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FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

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Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#101

Post by lvl102 »

jollofricepeas wrote: post #52

FBA seller here. A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power is felt big time by us as we’re being squeezed with no place left to go online especially post-iOS change. Our second option used to be the Facebook/Instagram/TikTok to Shopify connection but with that being dead…

Not to be rude but you made millions on the backs of Amazon. Now you’re complaining that you have competition.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#102

Post by dartos »

taeric wrote: post #68
j_maffe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS5 doesn't have a monopoly over the console market, Amazon does.

Sony almost certainly has more marketshare of the console market than Amazon does of anything. The numbers that came out for sales of XBox were... sobering for how badly Microsoft is throwing cash to stay in the game.

So with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo: Sony has about 50% market share and Microsoft and Nintendo have about 25.

That’s a very different (I’d argue healthier) world than online retailers where Amazon has like 36% but the next largest (Walmart) is like 6%.

You need to weigh the market share against the number of players in the space.

Also that’s not to mention how all 3 major game console players have some kind of moat or walled garden (exclusives.)

Most online retailers are basically interchangeable, but Amazon is still the single largest player by far at 36%

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#103

Post by Uvix »

my123 wrote: post #37
criddell wrote: post #5

I wish they would add ebook DRM to the list. Amazon has essentially locked the Kindle so that it can only purchase from Amazon and Amazon ebooks can only be used on the Kindle. On top of that, they offer no way of transferring ebooks and, AFAIK, offer no way to remove DRM after a work enters the public domain.

(disclaimer: Amazon employee) For that one, it's mandated by publishers. There's nothing that can be done for e-readers from vendors that don't support third-party applications. Amazon e-books are accessible on Android and other platforms in addition to Kindle devices. Kindle is also not locked to only ebooks from Amazon, but third-party DRM schemes are not supported. Calibre for example comes with good tooling for t…

The same was true for music once upon a time, but that didn't stop Apple from negotiating for DRM-free with the publishers.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#104

Post by callalex »

my123 wrote: post #37
criddell wrote: post #5

I wish they would add ebook DRM to the list. Amazon has essentially locked the Kindle so that it can only purchase from Amazon and Amazon ebooks can only be used on the Kindle. On top of that, they offer no way of transferring ebooks and, AFAIK, offer no way to remove DRM after a work enters the public domain.

(disclaimer: Amazon employee) For that one, it's mandated by publishers. There's nothing that can be done for e-readers from vendors that don't support third-party applications. Amazon e-books are accessible on Android and other platforms in addition to Kindle devices. Kindle is also not locked to only ebooks from Amazon, but third-party DRM schemes are not supported. Calibre for example comes with good tooling for t…

Amazon could leverage their market power to benefit the consumer like Apple did when they eliminated music DRM.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#106

Post by autoexec »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #76
wordsarelies wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going to come out that Amazon calls the manufacturers for their basics goods, sends them the leading competing item and has them make it with slightly less expensive components to undercut the cost of the competitor. It's so blatantly obvious if you've ever done a side by side in things like lamps, backpacks etc and other super simple designs.

Walmart has been doing that for decades. And they probably were not the first. It is not a novel strategy.

And Walmart has been repeatedly sued for doing it, just like Amazon is being sued now.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#107

Post by loldk »

catiopatio wrote: post #84
jollofricepeas wrote: post #52

FBA seller here. A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power is felt big time by us as we’re being squeezed with no place left to go online especially post-iOS change. Our second option used to be the Facebook/Instagram/TikTok to Shopify connection but with that being dead…

> post-iOS change What is the iOS change you’re referring to?

[dead]

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#108

Post by travoc »

jlmorton wrote: post #98
travoc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grocery stores are not a monopoly.

Pretty close! Albertsons owns: Acme Markets, Safeway, Haggen, Jewel-Osco, Kings, Pavilions, Plated, Randalls, Shaw's, Tom Thumb, United Supermarkets, and Vons Kroger owns: Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co., Fred Meyer, Fry's, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, JayC, King Soopers, Kroger, Mariano's, Metro Market, Pay Less, Pick 'n Save, QFC, Ralphs, Ruler Foods, Smith's And now Albertsons and Kroger are mergin…

Not even close. Combining all those brands results in a 13.5% market share.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#109

Post by likpok »

catiopatio wrote: post #84
jollofricepeas wrote: post #52

FBA seller here. A lot of mom and pop businesses (~$20 million) have been built on Amazon over the past 10 years. Most of us are in the $250k to $5 million dollar range. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power is felt big time by us as we’re being squeezed with no place left to go online especially post-iOS change. Our second option used to be the Facebook/Instagram/TikTok to Shopify connection but with that being dead…

> post-iOS change What is the iOS change you’re referring to?

ATT, where apple hobbled other ad networks running on iOS. It used to be that DTC companies could use the fine-grained targeting offered by FB and Google to reach consumers without needing to go through a major distributor. Since the targeting is much less effective it's more expensive (potentially uneconomically so) to reach people. As a result, sellers are forced back to Amazon.

Re: FTC sues Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power

#110

Post by dragonwriter »

jlmorton wrote: post #98
travoc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grocery stores are not a monopoly.

Pretty close! Albertsons owns: Acme Markets, Safeway, Haggen, Jewel-Osco, Kings, Pavilions, Plated, Randalls, Shaw's, Tom Thumb, United Supermarkets, and Vons Kroger owns: Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co., Fred Meyer, Fry's, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, JayC, King Soopers, Kroger, Mariano's, Metro Market, Pay Less, Pick 'n Save, QFC, Ralphs, Ruler Foods, Smith's And now Albertsons and Kroger are mergin…

> And now Albertsons and Kroger are merging together into one gigantic holy-shit mega corp.

Well, they want to, but its quite likely that the FTC will prevent or force major changes to that.

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