Netflix Cuts Tudum Staff A Week After $54B Market Value Loss

Netflix has laid off 25 staff members at Tudum, the streaming company’s fan site, just about five months after it first launched the site. The news came a week after the company lost $54 billion in market value in a single day.

The laid off employees were made up of editorial staffers and contractors, Deadline reported. The job cuts were part of a marketing department restructuring at Netflix, the outlet added. Tudum was launched in December, two months after the company held its first global Tudum fan event that was attended by actors and creators from more than 100 series and films on the streaming platform.

Former staffers who were let go by the company confirmed the reports on Twitter. Evette Dionne said she was recruited “seven months ago only to lay me and a bunch of other talented people off today.” Reina Sultan also took to Twitter to look for a job “so I can pay my rent and help my parents survive!” Josh Terry wrote that Netflix had just laid off his team, and that while he was grateful for the “incredible few months,” he was also “stoked about whatever’s next.”

Bloomberg previously reported that the recent developments at Netflix triggered fear among star employees. More workers are reportedly looking to exit the company, the outlet reported.

The news came a week after Netflix stocks closed 35.1% down last Wednesday, marking the company’s biggest single-day drop in terms of percentage. Due to the massive drop, the company lost $54.4 billion in market value – the largest decline in market capitalization in Netflix history, Variety reported. Even before last week’s loss, analysts already started downgrading Netflix ratings.

Earlier this month, the streaming giant revealed that it lost 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter of the year. The company further projected that it would lose 2 million subscribers during the second quarter, The Seattle Times reported. At the time of its announcement, Netflix told shareholders in a letter that the subscriber loss was due to increased competition from traditional media, password-sharing, and slow adoption of smart TVs.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, freelance writer Andrew Lawrence noted that the simpler explanation for Netflix’s subscriber loss may be due to its programming that has gradually turned the streaming site into a cable system. “Netflix’s whole approach favors quantity over quality,” Lawrence argued.

Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday that the company is mulling the possibility of adding a cheaper, ad-supported subscription option, Yahoo Finance reported. Hastings explained that while he is “a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” he also is “a bigger fan of consumer choice,” in that many consumers prefer lower-priced options.