New Delhi: Data from research firm Antenna shows a jump in daily US sign-ups for Netflix in the first few days after the streaming giant’s password-sharing crackdown took effect on May 23. The news pushed the company’s shares up 2.3 percent to $418.92 in early trading.
Looking for new ways to make money in a saturated market and a tough economy, Netflix moved to regulate the sharing of account passwords with friends and family — a big change for a company that once tweeted “Love is sharing a password”.
Netflix estimated that more than 100 million households had supplied their log-in credentials to people outside their homes. Under the new rules, US users can add members outside their household for an additional fee of $8 per month.
Its calculations seem to have paid off as the company recorded nearly 100,000 daily sign-ups on both May 26 and May 27, according to Antenna.
Netflix, which has expanded its operations to more than 100 other countries, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The streaming video pioneer saw its four biggest days of US user acquisition in the 4-1/2 years since the change took effect that Antenna has been covering the company.
The recent spike also exceeded levels seen during the initial US COVID-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020, according to Antenna, which sources data from third-party data aggregators that collect online purchase receipts, credit cards with permissions Tracks debit and banking data details. ,