Zimran Ahmed wrote:
> >Flat rates are the simplest form of pricing. Although they have
> >generally been regarded as irrational, and economically and
> >socially undesirable, they have serious advantages. Consumers
> >like them, and are willing to pay extra for them. Further, flat
> >rates are extremely effective in stimulating usage, which is of
> >advantage in a rapidly growing service like the Internet.
But not an advantage for Docomo, whose i-mode network has already
had serious growing pains due to its unexpected popularity!
> personally, i am a fan of metered pricing since it gives content
> providers a way to make money without having to resort to banner ads.
Err....it does? I was under the impression the content providers
really making money are doing so with monthly subscription fees.
> But i wondered what people in this group think: could i-Mode have grown
> faster if it has flat-rate pricing? Is there something unique in
> japanese culture that makes them more comfortable with metered
> communications use? When people use i-Mode, are they counting packet
> charges in the back of their mind?
I don't know about Japanese culture -- flat-rate pricing for food,
alcohol, train travel and landline Internet access (tabe-, nomi-,
nori- and kakehoudai) certainly seem to be popular -- but Japanese
has no tradition of flat-rate *telephone* pricing. People are
used to metered telephone access and have no experience of
unmetered Internet access, so they don't know what they're missing.
And yes, one of the reasons I don't use i-mode all that much is
because I have to pay for every byte, and I have free Net access
at the university. I would use it a *lot* more for surfing, as
opposed to merely e-mail, if all I had to pay was the basic charge.
Cheers,
--
Jani PATOKALLIO / jpatokal@iki.fi / +81 90 7722 3557
Sanpo Laboratory, Mechano-Informatics Dept., University of Tokyo
ヤニ・パトカリオ / jani@sanpo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp / 090 7722 3557
東京大学、工学系研究科、機械情報工学科、算法設計研究室
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Tue Dec 5 04:42:53 2000