Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
wow just wow. This only demonstrates to me how clueless this guy (industry?) is about technology.
It is "comparable" cost to set up a physical warehouse as it is to set up a digital infrastructure?
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My understanding is that Hachette spent something like EUR 16 million on their ebook virtual warehouse infrastructure.
Because they treat vendors like Fictionwise as virtual wholesale customers, and have to handle accounting for ebook sales exactly the same way they would handle dead tree sales, and in turn allocate royalty payments accordingly. And stick DRM checksums on each outgoing ebook
copy; sell 5000 copies, ship 5000 files (which each have to be generated separately on an encryption server).
They've done their best to port their existing business model to the electronic world, because nobody has the authority to say "this business model is obsolete -- here's a completely new one" (not merely because it would screw their career if they made a wrong call, but because there's internal corporate resistance to it: lots of people will lose their jobs if the old business model is junked).