Netflix begins to investigate password sharing behaviors

The well-known streaming video company Netflix currently has 200 million subscribers worldwide. If users want to watch Netflix videos, they need to subscribe.

However, for many users, the price of opening a Netflix video subscription is higher, so the simpler way is to share the account directly with friends to share the subscription price.

In this way, everyone can watch Netflix videos and the payment amount is relatively low. At least before, Netflix has not severely cracked down on this sharing model. After all, in the past, Netflix needed to acquire more users and then slowly turn users into paying users.

The media reported that Netflix loses more than 9 billion U.S. dollars each year due to password sharing. Obviously, it is unacceptable for Netflix’s investors to lose so much money.

“Netflix Icon” by dolphinsdock is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Investors were very dissatisfied with Netflix’s tolerance for password sharing. Therefore, under investor pressure, Netflix decided to start cracking down on this type of sharing.

Next, Netflix will use a security verification mechanism to prevent users from sharing passwords. For example, if users log in on different devices, SMS verification may be required.

There are actually many verification measures behind this, including different device logins, different regional locations, different network environments, and even different time periods.

Specifically, when the user logs in, Netflix will determine whether verification is required and if verification is performed, the user will be prevented from logging in unless the corresponding verification code is obtained.

The addition of the verification code will have some impact on the password-sharing behavior. After all, this may make the user’s use more troublesome and force users to purchase subscription members by themselves.

Via: NYTimes