Floatplane regional pricing

[wing-]

Is there any chance in the foreseeable future for floatplane to adopt better regional pricing, specially for underdeveloped countries?

 

I'm brazillian (born and living here) and floatplane (LTT-channel sub only) is more expensive than any other streaming service. The biggest example is comparing it to Netflix, which in the 4K plan is the most expensive streaming service here. The 4K Netflix plan (top tier) is currently (in Brazillian Reais) BRL 55,90, FYI other streaming services are usually less than half this price (ATV+ is BRL 15, Youtube Premium is BRL 20), , our exchange rate to US dollars is roughly 1 to 5,10-5,30 (it varies) so considering the lowest exchange rate, let's round it to 5 to 1, we would be paying $11,18 on the most expensive streaming service "officially" available (4K+HDR Netflix).

In the US according to my research the same tier of Netflix plan costs $19,99... almost twice as expensive when comparing a direct conversion vs. the regional pricing Netflix applies... For sure it would be a deal breaker in Brazil (and possibly other third world countries) to charge the same price (roughly BRL 100,00), this is why this different price policies exists, even in retail games pricing, and other stuff.

 

I know we are talking about a completely different situation with LTT, but its almost impossible to justify, or to be able to pay the same amount of money as let's say a Netflix 4K+HDR subscription JUST for LTT behind-the-scenes videos (my main interest).

 

So, I wonder, has this ever been given any consideration by the LTT staff? For sure we are the minority compared to US, Canada and Europe, but Brazil, India, Pakistan, etc. are huge countries in population, I'm sure there is a market there...

[Yoinkerman]

I'm sure they would if they could figure out the accounting in a way that makes sense under international tax law

[Donut417]

3 hours ago, wing- said:

Is there any chance in the foreseeable future for floatplane to adopt better regional pricing, specially for underdeveloped countries?

Looking thru the Floatplane faqs page. All subs are done in USD. So if your country doesnt use USD then your bank will have to convert it. They even state that some banks might charge for this. This make me think they are not equipped to handle other currencies. Which probably makes it harder to do regional pricing. Because Im assuming from your example that Netflix charges you what ever currency your country uses? Also by having it all in USD, they only really have to follow American law, which is probably easier, as each country will have different rules, regulations and tax laws. 

[TetraSky]

Honestly, I doubt it.

Yes, your buying power is lower... But just because it's lower, it doesn't mean it's also cheaper for them to send that bandwidth your way.
If they implemented regional pricing, they would be bleeding money.
The big companies can "afford" it, because it's basically subsidized by others in the world who pay the regular full price and/or they have servers in these countries thus benefiting from lower pricing. But that's a whole other can of worms, like having to comply to regional laws.

 

Then there's the ones who use VPN to get cheaper plans who would be scamming them as well. They would need protection against this, which means more dev time on this and it becomes a game of cat & mouse with the ones breaking the protection and the devs fixing the holes. Simply not worth it for a small company like Floatplane.

I would suggest you just keep watching for free on Youtube and maybe buy something on LTTStore.com if you want to support LMG. If you want to see the BTS, maybe subscribe once or twice a year to see them and cancel the subscription afterward.

[Roswell]

4 hours ago, NastyFlytrap said:

While i know that Brazil is a poorer country, that exchange rate looks comically good compared to the 1:400 i have, lmao

The currency unit to currency unit ratio means nothing. The metric you should be looking at to determine if a country is “poor” is their relative buying power compared to other countries.
 

Basically, look at their GDP per capita.

[Roswell]

5 hours ago, Arika S said:

Plus given that the ltt audience is tech savvy, most people would use a VPN to ping from the cheapest region to sign up

Any business that uses regional pricing ties it to the payment method’s billing address. A VPN doesn’t fix that.

[dizmo]

14 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Looking thru the Floatplane faqs page. All subs are done in USD. So if your country doesnt use USD then your bank will have to convert it. They even state that some banks might charge for this. This make me think they are not equipped to handle other currencies. Which probably makes it harder to do regional pricing. Because Im assuming from your example that Netflix charges you what ever currency your country uses? Also by having it all in USD, they only really have to follow American law, which is probably easier, as each country will have different rules, regulations and tax laws. 

I'm 99% sure that accepting payment in USD does not make you have to follow US law. 

[Donut417]

14 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'm 99% sure that accepting payment in USD does not make you have to follow US law. 

They do if they operate in the US, as in have servers in the US. The floatplane server I connect to is hosted by Cloudflare in the California. Also, it comes down to where the payment is processed and such. My guess is they do payment processing out of the US, which is why all transactions are in USD. 

[dizmo]

Just now, Donut417 said:

They do if they operate in the US, as in have servers in the US. The floatplane server I connect to is hosted by Cloudflare in the California. Also, it comes down to where the payment is processed and such. My guess is they do payment processing out of the US, which is why all transactions are in USD. 

They do payment in US funds because that's what they buy their merch in, and it's easier to have a single currency to keep track of than multiple currencies.

 

[Roswell]

5 minutes ago, NastyFlytrap said:

Yes, i know, hence why i said i know brazil is poorer. Thank you Captain Obvious

Next time, atleast word your comment as an addition to mine, not to make me look like i dont know what im talking about, please

You said their exchange rate looked “comically good” compared to yours, which is a meaningless and misguided statement.

 

There’s absolutely nothing economically good or bad about a currency’s decimal point placement.

 

I corrected your misunderstanding, simple as that. We all learn new things every day, no reason to get offended.