Netflix crushed the Latin American password black market

https://restofworld.org/2023/netflix-latin-america-password-sharing-crackdown-worked/

by impish9208 • 3 years ago

43 27 3 years ago

"black market" of people sharing things amongst themselves in pure selflessness.

I'd bet total hours watched is waaay down, for eking out an additional 1% or so. Good job guys, you decreased total utility to the world for a few extra cents.

mr_mitm• 3 years ago

It appears to be an actual black market:

The crackdown also correlates with a marked decline in black market sales of Netflix accounts, which either belong to the seller or are created using stolen credit cards.

hcks• 3 years ago

The purpose of a corporation is not “world utility optimisation” and decreasing the number of Netflix hours watched is good, actually.

tarboreus• 3 years ago

That kind of is the purpose of corporations. They're given special fictional person status because they're thought to be a net benefit for society. If they weren't, it wouldn't make sense to give them these privileges. The duty to maximize profit thing was made up in the '80s and is mostly not true except in cases of fraud or gross negligence.

Agree about watching less Netflix, though.

jauntywundrkind• 3 years ago

You have accepted hook line & sinker the Chicago school's redefinition of the purpose of the corporation whole, as if it is the only truth.

Before 47 years ago - before this marketing reinvention was introduced & subsequently took over - there was a more pro-social belief in what the corporate body was for. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/maximizing-s...

altacc• 3 years ago

The article doesn't mention hours watched but does mention subscribers, which is the income metric the market is most interested in: "Netflix reported 1.2 million additional subscriptions in Latin America during the second quarter of this year, reversing the loss in the previous quarter and marking its best second quarter in the region since 2020."

So appears that people rage quitting were outnumbered by those who got their own legitimate accounts.

thejazzman• 3 years ago

You have to also consider that they may have gone from a higher rate plan to two cheaper plans

One of the reasons I upgraded back in the day was for more streams so I could share it with my sister. Now she has her own account instead.

g232089• 3 years ago

It's people reselling their accounts, there's no "selflessness" involved the way you see it.

Yeul• 3 years ago

I can understand Netflix. If you want regional pricing this is what it takes.

I don't care either way I'm living in one of the richest countries in the world but consumers in Argentina or Bolivia can't pay €15 per month.

weregiraffe• 3 years ago

Don't they have torrents in Latin America?

sonicanatidae• 3 years ago

Netflix would like you to believe that torrents no longer exist.

c0wb0yc0d3r• 3 years ago

I would argue for many people they no longer did, until the the movie and television markets began to fracture once again. Now that folks have to think about where to go to watch something, they're being resurrected once again for them.

c420• 3 years ago

When you can search Yandex with "watch (any movie/show here)" and get pages of results, you don't even need torrents anymore.

adonese• 3 years ago

There's this site with really great ux (no sign up required, little to no ads, it keeps track of your watched list, etc) the hassle for torrents might not even be needed

flagged24• 3 years ago

I know this site. Can't believe they are still operational and have pretty much everything under the sun.

kramerger• 3 years ago

How come Latin Americans are coming back to Netflix, when the rest of the world is not?

Maybe the article is not giving us the full picture?

Netflix crushed the Latin American password black market

Related Stories