Netflix has lost more than a million users in Spain since the beginning of February, when it implemented the sharing of paid accounts, a measure that the company already predicted would be unpopular, but with which it has put the hopes to increase revenue and user base.
With this decision, the company aimed to end shared accounts, a practice that allowed friends and family to use the same account to share expenses, preferably by activating the membership that offers the most benefits and spreading the cost between participants
Instead, it introduced a new modality: payment sharing, meaning that a user can add to their subscription several additional profiles of people they do not live with, and pay a certain amount for them.
The company has always been aware that this move would not be well received by users and that it would lead to lower subscriptions. But it maintains this option, along with the Basic subscription with ads, as two of the pillars on which it supports its growth.
According to the estimates of the analysis firm Kantar, in Spain the streaming service has lost more than a million users since the end of the shared account took effect, as the study Entretenimiento sota demanda shows. corresponding to the first quarter of 2023.
Forecasts for the second quarter follow the same line, while 10 percent of those who have stayed on the platform expect to cancel the service, as indicated by Kantar on its official blog. "The loss of some users was to be expected, but losing more than a million subscribers in just over a month has significant consequences for Netflix and will influence its decision to continue with its global measure," they say from Kantar.
In fact, the company has already delayed the expansion of the plan in more countries, which will resume in the second quarter betting on an improvement of the user experience.
The Kantar 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.
