Netflix has lost more than a million users in Spain since it introduced paid account sharing at the beginning of February, a measure that is not very popular with subscribers but on which the company has pinned hopes to increase its revenue and user base.
In early February Netflix announced the end of shared accounts in Spain, a practice that allowed friends and relatives to use the same account to share expenses, preferably activating the subscription that offers the most advantages, distributing its cost among the participants.
In return, it introduced a new modality: payment sharing, that is, a user can add multiple profiles additional to your subscription, from people who do not live in the home, paying for them a certain amount.
The company has always been aware that this move would be unpopular among users and that would generate low subscriptions. But it maintains this option, along with the Basic subscription with ads, as two of the pillars on which to support its growth, both in revenue and in users.
According to estimates by the analysis firm Kantar, in Spain the ‘streaming’ service has lost more than a million users since the end of the shared account became effective, as reflected in the study ‘Entertainment on demand’ (Entertainment on Demand), corresponding to the first quarter of 2023.
The forecasts for the second quarter follow the same line, while 10 percent of those who have stayed on the platform plan to unsubscribe,as indicated from Kantar on their official blog.
“The loss of some users was to be expected, but losing more than 1 million subscribers in just over a month has major consequences for Netflix and will influence your decision to continue with your measure globally“, they comment from Kantar.
In fact, the company has already delayed the expansion of said plan to more countries, which it will resume in the second quarter, betting on an improved experience of user.
Kantar’s study also highlights the arrival of SkyShowtime in Spain, which represents 32.6 percent of new subscriptions to on-demand streaming services in the first quarter of the year. However, it is Amazon Prime that registers the highest number of new subscribers, with a share of 34 percent.