Netflix ‘s new platform test in three small Latin American markets to end the issue of password-sharing has confused some users in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica.
Central and South America accounts for the lowest Netflix revenue per user. This makes it vulnerable to price changes. But the platform is not strategically testing the new policy in the region’s largest broadcasting markets, such as Brazil and Mexico.
The platform will likely use its findings in these three smaller markets to dictate password-sharing policy globally, as the company looks to expand its password-sharing campaign by the end of the year.
The streaming service began trialling password-sharing solutions in March in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica. This caused subscribers in these markets to pay an additional fee to enable broadcasts to others outside their homes using the same account.
Consumers in Peru say that more than two months after the policy was first announced, they have not received uniform messages about the new fees and do not appear to be subject to the same policies.
The level of application of the policy varies from user to user. Some users on joint accounts reported that they ignored validation prompts without any penalty to the account holder.
While another user said that he did not receive any information about the policy change and continued to share his accounts without a problem.
There is also confusion surrounding Netflix’s definition of family. Some may consider their close family members to be part of the family. The platform seems to understand this mystery.
An anonymous customer support representative in Peru told me she was asked to provide verification codes to subscribers who call about someone in their family using their account from another location. This allows members outside the subscriber’s home to continue using the joint account for free.
Netflix’s efforts on this matter are messy
” While we started working on paid sharing over 18 months ago, we’ve been clear for five years that a Netflix account is for people who live together in a single home ,” a spokeswoman for the platform, Kumiko Hidaka , said in a statement.
We alerted millions of members who actively share an account in these countries by email. However, because of the significance of this change, we are slower intensifying in-product notifications.
The cost of an additional account is less than the cost of registering for a new separate account. Netflix charges an additional fee of $2.89 in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and $2.13 in Peru for adding up to users outside the account holder’s home.
The password-sharing campaign was imminent after the platform reported losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade in its latest earnings report, even though it still has 74.58 million subscribers in the US and Canada and 222 million globally.
The company is set to go through quite a few transformations as it tries to find new subscribers and struggles to hold on to its subscribers in the face of increasing competition.
This year, the company is moving to offer a cheaper, ad-supported plan. This plan provides a cheaper way to survive after long-term subscribers have seen a year-on-year rise in prices. It is also exploring live streaming in an effort to compete with Disney Plus, which continues to grow.
