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I had been a Netflix for customer for 10 years. For me personally, it's a combination of several of the reasons you cast doubt on. While I may not be in the maj

I had been a Netflix for customer for 10 years. For me personally, it's a combination of several of the reasons you cast doubt on. While I may not be in the majority, I am real and those reasons (which I shall not list, to avoid HN wrath) were attributed to my cancellation.

hackernewds 5y ago
Same
danans 5y ago
Your reasons are totally real and you are entitled to them, but in the context of subscriber loss in the 100s of thousands probably marginal.
- soperj 5y ago
  They actually gained subscribers in the western world still, but lost in total because of all Russian accounts were terminated.
  - MrMan 5y ago
    yes lets talk about the actual reason for god sake. it was hugely due to Russia
    - malfist 5y ago
      The issue isn't necessarily that they lost users this time, even though that's what all the headlines are about. They projected continued losses of subscribers, even after the one time event with russia is through.
    - brimble 5y ago
      Russia's why it was a net loss, but not why they missed their projection so badly.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      Russia is also not (and cannot be) the reason Netflix themselves project a 2.7m subscriber loss for the next quarter.
      - cguess 5y ago
        Not having a large part of the world's populating confined to their couches probably plays a large part of this. People are doing other things with their discretionary money; eating out, drinking out, traveling, buying new clothes that they haven't had to for 2+ years.
- andrew_ 5y ago
  Until we have publicly available statistics, speculation is irresponsible. We can't possibly know or being able to sample or extrapolate what motivation 200,000 had, nor their commonalities. It sounds more like you'd like the reasons not to be one of or a combination of those, which would be fair.
  - brewdad 5y ago
    If we can never know, then their speculation is as valuable as your anecdote.
  - danans 5y ago
    > Until we have publicly available statistics, speculation is irresponsible. > We can't possibly know or being able to sample or extrapolate what motivation 200,000 had Speculation on the causes of major changes for which we have no hard data is the basis of the original article and pretty much every comment on this thread. Nobody here is giving investment advice, so I don't know how it's irresponsible. > It sounds more like you'd like the reasons not to be one of or a combination of those, which would be fair. My personal guess (also note the use of 'probably' in my original comment) is when it comes to things like paid streaming services, personal economics is the biggest factor in the decision to subscribe/cancel for most people, and other rationales are mostly tangential. In my experience, the bottom line is what matters in the end.
  - _jal 5y ago
    I'm sorry about your share price, but speculation is just what the market does. You'll have better luck asking for prayers.
  - majormajor 5y ago
    We have publicly available stats for their competitors. (And actually we do "know" the reason for this quarter's loss for Netflix: shutting down and losing 700K subs in Russia.) Is Netflix more "woke" or "less scifi" or "prone to pirating" or "annoying about UI and recommendations" than Disney+ or HBO Max? (Ok, HBO Max has had a lot of cinema-quality sci-fi and similar genre content land recently, so maybe on that one?) Those services are gaining subscribers faster so any backlash seems less likely, compared to "there is a lot more serious competition than their used to be, Netflix costs the most, and has a far less proven content model." Netflix is increasingly only worth it for their originals, and now those are head to head against Disney and HBO+Warner cinema originals.
- panarky 5y ago
  The real reasons are almost certainly economic and structural, and not a result of silly culture war wedge issues. 1) Netflix has much more streaming competition now. 2) Availability of good content has gone down as networks reserve it for their own new platforms, and as production was halted by covid. 3) Greater scarcity gives studios pricing power to increase Netflix's cost to acquire the few good shows available. 4) Netflix tried to counter (2) and (3) by making their own shows, but a lot of it is trash. 5) Netflix raised customer prices aggressively, while there's not much on their platform to justify the higher prices. 6) Customers are increasingly savvy about binge-watching what good shows there are on one platform, then cancelling it and rotating through other platforms. 7) Loyalty is for suckers. Churn, baby, churn.
- arghnoname 5y ago
  You're probably right. For what it's worth, I'm like the parent and for me at least that stuff isn't why I cancelled, it's what pushed me over the edge. I don't watch Netflix much (poor catalog, maybe lack of discoverability), but I don't notice $20 going away either and would keep the service if it provided much value at all. Cancelling had been on my list for years. I finally cancelled when I realized that whenever I did go look at it to see what's available it felt like there was more agenda pushing than entertainment, which itself made me check for content less often in the first place. Netflix won't miss my money, I may be in a small minority. It may be they get more subscribers for their politics than they lose (I'm sure they think so).
UberFly 5y ago
62951413 5y ago
I loved NFLX when they had a 4-CD plan. All the HBO shows from the golden age of TV 10 years ago .. I know that I cannot blame them for losing streaming rights. But I definitely can for pushing the government ideology in their original content. The last few seasons of Longmire is the last show for normal people I can remember NFLX to produce. I'd have no problem paying for the kind of TV we had with Mad Men or Breaking Bad. I'm not aware of any streaming service of that kind.
- nonameiguess 5y ago
  AMC actually has its own streaming service now, AMC+.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    That still requires you to have cable…

hackernewds 5y ago

Same

danans 5y ago

Your reasons are totally real and you are entitled to them, but in the context of subscriber loss in the 100s of thousands probably marginal.

soperj 5y ago
They actually gained subscribers in the western world still, but lost in total because of all Russian accounts were terminated.
- MrMan 5y ago
  yes lets talk about the actual reason for god sake. it was hugely due to Russia
  - malfist 5y ago
    The issue isn't necessarily that they lost users this time, even though that's what all the headlines are about. They projected continued losses of subscribers, even after the one time event with russia is through.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Russia's why it was a net loss, but not why they missed their projection so badly.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    Russia is also not (and cannot be) the reason Netflix themselves project a 2.7m subscriber loss for the next quarter.
    - cguess 5y ago
      Not having a large part of the world's populating confined to their couches probably plays a large part of this. People are doing other things with their discretionary money; eating out, drinking out, traveling, buying new clothes that they haven't had to for 2+ years.
andrew_ 5y ago
Until we have publicly available statistics, speculation is irresponsible. We can't possibly know or being able to sample or extrapolate what motivation 200,000 had, nor their commonalities. It sounds more like you'd like the reasons not to be one of or a combination of those, which would be fair.
- brewdad 5y ago
  If we can never know, then their speculation is as valuable as your anecdote.
- danans 5y ago
  > Until we have publicly available statistics, speculation is irresponsible. > We can't possibly know or being able to sample or extrapolate what motivation 200,000 had Speculation on the causes of major changes for which we have no hard data is the basis of the original article and pretty much every comment on this thread. Nobody here is giving investment advice, so I don't know how it's irresponsible. > It sounds more like you'd like the reasons not to be one of or a combination of those, which would be fair. My personal guess (also note the use of 'probably' in my original comment) is when it comes to things like paid streaming services, personal economics is the biggest factor in the decision to subscribe/cancel for most people, and other rationales are mostly tangential. In my experience, the bottom line is what matters in the end.
- _jal 5y ago
  I'm sorry about your share price, but speculation is just what the market does. You'll have better luck asking for prayers.
- majormajor 5y ago
  We have publicly available stats for their competitors. (And actually we do "know" the reason for this quarter's loss for Netflix: shutting down and losing 700K subs in Russia.) Is Netflix more "woke" or "less scifi" or "prone to pirating" or "annoying about UI and recommendations" than Disney+ or HBO Max? (Ok, HBO Max has had a lot of cinema-quality sci-fi and similar genre content land recently, so maybe on that one?) Those services are gaining subscribers faster so any backlash seems less likely, compared to "there is a lot more serious competition than their used to be, Netflix costs the most, and has a far less proven content model." Netflix is increasingly only worth it for their originals, and now those are head to head against Disney and HBO+Warner cinema originals.
panarky 5y ago
The real reasons are almost certainly economic and structural, and not a result of silly culture war wedge issues. 1) Netflix has much more streaming competition now. 2) Availability of good content has gone down as networks reserve it for their own new platforms, and as production was halted by covid. 3) Greater scarcity gives studios pricing power to increase Netflix's cost to acquire the few good shows available. 4) Netflix tried to counter (2) and (3) by making their own shows, but a lot of it is trash. 5) Netflix raised customer prices aggressively, while there's not much on their platform to justify the higher prices. 6) Customers are increasingly savvy about binge-watching what good shows there are on one platform, then cancelling it and rotating through other platforms. 7) Loyalty is for suckers. Churn, baby, churn.
arghnoname 5y ago
You're probably right. For what it's worth, I'm like the parent and for me at least that stuff isn't why I cancelled, it's what pushed me over the edge. I don't watch Netflix much (poor catalog, maybe lack of discoverability), but I don't notice $20 going away either and would keep the service if it provided much value at all. Cancelling had been on my list for years. I finally cancelled when I realized that whenever I did go look at it to see what's available it felt like there was more agenda pushing than entertainment, which itself made me check for content less often in the first place. Netflix won't miss my money, I may be in a small minority. It may be they get more subscribers for their politics than they lose (I'm sure they think so).

UberFly 5y ago

62951413 5y ago

I loved NFLX when they had a 4-CD plan. All the HBO shows from the golden age of TV 10 years ago .. I know that I cannot blame them for losing streaming rights. But I definitely can for pushing the government ideology in their original content. The last few seasons of Longmire is the last show for normal people I can remember NFLX to produce. I'd have no problem paying for the kind of TV we had with Mad Men or Breaking Bad. I'm not aware of any streaming service of that kind.

nonameiguess 5y ago
AMC actually has its own streaming service now, AMC+.
- scarface74 5y ago
  That still requires you to have cable…