Netflix sees stronger second half on password-sharing crackdown in US

Netflix Inc. will begin cracking down this quarter on US viewers who share someone else’s account, predicting plans to charge such customers will boost growth in the second half of the year.

The company, which reported a lower-than-expected subscriber gain for the first quarter, has been testing ways to reduce account sharing in Latin America, and rolled out a plan to charge such users in four additional territories in the first quarter.

Netflix estimates that more than 100 million people use an account they don’t pay for, and analysts see paid sharing as a large potential source of new customers or sales.