11–20 of 57 posts
Note the scale here: Conspirators paid $100k in bribes. "Products and merchants earned in excess of $100 million in sales revenue." I haven't heard the job titles of the amazon employees yet, but presumably these are not very senior people. In terms of corruption dynamics, Amazon is now like a planning authority where a friendly official can rubber stamp a large fortune into a real estate developer's pocket. Also not…
If the market supplied by Amazon was instead supplied by 10 smaller companies, the attack surface would be higher but the impact would be lower, right?
Feels like large corporations could be seen as a national security risk (and not just “guns and ammo” security but “economic stability” security)
Note the scale here: Conspirators paid $100k in bribes. "Products and merchants earned in excess of $100 million in sales revenue." I haven't heard the job titles of the amazon employees yet, but presumably these are not very senior people. In terms of corruption dynamics, Amazon is now like a planning authority where a friendly official can rubber stamp a large fortune into a real estate developer's pocket. Also not…
To a certain extent Amazon's dominance has also directly led to the Web being filled with listicles. It's much easier to write up a list of "recommended" products when all of your referral links can point to Amazon, which is a trusted source of ecommerce for a majority of Americans. It would be much harder for listicles to be as profitable if consumers had 10+ Amazons to choose from when doing their online shopping.
Note the scale here: Conspirators paid $100k in bribes. "Products and merchants earned in excess of $100 million in sales revenue." I haven't heard the job titles of the amazon employees yet, but presumably these are not very senior people. In terms of corruption dynamics, Amazon is now like a planning authority where a friendly official can rubber stamp a large fortune into a real estate developer's pocket. Also not…
I was thinking this, $100k for taking on that level of risk?
Do large companies basically create an “eggs all in one basket” risk? If the market supplied by Amazon was instead supplied by 10 smaller companies, the attack surface would be higher but the impact would be lower, right? Feels like large corporations could be seen as a national security risk (and not just “guns and ammo” security but “economic stability” security)
The barrier to entry for retail is very low, and reflected in the low profit margins.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon is a soviet union cybernetics wet dream. Jokes side: Do you see society coming to realize that a similar system can actually implement a planned economy for real?
Who takes the hit when the demand projections are off?
> A man goes into a shop and asks: “You don’t have any meat?” “No,” replies the lady, “We don’t have any fish, it’s the shop next door that doesn’t have meat.”
Under the new system, the man wouldn’t have to bounce from store-to-store. There would be one convenient online shop with no meat AND no fish.
Do large companies basically create an “eggs all in one basket” risk? If the market supplied by Amazon was instead supplied by 10 smaller companies, the attack surface would be higher but the impact would be lower, right? Feels like large corporations could be seen as a national security risk (and not just “guns and ammo” security but “economic stability” security)
Amazon already has many competitors for their retail business. Costco, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath Beyond, Walmart, eBay, Overstock, Wayfair, Aliexpress, etc. The barrier to entry for retail is very low, and reflected in the low profit margins.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was thinking this, $100k for taking on that level of risk?
It's amazing what a disgruntled employee will do, and how little it takes to make them do it.
I wanted to do a website called "Ransom Rewards" allowing you to sign up to ransomware your own employer and you could set your own price to pick up data for a research paper but it was considered unethical to even imply you could get paid to fuck over your employer :(
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon already has many competitors for their retail business. Costco, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath Beyond, Walmart, eBay, Overstock, Wayfair, Aliexpress, etc. The barrier to entry for retail is very low, and reflected in the low profit margins.
Part of me wants to believe this comment is satire, but the better part of me knows this is HN, so conceivably someone would call the barrier to entry for competing with Amazon's retail unit "very low"
Competing against Amazon's scale is tough as it would be a huge challenge to be able to offer next day shipping for free anywhere in the US, but you can add value other places.
Note the scale here: Conspirators paid $100k in bribes. "Products and merchants earned in excess of $100 million in sales revenue." I haven't heard the job titles of the amazon employees yet, but presumably these are not very senior people. In terms of corruption dynamics, Amazon is now like a planning authority where a friendly official can rubber stamp a large fortune into a real estate developer's pocket. Also not…
This is not always unethical, we exclusively hire former AdWords account mangers for our sem team. This primarily done for branding and reducing the recruitment cost.