22 Comments
May 10, 2022Liked by David I. Adeleke

Covid created a bubble for niche markets, which benefitted several categories of businesses - streaming platforms like Netflix, video conferencing products like Zoom etc. Market conditions have changed since then and a lot of stocks are down huge from their all time highs last year. Basically a lot of stocks were overvalued and a reset was due. Investors are preparing for rough seasons ahead, which would explain why stocks, including Netflix's are plummeting. Growth companies are struggling and Netflix's recent price hike didn't do them much favors (a case of bad timing). Lastly, most of their popular content were from other studios - FRIENDS, The Office - and those studios have built streaming platforms of their own where they now host their own content.

To be fair to Netflix, they kinda have been bracing for this exit of popular content for years. Which is why we've seen their aggressive roll-out into new international markets and investing in local content.

So basically, short term there will be turbulence, but long term, they should do fine. Fingers crossed.

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All of the above and the fact that people in most countries can move around and socialise now, so are cancelling their subscriptions, or trying Apple, HBO Max, Peacock etc, as they've binged everything they want to see on Netflix. Also Netflix raised their prices at the exact wrong time, just when competitors were launching, and their content in recent months has not been that compelling. In Asia, they are doing well in Korean content, but still haven't had any big Chinese-language hits, and have a lot of competition in Hindi, Japanese, Indonesian etc. Netflix needs better tools for content discovery. I suspect there are many great films on there, but it's still difficult to find them, and their algorithm can never match good curation and presentation. I don't want a streamer to guess what I want to watch - I want to browse the video store and be exposed to something new.

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May 10, 2022Liked by David I. Adeleke

I'll blame the content output and the streaming landscape. Netflix appears to prioritize quantity over quality in terms of content. They also seem unable to compete with Disney+ and HBOmax who have capitalized on nostalgia with their Marvel/Star Wars shows and DC content respectively. For less of Netflix's price.

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May 11, 2022Liked by David I. Adeleke

It's simple. They've reached their peak. The pandemic is over so all the hype on Netflix, zoom etc is over. Funny enough, Disney+ and Apple+ aren't loosing customers. Also Netflix business model was only gonna be good during the pandemic period. They don't really have much revenue streams, and mostly depend on subscriptions which are reducing because of the Netflix hacks and piracy. Lastly competition is heating up. You have Netflix, HBO, peacock, Disney+, Apple+, showmax, etc. And all have incredible contents. Lastly let's not forget the major reason, which is inflation, which is a major reason Consumers are cancelling one or more of their subscriptions.

Also David, what's happening to Netflix could potentially happen to Tesla soon. Tesla has the largest automobile market cap in the world, yet only account for 0.5% of car sales. The competition is gradually heating up. For instance Volkswagen is now the largest selling of EVs in Norway, and by the end of the year would be largest seller of EVs in Europe. The competition is heating up, and I feel Tesla is gonna take a hit soon. That's why bill gates is shorting Tesla. Legacy car manufacturers like Volkswagen, Toyota, ford, Daimler, Hyundai are rolling out massive EV units yearly to beat out Tesla. These legacy companies have huge factory capacity. For instance Volkswagen can produce over 41million cars annually, but only choose to produce 15million because if demand. Which is similar to Toyota, ford etc. They can easily edge Tesla out, when it comes to EV sales. And the most important factor here. Tesla is a luxury car, which means it can't penetrate smaller market. Analysts say Tesla's huge valuation is as a result of it's future value. Some say tesla isn't a car company, that it's a data company, some say tesla is a tech company. But if you compare other data companies nad tech companies to Tesla Tesla's is highly overvalued. You can't claim to be a data or tech company when 95% of your revenue comes from car sales. The argument is just off. Tesla's true valuation should be $150billion and not a trillion dollars. Let's also note that Tesla's sales is helped by the tax breaks and incentives it receives from the government.

In conclusion, Just like Netflix and zoom... Tesla's days of market dominance are gradually coming to an end.

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May 10, 2022Liked by David I. Adeleke

Netflix's recent reports estimated that about 100million users share accounts, I think this is a huge problem and of course inflation and the untimely increase in prices.

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May 10, 2022Liked by David I. Adeleke

Let’s not forget the class action lawsuit filed against them. The shareholders are claiming that they published wrong figures with regards to subscribers.

Notwithstanding, I feel it is the competition. They had to cut back on certain productions like animation (sadly) when I was looking forward to what they had to offer.

At this point where Disney+ has launched, withdrawn all their content from Netflix, acquired 21st century fox and is now competing for market leadership. Do not forget their first class CGI that keeps us coming back. It will be pretty hard to compete.

I can’t say Netflix originals have been block busters. They are just above average and this won’t cut it when you have serious competition.

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Humm. This is an inexhaustible conversation.

So far, these are the highest grossing movies of 2022(Top 5)

-The Batman.

-Spider-Man: No Way Home

-Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

-Sonic the Hedgehog 2

-Uncharted

I feel its a content problem. Quality content is important. For example, the movies above are all not on Netflix. I do movie reviews and recommendation for people constantly and most time just about 1 out of 6 of these good movies are on Netflix.

I don't see anything bad in their new subscription model, they must have figured that its hurting their revenue and if revenue is hurting, business won't thrive.

People want to be entertained, that's why Tiktok is a major social media competitor and its content is distributed on Instagram, Facebook and even Twitter.

People only go to Netflix based on quality content- The movies and shows that are trending. What other persons are talking about. So if Netflix will invest in quality content more aggressively, they will retain customers and even stand a chance against the competitors.

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Every season they have a few bangers that everyone is talking about but by and large their selections are very mid (basic) and even though they’ve expanded into more stuff like korean content, they dont do it authentically in my opinion.

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In India, the Netflix Hindi and Indian languages content is either limited or very niche.

I wish they created some cool series based in India - a la Stranger Things or Squid Game.

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I believe there are two main reasons for this:

1) Competition from other streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Hulu;

Amazon Prime Video has been hot on Netflix's heels for years. It's cheaper than Netflix, offers more content and has a larger library than its rival. In fact, Amazon was the first streaming service to win an Emmy award for best comedy series.

Disney Plus also features beloved original shows and movies from Marvel Studios, Pixar and Star Wars.

And then there's Hulu: — it has recently made some big moves to improve its offering. It has announced that it plans to increase its spend over the next two years on original programming with plans to double its number of original shows

2) Netflix's own strategy is starting to hurt its growth prospects

The quality of Netflix's original content isn't as good as it used to be - some say it's gone downhill in recent years. This is probably because Netflix has been focusing so much on quantity rather than quality; churning out dozens of new original titles each year (many of which aren't very good).

Netflix has been criticised for not being able to keep up with its competitors when it comes to producing good quality original content. The company seems to have lost its way with some shows like House Of Cards, after allegations of sexual misconduct against Kevin Spacey came to light. Other shows like Insatiable have faced backlash from critics who claim they promote body shaming and bullying. These controversies have led many customers to cancel their subscriptions or switch over to competing services like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video instead of sticking around with Netflix.

The good news is that Netflix is still leading the pack in terms of subscriber numbers -- it has over 222 million paid subscribers worldwide, compared to Amazon Prime Video's 200 million subscribers and Hulu's 46 million subscribers -- but how long will that last?

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I think Netflix has a content problem and at the same time has a cultural problem on the consumer end.

• The content problem is one that Amazon, HBO and Disney have already solved. Netflix doesn't have a Studio. They don't own thier content from the ground up, they're always paying for their content.

For example, in Nigeria they're buying movies from studios not owning them. If they owned the studio's, they can easily control their content and also make movies and shows for less.

$3m for lion heart would have been $1m if they owned the studio that produced the movie.

In the same light, they have a knack for being political with their shows. No doubt they have nailed the documentary scene but they're trying to be as politically correct as possible with their shows which hasn't rubbed of well with Thier consumers.

• Speaking about thier Consumers, we have gone back to work and as thus unable to get the time except on weekends or vacations to sit on Netflix for an hour or three.

Also as a bonus, Netflix has alot of management issues externally... They aren't reading the room most times with their decisions.

Yes people are sharing passwords, but they're canceling the good shows. It's tough to market the bad shows to their users especially with their very stressful search AI.

In regards to the streaming space, I think what people really want is a single payment platform like Hot star in India that bundles everything Into one package. With this model Netflix with still lose to Disney cause they don't have the content diversity that Disney has (ESPN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, DISCOVERY, HULU, CNN). Disney can put all of this into one platform at a reasonable price. Something Netflix can't.

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