Netflix says making it harder to share your password has boosted its business

You might hate the policy that makes it harder to share your Netflix password. But the company says it's working: It added 5.9 million subscribers.

• Netflix said its move to rein in users freely sharing passwords has paid off for the company.
• The streamer said it's added more users than it lost, according to its latest earnings release.
• It's now expanding that policy on password sharing to nearly everywhere else, the company said. 

Turns out, making it harder to share your password was good for Netflix.

Users might not have loved it, but Netflix says it's paid off for the company to make users shell out an extra $8 a month to share their accounts with those not living under the same roof.

The move, which the company implemented in more than 100 countries back in May, has brought on more subscribers than those dropping their memberships, Netflix said in its earnings release on Wednesday.

The company also said it brought a net 5.9 million new subscribers in the second quarter of 2023.

"Revenue in each region is now higher than pre-launch, with sign-ups already exceeding cancellations," the company said in reference to the areas where it's implemented the new password-sharing restrictions.

Netflix said measures like requiring users to pay for password sharing are part of its broader efforts to boost its revenue.

The company acknowledged some of the frustrations that customers had expressed at the time, including those who were tweeting then that they would be dropping their subscriptions because of the move.

But ultimately it hasn't hurt its subscriber base, the company said.

"The cancel reaction was low and while we're still in the early stages of monetization, we're seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships as well as the uptake of our extra member feature," the company said in its statement.

Netflix has now also dropped the $9.99 plan from its list of offerings in the US and UK, which means subscribers looking to avoid seeing advertisements during their shows will have to opt for pricier plans.