Netflix no longer finds password sharing amusing, but before shackling its users to the no password sharing zone, that zone was wide open for a pass or however sports work. Prime Video is now waddling toward being the GOAT, not only as a streaming service but also on Twitter. Shots fired as the UK Twitter handle for Prime Video pummeled a 2017 tweet by Netflix, “Love is sharing a password,” through an embedded graphic. The Prime Video account created a mock-up of Netflix’s home screen displaying all the user profiles clinging to one account. To Netflix’s question, “Who’s watching?,” the Prime Video account answered, “Everyone who has our password,” punctuated by a heart emoji. The tweet has cut through the Internet like a light saber, triggering more than half a million likes since it was posted on Thursday.
Netflix is stampeding over accounts who share passwords, rotating into a new protocol where they will charge anyone who rations out their log-in credentials after internal research found that as many as 100 households share passwords. The U.S. was marshaled into the new era of Netflix’s “paid sharing” this week after sweeping over New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, and Canada. Any pair of eyes with a Netflix subscription to the most popular tier at $15.49 will now have to pay an extra $7.99 for every soul sharing that subscribers’ password. R.I.P.
At the launch of Netflix’s lower, ad-supported tier, the streaming service decided to delete password sharing. Analysts living in the shadows of Wall Street have announced that amputating password cults along with pushing adverts into their subscription tiers could spawn billions of dollars for Netflix in the upcoming years. The influx of revenue could make a huge difference as the company tries to outgrow territories saturated by subscribers while continuing to fight in a virtual Hunger Games between itself and other subscription services.
Netflix rivals have typically not tried to limit password sharing, concluding, like Netflix early on, that orienting scale comes first while retrieving lost revenue is a secondary goal. Trading passwords with a Deadline report, with Prime Video hatching eggs in free shipping, music, audiobooks, ebooks, and other deserts, Amazon can be more flexible in granting adults the freedom to share and be added to household accounts.
While corporate brand clashes on social media may not be particularly sweat worthy, these tweets sure caught Netflix in its own net.6+