Movies for Nothing, Pics for Free (In China)
My morning dose of the Harvard Business Review's Daily Stat had an interesting nugget of information. A study and survey conducted in China over 2008-09 by Jie Bai at Wharton and Joel Waldfogel at the U of Minnesota, found that “About three-quarters [75%] of movie consumption in China is unpaid, compared with about 5% among U.S. consumers and less than 10% among American college students.” In a nation of over 1.3 billion people, just under 80% of the population is over the age of 15. That’s over 1 billion potential paying consumers of movies. According to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, the average movie ticket in China in 2009 was $3.45. China is now the second-largest market after the US for films. Assuming every potential paying customer in China may “consume” one movie in a year, and 75% of them “steal” it, that’s lost revenue of over $2.5 billion just there in potential ticket sales. In comparison, according to The Economist,...