Netflix stock plummets roughly 25% following report of 200,000 lost subscribers
By suspending service in Russia, Netflix lost 700,000 subscribers.
Netflix shares plummeted by roughly 25% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the streaming service reported a loss of 200,000 subscriptions during the first quarter of 2022.
The company told shareholders that it expects to lose 2 million paid memberships during the upcoming second quarter.
"In the near term though, we’re not growing revenue as fast as we’d like," the streaming platform admitted. "COVID clouded the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that most of our slowing growth in 2021 was due to the COVID pull forward."
Netflix also blamed inflation and the crisis in Ukraine for slowing the company's growth.
"[M]acro factors, including sluggish economic growth, increasing inflation, geopolitical events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and some continued disruption from COVID are likely having an impact as well," Netflix wrote.
By suspending service in Russia, Netflix lost 700,000 subscribers as well.
While 222 million people subscribe for Netflix, an estimated 100 million additional households are sharing subscriptions, the company said.
The streaming platform previously told shareholders it would grow by 2.5 million subscribers during the first quarter.
According to Yahoo Finance, Netflix shares fell from $349 to less than $260 after-hours.