For subscribers
Netflix is taking a necessary risk in tackling its 100 million freeloaders
Widespread password sharing is incompatible with subscription growth in an intensely competitive market.
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The crackdown plus the new push into advertising reflect the tough realities of the streaming business model that Netflix pioneered.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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Christopher Grimes
When Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings declared in 2016 “we love people sharing” accounts, the company had a commanding lead in the streaming business and four years of blistering growth ahead of it. No one had yet heard of Disney Plus or the streaming wars.
But after the platform lost subscribers early in 2022, Mr Hastings called time on this breezy attitude towards password sharing, which has given rise to an estimated 100 million Netflix freeloaders around the world.
