Sharing subscription credentials: Global habits

A recent global YouGov survey revealed that consumers are cancelling subscriptions twice as fast as they are taking on new ones, perhaps a fallout from the rising cost of living. Apart from the declining numbers, streaming platforms also face an additional challenge – that of subscribers sharing their credentials with non-subscribers. Some platforms are already exploring plans on curtailing password sharing. But what do consumers around the world think about sharing their subscription passwords?

Latest data from YouGov Global Profiles reports that over a third of global respondents (35%) agree that video and music streaming services should not care if they share their credentials and subscriptions.

With over two in five members of the public agreeing with the statement in Mexico (45%) and US (42%), the two countries have the highest proportion of consumers in agreement among all markets.

Most markets in the European region outpace the global audience in agreement – Germany registers 44% of consumers who don’t think it’s wrong to share streaming subscriptions, while consumers in France and Great Britain are as likely as global respondents to agree (35%). However, Britons are more likely to disagree with the statement (39%) suggesting that they would not share their streaming subscription credentials with anyone.

Japanese consumers are almost twice as likely as global respondents to disagree with the statement (42% vs. 24%), registering only one in ten consumers (11%) who think streaming platforms should not concern themselves with subscribers sharing their credentials.

Would consumers only share their passwords with people they know?

While a third of the global audience thinks there is nothing wrong with sharing subscription credentials, three in five (61%) say they are likely to share their details only with people close to them.

Consumers in Asian markets who think streaming platforms should not care about credential sharing are most likely to say that they would only share their log-in details with their nearest and dearest. India (70%) registers the highest share, while less than half of this segment in Japan (46%) agree, the lowest of all markets.

Most of the 43 markets in this survey register more than half of people who think streaming services should not care about them sharing credentials and who share their details only with people close to them.

However, a significant proportion of consumers in some of these markets disagree with the statement suggesting that they are open to sharing their streaming credentials even with people they don’t know very well.

The French (33%) lead the list of markets where people may not care about who they share their credentials with. Japan follows as the only Asian country to register over a quarter of consumers (28%) who disagree with the statement.

In the US, 67% of consumers agree with sharing their credentials only with people they are close to, while 23% disagree. On the other hand, Britons are more trusting of people as over a quarter of consumers (27%) disagree that they only give their credentials to people they are close to.

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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ years in China and 18+ years in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.