Desk Report:
Tech tycoon Elon Musk has called for a boycott of Netflix, accusing it of promoting messages about transgender people in children’s programs. In the meantime, this popular streaming platform has faced huge losses due to his boycott call.
On October 1, Elon Musk urged his followers to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in a post on his social media platform X. According to a report by Financial Express, Netflix’s market value collapsed immediately after Elon Musk’s post. $7 billion disappeared from the market.
The company’s market value, which was around $514 billion on September 27, fell to $489 billion on October 3. This streaming platform has lost about $25 billion in just a few days.
According to Yahoo Finance, Netflix‘s share price fell dramatically last Friday, which is the biggest weekly decline since April 4.
Netflix shares have fallen by about 5 percent in the past five trading days. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been urging his 227 million followers to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in a series of posts.
The US stock market, Nasdaq and the overall stock market, rose by about 2 percent to record highs throughout the week, but Netflix could not keep up with Amazon and Meta. According to Forbes, Netflix shares started their journey in a downtrend on Thursday. They initially fell 1.2 percent, but later recovered and finally fell 0.8 percent. At that time, Netflix shares were trading at $1,161 at 2:15 PM Eastern Time.
Musk had earlier said on Tuesday that he had canceled his Netflix subscription. Since his post, Netflix shares have fallen by about 2.4 percent. Netflix shares have fallen a total of 4.4 percent in the past five trading days, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has maintained its five-day winning streak.
Some news reports suggest that Netflix has lost more than $15 billion in market value since Musk’s call. Although more conservative sources put the loss at around $25 billion. Whatever the exact figure, analysts agree that it’s hard to ignore the timing of Musk’s boycott call and the stock’s decline.
Calling for a Netflix boycott, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, “Cancel Netflix for the well-being of your children.” The billionaire accused Netflix of promoting a “transgender wake agenda.”
Elon Musk’s post comes amid controversy surrounding Netflix’s canceled animated series “Dead End: Paranormal Park.” Conservative critics claim that the series directed by Hamish Steele is promoting ‘progressive ideas’ which are offensive.
Musk wrote about it again by sharing another user’s post about the series. The user said that he had stopped using Netflix. The reason, he said, was because director Hamish Steele criticized Conservative activist Charlie Kirke. According to the account ‘Libs of TikTok’, Hamish Kirke was criticized by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his condolences on the death of Charlie Kirke and called him a ‘random Nazi’.
Responding to this, director Hamish Steele told Bluesky, ‘I’m doing pretty well. I found the topics quite interesting. I’m grateful to those who have contacted me. However, I’m a little scared that I’ve started receiving very unusual, hateful (homophobic) and anti-Semitic emails. So sorry for the delay in responding to various issues.
Netflix canceled the Dead End: Paranormal Park series in 2023.
Meanwhile, Netflix is going to publish its third-quarter earnings report on October 21. In its last earnings report, Netflix exceeded Wall Street expectations. Accordingly, revenue in the third quarter was estimated at $ 11.53 billion and earnings per share (EPS) at $ 6.87. And the full-year revenue expectation was increased to $ 44.8 to $ 45.2 billion.
Executives expect that advertising sales are expected to double next year to reach about $ 3 billion.
