[Deanrover]

What would you think of my idea that BBO could charge lower prices for people from poorer countries. Leave any technical difficulties to Fred and uncle Uday. The simple fact is that $x is more expensive to an average Pole than to a Swiss. Meals out, houses and clothes are all cheaper in poorer countries.

This policy would be used to lower prices for poor countries NOT to raise them for rich ones. American users would NOT end up spending any more, but Poles would pay less. This seems to make a whole lot of sense.

[inquiry]

If it is doable, this is a nobrainer

[hrothgar]

Price discrimination is a perfectly rational strategy in a non-competitive market.
As I recall, it even has positive effects on social welfare...

Go for it.

[Deanrover]

hrothgar, on Jul 30 2004, 10:16 PM, said:

Price discrimination is a perfectly rational strategy in a non-competitive market.
As I recall, it even has positive effects on social welfare...

Go for it.

Indeed. Producer surplus is definitely increased, whilst the effect on consumer surplus is ambiguous. however, the net effect on social welfare is positive.

[DrTodd13]

I for one would boycott any tournament using such a pricing scheme. I reject "social welfare" as an end worth striving towards.

[the hog]

Todd are you serious? Next thing you will be telling me is that you like Ayn Rand.

PS Who is John Galt?

[Deanrover]

DrTodd13, on Jul 31 2004, 12:46 AM, said:

I for one would boycott any tournament using such a pricing scheme. I reject "social welfare" as an end worth striving towards.

Actually the purpose that BBO would be striving towards with this strategy is profit maximisation. Social welfare improvements are an incidental side effect.

[Dwayne]

as with many ideas, wonderful in theory.

How shall we police and regulate this? How do we authenticate that the poor buggar is from Albania or really from Albany? His/ her BBO flag? I don't think so.

His/ her email address? A good start but...no...wouldnt work.

A letter from their government? Nah..too many dodgy regimes around.

And while we're at it... what if some blighter on welfare living in a ghetto in East LA wants a game?

Might be easier to tax the rich imo.

Dwaynerino.

[1eyedjack]

I thought the whole principle is that BBO doesn't charge a bean.
It is the tourney host that charges, and the tourney host that decides the charging policy. BBO's only involvement would be setting in place the software that permits that flexibility, but the exercising of that flexibility would be determined by the host on a tourney by tourney basis. If an individual tourney host does not like the idea then he can just charge a flat rate.

OK, BBO does take a cut from the takings, but it is independent of how the takings are marketed. Or so I believe.

If it were achievable then I am all for flexibility, but I reckon that it would be a nightmare to program (I am not a programmer, mind), and if I were a tourney host probably would not make use of the facility even if it were provided. If it is a question of assigning priorities I would rank this below a lot of other major changes.

[mink]

if anybody thinks about a discount rate for less wealthy BBO users, we should keep in mind that only credit card holders are able to acquire BBO$ (maybe US citizens have other means). OK, here in Germany anybody who likes can get a credit card provided he has no bad records at the some sort of financial intelligence agency called "Schufa" - and really poor people tend to have bad records there. But even if you can get one, the price is 24 Euros a year (maybe there are cheaper ones) and if you need it only to buy BBO$ (likely in Germany), I would expect you to be not too poor if you get one for this purpose.

I expect that credit cards are limited to wealthy people in regions other than North America and western Europe.

If this is true, it would not make much sense to offer discount rates for not so wealthy users because you will not find many of them among the credit card holders. And, I have really no idea how to distinguish between rich and poor, even if it made sense. A friend told me about chatting with a lady from India recently, and it turned out that her father was wealthy.

Karl

[Dwayne]

mink, on Jul 31 2004, 05:50 AM, said:

A friend told me about chatting with a lady from India recently, and it turned out that her father was wealthy.

Not surprising I suppose when there are in excess of 1,000,000,000 people there.

Probably even several own their own car too.

Makes you wonder if there are any GI Joes who are poor and don't have capped teeth.

Life's like that.

Dwayneo Polo.

....hang on, unless it was mink's friend's father who was turned out to be wealthy.

[bearmum]

Immaterial to me as I don't PAY to play - even though it means I play LESS in BBO since LOTS of tourneys that USED to be free now charge ( albeit only a SMALL amount I agree) -------- but I have decided that I prefer not to pay ANYTHING to play in an online venue

[DrTodd13]

Yes, indeed, who is John Galt? Not the people who came up with this idea for sure.

While the host may want to maximize profits, they should realize that people may get upset for being charged more just because they have more money. They may end up only having people from the poor countries play and anybody from a rich country shouldl boycott due to the injustice. What is next? Different races being charged different prices and how do you plan on determing who is from what country? If you implement this then everyone will change their country to Ghana or something.

[Deanrover]

In answer to some of your questions

Dwayne - leave the technical side to F+U. I am sure they can sort something fairly reliable out. E.g. they get all sorts of technical information about your computer and connection and combined with your Credit Card details they could be quite certain.

It would be nice to be able to charge ghetto people less, but unfortunately it is impossible for us to identify them. It would also be nice to charge juniors less, but against difficult to nail down.

1eyedjack - yes, it would be down to the tourney host. BBO would divide the World into 3 or 4 groups based on a broad measurement such as Gdp per Capita. You say that hosts would not do this, but it would both increase the size of their tourney and profits so I think that they would. In any case, they have the option. BB would also charge less for BM2000 in developing countries. I suspect that $10 per set it too much for many Poles, and it is a shame that they miss out on a great product as a result. Anything else that people may be able to charge for such as pay-to-kib, teaching, lectures, personal ads etc. could also use this scheme.

Mink - BBO also accepts Debit Cards which are free. You have to be 16 to hold one (in the UK at least) and anyone can get one. Of course there are rich and poor in every country, but on average the average citizen of Baltimore can afford more than those of Baghdad.

[Deanrover]

DrTodd13, on Jul 31 2004, 08:28 PM, said:

Yes, indeed, who is John Galt?  Not the people who came up with this idea for sure.

While the host may want to maximize profits, they should realize that people may get upset for being charged more just because they have more money.  They may end up only having people from the poor countries play and anybody from a rich country shouldl boycott due to the injustice.  What is next?  Different races being charged different prices and how do you plan on determing who is from what country?  If you implement this then everyone will change their country to Ghana or something.

Dean's reply edited out ( uday )

[hotShot]

Well you can get the country/town of an internet user by tracerouting his IP-address.

But those poor people you have in mind have computers, internet access, a credit card and time to play bridge?

I don't think so. Even in that counties you might have thought about there are some privileged people who can more than afford a tourney.

Nevertheless I don't play payed tournaments, so i hope other like me manage tourneys and play in those that are free.

Have a nice day

[1eyedjack]

Deanrover, this is a highly uninformed and doubtless prejudiced idea, but it occurs to me that those who are interested in playing on BBO from disadvantaged or undeveloped areas are probably the "elite" of those areas and may well be more wealthy than the run-of-the-mill players from developed countries.

I am not justifying or defending that state of affairs, and only suggesting that it may be accurate. No flames, please.

[Deanrover]

1eyedjack: you are doubtlessly correct. The average wealth of computer users in any country is larger than the average wealth for non-computer users. However, the average wealth of a computer user in Montreal will still be higher than that of one in Thailand.

[sceptic]

having been to thailand, I doubt that statement is correct there is a lot of money out there and anyonbe with a comp is genereally much wealthier in relation to some one out there without one, they can probably afford spellchecker and I kant

[Deanrover]

Most Thais won't own PCs. However internet cafes are VERY cheap and popular out there. Great country btw.