Bliss English Club

Hi Blissers,

Last Saturday, Willy gave us a brief introduction to Russia. He also taught us Russian pronunciation and some simple sentences. I think the Russian pronunciation is really difficult for everyone. We tasted Russia vodka and cucumber as well. They are not bad. In addition to drinking and eating, we also listened to Russian singer – Vitas’ song – Opera #2 and Willy taught us to sing Vitas’ song. We had a great and wonderful afternoon. Thanks, Willy.

2 new members – Cherry Wu and Clark Kuo joined the meeting.

The other participants are Fox, Mengta, Barkley, Naihsin, 灌強, Ellen, Selina, Kevin Huang, Iris, Serina, Tom, Angel Chan, Ting Chen, Millie, Clair and Daniel.

The meeting picture is here.

In the coming Saturday, Vicky is the host and her meeting topic is “Amazon is burning the book business”.

Here is the outline and agenda from Vicky.

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Hi Blissers,
I'd like to talk about the book business this Saturday, especially focus on how Amazon.com affects the business.

A decade ago, when you wanted to buy a book, you went to a bricks-and-mortar bookstore in the neighborhood and would be happy and satisfied with 10% off list price. How times have changed. Nowadays you usually go to some online booksellers like "books.com(博客來)" or "Amazon.com" instead of physical stores to find a bargain. What you expect now is no longer 10% off, you ask for more discount. No (enough) discount, no purchase.

Amazon.com provides discount books and does attract lots of customers. It controls 60% of the U.S. ebook market and 75% of print book sold on the internet. In the meantime, the second-largest physical bookstore--Borders--applied for the bankruptcy protection and began liquidating 226 of it stores in the U.S. Not only the booksellers but also the publishers and authors are threatened or affected by the thriving of Amazon. We will talk about an interesting antitrust lawsuit between the U.S. Justice Department and Apple/publishing houses due to Amazon's aggressive pricing.

Besides, do you know there are more than 15 countries which adopt fixed book price scheme? Do you think the scheme increase or reduce competition? Let's discuss on Saturday. Please come and join us.

Agenda:
2:00~2:40  Self-introduction and purchase experience sharing
2:40~3:40  How Amazon burns the book business (part 1)
3:40~3:50  Break
3:50~4:40   How Amazon burns the book business (part 2)
4:40~5:30  Group discussion

Vicky

Daniel