Netflix Sharing – Korean Perspective
Until recently Netflix (NFLX) has been inured to the idea of account sharing as a way to encourage the building of a massive subscriber base, but over the last year, while the company has made no overarching policy change, there is considerable evidence that there is a move to end the account sharing practice that so many subscribers partake in. Netflix is quite open about its view of the practice, stating “A Netflix account is for people who live together in a single household” at the top of the “Sharing your Netflix Account” help page (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123277), and goes further, stating “People who do not live in your household will need to use their own account to watch Netflix.”
Netflix tracks sign-in data for each account, so if a device signs in that is not associated with that account or is used often, Netflix may ask the account holder to verify that the device is legitimate before it allows access. In order to verify a device, Netflix will send an e-mail link to the account holder with a short-term PIN. That PIN has to be entered into the device requesting access to the Netflix account within 15 minutes or the device will not be allowed access. Netflix indicates that ‘device verification may be required periodically’, although it does not specify whether that is for all devices, or just ones that do not have the same IP address as the account holder, but there are instances where Netflix will allow the user to watch from different locations.
If you have two houses, in theory, you need two Netflix accounts, as the IP will differ at each location, however Netflix will grant you the ability to watch from both locations, albeit with an occasional verification request. Netflix uses the IP, account activity patterns, and device IDs, which are embedded in all mobile devices and many others and remain constant as long as the device does not undergo a factory reset, so there are instances when Netflix might question the validity of a particular device, but while the rules are specific as to ‘no sharing’ the policing is far more difficult to enforce and seems to spark considerable feedback from subscribers.
Recent promotion of the ‘no sharing’ concept in South Korea led to a survey by the Korea Information & Communication Policy Institute late last year, which indicated that more than 40% of domestic users said they would cancel their paid subscriptions if forced to pay an additional fee for a 3rd party user, with only 2% indicating their willingness to pay the extra fee. According to the data, only 42.8% of Netflix users in South Korea use accounts listed under their own names, with ~5m paid account subscribers listed at the end of 2021, which means another 7.9m users are using shared Netflix accounts, and if the statistics are correct, 2m paid and therefore an additional 3.14m subscribers would depart, bringing actual viewership (paid and unpaid) from 12.9m to 7.76m, a ~40% reduction.
While Netflix has not officially made any statements other than, “The time and fee for account sharing in Korea have not been formalized”, most industry observers believe the change will occur in March of this year and will likely be applied within 30 days of the announcement. If it goes well and much of the survey is consumer bluster, Netflix will see incremental revenue. If not, it could start a consumer revolt that would have imprecations across the entire streaming video industry, especially after a number of streaming services have recently increased monthly fees.
Netflix tracks sign-in data for each account, so if a device signs in that is not associated with that account or is used often, Netflix may ask the account holder to verify that the device is legitimate before it allows access. In order to verify a device, Netflix will send an e-mail link to the account holder with a short-term PIN. That PIN has to be entered into the device requesting access to the Netflix account within 15 minutes or the device will not be allowed access. Netflix indicates that ‘device verification may be required periodically’, although it does not specify whether that is for all devices, or just ones that do not have the same IP address as the account holder, but there are instances where Netflix will allow the user to watch from different locations.
If you have two houses, in theory, you need two Netflix accounts, as the IP will differ at each location, however Netflix will grant you the ability to watch from both locations, albeit with an occasional verification request. Netflix uses the IP, account activity patterns, and device IDs, which are embedded in all mobile devices and many others and remain constant as long as the device does not undergo a factory reset, so there are instances when Netflix might question the validity of a particular device, but while the rules are specific as to ‘no sharing’ the policing is far more difficult to enforce and seems to spark considerable feedback from subscribers.
Recent promotion of the ‘no sharing’ concept in South Korea led to a survey by the Korea Information & Communication Policy Institute late last year, which indicated that more than 40% of domestic users said they would cancel their paid subscriptions if forced to pay an additional fee for a 3rd party user, with only 2% indicating their willingness to pay the extra fee. According to the data, only 42.8% of Netflix users in South Korea use accounts listed under their own names, with ~5m paid account subscribers listed at the end of 2021, which means another 7.9m users are using shared Netflix accounts, and if the statistics are correct, 2m paid and therefore an additional 3.14m subscribers would depart, bringing actual viewership (paid and unpaid) from 12.9m to 7.76m, a ~40% reduction.
While Netflix has not officially made any statements other than, “The time and fee for account sharing in Korea have not been formalized”, most industry observers believe the change will occur in March of this year and will likely be applied within 30 days of the announcement. If it goes well and much of the survey is consumer bluster, Netflix will see incremental revenue. If not, it could start a consumer revolt that would have imprecations across the entire streaming video industry, especially after a number of streaming services have recently increased monthly fees.
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