Netflix subscriptions: Netflix in India has had a successful run in India and the lockdown has definitely contributed to the company’s growing viewership. However, it seems there are still a few viewers who are not utilizing their membership to the fullest.

For these accounts, Netflix has taken a brave step to discontinue all the accounts that have been inactive for some time. The video streaming service said on Thursday that it will check if inactive members want to keep the service — and automatically cancel their subscriptions if they don’t respond.

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.With over 183 million paid memberships across the world, this isn’t going to financially affect Netflix in the least. In its announcement on Thursday, Netflix’s director of product innovation, Eddy Wu, noted that “these inactive accounts represent less than half of one percent of our overall member base, only a few hundred thousand.”

The company will begin sending emails and in-app notifications to remind such users about continuing with the platform. Users, who do not confirm they want to continue with Netflix, the company will automatically cancel their subscription. The same will be applicable for stopped watching content on Netflix for more than a year.

“We’ve always thought it should be easy to sign up and to cancel. So, as always, anyone who cancels their account and then rejoins within 10 months will still have their favorites, profiles, viewing preferences and account details just as they left them. In the meantime, we hope this new approach saves people some hard-earned cash,” wrote Eddy Vu, Product Innovation at Netflix, in a post.

Netflix’s decision to purge inactive accounts comes at a time when the company is facing new competition from cash-rich players such as Disney+ and Apple TV. WarnerMedia is also gearing up for the launch of HBO Max. Amazon already offers Prime Video which is part of the Prime subscription plans. In India, the likes of Alt Balaji and Zee5 have gained more presence. 

That said, Netflix’s userbase has continued to increase in the last few months. The company beat quarterly estimates to report 15.77 million new paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. The total userbase has increased to 182.86 million.