in this market. Our focus on our monthly product subscription programs, growth in our nutrition business, and the BioPho- tonic Scanner contributed to the revenue increases in Malaysia and Singapore. The revenue increases in these markets were  slightly offset by a decrease in revenue in combined Australia/New Zealand.  We anticipate that, in connection with our planned opening of the Indonesian market in  2005 , some of our distributors  in our other South Asia/Pacific and Greater China markets may focus some of their energies on this new market. We expect  this could have some negative impact on these markets during  2005 . Other Markets.  The following table sets forth revenue for our Other Markets: The  16 % increase in Other Markets was primarily due to a  14 % increase in revenue in Europe, which was mostly  attributed to the favorable impact of foreign currency fluctuations in  2004  compared to  2003 . We experienced higher  local currency growth in Europe during the second half of  2004 , and in  2004  active distributors and executive dis- tributors grew  25 % and  17 %, respectively over  2003 . Although our Latin America business accounts for a small part of  our business, we are making efforts to grow our business there as well as in other developing countries around the world.  As a result of these efforts, revenue in Mexico was up  54 % in local currency in  2004  compared to  2003 , and the execu- tive distributor count grew by  149 %. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue increased to  83 . 2 % in  2004  compared to  82 . 1 % in  2003 . Our gross profit was  positively impacted by the shift away from low margin Big Planet revenue to higher margin Nu Skin and Pharmanex prod- ucts, strong gross margins in China resulting from in-house manufacturing in that market, and the positive impact of fluc- tuations in foreign currency exchange rates in  2004  compared to  2003 . During  2004 , we continued to expand the  BioPhotonic Scanner program in the United States and in our international markets. Lease revenue from BioPhotonic  Scanners has significantly lower margins than our personal care and nutritional supplement products, as we lease them on  essentially a break-even basis. We expect gross margins to be slightly lower in  2005  compared to  2004  as a result of our  expansion of the BioPhotonic Scanner program this year. Selling expenses as a percentage of revenue increased to  42 . 9 % in  2004  from  41 . 3 % in  2003 . Selling expenses increased  to $ 487 . 6  million in  2004  from $ 407 . 1  million in  2003 . The increase in selling expenses as a percentage of revenue is due  in part to higher costs associated with our employed sales representatives in China. We currently pay approximately  8 %  to  10 % of local revenue in additional labor costs, including unemployment and benefits to our sales representatives in  China. The increase in selling expenses as a percent of revenue was also due to a short-term increase in distributor incen- tives in Japan in the fourth quarter of  2004 . This increase in incentives resulted from the implementation of new components  to our compensation plan in this market while certain existing components were transitioned out over several months.  Completion of this transition will positively impact selling expenses as a percentage of revenue going forward. We expect  selling expenses as a percentage of revenue to be slightly lower in  2005  compared to  2004 , due in part also to our continued  expansion of the BioPhotonic Scanner program, as no commissions are paid on the lease revenue from these machines.  General and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased slightly to  29 . 3 % in  2004  from  29 . 4 % in  2003 .  General and administrative expenses increased to $ 333 . 3  million in  2004  from $ 289 . 9  million in  2003 . The U.S. dollar  increase during  2004  in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to the incremental costs associated with  significantly larger retail operations in China versus the prior year, stronger foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar, and  higher distributor convention expenses. We anticipate incurring expenses of approximately $ 6 . 5  million in  2005  for our  global distributor convention versus $ 10 . 5  million in  2004  relating to our global distributor convention and Japan dis- tributor convention. General and administrative expenses will also be negatively impacted in  2005  by new accounting rules  requiring us to begin expensing stock-based compensation granted to employees starting in the third quarter of  2005 . Had  Gross profit Selling expenses General and administrative expenses 41 2003 2004 Change (U.S. dollars in millions) Europe $  32 . 0 $  36 . 6 14% Latin America 2 . 8 3 . 9 39% Other Markets total $  34 . 8 $  40 . 5 16%