In a shocking development, the Netflix password sharing utility will be killed. Nearly 100 million people view the service for free thanks to account sharing.
In a shocking development, the Netflix password sharing utility will be killed. That’s right, Netflix will soon restrict subscribers from sharing passwords with their friends, family, and others. The video streaming platform has estimated that around 30 million users in the US and Canada alone are using Netflix using someone else’s subscription. It is known that more than 100 million (10 crore) users in general are sharing their passwords with their near and dear ones and this directly affects the revenue generation. Therefore, Netflix is likely to change its regulatory policy soon.
The company in its shareholder letter wrote that it allowed password sharing to increase platform engagement and draw more people to the content. However, this has created confusion about when and how to share Netflix passwords with other households. While there are nearly 222 million paying users, about 100 million additional household users use the streaming platform without a subscription fee. Greg Peters, CEO and product manager of Netflix as quoted by The Verge like saying, “If you have an older sister who lives in another city, you want to share Netflix with her, that’s great. We’re not trying to stop sharing that. But we’ll ask you to pay a little more to be able to share it with her so she gets the benefits and value of the service but we also get the revenue value associated with that viewing.”
The streaming giant recently confirmed the loss of 2 million paid subscribers. They have blamed inflation, the war in Ukraine, and fierce competition from rivals like Disney Plus, HBO Max, and Disney. Apple TV+ for losing subscribers. The company said it lost nearly 20,000 subscribers in the first quarter and could lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.
This is the first time Netflix has lost subscribers since the streaming service became available in most of the world outside of China six years ago. Currently, it has 222 million subscribers worldwide.
