200,000 users abandon Netflix after crackdown backfires

This article is specifically about Australia. Globally, Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers after their password-sharing crackdown.

I hate to say it, but the crackdown worked exactly as intended.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66240390

iirc, they launched in new countries at the same time, skewing the result quite a bit. Probably intentional to say "see? it worked"

Edit: can't quite find a source for it. Might have been somthing I misread. Take with a grain of salt
- Not to mention that they did start with the narrative that they start enforcing this on a certain date, but it took me 2 months over that to receive the warning/being locked out. I remember seeing people from Canada (one of the countries in the first wave) that still had not been forced off 4 months into the date they had set.
  
  They appear to be taking it slow (not booting off everyone at the same time) to build this narrative that it's working fantastically so to not get a massive drop off in users (stock price drop) and waiting out for their competition to also move forward with this change. All of this while also adding more markets, dropping the prices in others and removing the cheaper plans.
- It probably did work though. We had some relatives piggy-backing off of our top tier 20 year old account when we got shut down last August in what must have been beta testing for the program. We cancelled our account. I'm not sure how many of the relatives ended up getting their own accounts but the poorest and least able to afford an additional monthly charge went and signed right up, so they were at at least a net zero change in subs there (though they signed up for the cheapest option).
  
  People are just disappointing.
- I was looking at sky sports in the UK and the majority of their packages had “free Netflix” offers included. I wonder if enough of those signs ups would have influenced the numbers?
- I don't know about launching in new countries, but a lot of the new subscribers were added in countries where Netflix is cheaper so while they did add a lot of subscribers the revenue increase wasn't large.
And yet their stock dropped massively after revealing the 5 million gain because investors realize that it was a one time boost that won't help them in the long run.
- They essentially showed the market their firm cap for revenue, and the market was like 'uhh thats it?'
- None of that is based on reality anyways.
- Dropped massively?
  
  Are you looking at the gains in the past three years because what you're saying versus reality isn't true at all.
I live in multiple places with each stay lasting about three months. So far Netflix has not given me shit about it. It just asks me if I want to movey home address. As long as it continues to let me move around, we're cool. The moment it decides that I have to open a separate account per home, I am out. I watch Paramount+ the most anyway.

EDIT: Honestly, the real conversation should be how mid Netflix original content is most of the time. Their best shit is stuff they import.
- I have a similar lifestyle thanks to work and Netflix did exactly what will make you cancel. Whatever you do, don't set it up on your home smart TV because that's the thing that screwed up my account. Suddenly, I had to create new accounts for every random hotel I was living in for months at a time or go home every 30 days to reconnect to my home WiFi. I cancelled as soon as the account I paid for, that I didn't share outside my household suddenly stopped working. As an aside, I wonder how this effects other traveling people: truckers, military families, traveling nurses, or air crew.
"Yes, I'd love to pay even more money for even shittier service. Thank you!"

-People apparently
Every time Netflix was in the front page of reddit, I'd check my Netflix stock.

My Netflix stock keeps increasing. The first so called "massive exodus" took it from $140 to $220. It's currently over $400.

So... Yeah.
I was going to post the same, thank you. I hate it but this has caused dramatically more signups
the ad supported subscription cost less, so I wonder if they are still making as much money
- Supposedly, Netflix makes more from the ads tier:
  
  In Q2, as in the previous quarter, Netflix’s advertising tier generated higher average revenue per user (ARPU) overall than the Standard ad-free plan ($15.49/month), implying more than $8.50/month in ad revenue per subscriber, Neumann said.
- I wouldn't be surprised if the ad supported tier made more money than the cheapest ad-free tier. Ads are a huge business.
wow, surprising in a way but i guess people just want easy access to content to binge
- It costs less to add a household than it does to have two subscriptions. Netflix was at least somewhat smart about it.
- Cable cost hundreds and still had ads, people won't give a fuck over 20$ if that means relative ease of watching season 57 of Big Mouth
Yes, and Disney+ said they will do the same
Maybe. It’s just the start right? How many will keep those subscriptions? What about when they raise costs again? I’ve had a Netflix account for a really really long time. I was even grandfathered into a plan at one point. Eventually was forced into coughing up more and more money, getting less and less for it. It wasn’t just the password sharing. It was the way they keep running their business, and how it’s going across the whole streaming system. I cancelled my service a few days ago after over a decade of service.

On top of this all: 🤬 ads. I’m so sick of being bombarded literally everywhere. From Products I buy and bring home, to being outside of the house. I’m sick of being a cash cow and getting ’trickle down’ wages and dealing with inflation. So yeah. 🖕 Netflix.

Thanks for posting this. I almost forgot to cancel my subscription to Netflix. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

Yep, cancelled the subscription we shared among my dad, brother and I. Most outrageous fact was that I actually have two residential addresses (private and an apartment provided by my company near the office), and even as account owner I was being inconvenienced with the "are you travelling" bullshit.

That drove me nuts.

I used to use my dad's account. Now I just don't use Netflix. So far im not missing much.

I also use your Dad’s account tell him to stop messing up my Cuties re-watch.
- Which episode were we on?

Is that a lot? What %?

According to the same company (Telsyte) Netflix had about 6 Million subscribers in 2021. So that would make about 3% losses in subscribers.
- I yin the 200k is just Aussie subscribers though? Or are you saying they also had 6 million new aussie ones?
  
  The article isn't 100% clear, but it says "get lost 200k". They the next sentence "the first time they've lost aussie subscribers"
- Wtf. Netflix has 100s of millions of subscribers.
  
  Subscriber count has been in slow decline since 2021.

I don't care about Netflix password sharing policies. But I do very care about their content policy. I don't even start a new show until I know they finished it without cancelling it half way through. I also do care about the fragmentation in the streaming industry. I'm not willing to buy me in in 5 streaming services just to view 5 different shows.

Fuck you, I'll go back to the bay.

I do the same.
I hate them both! I'm still not over the fact that they cancelled Inside Job. It's just the latest in a long line of shows we'll be forever left unsatisfied with no ending and I hate it.

I canceled as soon as they said they were going to be cracking down, months ago. I pay for 4 screens, and on principle, I want to be allowed to use them without being nagged or scolded or banned. So if they don't want my business on those terms, there are plenty of other streaming services with just as much content I like.

I cancelled too. Been wanting to for a while and this was the push I needed.
Same here. I was paying for four accounts, and it shouldn't matter where they're logged in. I haven't missed it at all

We split an account between 4 households, paying a quarter each. When the crackdown happened, 2 including my house cancelled and the 3rd paid for the extra user. So they halved their users from our account, but increased revenue anyway. Seems like a win for them.

It's only a short-time gain though. With a shared account between 4 households, chances that one of them is actively using the service is much higher than with only 2 users. If a service is used less and less, chances are increasing it's going to get canceled (especially now that prices are soaring while wages are not increasing accordingly).
That's my experience as well.
Do you mean they increased their revenue overall? Despite losing 2 households of viewers because of the increase in individuals paying for it outside of your 4 households?

Because you said 2 households dropped out and the other 2 paid more each. But that would still total to the same amount of money to netflix but a lower viewership, which affects their engagement stats and might get more netflix originals cancelled or other shows dropped.
- All 4 were sharing one account originally

Who are these 50% of Aussies who think we need more locally produced content on streaming services? Our content sucks, who's actually watching these Aussie dramas / series

How very dare you do my girls Bluey and Bingo like that.
- Bluey is on ABC iView. We get that for free.
- I really liked showing bluey to my kid, as in I enjoyed watching it, the kid doesn't understand shit yet. But my SO started pointing out that the "morals" were a bit off sometimes, like the dad is always giving in to what the kids want, they get rewarded for being a bit nasty, etc etc. Have you ever felt that way?
Deadloch would like to have a word.

But seriously, I can imagine 50% of people saying in the abstract they would like more locally produced content, though I'm not sure that it would actually affect purchasing behaviour.
"We need more locally produced content, the stuff we have all sucks"
Australian taskmaster is a treasure and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.
US resident here. I absolutely loved Glitch. The first season anyway
Modern Aussie dramas kinda suck, but for comedy we've made some absolute gems in the past like Rake, Kath and Kim, and All Aussie Adventures.

Also back in th day we made some solid dramas like Underbelly, and All Saints.
The "Bureau of Magical Things" got pretty good once it got going.
I liked The Almighty Johnsons quite a bit
Probably the same kind of people who make similar arguments about CanCon.

There's always been this tension between "We need a thriving TV and film industry in this country" and "Most of what we produce is garbage for the purpose of using government grants" here. Can't help but wonder if it's the same on your end of the planet (#justcommonwealththings).

At least there are always a couple diamonds in the sludge, though (here, Schitt's Creek, TPB, and I'm sure some others even though the other ones I think of are looong over)
Everybody needs good neighbours.
The Kettering Incident was great.
It is way better than the american stuff. we either look for BBC or Aussie productions for good acting and characters with depth.
Utopia was so good.
My wife from the USA loves Aussie drama series

Aye, I left when they started up their bs in Canada. I will very grudgingly turn it on once Three Body Problem is out and then turn it right back off. Or even, if I can buy TBP from another streamer or DVD , I'll wait and do that. This greedy crap from Netflix is personal to me. So sick of greed.

Just pirate it off https://1337x.to when it comes out. People rip things pretty fast if they're popular.
- Thanks God! Keep up the good work
- Their search function is terrible compared to TPB, which is saying a lot because TPB's is also not very good.
- Aye, Thank you! I'm not that sophisticated with this stuff but I'll snag that link!
- Public torrent sites like that sketch me out. I don't like getting those funny/threatening emails from my ISP.
It's not even greed. It's horrible mismanagement. They dug themselves a whole bunch of financial holes based on a false belief that they could continue seeing the same subscription growth without stopping to consider the possibility that there was a point at which they would inevitably plateau. And now they are scrambling to find ways to make up the shortfalls in their goals now that the plateau is in sight. Some genius executive thought cracking down on shared accounts would fix that. 😂
- Idk , I mean.... unsustainable growth , to me, that's the same thing as greed.

I am now happily sailing the seas. Guess who is the one that makes the content readily available

Piracy is a right.

Legally, it is not, but I get your sentiment.

I would like to say piracy against the big guy also hurts the little guy making the content you like.

I am all for pirating that scientific journal and that college book but there is a reason writers, artists, and the people making a shit amount of money for the work they put into the things we love.

I won't support something that hurts a regular person giving me the things I like to watch, but I get your sentiment.

Well, if I couldn't afford a subscription service before, now I absolutely can't. Problem is I'm too much of a goody two-shoes and as a result I don't pirate either - I genuinely haven't seen a single TV series in almost a decade as a result, and at this point I'm scared of people expecting me to understand cultural references I can't afford to legally learn

You're gonna die some day. Just watch the shows you want, you're not taking food out of a director's mouth.
Subscriptions are there for those who can afford it. If you literally cannot, I don't see the problem with sailing the seven seas until you can.
Eh… I’m not going to try to convince you that piracy is the answer, I’ll just mention that you’re already giving them as much as you’re willing to watch their content, why not just watch it anyway?

Funnily enough, we pay for most streaming services in our household, but I use Stremio and get my content off the high seas because it’s all contained in a single app, and doesn’t feed their analytics.
Local libraries often have TV shows on DVD.
- Our library provides a streaming service via hoopla.
Not going to lie- while I do watch most of what interests me in a timely manner, I've found that any cultural references that I do miss are easily explained via memes.
Honestly you're probably better off and more interesting for your lack of pop culture knowledge.
- Hahahahahahahaha. I was like that guy in my youth, not knowing what people were talking about was alienating. I was reading a lot of books instead and, of course, nobody understood the references too.

200K lost....but there was a gross subscriber increase of 2.6 million, so there will be no changing of the guard at Netflix anytime soon.

And here I was, thinking people are abandoning Netflix because they make bad shows.

62 per cent of those surveyed want production companies to compensate actors.

I'm so proud of everyone (not just fellow Aussies) for standing up for what's right. 😊

Keep supporting the strike.

People with android box-, Try streamio with torrentio

200,000 users is like a piss in the ocean for Netflix, especially when every other major streaming platform is also hiking prices, introducing ads and cracking down on account sharing.

We are still far from the days of cable.

Who does your post serve? It's definitely meaningful, especially inn a relatively smaller population like Australia.

Your post smells like piss.
- you ever talk to somebody who bought like 100 dollars of stock in a company? Not saying I know exactly what kind of piss this is, but I suspect this is the most common type of piss.
  
  I had a friend who had been given microsoft stock in the 90s and he could not say anything negative about it.
The significance of this, in my opinion, isn't that Netflix lost 200,000 users in Australia, but that for the first time Netflix has seen a decline of users in Australia. No more line goes up, oh no!

Either way, this is probably less from password crackdowns, more people jumping to alternative streaming platforms.
- I certainly don't know anyone here in Australia with a Netflix account any more. But I know several people with Disney or other alternative streaming platforms. So I'll agree with that one: They chose a platform that suited them better, and don't miss Netflix.
And going back to the days of torrenting

According to the chart it's a loss of 3% of their total subscriber base. I highley doubt Netflix will bat an eye.

Also they leave out that almost 6 million additional signups were added by this change. I'm ready to go back to the high seas myself even though I'm the one who pays for the account haha
Well, it depends. Leveraging a growing subscription base into cheap debt is kind of their business model.

Users =/= Subscribers. Most of these users are probably not paying users so from a financial perspective it does not hurt Netflix to shed them.

i think you left out a "not"
- Yes, thanks!
Yeah. Blocking password sharing is technically reducing users, since you are blocking sub profiles on subscriber password sharing accounts. Would be curious to see more detailed reporting on subscriber vs user usage.

I guess the lesson is that Netflix was always doomed the moment the companies that actually produce and/or own all the content realized how lucrative streaming could be. They were only as successful as they were because they had no competition.

This article is cherry picked. They added millions more of subscribers because of this change.
- Making it accessible in more countries must've had absolutely nothing to do with it. Zilch, nada, nothing. It was all about cracking down on password sharing. /s
On top of what ShustOne said, I would argue that they have know this for over 10 years and was the reason they created Netflix originals starting with House of Cards.
The business articles about how companies like Disney and others that "that actually produce and/or own all the content" are struggling to compete kinda suggests otherwise though.

Article seems to confuse cause and effect. Maybe some subscribers left but they more likely because the service is too expensive or didn't like the content. It doesn't necessarily follow they all left because some freeloaders lost their access to another person's account.

In all fairness, it's a Forbes article, which generally implies it's crap.
When I cancelled my account I was sure to put that I was not going to continue to support my parents in law since I didn't care for the service myself.

So Netflix lost a top tier subscriber from me because of it

Eh... i also remember reading an article saying they GAINED 5 million after this started..

Lol

Wow, that went swimmingly.

I mean sure, turn to streaming competitors, but they are not going to be any better in the long term.

The entire subscription model sucks. It's really bad value for the consumer and makes us pay huge amount of money every month for nothing once we have watched what we want to watch.

My new streaming service is powered by open source software and has a black flag on the rear end of the ship. I'll be fine.

In the end I'm one of those pirates with an enormous inventory of movies purchased on YouTube and other services, I just don't want to support services that pride themselves with cancelling after season one.
Best suggestion I've heard is rotating subscriptions. Netflix for 3-4 months and watch everything you're interested in then cancel, Apple TV next for 3-4 months then cancel, next maybe Hulu or Max, finally loop back around to Netflix.

Or maybe some might find it works better to rotate 2 services, or keep one like Disney always for the kids but rotate another. Regardless it's not too much of a hassle and avoids paying for 4, 5 or 6 services at a time.
- One of my kids asks maybe once in six months to watch something on Disney+ so I subscribe and instantly cancel (don't get me started about auto renew). I swear in that six months there are maybe a handful of new shows and movies that are worth watching and the rest is the same old junk as before. It probably doesn't help that Disney is making some really terrible content lately.
  
  Netflix isn't quite so bad but I can see why people would want to take a break from it. While I think they have a slightly better hit ratio than Disney they've also put out some expensive stinkers too.
You know you can cancel the service when you've watched all you want to watch, right?
- Yeah I don't think I want to juggle subscriptions between 5 different streaming providers. Not my idea of fun.
Subscription models are so monumentally better than cable that it's unreal. It is absolutely not a "huge" amount of money compared to the alternative of cable+"premium channels" which was the only way to even begin to approach the level of content currently available via streaming.
- Maybe it's better than cable but it's still not worth the money in my opinion. All my subs are just idling (the two I have left). There is nothing good on there and it sucks paying for something I don't use just in case there will be a show worth watching in the future.

Didn't Netflix gain more subs after the change before they lost them? Also, 200,000 is a small number, IMO.

This is for Australia. Unfortunately, last I read, you're right about it helping their numbers globally, to the extent that Disney is looking into cracking down on sharing too. I did not get my own subscription. Most of their shows are dull to me, and the ones that I like often get canceled.

surprised Pikachu

I feel much superiority for never having a netflix account

me every time conversations about Twitter come up

Even with Netflix losing 200k in Australia, I’m sure with data/infra costs they still came out on top

so would I, webtorrent is so useful

It's become apparent that Netflix has been rolling out these changes gradually over the past couple of years to avoid a high volume outcry. They are aiming for a trickle here and trickle there.

Searches for "this account cannot be used in this location" + "Netflix" shows the same story. People run into blocks that didn't exist when they traveled or used Netflix away from home.

Many subscribers haven't experienced this yet and so try to explain it away as an anomaly making those who have experienced it question themselves. And there are the shills online, on Reddit for example, trying to play it off as subscribers being angry about nothing and/or trying to take advantage of lower Netflix fees in other regions. That doesn't explain North American users paying over $16 being blocked from using their accounts while abroad. Netflix customer service response is consistent in its inanity and gaslighting.

This is not "working." Netflix revenue is decreasing year on year, quarter on quarter. They are replacing subscribers who pay $16 - $20 in North America etc with subscribers paying as low as or lower than $10 in other countries. It defeats their greedy purpose to replace 1 person paying $20 with 2 paying $10. They are not "forcing" anyone to subscribe at the $16 - $20 level because they were locked out based on location. Rather they are leaving a bad taste in the mouth of subscribers and losing them in the process.

Netflix's audacious ludicrous stance is that they are entitled to money from people who share accounts with friends and family. They imagine this money will materialize for them once they put these measures in place. It's obvious that is not happening.

Netflix has decided a death spiral is preferable to providing service that subscribers want. How long before revenue growth is 0% and then negative. That's the trend. That's where they're headed. I can't wait🫸🫷.

The "this account cannot be used in this location" error hit me this week after using Netflix for more than 10 years. Customer service was very interested in telling me to get prepaid cards and phones to re-subscribe to my account versus being able to use my North American payment method and billing info while traveling.

Fuck Netflix. How dare they? They are not food and water or a roof overhead. They are not entitled to details of my location or traveling habits. They are simply entertainment. They were the only streaming service I kept up consistently month to month almost like cable. That is the reality that Netflix will face. People will subscribe for a month to binge a show and then cancel once that month is done. They're destroying a selling point that made them better than Hulu or any other streamer not available internationally.

Netflix sent their last DVD this week. Soon enough Netflix may return to DVDs when they've run their business into the ground and the only interest people have will be to purchase Stranger Things or The Witcher to watch on their DVD players and game consoles away from subscription.

I didn't have Netflix before the crackdown and I don't have it ever. Basically a net positive of 0.

My stolen Netflix still works on mobile and desktop. My main use case so the crackdown didn't really affect me.

Good.

Lmao at people paying these companies. Used it once and that was too much.

Others have already pointed out that Netflix cracking down on password sharing hasn't backfired and has actually been a huge win for them globally, but I just wanted to add that this community is absolutely terrible for only sharing articles that confirms it's anti-tech industry bias and leaving out any information that doesn't.

Yup, you're right...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/netflix-stock-jumps-as-analysts-see-password-crackdown-ad-tier-boosting-growth/ar-AA1fFSlp