A new sheds light on the vast differences in the costs imposed on consumers around the world for content and gaming. By gathering data on the prices of ten online entertainment platforms across 156 countries, a 🦄comprehensive pubꩲlic database on price discrimination in digital entertainment is now easily observable to everyone.
These services are divided in three categories: video streaming (Netflix, Amazon Prime, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Twitch Prime, YouTube Premium), music streaming (Spotify, Apple Music), and digital games (Steam, Nintendo Game Store, Xbox Game Store, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation Store). While not every country has all these services, theꦦ goal is to look at the categories broadly wherever possibꦬle.
Expensive In Europe, Cheap In South America
By a staggering margin, Brazil, Argentina, and India are the cheapest cou🌠ntries for most services. Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and Austria meanwhile are by far the most expensive. When considering only video games, South American countries tend to have the lowest prices, with both Brazil and Argentina being the lowest.
Certain countries are affected by a forced use of U.S. currency. Africa, Latin America, Asia, and CIS countries require the use of U.S. dollars for some countries, which often has an adverse affect on individual consumer buying power thanks to exch🅰ange rates.
The greatest individual discrepancies seem to occur when service providers✤ decide to maintain uniform numerical price values in countries despite differences in currency. As a result, when considering price as a percentage of GDP per capital (PPP), consumers are spending vast amounts mor🤡e than others. In Zimbabwe for example, Netflix is fifty times more expensive than in Qatar, and Spotify is seventeen times more expensive in Nicaragua than in Singapore.
Overall, the U.S. appears to be the chꦰeapest country for these online services, when adjusting for living standards.
While some of these differences in prices may come as a shock to some readers, regional differences in pr⛎icing for access to the same ꦜdigital content has always varied for several reasons. In some cases, the bottom line is affected by listening costs of intellectual property, though from an individual consumers perspective, it is difficult to see any reasoning outside of pure corporate greed.
It is not surprising to see🍒 VPNpro release a study of this type. While decades prior one could more easily understand the need to price physical goods differently by region due to distribution costs and complex trade agreements among nations, it seems unfathomable to sustain such arguments in a digital world. By utilizing a VPN, consumers can take advantage of these huge disparities in price, which is fascinating in and of itself when considered through a legal and ethical perspective.
Should one use a VPN to acquire digital products for a fraction of the price of their own country? There are arguments from both sides, though now more🔯 than ever it is difficult to be sympathetic to a corporate entity after seeing how distorted these prices are for individuals separated by a border, but united in an online world.
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