After 'pandemic boom' Netflix shares plummet

According to a foreign news agency, Netflix's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 increased by 24% compared to the same period last year, but the membership sold less than the expected 208 million.

Roughly 3.98 million people signed up for Netflix from January through March - four times down on the same period last year. According to the company's quarterly earnings report, new subscribers grew by nearly two million during the period, far below Netflix estimates.

Company executives said in a statement: "We believe that the decline in membership is due to delays in new production due to Corona and a slowdown in the availability of new content on Netflix over the past six months."

While the subscriber rate has slowed in the first quarter of 2021, the number of new subscribers has continued to increase quarter by quarter. Europe region, which includes Africa and the Middle East, saw the largest growth in the first quarter of this year.

In contrast to this year's results, Netflix added 15.8 million new subscribers last year, many of who lived in Asia, where Netflix added 9.3 million new subscribers in 2020 - an increase of about 65 per cent over the previous year. 

'More and more new streaming services are launching, reinforcing our vision that linear TV will slowly give way to streaming entertainment,' Netflix said.

'We're working as hard as ever to continually improve our service so that we are the best entertainment option available.' 

"Over the last ten years, we've moved forward very slowly and comfortably," said Red Hastings, Netflix's chief executive. "Something is faltering at the moment."

Netflix executives had said that living at home during the global epidemic had led many people to subscribe to online streaming, which would have come a long way under normal circumstances.

"We expect further improvements over the next six months, with new seasons and some big movies," Netflix said in a statement.

According to the company, there is a clear trend from traditional television to online streaming platforms such as Netflix.

Netflix has said that newer and newer streaming services are emerging that are advancing our vision that gradually linear television will also replace streaming entertainment.

"We're working hard to improve the quality of our service so that Netflix remains the best entertainment option."

Netflix is ​​expected to spend $17 billion on movies and shows, most of which will be original content.

One of the most popular streaming services around the world, Netflix has hiked its prices a couple of times.