Image Source: The Hindu
Netflix has cut prices in over 30 countries to get more people to sign up.
Prices have gone down in Asia, Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.
It comes when people are tightening their budgets because of the rising cost of living and when Netflix is getting more competition from other services.
A company representative told the BBC that members have never had more entertainment options.
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Croatia, Venezuela, Kenya, and Iran are some countries where subscription fees have decreased.
Some price plans will be cut, and sometimes the subscription cost will drop by half.
The company didn’t say it had lowered prices in the UK or the US.
“We’re always seeking ways to make things better for our members. We can confirm that in some countries, we are changing the prices of our plans, “a Netflix spokesperson said.
After the Wall Street Journal reported the story on Thursday, the company’s shares ended the day 3.4% lower in New York.
Netflix is available in more than 190 countries, and streaming services like Amazon, HBO, and Disney have become more of a threat.
Last year, the company cut hundreds of jobs and put out a cheaper streaming option with ads as it tried to grow its share of the streaming market, which was getting increasingly competitive.
Greg Peters, who is also co-CEO of Netflix, explained how to get more subscribers in January.
Mr. Peters said, “We want to make that range even bigger because we want to serve more members worldwide and try to offer the right value at each price point.”
People who share their subscriptions are also getting in trouble with the company.
Early this month, Netflix put limits on sharing passwords in more countries. In addition, customers must pay an extra fee if they want to share their subscriptions with friends and family who don’t live with them.
Last summer, Netflix said that between April and the end of June, it lost almost a million subscribers as more people stopped using the service.
But in January, the company said the number of subscribers had increased by the end of 2022.
Netflix cracks down on sharing passwords in more countries
Netflix is making it difficult for people to share passwords in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain.
Customers in these countries have to pay an extra fee if they want to share their subscriptions with friends and family who don’t live with them.
The change comes after a crackdown on sharing passwords in South America. By the end of March, it will be in place in the UK.
Netflix thinks that about 100 million people all over the world share accounts.
Netflix said that the loss of money from shared accounts was making it harder for the company to invest in new shows. However, it wants to use the new method in more countries over the next few months.
It said in a blog post on Wednesday that over the past year, the streamer has been trying out different ways to deal with this problem in Latin America and is now ready to use them more widely in the coming months, starting in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain.
Up until now, it was easy for subscribers to tell their friends outside their homes their login and password.
Back in 2017, when Netflix tweeted, “Love is sharing a password,” it looked like the company was okay with it.
But since there is more competition in the streaming market and customers are cutting back on subscriptions because of the rising cost of living, Netflix is trying to increase its income.
The company said that letting multiple people in the same household use the same account had “caused confusion” about when and how people could share.
It said that members in Canada, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal now have to set up a “primary location” for their account and control who has access to it.
It said members could still watch Netflix when they traveled, either on their own devices or by logging in somewhere else, like a hotel.
The blog said that Canadian subscribers could add another member as a “sub-account” for CAD$7.99 (£4.92).
The fee would be the same in New Zealand, at NZ$7.99 (£4.17). Portugal would charge €3.99 (£3.54) for a sub-account, while Spain would charge €5.99 (£5.32).
Last month, Netflix’s chief operating officer, Gregory Peters, said that everyone wouldn’t like the changes, and he told investors to expect some cancellations.
He said the company would compensate for those losses in the long run.
The number of people who signed up for Netflix dropped sharply in the first half of 2022. As a result, it eliminated hundreds of jobs and raised prices to cover the cost of living.
Read Also: Netflix: Reed Hastings quit as CEO
But in the last three months of 2022, the number of users rose by 7.66 million, more than the company had expected. This brought the total number of paid subscribers worldwide to almost 231 million.
In November, it gave people in 12 countries, including most of Europe, the UK, and the US, a cheaper option supported by ads.
