Netflix subscriptions increased despite password sharing ban

Since February 8, Netflix has implemented a series of measures to prevent its users from sharing passwords. This idea seems to have been more successful, however, since then The company has now reported an increase in its subscribers.

Although the platform has enabled additional payment for account use in various places, and the initial action has been implemented in markets such as Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. Already last May, Colombia began to be part of the restriction.

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At home, adding an additional account-sharing member who doesn’t live in the same place or connect to a different IP address can cost you an extra $8,900 per month. The additional member will have their own profile, account and password, but under the same membership as the account holder i.e. will be created as a sub-account.

In addition to Colombia, also in May, the United States was one of the other countries where the measure began to be applied.

According to a report published by research firm Antenna, the restriction has been more than successful.

In the US, it is estimated that Netflix gained more than 70,000 new customers per day in the four days after May 23, When he announced to his subscribers that they would no longer be able to share his account.

Similarly, in two of those days, there were more than 100,000 new sign-ups in that country and that growth was much higher than it was during the hardest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Subs and dips

during the The first quarter of 2023, the number of new app subscribers reached 1.75 million in the world, A very low number compared to the last quarter of 2022, when they reported 7.66 million.

In its first-quarter earnings release, the company said it is on track to meet financial goals for the full year of 2023.

Apparently, because he has already seen the effects of this measure. Rather, they confirmed that in the second quarter of the year they will actually have better results because they expect “revenues of $8,200 million, which is an annual increase of 3 percent,” they said.

The report also details that Cancellations also increased from May 23-27, but not as much as subscriptions.

The ratio of subscriptions to cancellations since May 23 is up 25.6 percent compared to the previous 60-day period.

So it’s clear to a California company that while canceled subscriptions will increase, new subscriptions and hiring of “additional members” will rise at an equal or higher rate.

According to data from antenna, The projection is that for every four registrations, Netflix records one cancellation.

Additionally, it’s also not clear what level of users Netflix is ​​gaining, since Antenna doesn’t say what kind of plans they’re growing into or if the subscriber gain is an increase in the base plan with ads.

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In reality, Last month, Netflix claimed that its basic ad-supported plan had nearly 5 million monthly active users worldwide.

This is relevant data because this type of subscription only launched six months ago in a small selection of markets, including: Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Korea, Spain, US, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico and UK.

It should also be remembered that the number of monthly active users should not be taken as a reference for determining the number of subscribers, as the same Netflix account may be shared to access the service.

And the same platform noted that, globally, in its base advertising plan, the subscriber base has “more than doubled” since the beginning of this year.

According to Netflix’s numbers so far, The platform has 232.5 million subscribers worldwide across all its access plans.

According to company estimates, there are more than 100 million households sharing their accounts.

“This reduces our ability to invest in creating great stories, told in the highest quality series and movies. During 2022, we tested several solutions for joint accounts in Latin America. Our main goal was to give subscribers greater control over who can access their accounts The company also elaborated when explaining the decision.

LAURA V. LESMES DIAZ

tecnó[email protected]

On Twitter: @Tecnosferaet