Linked reference 13 in the original NPR article says 6.3% of US adults have Amazon Prime, not 63%. NPR factchecking is not what is used to be.
The linked article is wrong then, not NPR. Other sources back the 2/3 number.
Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
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Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#12Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article says 40% of online shopping goes through Amazon and 2/3 of US adults have Prime. If you don't sell there, you're giving up most of your business and leaving that opportunity for another seller. It's not optional to do business with Amazon, like it would be if Amazon only owned 10% of the market (still huge!) and there were a bunch of other 10% marketplaces to turn to instead. Instead, it's just like the r…
It’s a public company. You can just buy shares if you want a piece of the monopoly.
> You can just buy shares if you want a piece of the monopoly.
Holding on to a few shares (as a regular joe), you do not have any influence on the company (re: enshittification). A monopoly that is publicly owned, does not make the situation more palatable.
Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#14Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms
Kind of difficult when they burn down your entire city
Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
The linked article is wrong then, not NPR. Other sources back the 2/3 number.
2/3 of adults do not have Amazon Prime.
Snopes seems to believe they might: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-prime-adults/
Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#16I’m really not sure what’s a good outcome here. In a way, all these sellers even got this opportunity because of Amazon. We have a pure marketplace, eBay, but that rarely moves the needle. Without Amazon these sellers would not even have started, or sold in eBay at a fraction of the volume. So, I doubt Amazon becoming a pure marketplace is a solution. My personal preference would be for Amazon to go be the single sou…
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Re: Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article says 40% of online shopping goes through Amazon and 2/3 of US adults have Prime. If you don't sell there, you're giving up most of your business and leaving that opportunity for another seller. It's not optional to do business with Amazon, like it would be if Amazon only owned 10% of the market (still huge!) and there were a bunch of other 10% marketplaces to turn to instead. Instead, it's just like the r…
It’s a public company. You can just buy shares if you want a piece of the monopoly.
That doesn't solve the problem of a monopoly whatsoever. And monopoly by definition (even in the fantasy world of Econ 101) is a market failure.