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Has Amazon become a monopoly?

D

Deleted50669

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Amazon reportedly controls 50 percent of online commerce, which means half of all purchases made online in America, which is obscene.

This is crazy. Add to that 83% (2017 data, it's probably even higher now) in ebook sales and it's extremely hard to run a business without being at least partly exposed to Amazon.
 
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The scary part is imagining if Amazon banned you, including any website that ran AWS. That could turn your life upside down and immediately transport you back to 1980.

The could take away your business.
Your internet.
Your media.
Your ability to consume needed goods.

That's FN power, too much power.
 
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Deleted50669

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The scary part is imagining if Amazon banned you, including any website that ran AWS. That could turn your life upside down and immediately transport you back to 1980.

The could take away your business.
Your internet.
Your media.
Your ability to consume needed goods.

That's FN power, too much power.
Yea, people should definitely be afraid of AWS. I'm trying to avoid it in my app for all considerations.
 

Kruiser

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Part of the challenge is that "monopoly" doesn't mean "really really big company I don't like," but is a technical term of art. From what I recall, monopoly and anticompetitive practices need to be analyzed in the context of very specific and narrowly defined markets.

Amazon is in a ton of separate and distinct markets now. I think monopoly/anti-competetive practices would need to be proven in each distinct market. The feds take forever to bring antitrust actions and those cases drag on endlessly. I recall that the case against Microsoft bundling of Internet Explorer and Windows was still being fought 10 years after the technology and market had moved on.

Separately, I was searching for some organic coffee kcups on Amazon a few days ago. I was surprised to see that Amazon itself was offering its own organic kcups, co-branded with Keurig, at about 25% less than all the other organic coffee brands. How does a smaller coffee company compete with that?
 
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Fabio1

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Here's a graph of some countries with their top three online sellers (made by the ING Bank). As you can see, there's still a lot of growth potential for Amazon. ING_EBZ_marktaandelen_tcm162-163044.png
Hmmm, what does China and the Netherlands have in common...?
 

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Amazon is definitely a monopoly just as google has a monopoly on search advertisement but the big question is a monopoly on what? Amazon and the other tech giants have been able to avoid been slap with the antitrust law by framing them selves as a small fish in the big ocean. A good example is Google who frames themselves as "technology company" "competing" with different "competitors" on phones, self driving cars, laptops,cloud,etc... even though 84% of their revenue comes from their advertisement business.
 

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Very slimy Amazon. Competing directly with its users.

I was surprised to see that Amazon itself was offering its own organic kcups, co-branded with Keurig, at about 25% less than all the other organic coffee brands. How does a smaller coffee company compete with that?

Slimy and scummy indeed. I hope the MacKenzie-Jeff divorce goes through.

2014992c27e6291326cfd5c8b589dbb0.png


If MacKenzie has half of his Amazon shares and she decides to work there, she will probably have differing opinions on the operations and directions of the company. Hopefully there'll be an internal war within Amazon to the point of company meltdown, affecting daily operations and service gradually, with shares eventually plummeting and Bezos getting hit with losses after losses, before the whole thing wraps up in an epic "Fall Of The Empire" scene.

Bezos needs to be cut down to size.

Ok, back to work.
 
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Do I worry about Amazon? Nope.

Have I seen Mark Cuban reject a Shark Tank pitch because of Amazon competition? Nope.

Amazon is a monopoly but you shouldn't let that stop you.

The richest man in Asia isn't Chinese; he's Indian (as of June 2018) and he doesn't manufacture products. Amazon hasn't stopped him either.
 

Everyman

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Well, in Ireland, or The Rip-off-republic as some people call it, Amazon is our saviour to be honest.

We have little selection here and margins are astronomical. It's a pity they don't deliver real estate and motor insurance for the Irish market too..... maybe some day...

But as for any monopoly.

I wonder if they are going to crush the competition and then raise the prices (see broadband companies or any other monopolies).

I don't think so personally as big companies have one huge disadvantage.

They are big, slow and every decent small company will be able to outmanoeuvre them with a little effort. The only way keeping big companies afloat is bribing and corrupting 'the system', but that's for another story... (see the number of licences you need to start a business in any industry and then you will know how corrupted it has been - retail is not one of them... yet... e.g. you need to crash 1000s of cars to 'test' them before they are 'consider' safe, so imagine the Wright brothers operating in this environment, or Mr Daimler or Mr Benz, there were no licences then...)...
 
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B. Cole

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Can’t be Amazon and Walmart at the same time. They will run their own customers out of business, trading their entrepreneurs in for consumers.

Plot twist - Alibaba acquires Amazon. Turns it back into an e-commerce platform with no slimy private labeling of its own, and begins heavily developing it as an import/export channel for all manufacturers.

Acquires ThomasNet, Maker’s Row, Shopify, etc., top to bottom monopoly on anything in the global B2B market. Suddenly you can go there and find any factory - America, Europe, Africa, anywhere. Product development resources, design and marketing. Funding and investment channels, “Kickstarter” campaigns, they manage inventory and distribution. Heck, might as well acquire DHL or UPS and control their own shipping. Everything commerce related in one place.

Too big? Too messy and diversified?
 
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100ToOne

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Could it be that the U.S government are the ones behind making companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google etc. this huge in order to dominate worldwide industries?

I mean look at what happened to Huawei in recent news, they're literally butchering the company as hard as they can. Why? Because they spy for the Chinese...oh really? I don't deny that claim looking as to how the Chinese government operates....but is the U.S government any better? Hell no, they are the masters at this shit.

Obviously all this talk I wrote here has no evidence or proof it's just an opinion
 

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Could it be that the U.S government are the ones behind making companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google etc. this huge in order to dominate worldwide industries?

I mean look at what happened to Huawei in recent news, they're literally butchering the company as hard as they can. Why? Because they spy for the Chinese...oh really? I don't deny that claim looking as to how the Chinese government operates....but is the U.S government any better? Hell no, they are the masters at this sh*t.

Obviously all this talk I wrote here has no evidence or proof it's just an opinion

This falls into the realm of unpopular opinion, but it's entirely possible.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Separately, I was searching for some organic coffee kcups on Amazon a few days ago. I was surprised to see that Amazon itself was offering its own organic kcups, co-branded with Keurig, at about 25% less than all the other organic coffee brands. How does a smaller coffee company compete with that?

They don't. And that's the problem. They're starting to do this in many markets.

Do I worry about Amazon? Nope.

Have I seen Mark Cuban reject a Shark Tank pitch because of Amazon competition? Nope.

Amazon is a monopoly but you shouldn't let that stop you.

The richest man in Asia isn't Chinese; he's Indian (as of June 2018) and he doesn't manufacture products. Amazon hasn't stopped him either.

I worry about any public or private company that has the power to destroy a person's life, from how he eats and buys the necessities of life, to how he makes his living. We already have an entity with that type of power, it's called a government.

Of course Amazon shouldn't stop us at this moment in time, but it eventually will at its current trajectory of predatory practices.

To the victor goes the spoils, or in this case, to the victor goes to those who predict and forecast the future. And if Amazon is destroying small business and micro-entrepreneurs, then all of us should be concerned.

I fear the day where the unstated prerequisites to be an entrepreneur is a Harvard degree, millions of dollars in funding and VC backing, and an address in Silicon Valley. Because to compete with Amazon, that's what ya'll are gonna need!
 

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They don't. And that's the problem. They're starting to do this in many markets.



I worry about any public or private company that has the power to destroy a person's life, from how he eats and buys the necessities of life, to how he makes his living. We already have an entity with that type of power, it's called a government.

Of course Amazon shouldn't stop us at this moment in time, but it eventually will at its current trajectory of predatory practices.

To the victor goes the spoils, or in this case, to the victor goes to those who predict and forecast the future. And if Amazon is destroying small business and micro-entrepreneurs, then all of us should be concerned.

I fear the day where the unstated prerequisites to be an entrepreneur is a Harvard degree, millions of dollars in funding and VC backing, and an address in Silicon Valley. Because to compete with Amazon, that's what ya'll are gonna need!

I don't see the future in such dystopian terms but I agree that if you, as a business owner, don't level up - Amazon will eat you.

I was in talks with a local business that sells bath salts from 8 physical locations but NO e-commerce presence. The owner said to me, and I quote: "We are an experience business/product. We don't need e-commerce". I replied: "That's what every bookstore said before Amazon came along".

I give his business 2 or 3 years tops to survive before A) Amazon eats him or B) his competition dominates the ecomms space.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I remember @Vigilante mentioning this some time ago...


And if you can't see behind the PayWall, here's another link...


Amazon sucks.
 
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Sethamus

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^^^ Which is why I am skeptical launching my first product at this point (excuse I know). However another business I am researching l, which could be one of those golden gum balls, is potentially fantastic without Jeff involved or could even be bought out by Jeff if the full potential was seen in a certain direction. Still working on everything, the need is there though.
 

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What matters more, the mom and pop shops? Or the consumer.

Consumers benefit, mom and pop stores go out of business. Survival of the fittest.

I say keep up with the times. I know plenty of shops making a killing on Amazon.

Furthermore, the same people who own the mom and pop stores are ordering things from Amazon as well.

People are voting with their dollars and the results are in.

But Amazon needs to work to make sure both their customers or sellers are happy. If either one of those are disrupted it could lead to either party taking their business elsewhere.
 

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The fact that they even have a term for it "going over the fence"
 
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Amazon isn't a business (unless you're Jeff Bezos or its shareholders). Its a sales channel so I'm not worried about it.

Sure its big but they suck at a lot of things that I can exploit and do across my businesses.
 

Bobby_italy

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Amazon isn't a business (unless you're Jeff Bezos or its shareholders). Its a sales channel so I'm not worried about it.

Sure its big but they suck at a lot of things that I can exploit and do across my businesses.
Hey man I read a good chunk of your threads in the past, are you ever worried that you'll wake up one day and amazon has copied your products while unreasonably banned you for some shady reason?
I read a ton of horror stories that make me feel so small in front of this giant, from people getting their products ripped to amazon blocking them with no warnings.

I mean you can still sell on your website but we all know literally everyone goes to amazon nowadays, me personally I don't even use google search when I have to buy something and I just search it on amazon, I don't care if I could save 2€ when I literally get my stuff delivered in a day and can return whatever isn't up to expectations or has any sort of problem.
 

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I remember @Vigilante mentioning this some time ago...


And if you can't see behind the PayWall, here's another link...


Amazon sucks.

I think we already knew that this was happening 2-3 years ago. I don't see a distinction here, because it's fairly easy for any Amazon employee to use a service like Jungle Sct to figure out which product is selling alot. You don't need to be an INSIDERS at Amazon to figure that out. It's practically public.

However, if the Amazon employee used supplier documents to find their cost and factory, then I could see this thing carrying alot of weight in court.
 
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Sanj Modha

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Hey man I read a good chunk of your threads in the past, are you ever worried that you'll wake up one day and amazon has copied your products while unreasonably banned you for some shady reason?
I read a ton of horror stories that make me feel so small in front of this giant, from people getting their products ripped to amazon blocking them with no warnings.

I mean you can still sell on your website but we all know literally everyone goes to amazon nowadays, me personally I don't even use google search when I have to buy something and I just search it on amazon, I don't care if I could save 2€ when I literally get my stuff delivered in a day and can return whatever isn't up to expectations or has any sort of problem.

I no longer sell on Amazon and I don't worry about them for many reasons. Here's what I can do that Amazon can't/won't:

1 - They don't run FB ads.

2 - There's no live chat or a telephone number for customer service.

3 - They're not the cheapest, that's a myth. I know guys who arbitrage off Amazon: they buy and sell using proprietary software and its 100% automated.

4 - Engage on social media and build a relationship with their customers: Amazon is faceless, we're not. We run Snapchat and Instagram Stories contests with our followers, we ask them questions, we make buying from us 'personal'.

5 - Turn your business into an 'experience'. This is more for offline stores and this is exactly how bookstores fought back. They opened coffee shops, hired authors to speak and sign books etc. Amazon can't give you an 'experience' and that's how I believe the future of retail will look - we won't be competing on price or shipping times.

My point is - focus on the things your business can do vs what it can't. Amazon is a cruise ship - you are a jet ski and that's your advantage.
 

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One thing I don't get about Bezos is why doesn't he just take like 5-10 billion dollars, think about how he can do maximum public good (in a way that the public knows it) and then he can keep going with his monopoly.

What got you here won't get you there, I think Amazon will likely face some sort of consequence, but it's up to Bezos how the public perceives him.

Personally I see him as someone who is aggregating information and goods at the highest rate and lowest cost, so I think he is awesome.
 
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Sanj Modha

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One thing I don't get about Bezos is why doesn't he just take like 5-10 billion dollars, think about how he can do maximum public good (in a way that the public knows it) and then he can keep going with his monopoly.

What got you here won't get you there, I think Amazon will likely face some sort of consequence, but it's up to Bezos how the public perceives him.

Personally I see him as someone who is aggregating information and goods at the highest rate and lowest cost, so I think he is awesome.

Because he doesn't have 5-10 billion dollars in liquid cash. Its tied up in stock and the board/market wouldn't let him sell that much anyway. Amazon stock would crash if he did.
 

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2 - There's no live chat or a telephone number for customer service.
When is the last time you contacted their customer support?
Their customer service is absolutely INCREDIBLE.

They will call you within seconds if you ask, or they will handle your issue INSTANTLY via chat.
They will always offer to credit you money back or Amazon gift card, whichever you prefer.

Their customer service is phenomenal- I truly believe their policy is to give the customer whatever they ask for- and make it go away as fast as humanly possible.

I order from Amazon 2-3 times a day. Smh
I am swearing it off for the next 90 days. I will not order from amazon!!!
 

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