"Hyung... Open a New Netflix ID" Expansion of Account Sharing Ban Countries

Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain Crackdown
Netflix "More Countries to Apply Within Q1"

Online video service (OTT) Netflix has begun crackdowns following restrictions on account sharing.

According to a report by the US economic media CNBC, Netflix started account sharing crackdowns on the 8th (local time) in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain.

Accordingly, users in these countries must set their primary viewing location. Two additional sub-accounts per account are allowed for users who do not live in this location.

Additional fees will be charged for other account sharers. The additional fees are 7.99 Canadian dollars (about 7,500 KRW) in Canada, 7.99 New Zealand dollars (about 6,400 KRW) in New Zealand, 3.99 euros (about 5,400 KRW) in Portugal, and 5.99 euros (about 8,100 KRW) in Spain. Crackdowns are expected to begin in the US starting in March.

Earlier, Netflix first introduced a policy last year in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru to charge an additional fee of about 3 dollars (approximately 3,765 KRW) for account sharing.

In October last year, to facilitate monetization, Netflix also introduced a feature that allows personal viewing history and recommended content information of account sharers to be transferred to sub-accounts. Netflix then announced that “account sharing bans will be applied to more countries within the first quarter.”

Netflix’s full-scale crackdown on account sharing is analyzed to be due to weakened profitability caused by a slowdown in subscriber growth. By banning account sharing, the company aims to convert users who have not yet subscribed to Netflix into new subscribers and improve profitability. Netflix currently estimates that about 100 million people share accounts with acquaintances.

Expansion of Account Sharing Ban Countries... South Korea Is Just a Matter of Time

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Paid account sharing is expected to be applied domestically soon. On the 1st, Netflix opened a notice titled 'Netflix Account Sharing' on its official Korean website and introduced this policy.

Earlier, after the earnings announcement on the 20th of last month, Netflix stated in a shareholder letter that “paid account sharing will be expanded by the end of the first quarter,” and this notice has strengthened expectations that South Korea will be included.

It is known that the details of account sharing crackdowns and methods in South Korea have not yet been finalized, but user backlash is considerable.

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Information Society Development Institute in November last year, among 120 people subscribing to Netflix under their own name in Korea, 42.5% responded that they would cancel their subscription if account sharing were banned.