Netflix is looking into ways to prevent users from having their accounts used beyond their households, so sharing your login details with your friends might entail additional fees.
The streaming platform will first introduce this modification in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, where account sharing has been most prominent. Depending on local conversion rates, the fee will amount to approximately £1.60-£2.30 ($2.11—$3.03).
The company aims to invest these additional funds in new original content. Data shows the amount spent on original releases last year was $13.6 billion, the most successful output being Squid Game with a $900 million profit.
Netflix’s terms of use already prohibited account sharing, but prevention measures were introduced only in 2021. The company now announced that standard and premium users would have the possibility of creating sub-accounts with unique passwords for two individuals that are not members of their household. Additionally, users will be able to transfer their viewing history and recommendations from an existing profile to a new account.
Statistics show the streaming platform has recently started losing popularity as there were 19 million fewer new users in 2021 compared to 2020, paving the way for other major players such as HBO Max and Hulu to assert their dominance on the market.
Another potentially discouraging novelty announced at the beginning of this year is that Netflix will be increasing the fee for all three subscription plans, the most expensive tier costing as much as just over $20 a month.
