this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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Netflix says its profits have soared in the first three months of this year, partly thanks to a crackdown on password sharing.

The streaming giant said it added 9.3 million customers in the first quarter, bringing its total number of subscribers to almost 270 million.

The company also said its profits in the first quarter jumped to more than $2.3bn (£1.85bn).

But the firm will stop reporting key subscriber numbers from next year.

Some investors saw its unexpected decision to stop reporting subscriber numbers as a sign that Netflix's wave of customer growth may be coming to an end.

Simon Gallagher, a former Netflix director and now principal of entertainment investment firm SPG Global, told the BBC's Today programme that while the numbers indicated a "very, very strong performance" this might not last.

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[–] reddig33 130 points 8 months ago

Be sure to read the article. Netflix has announced they won’t be disclosing subscriber numbers from here on out. Probably not a good sign.

[–] SpruceBringsteen 115 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Keep wringing out that sponge for money, it definitely won't rip or tear at some point.

[–] comrade19 50 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I heard investors need stocks to forever go up and for that to happen companies need to keep doing things like this. They cant just leave things as they are or something

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not only investors. Everyone needs stocks to forever go up. We're kind of fucked, because once it becomes apparent that the infinite market growth isn't possible and we reach a theoretical ceiling of stock market, the world and economy will probably be in serious shit.

I've tried looking for some articles or papers about what would actually happen and couldn't find any, but our society right now is kind of based on that premise, and once it stops it's going to be a problem. Mostly for the ordinary people, though. And of course, caused entirely by the greedy investors struggling to figure out how to keep milking the cow. Fuck capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

A lot of pensions will be fucked that heavily invested in stocks, but aside from that, the world will be fine. You 100% don't need stocks in order for companies to thrive. Japan has had a poor stock market for the past 30 years, but there's still a ton of companies and businesses that do just fine, there. There's also tons of places in the US as well that aren't publicly traded. Hobby Lobby, Quik Trip, Valve, SpaceX, Hy-Vee, just to name a few multi billion dollar companies.

The quickly rising stock market also hasn't always been like it has been since the 1980's. It went 18 years running more or less completely flat before that, and society didn't collapse. Nearly two decades of no growth whatsoever.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

That's exactly right. In fact, they legally have to do what they think will be good for the investors/ stock holders.

It's one of the reasons why Valve has managed to be a loved company for decades. It's a private company, so they don't have to answer for monetarily poor decisions and are free to do what they'd like. It also means things could change if management changes hands.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm, am investor, need stonks to go up.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

I am also an investor. If the socks don’t go up I get a rash, shortness of breath and this feeling of inescapable doom. So unless you want to be a murderer I suggest you help me keep the stonks going up.

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What? There aren't an infinite number of potential new users to sign up?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

One day the companies will figure out how to charge infinite money for no product or service. Then capitalism will be satisfied and the game will be won.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I thought this might be the case for insurance companies once self driving cars displace manually driven cars entirely.

Collect all the premiums, pay out very rarely since these systems have the potential to be a lot safer in general than human drivers. Possibly with the exception of Tesla since Musk's decision to not have Lidar severely constrains their system's ability to function properly.

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[–] JiveTurkey 65 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I canceled my Netflix because of this and I don't even share my password. Also because they fucked up the witcher.

[–] UckyBon 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I cancelled all my streaming accounts because of this. I never shared the password other than with my SO. It was a wake up call to the whole subscriptions scam. It's a shitty middleman.

Subscriptions add up real quick: movies, music, games, apps, cloud, news, etc. Let alone having some other hobbies.

I have friends who drop $200 per month on those things. Absolutely insane. That's a month worth of avocado toast.

[–] LustyArgonianMana 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My ex has hundreds of dollars of subscription stuff each month: Disney, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Streaming, Max/HBO, OnlyFans, Tinder, Field, Bumble etc etc. It's so stupid

[–] Nastybutler 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] LustyArgonianMana 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

We were poly, I have my own OF, it's no big deal except those subscriptions add up fast. Just like the dating apps were okay at the time too, but an annoying cost when added up.

[–] shadowSprite 5 points 8 months ago

Same on both counts

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Same, I immediately canceled my account. They spent the next year trying to get me to resub. Fuck Netflix, yarg

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I didn't really like the book (somebody handed me one, can't remember which), haven't played the games, so I went almost blind to the show.

And I mean it honestly, it was fun. Batshit crazy, and the third season went even more nuts, but it was just fun, I really enjoyed myself.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Just about any adaptation from book to TV is going to piss off book readers because they "ruined" it.

Myself, if I wanted to experience the exact same thing if read, I would read it again. Putting it on screen means something new.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 60 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I unsubscribed when I first heard of it. Haven't missed it.

[–] wheelie 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Same. A lot of it was low quality.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

There was a time when Netflix had some really weird indie shit and I loved that. Last I used it they basically produced their own butchered versions of other material, like the Witcher. I unsubscribed after the first season.

[–] nadram 14 points 8 months ago

Unsubscribed just because they pulled this move. None of the 3 people i was sharing it with ended up subscribing.

[–] hperrin 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

But what will they do next time they need to make line go up? I know! Increase prices again!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Probably layoffs.

[–] Tikiporch 3 points 8 months ago

I'd pay slightly more than their current rate if they could get me much higher bitrate streaming. I can't pay more for the same, though, and I fear that's the tack they will take.

[–] eran_morad 26 points 8 months ago

Nah bruv I’ll continue sailing.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have failed. We need to be better consumers, and do something about when businesses pull tricks like this. But we have failed to appropriately respond, and we will be paying a big price for this.

Now, every single subscription business and their mother will be cracking down on password sharing. It'll be seen as guaranteed profit at the expense of our wallets and freedoms, and quickly ingrained into society.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Do what though? We can either unsubscribe, or subscribe. This is not a social service by them, nor is a gun being put to our heads to use Netflix. I really don't mean to defend them, I prefer the high seas myself, but I genuinely feel there's nothing we can or should do except either agree or disagree with them about subscribing to their plans.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

My response to being told Netflix would stop my password sharing was to cancel my sub. And now, months later, I'm using someone else's password to keep watching their shows...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is where the problem lies: We have pathetically little power over the situation. I try to do my best to avoid paying companies that abuse their paying customers and let others know about it.

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[–] chuckleslord 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. We didn't fail. Netflix popularized a business model that most businesses would've cracked down on from the jump (password sharing) and then, once they controlled a sizable market of unique and desired IP, they did a rug pull. Blaming that on consumers is asinine. Everyone knew that the original practice was outside the norm and legally grey. And now your options are breaking the law or finally getting the subscription you probably would've been paying the whole time.

It's part of enshittification. By offering more to a consumer than they're used to from the jump, it builds a positive relationship, and then you undo the practice later to squeeze profit. Shaming the victims in the situation is a weird thing that a lot of people like to do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

True, businesses try to seize all the opportunity for themselves, which is why I think we should do the same. It's why I left Reddit for Lemmy, I didn't want to keep supporting a platform that wasn't respecting me.

[–] ChexMax 2 points 8 months ago

Or the third option which is to cancel Netflix even short term. I wasn't password sharing, but when Netflix cracked down, we cancelled. We use the other services. I'm voting with my dollars.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (5 children)

LOL I was in arguments with a number of angry internet people who were vehemently screaming how this would be the death of Netflix. They seriously thought that all the people who were getting free passwords would simply not subscribe to Netflix. To which I responded, then they wouldn't lose a single subscriber. And then I saw more than a few people actually say that subscribers who were sharing their passwords would stop subscribing to Netflix because they weren't able to share their passwords. Just an example of how your personal feelings about something can skew your observance of a reality.

Now, why people are choosing to subscribe to Netflix at all is something I genuinely don't understand. I'll pay for a month of it every 12-18 months and get bored searching for something to watch within a couple days.

I'm interested to see how the younger TikTok generation transitions to commercial programming. I would think some portion of the demographic isn't going to want to sit own for 30-90 minutes to watch wide-screen television. Just as we transition from over-the-air to cable to streaming, I wonder what will come next. "TikFlix"?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh, are they still open? I gave them up on that and the price increases, haven’t thought about Netflix in a while

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Ya I went to the seas instead. I'm glad to have not contributed to that rising profit, even if it only means a little.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I’m still using a password shared with me, no issues at all.

[–] andrewta 4 points 8 months ago

My tip to you is

Shhhhhh

Enjoy it but do not talk about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Even if someone shared their password with me I wouldn't use it because I like to be in control of my media. That's why I run a Jellyfin server.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

What is NetFlix? Is it a Stremio add-on?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What's next for the next quarter's profits? I mean your shareholders are not just gonna stop there. It's an infinite money pit, right?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

But the firm will stop reporting key subscriber numbers from next year.

They're going to pretend user attrition isn't happening as new subs burn out on content and the old "family" accounts recalculate the value of their subscriptions and start dropping or juggling netflix.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

We still share and it works flawlessly because non of us uses a television, all PC/laptop only and they can't find out as it seems.

[–] Adalast 4 points 8 months ago

Cool, so it doesn't matter for the yo ho hos amongst us.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

People hate Netflix, their show are crap. But bring profitszfor already rich people, great success in life...

[–] CptEnder 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Their sign up for password sharing is extremely aggressive too. Once you login to your TV it forces you to see the plan information without any option to say no or skip, regardless if you've shared your account before. You then have to select the other non default option to opt out. IF you accidentally hit ok after frustratingly trying to leave the prompt you get auto billed for the new fee zero confirmation of CC or purchase information. You then immediately have to enter the cell number of who you want to share with without letting you leave or go back. They want that person's info regardless if you plan to share or not.

[–] Brkdncr 2 points 8 months ago

I use my account at two households without much issue. I wish they were a little more lenient, but it’s better than Hulu’s implementation. I canceled Hulu TV because of it.

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