In the previous entry there were the devious toilet seats out to get me, this time I am bitching about protectionistic content providers guarding their prehistoric turf. I am a prime example of consumer who isn't fixed to particular geographic position, but would still expect the global companies treat me as the same customer now matter from where I happened to be accessing their services. Going into 2013 the corporations are STILL not really ready for this new era of geo-less digital consumers.
I am clearly pestered by my own inner morale code dictating me actually to be willing to pay for products, service or content that I consume. Life would be so much easier right now without my too self aware consciousness making me jump hurdles whenever trying to get access to content like movies, tv, music, comics, magazine subscriptions, books in a way that is completely legal and just.
Case in point 1: Last year I bought Google Nexus 7 and I am loving the device. At least up until when I found out all the cool content I am missing. Over here in Singapore (and all over the place outside US borders judging from the global nerd rage followed by every single Google Play announcement in Google+), Google Play is but an empty shell serving only the applications. I so much wanted to buy 2nd season of Walking Dead for my enjoyment when going on a cross continent trip. However all Google said is "No can do. None of this glorious content is meant for you". Out of curiosity I found means to make it so that I appeared as if I was accessing the internet store from US soil. My Nexus was all of a sudden a cornucopia (Yes, I had to google that up) of content both free and for a fee. Whole Walking Dead S2 was there up for grabs for a nominal fee which I would be more than glad to pay to ease the pain of 12 hour flights. However my devious tactics didn't work all the way, even if I was browsing the US store, Google not so politely refused to take my dirty Singapore dollars -- or Finnish euros for that matter. And furthermore I was eventually thrown out of the store in an internet equivalent of being thrown out of a pub head first, by locking my google account due to "suspicious activity". That was pretty painful experience as I have ended up centralizing most of my digital existence behind that one account.
Case in point 2: Apparently I wasn't going to give in so easily to the temptation of more easier and not to mention free alternatives. The next time I had a case of sudden on-demand craving for quality content I accessed the online Movie catalogue within Xbox Live service. Of course in Singapore the Xbox Live would be as empty as Google Play, but I had shipped my Finnish Xbox over here and with my Finnish account was still able to browse all the cool content. Once finally sitting on a couch with popcorn in hand, being ready to start watching first Harry Potter movie with my family and pressing play, I get now so familiar greeting: "Bug off. There is nothing to be seen here in the region where you are currently living. Migrate your sorry-ass back to Finland". Having promised a movie night, I went to local mall, where they have the nearest movie rental place. But to my surprise they had stopped physically renting blu-rays due to "advent of online digital rental competition".
These are only 2 examples of my recent battles. I hardly think it is that Google or Amazon or Netflix or Spotify does not want my money, but it goes beyond that. The official solutions to my previous examples have been to either subscribe to expensive Fox Movies Premium HD -channel package from my cable provider (who wouldn't run Walking Dead season 2 anymore as they are already on S3) or buy a physical copy of the complete collectors set of HP movies for a ridiculous price (as they don't sell individual movies anymore). Digital distribution would be stepping on the toes of various parties in the ecosystem. However the protectionistic system of the content right owners in an interconnected world is so painstakingly out dated business model and further fighting against the change is only driving masses to the sources of once again easier and less costly options.
An interesting observation into all of this was offered by a colleague of mine (who has US address and US credit card to access all the content through iTunes): Asian business culture just is not customer centric. It is more supply chain centric. Customer demand for goods does not necessarily reflect to supply, but actually supplier providing a good value for certain goods drives the buying behaviour of customers for example in a grocery store. Another example is a local restaurant offering set meals through having a full low cost "assembly line" of putting together that particular meal in the kitchen. And there you have a western customer, who has the misconception that customer would be always right and wanting to replace rice with fries. That just doesn't comply in the supply driven process. That actually explains a number of run ins I have had where I have tried to swim upstream against a process.
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