What should Microsoft do to raise WTP in your country?

In your country, what should Microsoft do to increase WTP?
1. increase only piracy prevention controls
2. increase only social deterrence controls, or
3. increase piracy prevention controls & social deterrence controls simultaneously

Please explain your rationale.
(Remember to state what country you are talking about)

'Preventive control is defined in terms of technology-based (hard-
ware/software) control, whereas deterrence control can be classified into legal and social categories.

I am not sure if Microsoft has made the above three actions would increase WTP for Taiwanese or not. But, I think if Microsoft improves the after-sales services and differenciate its functionality would probably increase WTP. The sense of IP has not been well established in Taiwan. Most citizens concern the functionality and price more.

Maybe you believe that there are some other reasons for low WTP in your country? these may include:

- too high prices compared to salaries
- too lenient policy of the government/police against the pirates
- social networks of pirates
- fashion for not buying original products
- ... (your ideas )

Or maybe Microsoft should influence governments, public opinion, kids at schools?... If you name a reason/solution, to which group would you put it - preventive or deterrent?

Think outside the box!

Canadians have a perception that the probability of prosecution for copyright violation in general is quite high, due to the efficiency of the legal system. However, there is also a certain distrust of big (American) corporations. Legal action against consumers would likely cause a backlash against Microsoft. So, legal deterrence against consumers would be not a great idea.

Canada is more individualist than collectivist, and so attempts to 'shame' or 'embarrass' consumers into paying a higher price for MS Office might be seen as silly. However, consumers rely heavily on the advice of opinion leaders or tech experts to make purchases. If a tech expert's opinion of MS Office versus OSS/FS was positive, this would work better than if your mother told you not to use pirated or OSS/FS. Social deterrence would be effective if it could be targeted at techies or opinion leaders.

There is also an issue of multiculturalism. For instance, 50% of the population of Toronto (Canada's largest city) was born in a country other than Canada. Microsoft has a special challenge of communicating a clear message to shame or embarrass people into paying more for MS Office. In this case, it seems that preventive measures would be more effective.

I think for raising WTP, the only way is to increase only social deterrence controls. Even if you increase piracy prevention control, people always find a way to pirate software. If it is a social deterrence control, people will stop this.

In Venezuela, and much of South America, concerns for prosecution for copyright violations is minimal! We laugh at the law! "HA HA to you Law" we chant while looking good. Therefore I think the views are very contrary to what Brodie mentioned... but this is because regulators are concern with other issues, rather than the American companies losing money.

This is why the companies themselves are taking the steps to manufacture their own piracy prevention controls within each nation.
For example, IBM in Argentina has a full floor dedicated to in-scripting their software, DVD, and CDs to prevent pirated copies from surfacing... they plan to also sell this in-scripting program to other software/media companies for profit.

I believe that in 2007 Microsoft lowered the price of Microsoft to 50 euros in Mainland China, in order to increase the WTP for having an original version of Windows.
In the Chinese case, with a Chinese market where illegal copies of every software you can need are available litteraly at the corner of your street, it was Microsoft strategy to have more original copy sold, allowing people to buy a true Microsoft program for a price closer to the streetmarket's. (but still 50 times more expensive...)

In Germany I think there is a gap between the corporate world and the private customers. There are only few companies that work with pirated software. The risk is too big. Private people, especially when they are young and tech-savvy, usually don't mind downloading software illegally.

I think Microsoft mostly relies on option Nr. 1. It has no interest to file thousands of lawsuits against private users because that would create a backlash quickly and people would dislike Microsoft. People basically don't like MS too much and rather see it as a necessary evil. That's a little exaggerated, but compared to the US, Europe is not that MS-friendly.

Plus, in my opinion I think Microsoft has no power to establish social deterrence controls. Why? First, because to do so it has to establish a nationwide consciousness about software piracy. People have to realize that piracy is illegal, and even MS does not have the power to change people's mind alone. Second, especially MS is not in the right position to make people change their mind, because MS is the monopolist in the market that earns billions of dollars a year. It does not suffer that much from piracy. Stealing from a billionaire just doesn't feel that bad.

To raise the WTP, Microsoft should release new innovating products. They have failed for years to do so.
- Mobile Market? Windows Mobile sucks, Apple and others stepped in.
- Internet: Google and others stole the cake. Can anyone think of any great web-innovation by MS?
- Windows Vista? a major desaster.
- netbooks? Microsoft overslept to offer anything else but the old WinXP

People are still willing to pay, they just want new and innovative software that's easy to use.

I agree with Manuel. Bolivians have the same mentality. They could care less about breaking the law and think to themselves: "why would we pay for the real thing when the pirated one is practically free." Therefore, I think both options 1 and 2 would not suffice.

But in the States, even if better piracy controls are implemented, I think there would still be ways to beat the system. The law does scare some people from downloading illegal copies, but obviously it does not scare everyone. Most people think "what are the odds that I ever get caught" so therefore they go ahead and do it. But like Toby said, this is mostly at the consumer/individual level. Not at the corporate level. Personally, if I were MS I would not be too concerned with this issue. Regardless of what they implement, there will still be people out there with pirated copies of their software.

Brodie wrote:In your country, what should Microsoft do to increase WTP?
1. increase only piracy prevention controls
2. increase only social deterrence controls, or
3. increase piracy prevention controls & social deterrence controls simultaneously

Please explain your rationale.
(Remember to state what country you are talking about)

'Preventive control is defined in terms of technology-based (hard-
ware/software) control, whereas deterrence control can be classified into legal and social categories.

I don't think the measures stated above will be helpful to increase WTP in Taiwan.
The main reason why the WTP is low is the pricing.

Some people in Taiwan consider that the software is priced too high and they don't they have to pay such a high price for using only a small set of functions.

The best policy for Microsoft, in my humble opinion, is to cut the huge Microsoft office apart. That is, Microsoft can separately sell word, excel, powerpoint, and so on. But the most important thing is to set "a market-generally-acceptable price" for all their products.

Of course, education still plays a crucial role. Teachers in Taiwan tend to put too much emphasis on intellectual education rather than moral education. If Microsoft want to increase WTP in a long term, maybe they can donate some money to school to do something for better moral education.

shirleyo wrote:I am not sure if Microsoft has made the above three actions would increase WTP for Taiwanese or not. But, I think if Microsoft improves the after-sales services and differenciate its functionality would probably increase WTP. The sense of IP has not been well established in Taiwan. Most citizens concern the functionality and price more.

Yes, most citizens concern about the functions and price.
Many friends of mine think that the products of Microsoft are of inferior quality to those of other companies.
Furthermore, they don't think the price is reasonable.
BTW, the after-sales service might work in a corporation but has no effect on an individual.

To my opinion, there is low WTP from individuals for Microsoft products in France for several reasons.

First of all, many people think that Microsoft pricing is way to high compared to the reliability and quality of their products. The fast moving IT environment makes it difficult for many inexpert users to enjoy their products without experiencing any trouble. This situation makes it easy for them to justify their low WTP and piracy in general.

Second of all, I think that social acceptance towards Microsoft (and in general towards Monopolies) is very low in France. Many people would argue that they are not willing to pay as a means to protest against Microsoft "illegitimate" position.

As a conclusion I would say that to increase WTP in France, Microsoft should first deliver reliable products and services to individuals (piracy is not wide spread in companies) and increase social acceptance through several communication strategies. (open sources, social foundation etc...)

In Peru, Microsoft has had the same commercial policy than in Mexico, but in Peru, I think, it hasn't worked that good, because the consumer use to buy computers assembled in Peru and they buy them "custom-made", I mean they select the compter's characteristics that they want, including the brand of the components, and the store put together the pieces.

After that, the store (reseller) gives two options to the customer: 1. Buy the original sofware or each constumer can install for itself a pirat version of the sofwares (including windows). By this way, the most of the consumers prefer to buy a pirat version and pay less.

In this situation, I think Microsoft has to work with the resellers (stores which assambling components and are usually small), for obtaining a bigger profit. The option of working with the original brands only is a good option in the notebook's market, but in the personal desk computer is better to work with with these small stores.

In Israel we had a pretty scary ad against corporate pirating by an organization called BSA (Business Software Alliance), threatening to do unexpected visits to different companies to check if the softwares they're using are legal. Their 'slogan' is "Don't say you didn't know!" and even asking employees to report their employers. Even though the place I was working at the time of seeing the ad was using legal software I still remember this ad making me a bit nervous . I'm guessing it did help in the least to make people aware that they are taking a risk by using illegal software in their company.

There is also a matter of brand communication. Like it's been said, the piracy issue concerns more the personal purpose users than the professional ones. As MS's branding and communication is focused on b2b and not on b2c, the brand relationship with private users is not strong enough to balance people's dissatisfaction regarding the product or the company itself (the big bad monopolistic billionaire firm). Therefore, private users don't have that much scruples to get illegal copies.

In the Netherlands, people generally frown upon Microsoft's practices, its substandard products, bad customer service and skyhigh prices. The only way for Microsoft to continue to increase WTP is by either continuing the practices it is loathed for or to actually start innovating and develop good products that are properly priced.

It is important to note that 99% of Dutch Households have access to the internet, and most are internet savvy. This doesnt help the situation of piracy, which I openly advocate for.

Also, it is necessary to reiterate the point that consumer products (personal use software) and corporate products are viewed differently. While it might be slightly risky for corporations to pirate software, nothing really stops people at home.

I found an extremely good video that describes the attitudes of downloading illegally and online piracy extremely well - right from the fury of producers (of artistic content), to law professors.

Cheers,
G

Thanks for sharing this film to us. I like it a lot. I think it provides us a producer/author’s view to balance our user/student’s view. In fact, I think the issue of piracy control is indeed a dilemma, remaining grey area for both authors and users and. The authors one the one hand would like their intellectual efforts are respected and profitable, but they also want their work to be popular and exposed more. The users, on the other hand, who know that they should obey the IP law and have the sense of moral to avoid piracy, but they also believe that they have rights to share in the information age. In this case, I think if the proprietary software producers could play with the grey area and find a balance between the user’s and producer’s expectation should be the best policy and make the maximized profit of the dilemma. Can anyone propose some strategy to play with the grey area?

In TW, microsoft works with the largest 3C chain store, TK3C, and offers a special family package for TK3C's members only. It's a limited quantity package of half price(around NTD3,000) microsoft office with basic function bundled with other second-tier software, such as kaspersky and Ulead. I think it did raise WTP coz the package sold out before the promotion period ended.

I think people are still willing to pay. However, the perception of the value of information goods is changing and since the reproduction cost of information goods is nearly 0, software company should not enjoy such high premium.