In Australia P2P is Big Business

by Tom Koltai at 08:15PM (EST) on May 29, 2009

Keywords: economics, P2P, business, Australia

We have all heard the following mantra.....

Don’t download movies using P2P.

Om Mani Padme Hum.....
Downloading is a crime
Om Mani Padme Hum.....
Stealing movies is a crime
Om Mani Padme Hum.......
Stealing Music is a crime
omph........

But is it? Or do P2P activities in Australia represent 5% of the country’s GDP.

Lets first see where you, our reader fits into the picture..

Are you an iPod owner?

Do you have an MP3 player?
Do you have a computer?
Are you connected to the Internet?
Do you have a smart-phone with x GB storage for movies and music?
Do you have a CD-burner in your computer?
Is your phone connected to the Internet?

If you answered yes to more than three of the above, then you have probably at some time or
other downloaded copyrighted content that you have not paid for and/or copied that content ontop
a device, a CD-ROM, DVD or iPod illegally, making you by default,

A) A Pirate
B) A Criminal

But we, being not quite so judgmental of your actions actually think that congratulations are in
order.

You are now, (by your own admission) officially part of the 57% of Australians that utilize 87% of
the internet infrastructure and bandwidth in this country to download music, movies and other
items without paying for it.

So if 57% of Australians download files, how does that help the economy?

Well, let’s look at it another way.

Population: 22,000,000
Per Unit % pr/yr Number of Total $
Infrastructure A 98,000,000,000 0.21% 98,000,000,000 20,580,000,000
Maintenance B 209,860,000 1 209,860,000 209,860,000
Wages/Paye C 5,000,000,000 1 5,000,000,000 5,000,000,000
Computer D 1,000.00 33% 11000000 3,630,000,000
 Laptop E 1,500.00 66% 4400000 4,356,000,000
Router F 69.00 33% 3300000 75,141,000
Wifi G 180.00 33% 3300000 196,020,000
Sat Dish H 420.00 33% 110000 15,246,000
Modem I 90.00 20% 11880000 213,840,000
Cellphone J 550.00 66% 22,000,000 7,986,000,000
Retail Use Plan Home K 39.95 100% 5,500,000 2,636,700,000
Retail Phone Data Use L 18.00 24% 9680000 501,811,200
Wholesale Billing M 12.00 100% 5,500,000 792,000,000
45,400,618,200
GST (GST not calculated on "A" and "B") 2,061,261,820
Total Value of P2P (At 80% of Network and CPE value) $37,969,504,016

In other words, in Australia P2P is worth more than the entire combined revenue base of the
member companies of the various industry bodies trying to stop P2P. (i.e.: EMI, Warner, MGM,
Sony)

Now multiple those figures by the population of the rest of the world and you have an industry
globally that adds up to $10,355,319,277,091

Putting it simply, worldwide, P2P is worth three times the value of the
Global Financial Crisis - but with a positive result.
That means that technology that started because of the ubiquity of content has now outstripped
the value of that content, and replaced it with something far more valuable.

The sound of Government cash registers ringing.

Basically, taxable revenue - yes I did say TAXABLE, dollars that your government obtains
revenue from - unlike Movies and Music and overseas made TV shows.

Notes:
Assumptions.
The cost of the telecommunications infrastructure in Australia is “A”
The cost of maintaining that infrastructure is “B”
That infrastructure generates “C” in wages, PAYE tax and individual taxation.

To utilize that infrastructure you require termination CPE (Customer Premises Equipment).
CPE includes, Telephone handsets, Modems (dial-up/ADSL), Nat routers, satellite dishes, WiFi
devices. Items “F” through “I”

If fifty percent of Australians have a computer – let’s call that “D”

Most computers are cycled every thirty six months. Therefore Annual replacement of “D” is
valued at $330.00 on the basis that the purchase price is $1000.00

We assume 20% of Australians have a laptop. “E”

If 100% percent of Australians have a mobile Phone – let’s call that “J”
If 5.5 million homes of 7.2 million are connected to the internet, that generates a monthly
subscriber value of “F” (For this exercise, we assume a monthly total of $39.95 per sub.) “K”
44% of Mobile Phones have data plans and approximately 24% of those phones utilize their
internet connection.
The average mobile phone data consumption is therefore worth approx. $18.00 per month. “L”

All services are billed between the wholesale carrier and the retail Service Provider. “M”

Sources: Telstra, ACMA, ABS, Various industry sales results.

Posted to: Main Page

Economics
P2P

Comments
Post a comment
Re: In Australia P2P is Big Business
by Anonymous on Mon 01 Mar 2010 02:38 AM EST
I would say p2p encourages the use of the computer, ipod,smartphone etc, but it doesn't
not mean that it causes it. P2p has many indirect effects whose value is very hard to
calculate, (sampling effect, clutural prpagation and all) but this analysis of p2p increasing
gdp through the sales of computers etc appears to me to be fundamentally flawed. For
example the computer has many uses besides p2p.

Reply
Re: Re: In Australia P2P is Big Business
by Tom Koltai on Thu 11 Mar 2010 07:37 PM EST
You're right annon. Comuters do have other uses apart from P2P.
So statistically speaking, if 57% of Australians file share once a week, for four hours,
then divide the results by .013571%.

(I did it for you, it equals $515,300,411.65 P.A.)

Or about the same as Foxtel paid in licensing fees in 2008.

(Of course, you are overlooking that 87% of the international bandwidth in and out of
Australia is utilised for P2P. )

Whether you are pro or anti P2P, any way you cut the numbers, P2P is a big business.

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