What Netflix password-sharing crackdown are we talking about?
Back in March, Netflix introduced a new policy in South and Central America to cut down on people sharing their passwords across different households. If a person wanted to split their account across different houses, the primary user would need to pay an extra fee. That was to discourage people from doing that. The company chose to target countries like Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru mainly because it doesn’t have a large presence in those markets. Given the nature of the policy, that was actually a smart move by Netflix. The company knew that it would risk losing customers, so it chose not to target one of the bigger markets like the US.
But, the crackdown just had a breakdown
This new policy is starting to fall apart, and it’s for several reasons. Rest of World reached out to several Netflix customers in Peru and asked them about the policy. For starters, several people have chosen to just cancel their subscriptions altogether because of the policy; that’s to be expected. But, there are more reasons as to why this is failing. Another reason deals with how Netflix defines a “household”. Netflix defines a household as the primary user and the people who live with them. However, that can be hard to define, and that leaves the nature of the policy up for question. One big reason is the lack of communication on Netflix’s part. Some people reported that they didn’t know about the policy change at all. Also, there are people who continue to share their passwords only to face no fees. Not only that but there are people who are forced to pay the fee. This has led to tons of confusion about the policy and it’s not having the desired effect. We’re not sure if Netflix is testing different versions of the policy on different people within the countries. We’ll have to wait and see what happens as time goes on. Netflix is working on other ways that it can gain back subscribers. It’s developing mobile games that you can download on Android and iOS along with other tactics. It’s a matter of time to see if they work.
