Is it time to start ditching your Netflix subscription in an effort to send a message, after the big US streaming group used Australian customers in an exercise to jack up revenue while the US market is not being treated the same way?

After jacking up revenue in Australia, Netflix has decided to push back its crackdown on account sharing in the US for what they claim is a fear of losing consumers.

The same sentiment was not applied to Australians, who last year were told that they could not share the service with other members of their family who did not live in the same house.

Now Netflix is telling analysts in the US that paid subscriptions plunged after it rolled out the stricter rules in markets such as Australia, however their financials tell a different story.

Last year in Australia, Netflix rolled a new paid password-sharing plan which cracked down on Australian Netflix users sharing account credentials They also moved to charges for family members who had been sharing a password, despite Australians not getting the same content as US subscribers.

In the Asia Pacific region, of which Australia is a key market, Netflix added 1.75 million paid streaming subscribers in the first three months of 2023, with the Asia-Pacific region leading the growth for Netflix worldwide.

Revenue grew 10 per cent when you take into account foreign currency gains due to the Australian dollar falling.

For the three months ended March 31, Netflix reported US$8.2 billion in total revenue, up 3.7% from a year earlier.

The Asia-Pacific contributed US$934 million, up 2% on the year. Excluding the impact of the US dollar’s strength against most currencies in the region such as the Australian dollar.

In the US, consumers are ditching their Netflix subscriptions, with more than one million subscribers ditching the streaming giant in the first half of 2022.

User growth only started to rebound in the second half, after Netflix moved to force Australians, who in the past had shared passwords to now pay for access to Netflix content.

According to Netflix financials, Asia-Pacific accounts for 83% of the worldwide total net growth of 1.75 million.

The global total of Netflix subscribers rose to 232.5 million by the end of March.

Total net income for the quarter came in at $1.3 billion, an 18% year-over-year decrease.

This saw Netflix shares take a 3.76% dive.

Netflix had originally planned to impose the charge in more countries in the first quarter, but decided to delay this because of fears of a backlash.

“While this means that some of the expected membership growth and revenue benefit will fall in Q3 rather than Q2, we believe this will result in a better outcome for both our members and our business,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders Tuesday.

It’s also been revealed that, in Canada, the paid subscriber base is now higher than before the launch of the “paid sharing service,” the company said.