These days when a child is given their first smartphone, it’s likely that child may have the assigned phone number for life. It’s practically like a social security number.
Today, Netflix has launched a service — called Profile Transfer — that will help its users keep their Netflix profiles for life.
In its announcement, Netflix says, “People move. Families grow. Relationships end. But throughout these life changes, your Netflix experience should stay the same. Today, we’re launching Profile Transfer, a feature that lets people using your account transfer a profile — keeping the personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other settings — when they start their own membership.”
Netflix will begin rolling out this Profile Transfer feature today and will notify subscribers by email as soon as the feature becomes available on their account. Subscribers who want to transfer their profile, just need to hover over their profile icon in the dropdown menu on the homepage and follow the instructions.
According to Netflix, this has been a “much requested feature.”
But perhaps it’s been much requested since Netflix has been cracking down on password sharing.
In August, after deliberating on ways to address account sharing, Netflix unveiled an “add a home” feature, allowing users outside the account holder's household to stream Netflix content – for a price.
Of today’s announcement about Profile Transfer, TV REV analyst Alan Wolk said, “This is a smart move on Netflix’s part. They likely have research that shows that fear of losing years of viewing history and the recommendations that go with it is one of the main hesitations people have around setting up their own accounts. (That, and having to actually pay for something they now likely get for free, anyway.) So this is a good way to get people over that particular hump, while emphasizing one of Netflix’s strengths — their customer service.”
But industry pundit Rick Howe said, "I’ve always said you can never have enough bandwidth or enough engineers. I believe when Netflix starts messing with people's profiles and changing the product the way they’re changing it they will never have enough customer service capability. This one’s going to drive their customers crazy."
Netflix has been revamping its business strategy of late.
Its much-anticipated subscription streaming tier with ads is set to launch this November.