As part of the company’s efforts to minimize the impact of its halted growth and a sudden loss of subscribers, Netflix started testing out anti-password sharing measures in some experimental markets. However, a recent report suggests those trials are not going too well for the world's largest streaming service.
News of Netflix's plans to curtail account sharing first appeared back in March, even before its disclosure to investors that the company expected to lose at least 2 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022. That revelation has seen the streaming giant take a severe hit in its stock valuation, hence why Netflix has started to cut personnel and certain projects as the company looks to develop revenue-boosting strategies such as securing more paying customers to its platform.
Nevertheless, according to a report from tech outlet Rest of the World, the rollout of such policies has been wildly inconsistent in countries like Peru, Chile and Costa Rica, where password sharing is not only more prevalent but also where Netflix expected less severe reaction from users affected by said measures. The current problem is the sheer inconsistency shown by Netflix's deployment of the plan since. For example, in Peru, existing users can be expected to add two extra users they don’t live with for an extra $2, an amount far cheaper than the cost of a new account, which would go for about $6.80 in that country.
The main issue is that those charges do not apply to everyone across the board. An anonymous customer service representative in Peru expressed that the current policy allows complaining subscribers to log in different users from outside their household with a verification code at no extra charge, something Game Rant was able to confirm. The topic has even caught the eye of Peru's national consumer protection agency, which argues diverging policies for different users could be seen as a discriminatory policy against those customers who end up paying extra money, as long as there isn't a definition of what classifies as a different household.
Account sharing in Latin America is the stuff of memes since, in many countries, the “resale” of streaming subscriptions allows users to access Netflix's more expensive “Premium” plan for as little as $2 per month, something that’s only enabled because of password sharing. Game Rant contacted Netflix users in both Peru and Chile, where some claimed to have not noticed any disruptions to their normal usage of paid accounts belonging to family members or friends in the United States or other countries. However, others confirmed controls over logins from outside their household had become stricter, without yet requiring them to disburse an extra monthly fee to enjoy Netflix's best content.
Suffice to say, these countries are not even Netflix's biggest markets in Latin America, so it’s likely any tests would first have to pass trials in Brazil or Mexico before anyone's ability to binge Stranger Things season 4 in the United States is impacted.
Source: restoftheworld.org