The American entertainment company Netflix announced that it will apply a guilt tax for those users who share their passwords with people who do not live in the same house as the account holder, as a business strategy to avoid the violation of the terms of service provision and the revenue leakage.
The measure will be implemented as a test by the company in Costa Rica, Chile and Peru. According to the statements of Netflix’s director of product innovation, Chegvi Long, with the relaxation of the terms and conditions for the provision of service, he maintains that the password “cannot be shared with individuals beyond your home”. The company “will allow passwords to be shared easily and securely, while paying a little more.“
Netflix will ask citizens to pay a slightly higher rate for using the service in several homes. Of course it will be a completely optional service, a fact that makes it more of a “fault” tax than a new charge for the service.”
The streaming platform is currently testing a feature that will allow users to transfer their profile. It is a tool that seeks to instead of sharing the password to “get your own Netflix account. We must remember that this is not mandatory, but something that the company wants you to do” explained the director of innovation.
Impact on Netflix revenue
The company’s new options to add extra accounts will be enabled in the coming days with a cost equivalent to: Costa Rica 2.99 US; Chile 2,380 CLP and in Peru 7.9 PEN, although the cost it will have in the United States is unknown.
To justify the move, the director of program innovation posted on the company’s blog: “We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams on our Standard and Premium plans.”
The company guarantees that people who decide to pay for a new subscription account as an “Additional Member” will keep their viewing history, “My List” and “personalized recommendations.”
M. Rodríguez
Source: tekcrispy.com