Say what you want to, but one of the greatest things about human beings is our ability to keep an open mind. You see, this ability is a big reason why we have been able to achieve so much over the years. Now, if we take a second and go through all those by-products of our mindset, we are likely to find some humongous milestones on the said list, but honestly, none can claim to be as significant as technology. Technology, even when it was just starting out, made sure that it transcended every pre-established boundary, and when we gave it a chance to grow over time, it ended up becoming ingenious enough to take over the entire landscape. The move will give our lives a whole new dimension for the better, but despite all the progression, we’ll continue to have an accepting outlook towards technology’s ideas. This eventually created a setup, which helped us explore something new every single day, and as it looks like, Netflix might be preparing to add its own shade to the said picture.
According to the reports, Netflix is seriously planning to introduce ad-supported plans over the next two or years. The speculation comes after it was revealed that the streaming giant had lost over 200,000 subscribers in just the first quarter of 2022. Interestingly enough, Netflix has always appeared a little reluctant about adding ads to its platform. In fact, in 2017 only, the company’s co-chief executive, Reed Hastings reiterated how Netflix was not constructed to compete with, let’s say, Google and Facebook for ads. However, call it shrinking subscribers or an improved ad model, the streaming giant is now looking to follow the likes of Disney and Hulu into embracing advertisement.
“Those who have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” Hastings said. “But as much as I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice. Allowing consumers who would like to have lower price and are advertising tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense,”
Of course, Hastings also went to talk about the revenue component within this whole discussion.
“In terms of the profit potential, definitely, the online ad market has advanced and now you don’t have to incorporate all the information about people that you used to,” he said.
Soon after Netflix announced its first subscribers’ loss in more than a decade, the company’s share price tumbled by a whopping 27%. Due to slowed growth, Netflix also fell short of the Wall Street revenue expectations. For now, the company has deemed market saturation, growing competition, and borrowing of credentials as main reasons behind it. We don’t know how Netflix will deal with the first two, but there are some murmurs that the company is set to cop higher fees from people who are sharing their account.