Amazon has been pretty direct about some of these brands being theirs, like Happy Belly was on their box tape a few months ago.
Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
31–40 of 100 posts
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never understood the outrage behind referral links. If somebody is linking to Amazon and users start shopping, why is it so bad that they get a slice of the pie?
But now it looks like the article only exists to get people to click Amazon links, and not because there's any actual news.
Are those polar opposites?
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#33What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
I don't understand this kind of callous judgement of writers trying to make money. We don't see judgement here for the Amazon engineers that wrote the ref system, or Amazon for, well, selling product. I find it frustrating - somehow the writer has no integrity because they want money for their work?
What, to you, would have been an acceptable way for this writer to present their research? Raw data handed to the internet on a silver platter as they bow out of the room and fund a server to allow us to access it?
I disagree that the article is clickBAIT. I agree that the writer picked a title that would garner clicks, and then they gave us some interesting (to me) research. It wasn't holistic, it doesn't tell us EVERYTHING about Amazon, no, but it gave me enough to Google if I'm more interested.
And if they're gonna link to Amazon products anyway, why wouldn't they use referral links? Are we going to lambast someone for seeing a harmless way to make some change and taking advantage of it?
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#34What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
I don't understand this kind of callous judgement of writers trying to make money. We don't see judgement here for the Amazon engineers that wrote the ref system, or Amazon for, well, selling product. I find it frustrating - somehow the writer has no integrity because they want money for their work? What, to you, would have been an acceptable way for this writer to present their research? Raw data handed to the inter…
> somehow the writer has no integrity because they want money for their work?
Writers job is writing article, spread news and knowledge, and make money.
If you write ads and claims it an article or news, you loss your integrity?
Does this sound reasonable to you?
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
But now it looks like the article only exists to get people to click Amazon links, and not because there's any actual news.
Are those polar opposites?
No, it's just not a good look for a news organization to have content so entangled with income, especially if they don't even mention it. I think http://thewirecutter.com/ does a good job, and they're also way more open about the fact that the site is covered in affiliate links.
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#36What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
I have never seen Quartz's CMS, but it's likely adding those referral trackers to any Amazon link in any article.
Source: have worked for a few online-native magazines and seen this feature multiple times
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
But now it looks like the article only exists to get people to click Amazon links, and not because there's any actual news.
Are those polar opposites?
At its heart, it is a conflict of interest and a clear violation of traditional journalistic ethics. At the very least, it is contrary to what one might assume to be a societal norm. Once one is aware of what they're doing, one feels taken advantage of and that is simply not acceptable.
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#38What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
[deleted]
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#39What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
I don't know, it's not the story of the century, but I found it interesting and clicked around most of the links to the Amazon brands. And only among Internet nerds are affiliate links seen as sleazy.
Re: Amazon owns a whole collection of secret brands
#40What's funny about this article is: 1. It's obvious clickbait - "secret" brands - how salacious! Yeah, as though a company wants to keep things it sells secret. 2. Each time you click on a link from the Quartz article, you are given a url with a link tracker tag. For example, for the Arabella brand, you get: 16352060011?tag=quartz07-20 So basically someone sat there behind a computer, authoring an article while using…
I don't know, it's not the story of the century, but I found it interesting and clicked around most of the links to the Amazon brands. And only among Internet nerds are affiliate links seen as sleazy.
> And only among Internet nerds are affiliate links seen as sleazy.
Given the subject matter of the article, that may be an unwarranted assumption.