If you are using someone else's Netflix account, this news is for you: Netflix wants to monetize the exchange and wants to do it soon.
In a letter to shareholders as part of its first-quarter earnings results, Netflix for the first time quantified the total number of households using another household's account, saying, in essence, that more than 100 million households currently use Bridgerton. using someone else's credentials. and not pay Netflix for the service.
The company currently has more than 221 million paid subscribers worldwide, but that number is virtually unchanged from last quarter. Based on Netflix's tally, about 33% more people could also pay to watch the next Squid Game.
It's no secret that the popular streaming service now cares about people sharing accounts. Earlier this year, it introduced a pilot program where it would add an additional €2.99 to accounts that want to share their credentials outside the home. For now, the test is contained in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
However, based on the wording of the letter, it's now clear that Netflix could move quickly to expand the show. In the letter, Netflix explains: "So while we can't monetize everything at this time, we believe this is a great opportunity in the short to medium term. As we work to monetize exchange, ARM growth, revenue, and visualization will become a more important indicator of our success than membership growth.”
Netflix's growing pains actually spread across a number of factors, which Netflix says it can't control, like how many people are buying connected or smart TVs, who's switching (or not) from cable and streaming to on-demand services ( like Netflix) and rising data costs. It should be noted that Netflix, which does not control the cost of broadband data but manages the prices of its own services, has increased its prices in recent years, including a significant increase in January.
Despite the large number of people who share Netflix (100 million worldwide and 30 million in the United States and Canada), Netflix notes that the number of people who share has remained relatively stable in recent years. Still, it makes Netflix no less interested in tapping into that potential revenue.
It's also clear that as the world comes to life outside of our COVID bubbles, Netflix has experienced some kind of abrupt growth and decline. It was fast in 2020, but it receded significantly in 2021 and the recession only accelerated due to factors Netflix can't control and those tens of millions of people sharing unpaid bills.
What does this mean for you?
If you're one of the millions of people who share your parents' accounts, perhaps a friend or distant relatives, Netflix warns you. There probably won't be a global account sharing surcharge today, tomorrow or next week, but there sure will. One day you might get a call from a friend, "Hi, about my Netflix account..."
- If you want to understand why Netflix's decisions are just the beginning of a slippery slope to account sharing, read this.