Shared Netflix accounts are about to be charged more

Netflix has just announced that it will expand its payment plan to users who share an account to share with many people. This information was published shortly after the platform released its business report, with the number of paid subscribers falling for the first time in 10 years.

According to TechCrunch, Netflix has been testing the feature in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru since March and plans to expand globally this year. The price Netflix collects is about 3 USD/month, will be adjusted depending on the market.

Netflix account sharing feature which is loved by many users.

Up to now, Netflix has still allowed the Premium account plan to create 4 more profiles to share with people in the same household. The company uses a variety of information such as IP addresses, device information and activity history to determine when there is an account sharing phenomenon for people outside the household.

Netflix said it will gradually implement this fee collection method within the next 1 year to offer a reasonable fee.

According to Netflix, charging for account sharing is the most reasonable measure because it does not ban accounts from sharing passwords and can earn more profits from users.

Netflix’s first quarter business report of 2022 shows that the platform has lost more than 200,000 paid users. This is the first time Netflix’s subscriber count has dropped in the past 10 years. The platform also expects to lose another 2 million users in the second quarter.

In the letter to shareholders, Netflix expressed that they are well aware that users are sharing accounts with each other for common use. On the one hand, this feature makes users more engaged with the platform. On the other hand, with competition from services like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Apple TV+, Netflix are forced to charge those who share accounts.

Netflix implemented a fee for accounts that share passwords with many people around the world. Image: Getty Images.

A few years ago, Netflix was quite comfortable with the shared account problem. In 2016, CEO Reed Hastings even affirmed that sharing passwords helps the platform grow.

However, since the number of monthly subscribers has remained flat in recent years, the increasing number of users sharing accounts makes Netflix unable to grow in the long run.

“The growth of rival platforms, along with shared accounts, has caused revenue to decline,” Netflix’s management said.

Netflix currently has about 222 million subscribers globally and an estimated 100 million households are using Netflix by sharing accounts. In which, the US and Canadian markets own more than 30 million users.

Netflix subscribers increased significantly during the period of isolation, but so far there are signs of decline when the Covid-19 epidemic is gradually becoming more stable.

(According to Zing)