Netflix To Start Charging More For Account Sharing, Announces Countries That’ll Pay More Starting August

Video streaming platform Netflix has come up with a list of countries it will be charging more for account sharing starting this August. The latest development follows after the company bemoaned the losses which it said password sharing by households was contributing. In March, we reported that Netflix was testing a feature that’d charge an additional fee for users who share their passwords outside of their household. This additional fee, however, will be lesser than the original subscription fee.

The decision to charge more came after the company reported reducing subscriber growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 which extended into the first quarter of 2022. The company lost 200,000 subscribers for the first time in ten years. Netflix also estimated that 100 million additional households are sharing accounts with its 222 million paying households. 

The company recently announced a partnership with Microsoft to introduce ad-based subscriptions, one of its strategies for raising revenue in the long term. Starting next month, the company will roll out its account sharing feature in select countries, before eventually rolling it out globally. The company will be launching this account-sharing feature in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, and Guatemala next month.

While announcing the development, the company’s Director of Product Innovation Chengyi Long said that “Over the last 15 years, we’ve worked hard to build a streaming service that’s easy to use, including for people who travel or live together. It’s great that our members love Netflix movies and TV shows so much they want to share them more broadly. But today’s widespread account sharing between households undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service. So we’ve been carefully exploring different ways for people who want to share their accounts to pay a bit more. In March 2022, we launched an “add extra member” feature in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. From next month, we will launch an alternative “Add a home” feature in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” he added.