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Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

politico.eu

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Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#21

Post by mk89 »

Well, it's something that is slowly backfiring. It's under the eyes of everyone, and not enforcing such policy will only make it even worse for Amazon itself that eventually will end up selling only non-branded products. Finally it will be only another e-commerce like "ebay" used to be, and something else will replace it. Just enjoy the ride until you can.

PS: speaking out of experience, I had one time a talk to a director from an important online shop (top 3 in the country in that specific field) and "this sort of things" was exactly the reason why they chose to use MS Azure instead of AWS. Imagine how deep it can go. And I totally support that.

PPS: I don't understand the downvote. Please, be specific on why you disagree instead of just clicking on random symbols.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#22

Post by spaceribs »

jpxw wrote: post #13
spaceribs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon has issues, but "nationalizing" it would not ease those issues in fact in most ways it would make them worse. Change my mind then? What would be worse in that situation?

When was the last time you used government-run software? Was it a good experience?

Yes actually, I recently signed up for my vaccination online via the GoVAX system, was flawless and painless: https://massvax.maryland.gov/

I've used plenty of for-profit software that did essentially the same thing but which fell flat on it's face in terms of UI/UX.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#23

Post by rualca »

jpxw wrote: post #12
spaceribs wrote: post #2

Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.

For one, large government software projects are almost always disastrous, even in developed countries. Secondly, that isn’t what sellers want. Many sellers use Amazon to fulfill their orders. Amazon is far more than just a “market stall”.

> Secondly, that isn’t what sellers want. Many sellers use Amazon to fulfill their orders. Amazon is far more than just a “market stall”.

This.

Amazon is basically a huge logistics network. Their business is not selling you products, whether from their own generic brands, from high-end Veblen goods companies like Apple or from cheap chinese dropship artists. Their business is to process payment, and get that package delivered to your front door. To Amazon, their products is just a way to generate output through their logistics network.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#24

Post by bryanrasmussen »

amelius wrote: post #10
spaceribs wrote: post #2

Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.

Stallman said it too: https://stallman.org/amazon.html > We should not allow a company to have a share over around 10% of any market. If in a certain field a single dominant company is beneficial for society, that means it is a natural monopoly, and should be served by a regulated utility.

either that or the market is a really small specialized market.

on edit: to forestall anyone suggesting I think Amazon has a small market, no, just the Stallman quote doesn't take into account that monopoly can arise in a relatively small market that people would not consider worth nationalizing.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#25

Post by smhost »

AbrahamParangi wrote: post #19
spaceribs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon has issues, but "nationalizing" it would not ease those issues in fact in most ways it would make them worse. Change my mind then? What would be worse in that situation?

Interop requirements may serve better than direct government control. At the very least, it’s worth being clear eyed with respect to the quality of government run services. What would be necessary for the government to run a service like Amazon successfully? Is our government today capable of doing such a thing? I think the answer is clearly no.

> What would be necessary for the government to run a service like Amazon successfully?

Anti-corruption measures to stop politicians from sabotaging those services. E.g., USPS.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#26

Post by rualca »

spaceribs wrote: post #7
syshum wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I am going to go ahead and say No to that.... Amazon has issues, but "nationalizing" it would not ease those issues in fact in most ways it would make them worse.

> Amazon has issues, but "nationalizing" it would not ease those issues in fact in most ways it would make them worse. Change my mind then? What would be worse in that situation?

> What would be worse in that situation?

It would be by far worse to not have Amazon, or dump their market share to shady chinese competitors like ali express.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#27

Post by ceejayoz »

jpxw wrote: post #12
spaceribs wrote: post #2

Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.

For one, large government software projects are almost always disastrous, even in developed countries. Secondly, that isn’t what sellers want. Many sellers use Amazon to fulfill their orders. Amazon is far more than just a “market stall”.

> For one, large government software projects are almost always disastrous, even in developed countries.

The same tends to be true for large corporate software projects.

As a fairly recent example: https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/23/hertz_accenture_lawsu...

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#28

Post by mk89 »

spaceribs wrote: post #2

Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.

I disagree. There are more and more services providing logistics, delivery, payments, etc. And they are quite reliable. Just 2 years ago I was entirely relying on Amazon as a good ecommerce. As of 2020/2021, to be honest, there is nearly no difference with some individual retailers (which don't use a 3rd party platform to sell their goods like Amazon or Ebay). Lots of websites have improved, logistics, delivery, customer service, payments, ..etc etc. They key, in my opinion, was the logistics + delivery. That's what Amazon was exceptionally good at. Now that the infrastructure is nearly the same for everyone, why would you share your profits with Amazon and risk to be out of the business in 1-2 years?

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#29

Post by jfrunyon »

jpxw wrote: post #13
spaceribs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon has issues, but "nationalizing" it would not ease those issues in fact in most ways it would make them worse. Change my mind then? What would be worse in that situation?

When was the last time you used government-run software? Was it a good experience?

All the time. Yes. I've also had bad experiences with plenty of private companies.

Re: Amazon knew seller data was used to boost company sales

#30

Post by beforeolives »

amelius wrote: post #10
spaceribs wrote: post #2

Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.

Stallman said it too: https://stallman.org/amazon.html > We should not allow a company to have a share over around 10% of any market. If in a certain field a single dominant company is beneficial for society, that means it is a natural monopoly, and should be served by a regulated utility.

I don't think that Stallman agreeing adds as much credibility to the idea as you might think.
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