Netflix’s latest anti-password sharing test lets users ‘buy’ additional homes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Dominican Republic is one of the countries where a new way of tackling password sharing is being tested. If users use an account outside of their household for more than two weeks, they will be charged an additional fee.

In the test areas, subscriber accounts have a single home where they can access the service across their devices, and they can travel and use it on the go. Users in those locations will be able to use the service on their devices at those locations as well. You will be able to track where your account is being used and restrict access to it in these countries. If you're on the Basic plan, you can add one extra home, if you're on the Standard plan, you can add two, and on Premium, you can add three.

Chengyi Long, the director of product innovation at the company, said that it was great that members love the service so much that they want to share it more broadly. Our ability to invest in and improve our service is undermined by account sharing.

This expands on the existing test where users living outside of their homes are charged an extra fee. In order to add up to two additional accounts to an existing account, users are being charged an extra 2,380 CLP in Chile, $2.99USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN inPeru. The company is experimenting with a profile transfer tool that is supposed to make it easier for someone to transfer their recommendations. This is a way for the platform to encourage password sharers to open new accounts.

Rest of World reported in May that there was confusion among subscribers who were part of the test. Some people were unsure about the definition of a household, while others were able to get around a prompt. When it comes to determining the difference between home and a subscriber who is traveling, the company hasn't said.

It was just a few weeks after it announced price increases for US customers that it announced it was testing ways to charge for password sharing. Last week, the company said it would partner with Microsoft to power its advertisements. In April it was announced that it had lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, and that it was looking for new ways to make money. On Tuesday afternoon, the company will release its next earnings report.

There is a series produced by The Verge with the internet service provider.