Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
And the strange thing is that everybody loses under the 'geographical restriction' model, publishers, authors, booksellers and readers alike.
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Not necessarily true. Regional or individual country pricing can be a way of achieving an optimum price in each market.
If a product is priced to achieve the best overall return (in terms of sales*price) in the US, it may be unaffordable in many other markets, such as those in the developing world.
If sales can be successfully regionalized, without items leaking from lower-price to higher price markets, then the product can be sold in each market at a price (above the marginal cost) which the consumer is willing to pay. Actually everyone wins - except those who go comparing the price they are invited to pay with the price offered to poorer (or less interested) people.
Many people approve of drug-companies selling drugs in developing markets at only a small mark-up to the marginal cost of production, while the big profits are made in richer economies that can afford to pay more. Why not the same model with ebooks?