Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
The relevant market here is "buyers of commercial books for entertainment", not "learning mandarin as a second language" so unless the fraction of readers in the australian population is 16 times bigger or buys 16 times more books than americans or brits the local market will be closer in size to the New York metro area than the US as a whole. And the economies of scale will favor the Manhattan gang.
The two cultures and economies are not as different as China (or India, a better example) vs the US.
Exit: The system needs reforming but without reform, merely squeezing the local suppliers is going to have unexpected repercussions.
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ok, so now take the one specific book example and go up to the 10,000-foot view. in a country that's focused on video consumption like the US, the market for books of any kind might be a lot less than in Norway for example. i'm not saying that all americans are illiterate and can't be bothered to read, but a pure population number is no indicator of the actual market for any specific industry (other than basic necessities like food, clean water, and shelter)
so, even though Australia's population is 1/14th of the USA, the market size for books could be as high as 1/4th if Aussies are more literate and more culturally developed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_addressable_market
and it's been known for YEARS that the reason prices are higher in AU than US is because... well, they can be. the Aussies have no alternatives that are nearby and they're physically isolated, so it's easier to "justify" charging them a higher price.
the price often has very little to do with the cost. usually it's higher, sometimes it's even lower, and it's almost always as high as possible given the market size.