YouTube Cracks Down on Cross-Regional Low-Price Subscriptions, Users to Be Automatically Cancelled
Brook.X
Streaming service providers have finally set their sights on cross-regional subscription users, with YouTube being the first to take action. Some users have already received notifications from Google stating that they have violated the paid service terms by falsifying their registration country or region information and will have their subscriptions automatically cancelled starting next month.
Cross-regional subscription is a popular way to subscribe to streaming services, where users take advantage of different pricing strategies in various countries and regions. By falsifying their registration information, such as billing addresses, credit card information, or specific IP addresses, users can subscribe to services at a lower price.
Currently, cross-regional subscription is a problem faced by many streaming service providers, including YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify. Regions with significant currency fluctuations, such as Turkey, Nigeria, and Argentina, are hotspots for cross-regional subscribers, which affects the revenue of these providers.
While there have been instances of cracking down on cross-regional subscriptions in the past, they were not widespread. Netflix has previously taken action against cross-regional subscribers, but it was usually on a small scale. This time, YouTube is taking a more drastic approach: detecting and forcefully cancelling subscriptions of users who have falsified their registration information.
YouTube officials have confirmed the incident:
YouTube has started cancelling the YouTube Premium subscription memberships of accounts that have been found to have falsified their registration country/region information, which violates YouTube's paid service terms. These users will receive an email and in-app notification informing them that their membership subscription has been cancelled.
Many of the users who received notifications had subscribed to YouTube Premium in Ukraine, where the monthly subscription fee is equivalent to $2.4, compared to $14-15 per month in the US or UK. The significant price difference has attracted a large number of cross-regional subscribers.
However, with YouTube cracking down on cross-regional subscribers, it's likely that other streaming video websites and online music platforms will follow suit, which may not be good news for some cross-regional subscribers.
