The American subscription streaming service and production company, Netflix launched an experiment to subdue password sharing among its users in March. This experiment has left some of the users of the online streaming platform bewildered. It initiated this trial in parts of America which included Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. With the launch of this trial, the users of the following countries were asked to pay extra charges if their account is being accessed by someone outside of their households.
According to the reports of the Rest of World, many of the Netflix users in Peru did not receive any formal notice regarding this policy up-gradation even after the completion of two months since the declaration of the policy. The report also said that this experiment varied from person to person. Some of its users brushed aside the notifications regarding the new policy and continued sharing their accounts with others without paying any sanction. While some said that they never received any prompt regarding the policy change and exercised sharing their password outside without facing any trouble.
Users are also befuddled about the term “household” being used in the new policy of Netflix. It is believed that Netflix is aware of this confusion as a user from Peru said that she was asked a code to verify the user she considers a part of her household but lives at a different location. This verification code enables the person to use the shared Id without paying any additional amount.
A spokeswoman of the Company said the company always followed the agenda that one single account is to be shared within a household i.e. among the group of people who live in the same house. She also said that the users of these countries were notified about the policy change and the company is gratified with the response.
Notably, the additional price being charged to the users is less than the amount asked for signing up for a new Id. The company charges an additional amount of $2.89, $2.99, and $2.13 in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru respectively.
During the pandemic, it was noticed that the demand for online streaming platforms raised all over the world. This demand also gave rise to more password sharing which interrupted the user growth. Netflix and many other online streaming and production platforms are trying their best to fix this issue. In the recent earning reports of the company, we saw that there was an evident loss of the users. Netflix faced this loss first time over the ages.
