Netflix lost 1 million users in Spain for prohibiting lending the password

The additional charge measure for users who share their passwords arrived in Spain at the beginning of February and, apparently, caused the anger of the Iberians.

This measure led the platform to lose more than a million users in this market, according to a survey of Kantar streaming usage habits collected by Bloomberg.

“It’s clear that this sharp drop is due to the crackdown” on account sharing, said Dominic Sunnebo, global information director for Kantar’s Worldpanel. While it’s not clear if all of the 1 million users lost were paying subscribers, he added, it’s a blow to Netflix’s growth outlook, in terms of word-of-mouth recommendation for its services.

Thus, according to Kantar, subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period. And, of the remaining subscribers, one tenth responded to the survey that they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter of the year.

It is estimated that there are at least 100 million people who use an account that they do not pay for, thanks to password sharing. Netflix, in its publication of first quarter results, indicated that it expects the drop in users (especially users who did not pay the subscription directly) to be temporary and that they will become customers with their own accounts in the coming months.