The streaming platform introduced a new feature that charges people to add multiple profiles to an account.
Netflix has begun to charge extra for multiple profiles in an effort to reduce its revenue loss by sharing passwords. As the company announced, a new moderating feature will change the way users share Netflix outside their households by adding an extra fee.
Right now, Netflix is testing this new password-sharing crackdown in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. Users in these countries can add up to two additional members to their Netflix membership as sub-accounts but they must pay an extra fee on top of their monthly memberships. For instance, in Costa Rica users need to pay 3 dollars on top of the monthly cost of Netflix to add an extra member while in Chile they must pay 2,4 CLP, and in Peru almost 8 PEN.
The new feature is available for Netflix’s members on Standard and Premium accounts. The company also announced that members on its Basic, Standard, and Premium plans can enable people who share their account to transfer profile information either to a new account or an Extra Member sub-account keeping the viewing history, My List, and personalized recommendations. It has not yet been announced when the new feature will be available in other countries.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans. While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members” said in a statement Chengyi Long, Netflix’s Director of Product Innovation.
“We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films. We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world” he added.
Two-step verification
Back in 2021, in an attempt to curd password sharing Netflix introduced the two-step verification, which, however, does not seem to be so efficient, as users continue to share their accounts and the company has significant revenue losses. According to analysts, the new feature seems to be Netflix’s strictest crackdown on the practice yet and it has a lot of potential to help grow the company’s revenue.
Netflix has more than 200 million members around the world and the company pointed out that the password sharing practice is maleficent for both business and security reasons. That is the reason why Netflix’s team has focused on combating password sharing and on addressing tighter security measures, to protect users’ data from being exposed to any malicious online activity.
Password sharing is not only Netflix’s problem, as according to analysts and investors other streaming platforms are trying to find effective ways to combat this issue. There are also estimations that password sharing and piracy cost streaming companies around $9 billion.
