Netflix announced on Tuesday that users in a hundred countries will now have to pay more to share their passwords for the platform with people outside their home country as part of a strategy to diversify its revenue.
The streaming service has been testing this new formula in a handful of countries for a year, and has already rolled it out to Canada after a rough 2022.
“The Netflix account is for the use of one family only,” the company said in a statement.
Netflix said earlier this year that more than 100 million households shared accounts on the service “impacted our ability to invest in new TV shows and movies.”
Netflix has experimented with “lending” or “sharing” accounts, where customers can add additional users or transfer viewing profiles to separate accounts, in some markets, for a higher price. On Tuesday, he announced he was expanding the policy to more than 100 countries.
As Netflix’s growth cooled last year, the Silicon Valley, California-based online streaming company set out to encourage those watching for free with shared passwords to pay for the service without alienating customers. start doing
“This account sharing initiative helps us build a larger base of potential paying members and grow Netflix for the long term,” said co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
The TV broadcasting giant recently told financial analysts it had delayed a broader campaign against account password sharing “to improve the member experience”.
In this sense, Netflix said that it ensures that customers have seamless access to the service outside the home or on different devices such as tablets, TVs or smartphones.
In April the company reported that its subscriber base had reached a record 232.5 million in the first quarter of the year and that its new ad-supported division was doing well.
