Netflix Crossed a Line
What do you get when you buy something? The thing, of course—a Big Mac, airline transit to Miami, the right to stream Bridgerton. This is the hard product. But you receive secondary goods and services as well: the box in which you can transport your burger, complimentary Wi-Fi with your SkyMiles membership, the kinship of watching a show with your family. Call this the “soft product.” If you don’t get the hard product, you’ve been swindled. But that soft product has a value too: Without it, you’d feel shortchanged.
The distinction between hard and soft products helps explain the controversy about changes Netflix is making to its streaming service—along with many other changes in the internet-enabled service economy. In recent months, Netflix has started preventing subscribers from sharing an account across multiple the idea in Latin America, and this month it it into Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. U.S. subscribers aren’t yet affected by the change, but Netflix has that it’s coming everywhere, as the company looks for ways to boost revenue amid a affecting the whole streaming sector. (A Netflix spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for more details.)
