In a nutshell: Netflix is the latest streaming giant to dial back its global workforce amidst sluggish growth and customer interest. In an internal memo circulated Wednesday, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said they would be saying goodbye off roughly 6% of their staff.
The cuts equate to roughly 1,000 jobs, and mostly affect those in product, legal, tech, and human resources divisions. According to The Wall Street Journal, the round of layoffs is the company's largest since 2022.
Netflix's struggles aren't new, nor have they gone unaddressed. The streaming giant has explored multiple strategies as of late to boost engagement, with varying degrees of success.
Earlier this year, Netflix launched a kid-friendly gaming app called Playground. In July, they celebrated 10 years of Stranger Things with VHS-style tribute to the series. The streaming giant is also said to be considering a free, ad-supported tier for those unwilling to pay increasingly more expensive monthly fees.
Other initiatives have seen a quicker payoff. Last month, for example, Netflix partnered with Rockstar to host a highly anticipated extended look at Grand Theft Auto VI. The near half-hour video was a runaway hit, crashing Netflix's servers out of the gate and garnering 31.1 million views in just four days. Other projects, like the recently announced partnership between Netflix and Sega to produce a movie based on the Crazy Taxi franchise, won't see a return until much later.
Naturally, not everyone wants to see Netflix succeed. Over the summer, a report surfaced claiming YouTube was paying some of its most popular creators millions of dollars to keep their content from being hosted on Netflix or other streaming platforms.
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