A Study of Pricing Model of Electronic Books in Taiwan
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lin, Wei-Hsuan
Abstract
In the period of digital reading, publishing industry gradually puts much emphasis on digital publishing. In recent years, the industry of electronic books(e-books) has risen and developed. E-books industry is thrived in some countries, like the United States, Japan, South Korea, Mainland China while it in Taiwan is still an infant industry. The features of e-books are high fixed cost and low variable cost which make pricing model more elastic; therefore, that induces the chaos of the pricing model of e-books market. Besides, there are more discussions about the pricing relationship between paper-books and e-books and the method of segmentation. t present, the studies of e-books, for the most part, are about rationality of pricing model in user’s perspective, or about developing mathematical economic model for firms’ pricing model; it merely focuses on how firms establish the e-books pricing model. The purposes of this study are: (1) The effect of cost elements on the pricing model of e-books; (2) The relationship of pricing model of e-books and paper-books; (3) The effect of market elements on the pricing model of e-books.he methods of this study are literature analysis for frame and in-depth interview for collecting six firms’ experience of setting up pricing model. The interview content is divided into three parts, including the effect of cost elements on the pricing model of e-books, the relationship of pricing model of e-books and paper-books, and the effect of market elements on the pricing model of e-books.he result of this study shows that (1) Industrial scale of economics of e-books in Taiwan is small, so licensing model, DRM, operating model, and pricing model are immature. In addition, the government doesn’t formulate a complete industrial development policy; (2) Licensing model is the root of development of e-books Industry in Taiwan; (3) The effect of cost elements, including licensing income, fabrication fee, profit sharing fee, and DRM fee, on the pricing model of e-books is slight; (4) The e-books’ pricing in Taiwan is based on the paper-books’; the price of e-books is 50% off that of the paper-books’, but in B2B market, e-books’ pricing is higher than paper-books’; (5) The market elements, such as user group, market size, geographic segmentation, benefit segmentation, free version, and competition environment, have influence on the pricing model of e-books.
Subjects
electronic books
pricing model
information goods
segmentation
Type
thesis
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