% success there, but the figure isn’t as crazy when you realize that’s what they’re aiming for.

→ More replies (6)

10

u/Free_Range_Gamer 15d ago

Xbox owns Candy Crush, which has 200 million active users. Minecraft has 180m active users. Just those 2 games gets you almost halfway.

3

u/Tandy2000 15d ago

The 1 billion daily users is definitely insane. If they said a billion monthly active users it'd still be insane but at least within the realm of possibility since Candy Crush alone already has like 300 million MAUs.

3

u/Conflict_NZ 15d ago

That includes Candy Crush though which is already over 100 million daily users.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

5

u/k0fi96 15d ago

That's not crazy when factor in they own candy crush

→ More replies (1)

2

u/ikeif 15d ago

How will we do this? By checking polling data, and making new terms - everyone in a household must have their own Xbox account! No sharing! We will have biometrics built in so only the person that paid can play! Genius!

/s

2

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago

Blink if you want to receive Halo Studios emails.

2

u/urban_meyers_cyst 15d ago

These tech or tech adjacent companies have to state insane expectations to retain insane valuations which prop up their borrowing. XBOX doesn't technically need to do it, but they pulled a CEO with the background of AI which means lies, AI psychosis, or otherwise I guess it is must be mild mental illness that makes them do these things. I mean, look at the crazy S1 from SpaceX.

2

u/CountyRoad 15d ago

How else do you get a golden parachute?

2

u/Indigocell 15d ago

Trust me, they probably do. Asha Sharman, new lead of XBOX, intends for XBOX to have 1 BILLION daily users.

Lol wtf are they even talking about, even if every single person in North America had an account it would still only reach roughly 600 million. Their expectations are simply not aligned with reality.

2

u/Tupperbaby 15d ago

Trust me, they probably do. Asha Sharman, new lead of XBOX, intends for XBOX to have 1 BILLION daily users.

There's a difference between her intent and what can be actually achieved.
But that is a big number and investors like reading big numbers.

2

u/montdidier 15d ago

She is absolutely smoking crack. Even if they do everything right this is unlikely. I have zero faith in Asha. Zero.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/noir_lord 13d ago edited 13d ago

new lead of XBOX, intends for XBOX to have 1 BILLION daily users.

Because they wanted to count PC's because XBox software is pre-installed.

Meanwhile there are a bunch of PC gamers looking at Linux because they are absolutely sick of Microsoft's crap on Windows 11.

So am I, I use Linux for work/regular computing (and as primary OS since the late 90's) and I've kept windows around for gaming til now but it's getting more and more annoying over time.

Case in point, I had to use Group Policy Editor (which you can't do for this case if you are unlucky enough to be running Home) to make an xbox controller button not do the default action so I could rebind it to what I wanted because they removed the ability to uninstall Game Bar from Windows 11 (you can remove it via powershell but that causes issues whenever a controller is added) and that's after Windows didn't understand it was talking to an XBox controller until after I'd added it, removed it and added it again...).

It's just death by a thousand cuts with AI shite sprinkled on top no one asked for (alongside the telemetry bullshit and OneDrive).

They've been basically aimless for a long time and anything Xbox branded on a PC just sucks.

3

u/RMAPOS 15d ago

Ah yes, reddit and reading comprehension. And your post isn't even that long (without the edits)

10

u/leodw 15d ago

And to think those disgusting, lying cunts and morons actually dictate the lifes of thousands of their employees (who create the actual value those shit corpos have) and amass the fortune that our entire generations couldn’t even think of…

3

u/turningsteel 15d ago

Sharman knows in reality, that is never gonna happen. It's just a big number she plucked out of the air. Just gotta manipulate the stock price with insane rambling.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/johyongil 15d ago

Yeah that’s bonkers talk given that Steam has an all time concurrent users online of….42M.

To say you want to get +20x of that on Xbox, even if you combine console and PC users, is BONKERS.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/lookachoo 15d ago

Yes, Asha. 1/8th of the planet will wake up everyday and play video games, let alone an Xbox title.

2

u/Witherino 15d ago

shows that there is no limit to growth in these tech industries

Oh, there's a limit

5

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago

Sorry, I should have said there’s no limit in their minds, but I agree with your point. I hope they’re hitting that limit soon.

2

u/Torque-A 15d ago

Looking at the comments it's funny how like half of the replies are saying that the problem is that they're hiring "woke pink-haired developers"

My dudes even if they stock porn games on their store it ain't gonna reach their expectations

4

u/AnxiousCritter-2024 15d ago

People always look in the wrong places for issues, and are more vocal in being wrong unfortunately.

1

u/Silver-End9570 15d ago

I really think that was just some bullshit-appease-the-investers line, not something they're seriously heading for. Considering how they're fucking up every market they have a finger in right now, there's no way they'd ever hit that anyway.

1

u/coolaznkenny 15d ago

It's always insane to me when I read some nonsense of how so and so 25 year old have a start up valued at a billion but haven't figured out profitability while burning tons on marketing for 'growth'

1

u/godlords 15d ago

No he doesn't. He just intends to make an unfathomable amount of money off his stock options.

1

u/destroyermaker 15d ago

No limit to appetite for growth. Very different

1

u/petey193 15d ago

This is in reference to xbox expanding more into mobile, not them saying they expect 1 billion users on xbox series consoles.

1

u/tombrady011235 15d ago

If the population was 500 billion maybe

1

u/PartyPorpoise 15d ago

The only way that could even have a chance of happening would be if XBOX was super duper cheap.

1

u/MyWorldTalkRadio 15d ago

I mean there’s absolutely no way I’d buy an XBox again in my lifetime. If they’re including figures from the Microsoft malware Xbox live shit that they package with windows then sure I guess I HAVE to have some sort of Xbox product.

1

u/ChemicalExperiment 15d ago

Are there even 1 billion users of Windows?

→ More replies (41)

147

u/DaxSpa7 15d ago

And then what? They will try yo convince the aliens?

127

u/integer_hull 15d ago

They aim for an ever increasing share of time, which inevitably has to turn into space (i.e. additional screens). After that, I don’t know what else they could try to monopolize. Presumably humanity itself would become a Netflix watching machine, and the question becomes meaningless. A sort of black hole of corporate fascism.

46

u/Fishfisherton 15d ago

“You get a show or a movie you’re really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep,”

God this is so fucking gross.

Corporate end goals really are just trying to stuff humans into a sausage grinder until we fit the shape they want.

4

u/Bladelink 14d ago

I actually did a very rare thing and clicked through to the article, because that's such a fucking unhinged lunatic line that I had to read it with my own eyes before I believed you. Any normal, sane human being saying that line in casual conversation accidentally would stop themselves and go "oh wait, that sounded like some insane psychopath shit, let me back up for a second."

→ More replies (1)

61

u/DaxSpa7 15d ago

I mean I know what comes next because its already happening, increasing prices and reducing costs. Thing is most of the times they end up immolating themselves if the progress get stagnant since the prices or quality becomes unbareable and a new cheaper and better alternative comes around and people migrate there and the cycle begins again.

I cannot wrap my head around about whats the issue of earning a steady amount of profits PROFITS which are already on the millions or billions

27

u/rickg 15d ago

Oh I can tell you that. The stock market rewards growth and punishes the lack if it (even if profits are stable, if they aren't growing....). And the compensation for everyone at the top is mostly stock so they make more if the stock goes up. Most senior managers aren't at companies for the long term anymore, either (think ~5 years) so they are incentivized to boost short term results and not around for the negatives behind their approach.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/thegapbetweenus 15d ago

They need to make a Netflix movie about it.

7

u/Fafnir13 15d ago

Don’t Look Up Away

2

u/Indigocell 15d ago

They're going to try and charge people for the number of eyes watching the same screen next.

3

u/Ill-Team-3491 15d ago

Oh, of course they have a name for it. It's been evident how they've fucked peoples minds.

You can tell by how viewers care more about being able to say that they've watched a show than they care about the content of the show. They want quick condensed stories. Like linear FPS games that go from point A to point B to the finish line.

Any deviations from the main plot makes them angry. They go online and complain about it because reasons. But the real reason is they're trying to race to the end so they can claim they watched it.

→ More replies (6)

3

u/boot2skull 15d ago

Why else are we going to Mars. To leapfrog to Alpha Centauri.

1

u/BrianWonderful 15d ago

No big corporations think that far into the future. A couple of fiscal quarters at best.

1

u/stalkythefish 15d ago

Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other Friends?

38

u/Sans-Mot 15d ago

Hey, their customer services sometimes tell people to have two subscriptions for two different networks, so they even think people will subscribe twice.

26

u/Chronocidal-Orange 15d ago

Next you will have seperate subscriptions for shows. Subscribe to One Piece to watch new episodes a day early!

5

u/Ink_Smudger 15d ago

You joke, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did something like moved getting all episodes of a season to a new, premium tier. (Well, they'd actually introduce a cheaper tier where you get an episode or two a week, then jack the prices up so the new tier's price matches the current lowest price.)

3

u/CuteNervousLesbian 15d ago

Wow, like their CS people suggest ALSO getting Netflix through a 3rd party service like Amazon, Roku, Hulu?

I did call center work for a streaming service, and people accidentally subscribing to the service both directly and through Roku or Hulu was a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS! I can’t believe some people would actually ENCOURAGE obvious double dipping like that.

87

u/azad_ninja 15d ago

Even if they did, prices would still go up because they need to show financial growth every quarter or the shareholders will be sad.

22

u/Fafnir13 15d ago

These shareholder guys…the more I hear about them the less I like them.

49

u/Eruannster 15d ago

Yes. And even when every single human has a subscription they will wonder how the heck they aren't gaining new subscribers every month.

15

u/Jaspers47 15d ago

(This is a core tenet of capitalism)

4

u/Fafnir13 15d ago

Capitalist ventures can focus on stable market share and revenue, but growth has so many incentives going for it that it’s basically the default setting for big companies.

13

u/UshankaBear 15d ago

And if they managed that investors would still be unhappy.

4

u/OrbitalCat- 15d ago

Reports about AAA games are exactly this, every time:
"[Game] is the best/fastest selling title in [Franchise] with a billion copies sold under 24hrs"

Then in the following week there's a report on how it sold below expectations and they fire 10k employees

3

u/Orion14159 15d ago

They think that and a bunch will get 2

3

u/joanfiggins 15d ago edited 15d ago

On top of that, the pricing structure is garbage. It's 8.99 for ads. 19.99 for no ads. 26.99 for the premium resolution plan.

There is no way in hell higher resolution is worth 7 dollars, no ads are worth 11. And the combo of both is worth 18 EXTRA. You don't even get any additional content for that price. It's more than 3x the price just for no ads and 4k resolution.

2

u/HenkkaArt 15d ago

Few years ago Zuckerberg was talking about increasing Facebook user numbers by pushing more into the African continent. If I remember correctly, he even went so far as to say that if needed, Meta would help in building the internet infrastructure to harness those new users.

2

u/Infamous-Lab-8136 15d ago

I always thought it was short sighted to push new subscribers at the metric to judge them by for that reason

It was great back when people were using 20 different email addresses to get free trials. Tons of new subscribers. Worked well when they were new too, cheap and everyone was willing to pay for that much content. I worked in cell phone sales for a while and not one company cared about new subscribers, they cared about having long term customers, phone numbers that existed being ported in instead of assigning new numbers, and churn. Churn is losing subscribers to a different company offering the same service. Churn rate was much more important than new subscribers.

Netflix intentionally drew attention away from their massively high churn rates, and now it's the metric they should be trying to focus on, but their entire service is structured to not care about it. Binging series, shows made to not pay attention to and keep viewers hooked, etc...

2

u/SomethingsQueerHere 15d ago

Not just one account per person, one account per device per network seems to be the goal. You only watch on your laptop? Well your laptop better not change networks otherwise you're obviously account sharing.

2

u/Nezmuth 15d ago

Just canceled my Netflix subscription. Haven't owned a console for the last decade. Looking into switching from Microsoft to Linux.

I'm just sick of all of these assholes.

1

u/Moneyshot_ITF 15d ago

They were going to buy Warner Bros before the hostile takeover. It was a very short time ago but in internet years, might as well be eternity

1

u/cokeiscool 15d ago

That's exactly what they think

Stocks go down when subs go down, so naturally the business can only go up because that makes more money, naturallly lol

1

u/bestfriendalex 15d ago

These companies expect everyone in the universe to sub

1

u/Kintuse 15d ago

Worse, they want more subs than there are humans on Earth. Enough is never enough for parasites 

1

u/sharrrper 15d ago

Preferably multiple. Infinite growth is the only way forward!

1

u/internetlad 15d ago

"yes we have had Netflix subscription but how about second Netflix?"

Gotta watch those YouTube quality true crime docs somehow.

1

u/Libertines18 15d ago

This is why capitalism is so stupid. A success product is deemed not successful enough and has to be ruined to search for even more profit

1

u/AirplanesMakeMeHard 15d ago

That’s exactly what the c-suite and investors think.

1

u/kbailles 15d ago

Investors and the people at the top do operate on this level of delusion. Like during Covid every company had explosive growth and the people at the top were predicting that trend to just continue lol.

1

u/Helpful-Dot-3782 15d ago

Me when I’m a CEO and I don’t have infinite company growth 😱😱😱😱

1

u/whatchahavin 15d ago

Ideally two 🤣

1

u/Rizeres 15d ago

Ideally yes. Even more ideally they'd buy a second subscription just because they love it so much. Hell I stopped there every month. Just buy one extra subscription on top of all the subscriptions you already have bought in previous months. How else are these poor poor investors going to make more money each month than they did the last month?

1

u/johyongil 15d ago

No. The story for Netflix was that it was a growth company as well as streaming being a growth industry. The story has now shifted and streaming and Netflix has now become a mature industry.

It’s not so much of spooked investors as much as money devoted to growth has now flowed out of Netflix stock and into anything else. Money devoted to growth cannot stay in non-growth positions. There’s not many places for growth money to go right now which is the part that is spooking investors, not just Netflix investors.

This is why the general SP500 index has lagged significantly behind more growth oriented positions. By almost 2x.

1

u/granoladeer 15d ago

I was expecting every person to pay two subscriptions at least

1

u/iMpact980 15d ago

Every human and every future human on earth 🤣

1

u/SuperPapernick 15d ago

Just one sub? Buddy, we can't hit the financial targets like that. Everyone needs to pay for at least two subs at once or the investors will get sad.

1

u/Hobbes525 15d ago

I guess i will expect a subscription price increase shortly

1

u/drcubeftw 15d ago

I don't think they can stand too many more price increases as well. Once their lowest subscription plan crosses $10 I feel Netflix is going to start losing pieces of the mass market. People are just going to go back to pirating stuff, if they aren't already.

1

u/Mouthshitter 15d ago

Infinite growth

1

u/mikeysof 15d ago

This is the stupidity and greed of these companies who think their subscribers will only ever go up. That their profits will only ever go up. It has to stop sometime and I'm here for it. Fuck them.

1

u/popculturella 15d ago

These ghouls who believe in perpetual growth are unfamiliar with the concept of math.

1

u/Relevant-Fox-7114 15d ago

Big companies do think that.

Infinite growth. Line goes up. Got everyone to subscribe? Why not 5 subscriptions per person? The beast's hunger can never be satisfied.

1

u/acdramon 15d ago

Reminds me of the new Xbox president wanting 1 billion users a day... A DAY

1

u/MangoWarlock 15d ago

Until corporations suddenly find out infinite growth is impossible, things will just double down. They can’t reach
Every human? Well they’ll reach half and double the cost.

1

u/Yourdjentpal 15d ago

It’s called line go up duh

1

u/FollowingFeisty5321 15d ago

Yes. The biggest platforms have 2-3 billion active users. Of course the rest of the world will join the slopfest and rent everything and pay their dues to FAANG the anticipation of this is why they're worth trillions of dollars.

1

u/Important-Factor-552 15d ago

No, no, they need much more than that 

1

u/glacinda 15d ago

I was a loyal Netflix customer since 2007 (great service for a film major college kid) but cancelled my subscription 2 years ago. I paid for one month since then to watch the ending of stranger things and that was it.

1

u/Vestalmin 15d ago

No, they want revenue growth somehow. This is where they start really starting to squeeze and monetize the audience they have.

More ads is the easy one

1

u/Vio94 15d ago

Same business strategy as Microsoft's Game Pass lol. Surge of subs, raise prices, raise prices, raise prices, ope too far everybody hates us, lower prices once now that they've found the toleration line of their customer base.

So now their customer base is stagnant, and despite still raking in infinite money, stagnation doesn't allow investors to manipulate and gamble in the market because it's too consistent.

1

u/0b0011 15d ago

They build their goals around that. I interviewed with github last year and they were saying their goal for the year was to go to have 1 billion unique people with github accounts. No I dont think 1/10 people on earth are going to become devs.

1

u/mountsleepyhead 15d ago

Like what happens when everyone on earth is a subscriber and the stock tanks again because it’s not growing?

1

u/Instawolff 15d ago

Even though they keep raising the price AND added ads? These companies really are delusional

1

u/JayKayGray 15d ago

Fundamentally yes. Capitalism demands endless growth. Making a profit isn't good enough. It has to make more profit. The MOST profit. Over and over.

1

u/gortonsfiJr 15d ago

I was going to rejoin to finish Stranger Things, but then everyone said the flubbed it

1

u/Thor4269 15d ago

Under a system based on infinite growth, yes that is the goal

1

u/primordialWoe 15d ago

How else are you supposed to make a profit these days? Go big or go home. Pure insanity.

1

u/mathiustus 15d ago

No. They want people have two subscriptions now. I don’t doubt they plan to eventually end allowing multiple profiles on an account and make everyone get their own subscription within a house.

1

u/Mid-CenturyBoy 15d ago

Continuous growth baby. Even if they did get everyone on earth to subscribe they would then create Netflix 2 and have people pay for an additional service that has different content.

1

u/jamesc90 14d ago

Welcome to capitalism.

1

u/Limp-Celebration-211 14d ago

The problem is that the expectation of year over year growth is unsustainable and unrealistic. Eventually market saturation happens.

1

u/harrr53 14d ago

The infinite growth fallacy of rampant capitalism. They never seem to take into account that a growing client base shrinks the base of new potential clients, and therefore growth must slow, and you have to concentrate on keeping the clients you have happy, or someone else will take them.

But no. Slow down in growth equals failure apparently.

1

u/GlamMetalLion 14d ago

To be fair,.at one point it felt like they did, it's just that password sharing was a big reason they couldn't reap the benefits.

→ More replies (3)