Netflix is laying off 150 employees in an effort to slash expenses after admitting that it expects to lose millions of subscribers in the first half of the year.
The widely anticipated layoffs would primarily affect personnel in the company's sprawling film and television businesses.
This month, Netflix's market value was sliced by over $60 billion as investors worried that the decade-long boom in the streaming business was coming to an end, following the company's first loss of subscribers in 10 years.
Netflix employed around 11,300 full-time employees as of December, so the layoffs represent 1.3 percent of the company's global workforce. It cut off approximately 25 marketing-related employees last month, including contractors who had worked there for less than a year.
Netflix is expected to spend $17 billion on producing and licensing content this year, focusing on a "less is more" approach of fewer but higher-quality programs and films. The corporation has stated that it expects to save costs.
"As we explained on earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we are also having to slow our cost growth as a company," a Netflix spokesperson said. "So sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly U.S.-based.
"These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance ... A number of agency contractors have also been impacted by the news announced this morning."
The Silicon Valley tech firm reported a net income of US$1.6 billion in the most recent quarter, down from US$1.7 billion in the same period last year.
Netflix believes that one of the reasons impeding its growth is members sharing accounts with people who do not live in their houses.
According to the streaming behemoth, while over 222 million homes pay for its service, accounts are shared with more than 100 million other families that do not pay membership costs.
Netflix is experimenting with new ways to monetize account sharing, such as adding a tool that allows customers to pay a small fee to add more households.
