One way to see how strong these switching costs are is to examine Netflix churn rate. Churn is a marketing term referring to the rate at which customers leave a product or service. A low churn is usually key to profitability because it costs more to acquire a customer than to keep one. And the longer a customer stays with the firm, the more profitable they become and the less likely they are to leave. If customers weren't completely satisfied with the Netflix experience, many would be willing to churn out and experiment with rivals offering cheaper service. However, the year after Blockbuster and Wal-Mart launched with copycat efforts, the rate at which customers left Netflix actually fell below four percent, an all-time low. And the firm's churn rates have continued to fall over time. By mid 2008, rates for customers in Netflix most active regions of the country were below three percent, meaning Netflix Argentina VPN iphone fewer than three in one hundred Netflix customers canceled their subscriptions each year9. To get an idea of how enviable the Netflix churn rates are, consider that in 2007 the mobile phone industry had a churn rate of 38.6%, while roughly one in four U.S. banking customers defected that year10. All of this impacts marketing costs, too. Happy customers refer friends (read free marketing from a source consumers trust more than a TV commercial). 94 percent of Netflix subscribers say they have recommended the service to someone else, and 71 percent of new subscribers say an existing subscriber has encouraged them to sign up. It's no wonder subscriber acquisition costs have been steadily falling, further contributing to the firm's overall profitability.
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