Netflix sign-ups jump as US password sharing crackdown kicks off

The news sent shares of the company up 2.3% to $418.92 in early trading.

Looking for new ways to make money in a saturating market and a tough economy, Netflix moved to regulate the sharing of account passwords with friends and family – a drastic turnaround for a company that had once tweeted “Love is sharing a password”.

Netflix had estimated that more than a 100 million households had supplied their log-in credentials to people outside their homes. Under the new rules, US users can add a member outside of their homes for an additional fee of $8 per month.

Its calculations seem to have paid off as the company recorded nearly 100,000 daily sign-ups on both May 26 and May 27, according to Antenna.

Netflix, which has expanded its crackdown to more than 100 other countries, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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The streaming video pioneer saw its four largest days of US user acquisition after the change came into effect in the 4-1/2 years that Antenna has been covering the company. The recent spike also exceeded levels seen during the initial US COVID-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020, according to Antenna, which sources data from third-party data collectors that track online purchase receipts, credit, debit and banking data details with permissions.