What’s new with Netflix and Musk

An all new Netflix is streaming soon. (Photo: freestocks on Unsplash)

If you're one of the many who ditched cable TV over the last two years, there's a good chance you picked up a Netflix subscription. As of 2021, the streaming platform  was the most popular streaming service in the world, boasting 222 million subscribers globally. 

But in April, Netflix announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year—marking the first time that has happened in a decade—and said that it expected to lose two million more in the next quarter, CNN reported. As a result, the streaming platform's stock dropped 35% and devalued the company by roughly $50 billion.

The signs that massive changes are in progress at the world’s biggest streaming service continue to mount. A looming Netflix password-sharing crackdown, the launch of an ad-supported tier, price increases, canceled fan-favorite shows, a revamp of its culture guidelines, and an odd push for gaming—these have all led to a backlash not only from subscribers, but also from media and analysts who’ve sung the company’s praises for years. But wait, here’s more…

The way you watch Netflix will also be changing soon, in a major way. The platform is expanding into live streaming for the first time in its existence. The company confirmed to The Verge that it’s currently working on a livestreaming option for stand-up specials and other live content—a move that Netflix hopes could help the platform keep up with competitors.

Make up your mind, Musk

Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold, the tech entrepreneur tweeted. Two hours later, Musk confirmed that he's "still committed to the acquisition." 

In the intervening period, Twitter share prices took a significant hit, tumbling over 20% in premarket trading. When markets closed, shares were down nearly 10% to around $40.72, a steep discount from the $54.20 per share acquisition price.

In its quarterly financial report, released on April 28, Twitter estimated that fake or spam accounts made up fewer than 5% of the platform's active users during the first three months of the year. Twitter noted that the estimates were based on a review of sample accounts and it believed the numbers to be "reasonable."

In a third tweet, Musk said, "To find out, my team will do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter. I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover." In a follow-up, he said, "Any sensible random sampling process is fine. If many people independently get similar results for percentage of fake, spam, or duplicate accounts, that will be telling." 

Musk turned "this Twitter circus show into a Friday the 13th horror show," wrote tech analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. Musk would owe Twitter a $1 billion breakup fee if he were to cancel the deal. "Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing of spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market."

Musk, who has almost 93 million followers, has been critical of Twitter's moderation policies, especially its inability to get a handle on the number of bots. This could either be Musk’s way out of a deal he jumped into or the first step to “authenticate all real humans” on the platform.