Proposal: Different subscription fees according to the country we live in

Hello all!

I would like to begin by thanking to the chess.com staff, who are more than helpful and everyone here tries to improve things so that the app and the website rock! We all value your hard work.

However, I would like to bring to everyone's attention, especially to the chess.com moderators/staff, that would be a good idea if chess.com will make a difference on the subscription fees according to the country we are living in. I'm not saying that I couldn't pay myself the annual fee, even though it would represent a small effort, but it could be other people, coming from poor countries who cannot afford it. Besides, I don't think that is fair for someone who earns, for example, $300 a month(that being the average pay in that country, verified) to pay the same amount as someone who comes from a country where earning $3000-4000/month is common place. I know that you cannot possibly reduce to just 10% the price, but maybe to cut it by half it is both reasonable and possible. I think that this could also bring new premium members from such parts of the world. As an example, more users would be content because they can access premium features and, as such, the profit might increase by their mere number. Another good idea would be to just provide special discounts for such members.

I am sure that this should not anger other people from rich countries since their subscription fee represents a lot less as a percentage from their net wage as compared with people from developing countries or countries that are undeveloped.

What do you think? Isn't this a good idea to implement?

Just for your information, you have here a list with the average salary per countries: 

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=105

Pretty sure they do that already, at least for some countries.  Someone from India was complaining in the forums that when he tried to gift a membership it was considerably more expensive than his regular subscription cost.  Have no idea how to find the thread again, sorry.  Also have no idea how many or what countries get the discount.  I looked at the time and couldn't find anything official about the policy.  Anyway, good idea, but I think they already do it.

NikkiLikeChikki, it is a small possibility to be right in some isolated cases. But the other way around is also possible - someone from a rich country to be even richer than their average, which is by itself a lot higher than in poor countries. Compare, as an example, Nigeria with average pay of only $170/month with the States, where it is $3524/month. Do you think it's the same thing? Should most of the people from, say, Nigeria be deprived of the possibility to learn and access premium features just because they can't really afford it? 

Interesting 

baddogno, thanks for your kind reply and support, but here in Romania, where we earn an average of $688(with many people unemployed or below that figure), we still have to pay $99/year. I think that you pay the same in your country, isn't it?

Yeah sure, with a gold plan of only $2,5/month you only get 25 puzzles/day and Just 3 lessons/week, to be fair to the end...

Yeah, that's what I pay.  Of course I'm retired with a fixed income much less than what the average American makes.  I think I understand why Chess.com doesn't have anything "official" about their policy written down anywhere.  It's just too hard to please everyone.  No matter what they come up with, there will be some unfairness.

Sounds like an interesting idea...

Of course, it might be not fair on the individual level, but on average it is...

Similarily, the existence of rich students doesn't refute the existence student discounts, for example. At least in my opinion...

It's a good idea but you can't realistically apply it. 

Everyones situation is different and it's impossible for chess.com to create a system that takes into account different individual salary, location, etc and deduce what the appropriate payment amount is.

besides chess.com makes money from regular users on the site by plastering the place with ads so i doubt this idea is even on their radar. 

how do I prove I'm I live in Ethiopia?

I want those cheap memberships 

And here I was, reading OP's more than reasonable, crystal clear and marvelous idea of turning Chess.com into a more inclusive and diverse community when the comments hit me.
I mean... how could I even be surprised?! This species has failed so bad.

I'm a college student from a low income country and I find quite expensive to pay for a chess.com suscription. $2.5 might not be much in your country but here its equivalent to a week of public transportation.
Moreover, I think he's rooting for fees proportional to average country income which I think is a great idea. Platforms such as steam enforce a similar policy and believe me when I say it could actually raise chess.com profits. It's called price discrimination and the main idea is to catch most of the demand. 

The site already has a regional based pricing model for some regions.

There is some called plastic money and it usually verifies all your personal information. Of course there are ways to trick the system but i find quite hard for someone with money to incur the inconvenience for a $1 ,$2 or $5 discount.

I might be mistaken but in my region the pricing is the same as any other

I didn't say it was everywhere, just that some areas do have different pricing.

Yea, will localized pricing be available for others?

Unfortunately even if they agreed to this it would be impossible to implement because its too easy to use a VPN which many people would certainly use to get the best price.