This article comes from the WeChat public account “All Media Group” (ID: quanmeipai), which is authorized by Aifaner release.

For many people, it may be a very natural thing to share their paid subscription account with friends or family members. However, this kind of hacking behavior does not seem to be the case for digital media companies including Netflix. fair.

The survey shows that about 10% of Netflix users will share their account passwords with others, causing a monthly loss of $ 135 million to the platform. This number is quite astonishing-if Netflix had a way to get 15 million “free-riders” obediently out of their wallets, it would be enough to meet the half-year growth in paid subscribers.

But the amazing thing is that Netflix is ​​so light-hearted that it even ridicules password sharing on Twitter “the only way to get everyone to use Netflix for free”, no other way is reliable.

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▲ Twitter screenshot

Funny and ridicule, in fact, this global streaming media giant’s attitude towards password sharing behavior is worthy of reference from other media. Why? In this issue, All Media Group (ID: quanmeipai) compiles This article takes everyone to see what kind of deep business logic is behind password sharing, and what are the highlights of Netflix’s process of monetizing it.

The bargainer is also the target audience?

Password in shared accountIn this matter, young people are the main force to be benevolent.

A survey by media research firm Magid found that millennials (generally people born in the 1980s and 1990s) are most likely to take advantage of Netflix as “cheap”, with 35% of them sharing Netflix Account passwords; 19% of Gen X (for people born between 1976 and 1980); Baby Boomers (here, people born between 1946 and 1964) only accounted for 13%.

▲ Picture source: Twipe

However, don’t rush to condemn the young people-in a sense, their behavior is not a bad thing, after all, the younger generation is the audience that the media pays most attention to and wants to reach. As pointed out by a recent Reuters survey, news consumers are often the first to subscribe to media brands that they are familiar with in their growing environment.

So even if the younger generation is just borrowing their parents’ accounts to access the site, they still have huge potential value. When this generation of users grows into the main force, it is likely to establish a mature paid subscription relationship with the platform.

Limit or release, this is a problem

A Digiday survey found that 76% of the media did not take special measures to prevent subscribers from sharing their passwords.

The simplest reason, for example, users always want to be able to access subscription content no matter where they are or what device. A one-size-fits-all restriction on the maximum number of devices or login geography may cause the customer service department’s phone to be blasted.

But letting it go can be troublesome, as it limits the personalized recommendation capabilities of the media.

So, as early as 2013, Netflix introduced the “multiple user profiles” feature, which allows different users to create their own independent profiles when logging in to the same account, so as to enjoy exclusive personalized recommendations. Interestingly, this feature has increased user acceptance and demand for personalized recommendations, and has even become one of Netflix’s most attractive features.

Reports from Reuters indicate that more than half of the media executives surveyed said that this year they will focus on personalization and automatic recommendation, so accurate user portraits have become increasingly important.

How to step into the gray area gracefully?

Considering the above, for the media, instead of trying to prevent users from sharing accounts, it is better to try to “realize” this behavior. Just as Netflix allows users to log in to more devices after upgrading their accounts, the media can also consider allowing subscribers to pay a little more for sharing their accounts to a certain extent.

But here comes the question: How big should the sharing be? Is it limited to family members, or can it be extended to a wider range?

In fact, most media’s subscription policies leave some room for manoeuvre. Recently, at the “Subscription Seminar” hosted by the International News Media Association (INMA), the team from the New York Times shared their experience: Some subscription models introduced by the New York Times allow one or two additional accounts to be added Users “, these additional users can log in with their email and password.

This trick is very clever, because Once the user intends to cancel the subscription, he must explain to the free-rider family or friends-this will virtually enhance the retention of the user rate.

▲ Picture source: You X Ventures

The French Le Monde ( Le Monde ) also encourages subscribers to share accounts in an authorized form and provide 50% discount on the second account; The Washington Post (< em> The Washington Post ) simply allows subscribers to authorize another account for free. Miki King, vice president of marketing, said: “We believe that users are the best brand ambassadors, so we encourage premium subscribers to share with others Account, allowing new readers to experience the rich content and high-quality news of the Washington Post.

In short, the biggest benefit of shared monetization is helping users find more value in paid news products and developing the habit of daily reading, thereby increasing user stickiness -if users know that family and friends Depending on your subscription, it is unlikely that you will cancel your renewal.

Of course, this form of realization also faces a certain degree of risk, because the false prosperity brought by password sharing may jeopardize the normal form of service and may even make the media pay a higher price.

Foreseeable, How to intervene in the gray area of ​​account sharing without affecting the user experience, or even use it as a form of realization, will become an important issue for media and platforms one.

The title picture comes from: unsplash < / a>