I am generally very interested in numbers, because numbers can give you a big pictures of things, giving you a solid basis for understanding the subject in question and more.
Today I came across the following numbers:
China has 400 million youths, 50 million middle-class households (no number on what qualifies as middle-class, bummer;-) as of 2005. The middle class households in China is expected to triple to 150 million by 2015. Last year (2004), about 5 million cars were manufactured and sold in China, GM China has about 10% market share. Over the next few years, the growth of the automobile industry is expected to be beteew 10-15%. These two number seem to match if you assume that the middle-class status in China is symbolized by the ownership of cars.
Americans bought 2.29 billion books in 2004, published by a total of 83,000 publishers, more than 70,000 of which have 10 or fewer titles. You think Amazon.com is big, but researcher estimates that total online sales of books accounted for only 7-10% of toal US book sales. Do this mean Amazon.com still have room to grow? Independent Book Publisher Association.
Do you know how big a cut Amazon takes from book sales on amazon.com website? 55%. No wonder Amazon can still have some healthy margin.