A post on the official Netflix website
It’s time to stop watching; if you don’t watch, that’s enough
The long-rumored Netflix account-sharing policy has finally come to light, bringing grim news for those sharing their Netflix accounts with others.
On the 2nd, Netflix announced a new account-sharing policy on its official website, stating, “The intended users of a Netflix account are the account owner and people living in the same household, i.e., members of the same household.”
According to the new policy, if you want to share your account with someone who does not live in the same house, you need to pay an additional 5,000 KRW (about $4.20) per month.
However, Netflix has not specified how many additional members will be allowed in South Korea. In foreign cases where the same policy has been introduced, premium accounts can create up to two paid additional member profiles and standard accounts one.
If the account owner does not want to pay the fee, they can use the ‘Profile Transfer’ feature to allow the person using their account to move their profile to a new account. This allows the shared account user to move their profile within the shared account to a new account.
The advantage of using this feature is that even if the shared account user moves to a new account, they can maintain the same content viewing history and settings. However, if it’s a premium account, they need to pay 17,000 KRW (about $14.30) per month, and if it’s a standard account, they need to pay 13,500 KRW (about $11.35) per month.
Netflix said, “We will start sending emails to members who share accounts with other household members to inform them of the new account-sharing policy from today.” Therefore, the restriction on account sharing will be gradually implemented.
With the introduction of Netflix’s new account-sharing policy, if an external user or device that does not live in the same household as the member tries to access the Netflix account, a notification message is expected to appear.
Netflix said it will verify whether the user lives in the same household as the member by utilizing information such as IP address, device ID, and account activity according to the privacy policy agreed upon when signing up.
Netflix, which used to encourage account sharing by saying, “Sharing passwords is love,” seems to have opted for paid account sharing as the number of shared account users has increased.
The paid account sharing policy, which started in Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, and other South American countries in March last year, is now expanding to about 100 countries, including New Zealand, Spain, Canada, the UK, the US, and Hong Kong.
Netizens who heard the news reacted with comments such as “I’ll cancel as soon as they start,” “Does this mean I can’t watch on my laptop at a cafe,” “Who will watch then,” “So if I live separately from my family, I can’t watch,” “It’s time to stop watching,” “I don’t have to watch,” and “I have to add 5,000 KRW (about $4.20) per account.”
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