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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Going international is a relatively low-cost way to expand the reach of their business....
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Yeah, I don't see it that way. There are a lot of niches that are still wide open, lucrative, and easier to grow -- particularly education and children's books.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Going international doesn't mean replicating the entire corporate structure....
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Yeah, sorry, it kinda does.
You'll need local advertising, local PR and marketing, local accountants and taxes and VAT, you'll need managers, local wireless contracts, in quite a few places you'll need new web servers as well.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
There are no enforced borders on the internet....
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*cough* Great Firewall of China *cough*
Oh, and let's not forget that foreign companies don't always do so hot abroad. Witness how Baidu has flourished while Google is all but run out of China on a rail. Running an international business is a different ballgame than just browsing a website.
And of course it won't be long before there is lots of local non-English competition, who may well be favored by local governments as well as local consumers.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Money is money regardless of where it comes from....
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Well....
Again, it's a question of opportunity cost. If it's more expensive to build a dozen international businesses than to expand in the domestic education market, which do you do first? B&N is too busy struggling with its core business and collapsing paper sales to pour unlimited funds into a unilateral ebook expansion.