The number of Netflix subscribers has fallen for the first time in more than a decade. The streaming company said it has lost 200,000 members in the first three months of the year.
The declines came after the firm raised prices in key markets including the US and UK while pulling out of Russia.
Netflix ended the first quarter of this year with 221.6 million subscribers, slightly less than the final quarter of last year.
The Silicon Valley tech firm reported a net income of $1.6 billion in the recently ended quarter, compared to $1.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Netflix shares were down more than 25 per cent to $259.30 in after-market trades that followed the release of the earnings figures. The production company believes that factors hampering its growth include subscribers sharing their accounts with people not living in their homes.
The streaming giant estimated that while it has nearly 222 million households paying for its service, accounts are shared with more than 100 million other households not paying subscription fees.
“When we were growing fast it wasn’t a high priority, and now we’re working super hard on it. These are over a hundred million households that already are choosing to view Netflix; they love the service, we’ve just got to get paid in some degree for them.” chief executive Reed Hastings said of account sharing during an earnings call.
However, the streaming company said it is testing ways to make money from people sharing accounts, such as by adding a feature that lets subscribers pay slightly more to add other households.
Read also; Netflix Sets Sight on Kenya’s Nascent Online Video Streaming Market.
