Everything is ready for Netflix to start restricting the option of opening an account on devices outside the same home. The platform has already announced the conditions it will impose to put an end to this practice, which is one of its main objectives for 2023.
According to the company, it currently has 223 million users, but about 100 million people use the streaming service without paying or sharing an account. Which presents losses and monetization opportunities.
So they already have a plan to not allow the same account to be used by several people at the same time, each one with a different internal profile and sharing the bill payment.
Netflix Ends Password Sharing
Through its question and answer section, it was where the decisions that the company has to control this practice were detailed.
The basis of the plan is that the account will have a main network, which will allow control to know which device connects outside of that Wi-Fi. In this way the concept of home is created, since the idea of an account is that it be shared by those who live in the same house.
But in case the account is shared with someone else, the app will ask that device to connect at least once every 31 days to the main network. In other words, if an account is shared with a friend, he will have to go home once a month to renew the connection, although in practice this would only apply to mobile or portable devices, since a television would be a formality. complicated.
To this is added that there will now be a verification code, of which there is little information on the official website for now. But it is known that this will be necessary to connect from a place outside the home, it will be sent via text message or email and must be renewed from time to time to keep the session open.
This would be the first part of Netflix’s plan, since there are still many questions to be resolved because it is not known what the configuration of that main network will be like and how this will affect people who go on a trip and want to use the application.
And although the application details that in case of finding a shared use of accounts it will not make an automatic charge, it is also not clear if there will be a way to add a household paying an additional and lower price, as was done during a few months of testing in some countries in Latin America, where the company knows that an exodus of users may occur with this decision.
“We expect that, as in some Latin American countries, the first reaction of affected users is to abandon the platform, which will impact subscriber growth in the short term. But then the households will activate their own accounts and additional member accounts”, the platform assured a few weeks ago in its financial reports.
Of course, they were clear that if an account is opened outside the main home, the reproduction will be blocked.
This plan does not modify other issues such as the number of screens that can have a session open, so there are still four in the case of the Premium plan. Therefore, users must be aware of changes in the application, so as not to have problems if an account is being shared.