3 ms·

With a 8x difference in wages [1] the price of the book in India should surely be $4 if it is $32 in the U.S. Are suggesting it should be $4 everywhere? which m

by rythie 15y ago

With a 8x difference in wages [1] the price of the book in India should surely be $4 if it is $32 in the U.S. Are suggesting it should be $4 everywhere? which means it's still cheaper in the U.S. compared to salaries. [1] see top item on (Sr. Software Engineer...): http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Country=India/Salary http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Country=India/Salary and http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Country=United_States/Salary http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Country=United_States/Sa...

guard-of-terra 15y ago
1) Market can figure it out. At which price would you gross more money? I guess the answer would be something like $10. Books are overpriced anyway in the USA, and there's no reason to pay $30 for an ebook. 2) You can still make promo prices for different regions, but the service should be available everywhere.
- rythie 15y ago
  TBH, $30 and not sell it in India due to the risk of cheap imports. At $10 it's not going to sell 3x as many as at $30 in the U.S.
  - guard-of-terra 15y ago
    Okay, but then again: Making conscious choice to not sell in India and then bitching about piracy in India is immoral. You can still set the price to $30 but you have to actually sell worldwide to have any moral grounds against worldwide piracy.
    - keithpeter 15y ago
      UK estimated total of University students: just under 2 million (BBC figures, 2009) and shrinking slowly India estimated total of University students (or at least places): just over 12 million, government policy to increase by factor 2 over by 2025 (BBC 2011 article) I think you could discount heavily to something close to local wage rates and still make a handsome profit in India, especially with electronic distribution reducing the distribution costs. Does anyone else remember/use the Indian editions? I remember Tata/McGraw Hill having a series of Indian printed editions of popular texts. Local production and typesetting, lower price. Some of them even made it to the UK in the 1980s.
rmc 15y ago
It is better than when the book isn't being sold at all. This is not a $10 vs $4 vs $4 everywhere vs $10 everywhere. Currently digital distribution sucks if you're outside the USA, and is OK but not great if you're outside a handful of rich countries.
slavak 15y ago
Your way sounds great. Unfortunately, in practice this system is usually used to raise prices outside the US for countries where the public is used to paying more for stuff - not the other way around. Anyway, I was mostly referring not to price differences but to availability differences. You can argue for or against price differentiation, but I challenge you to provide one good reason why I can purchase a movie on a DVD in my country, but not watch it on Netflix - or why that movie would become available locally months after its US premier.

by rythie 15y ago

guard-of-terra 15y ago

1) Market can figure it out. At which price would you gross more money? I guess the answer would be something like $10. Books are overpriced anyway in the USA, and there's no reason to pay $30 for an ebook. 2) You can still make promo prices for different regions, but the service should be available everywhere.

rythie 15y ago
TBH, $30 and not sell it in India due to the risk of cheap imports. At $10 it's not going to sell 3x as many as at $30 in the U.S.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  Okay, but then again: Making conscious choice to not sell in India and then bitching about piracy in India is immoral. You can still set the price to $30 but you have to actually sell worldwide to have any moral grounds against worldwide piracy.
  - keithpeter 15y ago
    UK estimated total of University students: just under 2 million (BBC figures, 2009) and shrinking slowly India estimated total of University students (or at least places): just over 12 million, government policy to increase by factor 2 over by 2025 (BBC 2011 article) I think you could discount heavily to something close to local wage rates and still make a handsome profit in India, especially with electronic distribution reducing the distribution costs. Does anyone else remember/use the Indian editions? I remember Tata/McGraw Hill having a series of Indian printed editions of popular texts. Local production and typesetting, lower price. Some of them even made it to the UK in the 1980s.

rmc 15y ago

It is better than when the book isn't being sold at all. This is not a $10 vs $4 vs $4 everywhere vs $10 everywhere. Currently digital distribution sucks if you're outside the USA, and is OK but not great if you're outside a handful of rich countries.

slavak 15y ago

Your way sounds great. Unfortunately, in practice this system is usually used to raise prices outside the US for countries where the public is used to paying more for stuff - not the other way around. Anyway, I was mostly referring not to price differences but to availability differences. You can argue for or against price differentiation, but I challenge you to provide one good reason why I can purchase a movie on a DVD in my country, but not watch it on Netflix - or why that movie would become available locally months after its US premier.