Guba Movie Download Pricing Experiment Boosts Sales 1000%
Guba, the online video sharing site, today announced that their month long price reduction experiment yielded a 1000% increase in sales and a doubling of their site traffic.
For the last 30 days, Guba has offered new release movies priced at $9.99, catalog titles at $4.99 and TV episodes for 49 cents, though the offerings cannot be burned to a DVD. These prices are at a substantial discount to the current pricing structure at Amazon's Unbox service ($14.99 and up for new releases, $9.99 and up for catalog titles) and the forthcoming Apple download store, which is likely to bow new release movie downloads at around $15 dollars.
Guba currently has deals with Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers, offering 500 and 200 titles from each library, respectively. In all likelihood, Guba is serving as a low-risk pricing test bed due to its lower profile and smaller user base, which is probably enough to keep Wal-Mart from getting nervous. As of late, the mega-retailer has been annoyed at the prospect of downloads being priced below their DVD wholesale pricing of $17 for new releases, and has used their muscle to influence online pricing moves.
So what is the optimal download price for a burnable, DRM-managed feature-length movie? Take the poll below to give us your opinion.
Post a comment
Comments