Netflix is advising its employees to be fiscally responsible, as it grapples with a loss of subscribers that has raised fears about the viability of streaming services.
The employee directive comes in a updated cultural memorandum by the company on Thursday. In the “Trial” section of the memo, Netflix tells employees thatspend our members’ money wisely.”
This is a marked change from the rest of the largely free document, which also tells employees to “Avoid the rules.”
It comes after Netflix reported your first loss of subscribers in a decade. Netflix attributed the loss of 200,000 subscribers to account swapping, the pandemic and increased competition from rivals. Still, the loss at the streaming giant has spooked competitors and investors, who are now wondering if all streaming services will experience a similar slowdown.
In light of weaker-than-expected subscriber numbers, Netflix said it will explore launching a section with advertising of the streaming service. Analysts had pointed to Netflix’s price increase monthly subscription price in January for new members in the US and Canada as another reason for losing subscribers. The streaming company has also talked about other cost-cutting measures.
“We’re cutting back some of our spending growth on both content and non-content spending,” CFO Spencer Neumann said during the first-quarter earnings call. “We’re trying to be smart about it and prudent in terms of curtailing some of that expense growth to reflect the realities of revenue growth in the business.”
The slowdown, as well as talk by executives of “cutting” costs, has caused concern among employees at Netflix, which have seen a slowdown in hiring and fear future layoffs.
In closing, Netflix has always stuck to the motto “Keep only our highly effective people,” which it reiterated again in Thursday’s updated memo. Variety first reported the details of the memo.