Reed Hastingswho for decades was the top manager of Netflix, has resigned from his role as CEOas reported by the streaming video platform through a release. It should be noted, yes, that he will not be completely detached from the company, since will remain a member of the council.
It’s important to remember that since July 2020, Reed Hastings hasn’t been alone running Netflix. ted sarandos he became co-CEO and together they have been making the company’s biggest decisions for the past two years.
In fact, Ted Sarandos will retain his position. The position of Reed Hastings, for his part, will be in the hands of Greg Peters. The latter was the director of operations of Netflix, so he knows very well how it works.
Ted and Greg are now the co-CEOs. After 15 years, we have a great relationship together and I have great confidence in his leadership. They have twice the heart and twice the capacity to delight subscribers and accelerate growth. Proud to serve as CEO for many years to come.”
Reed Hastings
Ted Sarandos took advantage of such an important announcement to thank Reed Hastings for his trust, as he was his mentor for a long time. “I want to thank Reed for his visionary leadership, mentorship and friendship over the past 20 years. We have all learned a lot from his intellectual rigor, honesty, and willingness to place big bets, and we look forward to working with him for many years to come.”
Reed Hastings has not specified the exact reasons that led to his resignation. The above, obviously, generates speculation, even more so because Netflix is not going through its best moment.
Reed Hastings leaves Netflix in a difficult time
Netflix has been suffering from the loss of millions of users, this after having exponential growth during the pandemic. However, the fall of multiple technology companies has shown that what happened during the health crisis was an abnormal phenomenon that will hardly be repeated. The reality check has hit hard throughout the sector.
Another issue that cannot be ignored is that Netflix, unlike in a previous era, now has extensive competition. Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Paramount+ continue to grow their subscriber base. Everyone’s strategy is to make a strong investment in the production of original content. That is, in series, movies and documentaries that are not available elsewhere.
But Netflix has faced another problem. Your previous strategy prioritized the quantity of content, not its quality. This caused many subscribers, watching the great productions of other platforms, to abandon the Netflix ship. Certainly the company led at the time by Reed Hastings changed its approach, but it’s a vision that won’t take effect overnight.
In mid-2022, Netflix announced an investment of 20,000 million dollars for the production of exclusive content. This time, of course, giving priority to their quality. Unfortunately, for them, it is clear that not all efforts have yielded the same results.
An era ends for Netflix
Netflix has not only lost its director, but also the visionary founder who, three decades ago, devised a movie rental service that worked through the postal mail. Everything was born, curiously, after having a bad experience in a traditional video store. In 1997, he founded Netflix, a company that quickly began to gain users in various cities in the United States.
At one point, in fact, Blockbuster, which at that time was the ultimate reference in movie rentals, turned down the opportunity to buy Netflix for 50 million dollars in the year 2000. The rest is history…