Netflix Gains Six Million Subscribers After Password Sharing Crackdown - MacRumors
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Netflix Gains Six Million Subscribers After Password Sharing Crackdown

Netflix earlier this year began cracking down on password sharing in the United States and other countries, and the effort has been successful, the company said today. Netflix gained 5.9 million new global subscribers in the second quarter of 2023, including more than one million in the U.S. and Canada, according to its most recent earnings report [PDF].

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Based on these results, Netflix will now roll out paid sharing to "almost all" remaining countries where the new policies have not yet been enacted. Netflix eliminated multi-household password sharing in the United States in May, a move that immediately caused signups to surge.

According to Netflix, revenue is up in every region where paid sharing was introduced, and sign-ups have exceeded cancelations. The company saw revenue growth of 2.7 percent year over year. Going forward, Netflix expects revenue growth to accelerate further as it begins to see the full benefits of paid sharing and additional adoption of its ad-supported plan.

For years, Netflix allowed subscribers to share their accounts with people outside of their direct household, but that is no longer allowed. All people who access a Netflix account must live in the same location, with Netflix restricting access based on IP and other location data. Netflix provided tools to allow those sharing accounts to sign up for their own accounts.

Netflix claimed that more than 100 million households were sharing accounts, impacting its ability to "invest in and improve Netflix" for paying members.

Tag: Netflix

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Top Rated Comments

Apple Fan 2008 Avatar
41 months ago
They seem to forget this...

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Score: 53 Votes (Like | Disagree)
41 months ago
But MacRumor posters said they would go out of business!
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
41 months ago

Something is not right.

How do we know these are real subscribers? Could be the bot accounts. Someone needs to audit Netflix.
You're telling me people are going to create a bunch of fake accounts just so they can pay Netflix $$$ and then not use the accounts?



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Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
41 months ago

Yeah, sure they did! 🤣
You realize this was in the earnings report right? Lying about something like this would have serious repercussions with the SEC.

As for me, I am one of those in the numbers. I set my friend up with one of the cheaper accounts and spun off his profile.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
O.N.Y.X Avatar
41 months ago
Netflix to customer: Account sharing is now forbidden, go stand in the corner!

Customer to Netflix: Deepest apologies, please accept more subscriptions as compensation.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
41 months ago

But MacRumor posters said they would go out of business!
Just because they got a ton of people paying the bare minimum for service when people like me cancelled my 12 year old 4K plan isn't exactly a win in the long run. That's how businesses do it. Hey we got 6 million new people to sign up! How many quit and what service level? No comment.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)