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Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

bigtechnology.substack.com

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Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#61

Post by chomp »

Aissen wrote: post #28
fhrow4484 wrote: post #4

> Jeff Bezos, this one’s for you. This provision aims at Amazon’s practice of using data it collects from third-party merchants to enhance its own private label offerings. If it passes, the practice would be blatantly illegal. Would it equally apply to physical stores like Safeway, Kroger, Costco's private labels like "Private Selection", "Simple Truth", "Kirkland", ... What makes Amazon different in this regard? Is…

The only difference is this: > ‘covered platforms’ (companies that have a half-million monthly U.S. users and more than $600 billion in market cap) There are only 8 companies in the world that match the market cap. Probably 6 if you add "users": Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and probably Tencent.

Seems like they set a high market cap to carve out head room for Walmart.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#62

Post by officialjunk »

Jaygles wrote: post #43
fhrow4484 wrote: post #4

> Jeff Bezos, this one’s for you. This provision aims at Amazon’s practice of using data it collects from third-party merchants to enhance its own private label offerings. If it passes, the practice would be blatantly illegal. Would it equally apply to physical stores like Safeway, Kroger, Costco's private labels like "Private Selection", "Simple Truth", "Kirkland", ... What makes Amazon different in this regard? Is…

Another difference between Amazon and physical stores is that Amazon has pagination. If a product ends up on the second or third page, it will likely not be seen by the vast majority of customers. With physical stores, your options are always all right in front of you.

there is an analogous experience at physical stores, though. the proximity of items to entryways, cashiers, etc matters for sales. also, which height shelf a product is put on also matters. some at eye level, for example, and others at children's eye level, make certain products more prominent. if you are trying to place a product at a store, how much it would cost you depends greatly on where in the store it is placed.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#63

Post by dave5104 »

akiselev wrote: post #35
newsclues wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grocery retail is much more complicated. They may charge shelf space rent.

They take on the vast majority of the inventory risk, which is the fundamental detail everyone seems to miss. They own what they sell. The complications come from trying to manage that risk - manufacturers who have better products or marketing can afford to pay for prime shelf space which also means it'll move faster.

I don't believe this is true in all cases. Maybe for some products, but at least other commenters here are confirming that some manufacturers refund the grocer for any unsold product. (So, Safeway only pays for the inventory that gets sold.) Seems risk-free for grocers on the products they have those sorts of deals with.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#64

Post by legitster »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #34

What if the FAANG companies were paying taxes like ordinary businesses do, wouldn't this be enough to fund free medical services for every US resident?

Most businesses don't pay corporate income tax. Income is passed through to the owners/partners and it shows up on their person income. C-Corps (where corporate income is separate and taxable) account for only 5% of businesses in the US.

Also, the Medicare for All proposal (which seems to have gotten the furthest) would require ~ $4-5 trillion dollars a year. Completely taking Amazon for all it's worth would fund it for 1/3 of a year.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#65

Post by [deleted] »

ab_testing wrote: post #50
Aissen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only difference is this: > ‘covered platforms’ (companies that have a half-million monthly U.S. users and more than $600 billion in market cap) There are only 8 companies in the world that match the market cap. Probably 6 if you add "users": Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and probably Tencent.

600B seems like a totally arbitrary made up number to target Amazon but leave out Walmart (which is close to 400B). Looks like Walmart lobbying dollars are bearing fruit.

[deleted]

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#66

Post by elliekelly »

rootusrootus wrote: post #37
klodolph wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that a supermarket buys products wholesale and then puts them on shelves for customers to buy, you don't understand how supermarkets work.

> you don't understand how supermarkets work. Agreed ;-). That's why I hang out on HN, hoping to gain some insight and knowledge. The customer->FBA->merchant relationship is much clearer than in any supermarket I've been in. Maybe I'm really buying from a third party and the supermarket is just acting as the fulfillment center and payment processor, but it is well hidden. I'd love to know more about how the business…

Grocery stores are retailers in the traditional sense rather than a consignment shop or marketplace like Amazon. I think the person you’re replying to is alluding to “slotting fees” for new products and perhaps the more controversial “pay to stay” fees which are far more secretive and, from my understanding, are more of a grey area. Technically I believe the “fee” is considered a type of advertising expense: https://home.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2015/04/revenue-leafl...

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#67

Post by dannyr »

fhrow4484 wrote: post #4

> Jeff Bezos, this one’s for you. This provision aims at Amazon’s practice of using data it collects from third-party merchants to enhance its own private label offerings. If it passes, the practice would be blatantly illegal. Would it equally apply to physical stores like Safeway, Kroger, Costco's private labels like "Private Selection", "Simple Truth", "Kirkland", ... What makes Amazon different in this regard? Is…

It's the scale!

A lot of things that Big Tech is doing is usually fine if you're a company with a small market share.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#68

Post by shkkmo »

tschellenbach wrote: post #48

I spoke to a commission of congressman about this topic. (they wanted to talk to small startups). It seems really difficult to effectively regulate this. - acquisitions are part of what make the startup ecosystem work. It's not at all clear which acquisitions you should block - the bundling approach that google uses makes things like android free - you dont want apps on iOS and android running their own payment infra…

You don't think that the huge start up acquisitions market has a negative distorting effect on tech entrepreneurship and innovation? I feel like it prioritizes growth at any cost and deprioritizes the disruption of the established tech players.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#69

Post by SllX »

tschellenbach wrote: post #48

I spoke to a commission of congressman about this topic. (they wanted to talk to small startups). It seems really difficult to effectively regulate this. - acquisitions are part of what make the startup ecosystem work. It's not at all clear which acquisitions you should block - the bundling approach that google uses makes things like android free - you dont want apps on iOS and android running their own payment infra…

> There definitely needs to be regulation, but its not at all easy to see what shape it should take.

How do you draw the conclusion that there definitely needs to be regulation if you have no idea what you would be regulating?

Everything about this pan-societal debate has been disappointing because it boils down to: “how do we draw up Bills of Attainder without calling them that and without completely wiping out the free flow of money and capital in the Valley?”

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#70

Post by noboostforyou »

Jaygles wrote: post #43
fhrow4484 wrote: post #4

> Jeff Bezos, this one’s for you. This provision aims at Amazon’s practice of using data it collects from third-party merchants to enhance its own private label offerings. If it passes, the practice would be blatantly illegal. Would it equally apply to physical stores like Safeway, Kroger, Costco's private labels like "Private Selection", "Simple Truth", "Kirkland", ... What makes Amazon different in this regard? Is…

Another difference between Amazon and physical stores is that Amazon has pagination. If a product ends up on the second or third page, it will likely not be seen by the vast majority of customers. With physical stores, your options are always all right in front of you.

Physical placement within a store makes a difference* and it's something that stores will manipulate to negotiate deals with sellers.

* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2741065/

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