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Amazon Is a Monopoly

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Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#141

Post by __jal »

kevinsundar wrote: post #60
youeseh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyways, this is just the hip thing of today Observing that Amazon may be monopolizing isn't a new observation. When they began competing against their vendors is when they crossed the line, in my opinion. The same goes for any marketplace. It is one thing to provide your vendors the tools and information they need to operate better, but then to act on that information yourself - the operator of the marketplace - t…

Yes but EVERY retailer does this. Every single store brand product you see (Costco, Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, etc.) is a result of this. Cheaper products that meet the same demand as brand name vendor goods. In fact customers are already trained for this. I walk into a store and I immediately price compare against the store brand. So if people doing the same on Amazon, why shouldn't Amazon be allowed to fulfil…

> why shouldn't Amazon be allowed

Antitrust law used to address this. Monopolies are not allowed to do things that non-monopolies are allowed to do, because the effects of monopolies doing them are different than the effects of non-monopolies doing it.

Of course, Bork rewrote monopoly policy in a way that opens the door to exactly the sort of monopolies we now have. But it isn't as if this is some new notion invented because people hate Amazon; it used to be the rule.

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#142

Post by m463 »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #98
rb808 wrote: post #81

I think I can generalize that the problem with Amazon is similar to many of the modern tech companies in that they're super well funded and aren't expected to make a profit which allows them to undercut incumbents. Amazon can price lower than Target/Wallmart/B&N/Local Stores, lose money every year while the competition slowly dies. Uber can price lower than local taxis, lose money every year while the competition slo…

> Tesla can price lower than Ford/Toyota/Merc, lose money every year while the competition slowly dies. That was a bad example.

I think telsa is basically disruptive.

On the other hand, many years ago, I thought there was a complaint about foreign "dumping" to destroy domestic minivan production.

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#143

Post by youeseh »

indopedia wrote: post #69
youeseh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyways, this is just the hip thing of today Observing that Amazon may be monopolizing isn't a new observation. When they began competing against their vendors is when they crossed the line, in my opinion. The same goes for any marketplace. It is one thing to provide your vendors the tools and information they need to operate better, but then to act on that information yourself - the operator of the marketplace - t…

Never said it was a "new" observation. They could shut down all sellers in the Marketplace and take it on themselves. Would that suck? Yes. But is that legal for them to do? Also yes. This isn't a charity business people, we don't all own Amazon, this is some guys painstaking work remember.

Let's say you run a business. You're still supposed to abide by laws in your location of business, despite how hard you work. There are laws to protect vendors against marketplaces. They're called anti-trust laws.

Amazon is a very big business. It doesn't need your sympathy.

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#144

Post by scarface74 »

lisper wrote: post #83
rb808 wrote: post #81

I think I can generalize that the problem with Amazon is similar to many of the modern tech companies in that they're super well funded and aren't expected to make a profit which allows them to undercut incumbents. Amazon can price lower than Target/Wallmart/B&N/Local Stores, lose money every year while the competition slowly dies. Uber can price lower than local taxis, lose money every year while the competition slo…

I'm not a huge Uber fan, but in their case at least I don't think you're being entirely fair. My home airport is SFO. The official taxis there have an extremely annoying pricing policy: if your destination is more than 20 miles form the airport they add a $50 surcharge to the cost of your trip. (I live 25 miles away.) And you can't summon a cab with an app. If you're at the airport they are very convenient. If you ar…

How do you know how much Uber would cost if they had to raise their prices high enough to have a marginal profit on each ride?

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#145

Post by scarface74 »

blairanderson wrote: post #120

I run a consulting company for Amazon suppliers. We have roughly 2-dozen Amazon suppliers and our first-hand experience is that Amazon is absolutely stifling competition/business to the detriment of customer. The biggest problem is `agreements that restrain trade` is a monopoly practice that happens across the board. They're a black box AND have tiny support systems for their marketplace. One recent example. A client…

People have been complaining about basically the same thing with respect to Walmart for decades.

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#146

Post by mikeash »

scoofy wrote: post #118
mikeash wrote: post #105

I wish this elaborated more on how Amazon is a monopoly. The interviewee defines it as having the power to set prices and exclude competition. I don’t see either of those happening. There’s a ton of competition, more than enough to severely limit their ability to set prices.

You're looking at it as the customer being the people buying things off of amazon. They are in a sense, but not the sense that is important here. The the sellers on amazon are customers of their marketplace. Much like Colgate and Crest might fight over ideal shelf space in a supermarket (and be changed accordingly by the market), the sellers on amazon must pay the price to be on amazon. Amazon has the power to set pr…

There are plenty of alternatives to Amazon for sellers too. None of them are as big, but they are there.

If Amazon has the power to set prices, why are their prices the same as everyone else’s?

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#147

Post by [deleted] »

youeseh wrote: post #56
indopedia wrote: post #45

She forgets that the Amazon marketplace is made up of sellers and the prices aren't controlled by Amazon for a lot of their products. These are inherited from the distributor in most cases. Sure Amazon fulfills the orders but it's not like Walmart that controls the entire process. There is more freedom in Amazon. Anyways, this is just the hip thing of today. How about making a service better than Amazon? No that's im…

> Anyways, this is just the hip thing of today Observing that Amazon may be monopolizing isn't a new observation. When they began competing against their vendors is when they crossed the line, in my opinion. The same goes for any marketplace. It is one thing to provide your vendors the tools and information they need to operate better, but then to act on that information yourself - the operator of the marketplace - t…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#148

Post by scarface74 »

Alupis wrote: post #132
perl4ever wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Until recently, Walmart hasn't had a Marketplace" No? When exactly did they start selling large numbers of items on their website that aren't in stores?

"Marketplace" refers to 3rd parties selling on the platform. Until recently, Walmart.com was exclusively products sold by Walmart - now they let 3rd parties list and sell products too (just like Amazon).

Third parties have been selling at physical Walmart stores beside store brands for decades. The same with every drug chain.

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#149

Post by scarface74 »

bduerst wrote: post #88
Arrezz wrote: post #2

How we actually define a company to be a monopoly seems to be somewhat arbitrary? I agree that Amazon engages in anticompetitive behaviour but I'm not sure that it can control prices or exclude competition to that extent? I mean every company can affect that, at what point does it become problematic?

For years Amazon had banned Chromecast and AppleTV devices from it's entire marketplace when they competed with their Firestick device. Not only did Amazon not carry it, but Amazon also prevented third party sellers from listing the competing devices as well. That is textbook anti-competitive behavior, which is probably why Amazon finally started selling them again recently.

But aren’t you kind of making the opposite point? While Amazon wouldn’t sell AppleTVs and Chromecasts, neither Apple nor Google had any trouble reaching customers. If Amazon was a monopoly that wouldn’t be the case.

Apple also sells third party hardware on their site. Should they be forced to sell Dells besides their Macs?

Re: Amazon Is a Monopoly

#150

Post by mikeash »

Alupis wrote: post #121
mikeash wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So don’t sell on Amazon. There are tons of other options. Amazon is merely the largest, not the only.

Is that really still an option the bigger Amazon gets? At what point is it a defacto monopoly? A huge share of people shop exclusively on Amazon, particularly when compared to 10 years ago. There's no sign it'll stop growing any time soon. Choosing not to, or being prohibited from selling on Amazon effectively blocks you out of a significant share of ecommerce sales. There's no way around that.

It takes more than “a significant share.” Being excluded from Walmart blocks you from a significant share of retail sales but they’re not a monopoly.

If the argument is that Amazon might become a monopoly in coming years, I can totally see that. But I don’t see how it is one now.

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