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Losing 1M users is not good, but isn't the real question how many accounts they lost? > The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thir
by gnicholas 4y ago
Losing 1M users is not good, but isn't the real question how many accounts they lost?
> The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else’s password, according to Kantar’s research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits.
This makes it seem like they lost 333k customers. I don't know how many customers they have in Spain, but that sounds like a lot. But what does it mean to be "using someone else's password"? Does that include me, using my wife's password? I feel like more clarity is needed.
- biztos 4y agoApple, Google and Amazon would seem to have a big advantage here in doing Family Accounts. By putting someone "in your family" you at least feel like you're giving them access to a lot of stuff, so you probably don't do it with friends as much. Plus there is some unique tracking by account even if it's just an email address. I never tried it but I would assume I can't be in multiple "families" at the same time on Prime or iStuff. Whereas if you're just Netflix, and the only reason I use you is to stream Netflix, what is the barrier to handing out my password?
- gnicholas 4y agoGood point — if NFLX wants to cut down on password sharing, maybe they should make it so that anyone with the password can order premium PPV content. That would make people think twice before giving out their passwords!
- homero 4y agoYeah Google makes you share access to a credit card so you'll never add randoms
- bombolo 4y agoor your children
- kergonath 4y agoI don’t know about Google. But in Appleland you can have children in your family without letting them use the payment card associated with the family. You definitely can prevent them completely from buying anything (my situation), but IIRC you can also let them buy stuff once an adult has approved. It sounds like a reasonable system.
- notatoad 4y agogoogle has the same thing - purchase approvals so your kids can only request to purchase stuff, not actually purchase it
- hot_gril 4y agoI found the iTunes family sharing stuff too complicated and just lent my password to my family instead. Which I wouldn't do with friends because that's actually a lot of access.
- tekknik 4y agoHow anyone can find Apple family sharing difficult to setup is interesting as it takes I think a total of 6 taps to get setup with your first family member. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088
- hot_gril 4y agoIt's not that, it just seemed like more moving parts. I don't know what it's going to share and what it's not, or if all purchases are eligible (as it turns out, some aren't). As for the setup, it'd probably start like this: "Mom, what's your Apple ID password?" "I don't know."
- deanc 4y agoNetflix has family accounts. But god forbid you live in another country and pay the subscription for your boomer parents back home - as not just a courtesy, but also as they’re not capable at all of managing things digitally. Apparently this is a racket
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bmarquez 4y agoI am already sharing Apple TV+ using Family Sharing and it's working out great. There are Apple limits to how often you can change families, and potentially family members could buy apps with your account or use its storage, so you're incentivized to only share with people you trust and not random strangers. Netflix needs something similar at no additional charge.
- nkrebs13 4y agoI agree with you but also it's easy to not do it right for YouTube movies. You can't share videos with family unless "you purchase them with the family payment method" (source: https://support.google.com/families/answer/7007852?hl=en#zippy=%2Cmovies-tv-shows https://support.google.com/families/answer/7007852?hl=en#zip...). I bought a movie on YouTube a few days ago. SO couldn't find it because I didn't buy with the correct credit card.
- tekknik 4y agoGet movies anywhere, buy elsewhere. Fortunately Apple doesn’t do this nonsense, this got me once too.
- kulahan 4y agoThey would have no way of knowing if your wife or you are using your wife's account, so of course it doesn't include that. Why would you need to clarify that? They don't have spyware turning on your camera for facial recognition lol
- tough 4y ago> They don't have spyware turning on your camera for facial recognition lol Yet.
- gnicholas 4y agoBecause the data comes from surveys, not NFLX. As noted in my original excerpt: > according to Kantar’s research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits
- jsejcksn 4y agoImage capture isn't the only fingerprinting technique: there are much simpler signals like patterns related to content navigation (just one example: tap vs swipe for advancing paginated content), and the combination of such signals can create a strong fingerprint
- tekknik 4y agoNetflix doesn’t need to image capture because they know what content they are displaying. Swipes and taps count for little when the device is a set top box that matches every other set top boxes fingerprint.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- autoexec 4y agoStreaming platforms absolutely know who is watching. Sometimes it's because they have profiles you can set up, but that data can also come from people watching shows on their own phones/tablets/laptops, what shows they watch, and the hours that they watch them.
- bee_rider 4y agoI wonder to what extent tossing away non-paying users will hurt their network effect. How many people got HBO because their friends (paying or not) were talking about Game of Thrones? Hopefully for Netflix somebody there has run the numbers WRT one incremental unit of video-delivery-cost is worth more or less than one incremental unit of chatter.
- larrik 4y agoBut nobody talks about Netflix shows because there's no shared progress, so you can't even begin to discuss it with your friends until everyone is completely finished with. Then at that point, it's finished, why bother?
- sitkack 4y ago? Shows come out weekly for lots of programs
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- the_gastropod 4y agoNot sure this is true. Breaking Bad, which blew up because of its availability on Netflix, seems like a decent counter-example.
- autoexec 4y agoStranger things too.
- bee_rider 4y agoStranger Things is generally a much better show than Game of Thrones (in my opinion of course, but I’m pretty sure I’m objectively correct). But Game of Thrones seemed to make a much bigger cultural splash. Stranger Things—a season comes out, and then we all binge it, talk about that season, and it it all done in a month or so. Game of Thrones had weekly episode-by-episode articles written about it.
- WheatMillington 4y agoIt's also based on surveys. People are so salty right now I have no doubt a lot of users responded with more passion than honesty to the surveys.
- otherme123 4y agoSpanish here: we had shared accounts for every platform in our workplace. HBO, Disney, Netflix, Movistar, Filmin... As soon at Netflix started the threats, we talked about keep it and try login through a proxy or getting it out of our pooled accounts. Each of us was only following one Netflix show, two at most, so we got rid of it. Not salty, it just doesn't make sense anymore if you already have four or more platforms.
- nomel 4y agoWait, so everyone at work was using the same account? You're making this sound like a rational move, from Netflix.
- amanaplanacanal 4y agoMaybe? They lost a subscriber.
- tekknik 4y agoDepending on how much it cost to deliver that content, assuming netflix is running near 24/7, it may still be a win.
- krsdcbl 4y agoMy thought exactly, did they lose _sessions_ or _customers_ here?
- smeagull 4y agoWhichever makes their PR release more impressive for their shareholders.
- flatiron 4y agoA little bit of piracy is good though. It’s better honestly than them not watching. They are talking to their friends about shows. Having Watch parties. Whatever. If it’s the choice of don’t pay don’t watch or don’t pay watch there is a benefit to them pirating.
- narag 4y agoLosing 1M users is not good, but isn't the real question how many accounts they lost? There's another question: how's the competition doing? Amazon and Sky Showtime are much better in new subscriptions. HBO is 50% in new subscriptions. The measure is killing mindshare.
- gnicholas 4y agoThat’s somewhat relevant, but you have to keep in mind that nflx has much higher penetration to begin with. Percentages are less insightful when the starting points are far apart.
- narag 4y agoRemember we're talking about Spain. It's higher, but not much higher: https://es.statista.com/estadisticas/1043679/numero-de-abonados-de-plataformas-de-video-en-streaming-espana/ https://es.statista.com/estadisticas/1043679/numero-de-abona... Two notes: not sure if official numbers, but it's about paying accounts, not "users" like the original article. And you'll see also fiber companies like Movistar and the Vodafone thieves, that have their own platforms. It seems the site is paywalled when not coming from search so in millions of paying accounts: Netflix 9.6 Amazon 6.6 Movistar 3.7 HBO 3.6 Disney 3.2 Vodafone 1.5
- gnicholas 4y agoStats were given for HBO, which appears to have roughly 1/3 of the penetration — not exactly close. Amazon is the only competitor with more than 40% Netflix's installed base.
- narag 4y ago9.6 vs 6.6 is like 2/3 for Amazon. Those numbers were for past year. Now there's a new one launching. The market is very fragmented and the fiber is here very strong, with the sports being a big part.
- tekknik 4y ago