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Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

businessinsider.com

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Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#21

Post by neogodless »

echelon wrote: post #13

> In contrast, product pages for Apple competitors like Samsung are riddled with ads from competitors, recommendations, and other sponsored banners. Insider says that other companies, including Samsung, have complained about the preferential treatment given to Apple. You shouldn't be allowed to place ads against another company's product listings or trademarked brands. You shouldn't be able to pay Google to advertise…

That is the grand philosophical question.

Should companies be able to do this?

Is Amazon a marketplace, or the marketplace? Rewind 15 years ago, and I compared local retail, Amazon, NewEgg, Buy.com, etc. I researched each product, and then researched which site would give me a good price plus shipping. Of course Amazon won this battle and edged out many competitors.

But most people tend to go to Amazon, and let Amazon make decisions for them. That's kind of our own fault, but it's also worrying. Now I won't argue that Apple is or isn't the best maker of whatever product someone went to Amazon to shop for. But I still would like the products to be presented equally and fairly.

But... I suppose I want companies to be able to give each other money to get different levels of service, too. How do you draw this line?

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#22

Post by alberth »

Dumb question: why is this not allowed?

Presumably, Apple paid Amazon to reduce the number of ads.

What's so wrong about that?

All companies allow large enterprise customers (who drive high revenue), to have custom / tailored offerings based on their requests.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#23

Post by karaterobot »

If it's true they colluded to remove ads from Apple pages on Amazon, both companies deserve what they get. Why do it sneakily? Why not have a page somewhere on Amazon that says "hey, if you want us to remove ads from your product listings, pay us [10x the total lifetime amount we expect to get in ad revenue from running ads on the page] per product page". Most companies wouldn't do it, so it wouldn't change Amazon's model much at all. Meanwhile, Apple could afford it trivially. While sleazy, it would be a completely legal offering that would never come back to bite them in the butt.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#24

Post by kube-system »

microtherion wrote: post #17
qgin wrote: post #9

How is this any different than Apple having its own wood-and-steel display area in Best Buy?

Yes, the very reason for Apple to create the "store-in-store" concept was that they thought that the buying experience for their products was inadequate (both in presentation of the products and qualification of the staff): https://web.archive.org/web/19990210163227/http://product.in... The Amazon storefront simply seems to be an extension of that concept from brick and mortar to online stores. I'm not sure what's su…

I think the difference is that Best Buy retail stores are not a marketplace, there are no third-party sellers in a Best Buy.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#25

Post by neogodless »

jrockway wrote: post #19

I had no idea Apple got preferential treatment. I have never seen what I thought to be a genuine Apple product on Amazon. I assumed Apple was taking steps to prevent anyone from selling anything Apple-branded there. The fact that they're doing the opposite is just crazy to me. I looked more closely and they don't seem to sell iPhones, which is I guess where I get the impression from. Their other items have weird pric…

amazon.com/apple forwards me to https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/77D9E1F7-0337-4282-9DB6-B...

The Apple storefront. Lots of macbooks and watches to buy.

Oddly enough, the iPhone only shows up in searches as used/renewed items, not brand new. Is that an Amazon thing or an Apple thing?

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#26

Post by jrockway »

neogodless wrote: post #25
jrockway wrote: post #19

I had no idea Apple got preferential treatment. I have never seen what I thought to be a genuine Apple product on Amazon. I assumed Apple was taking steps to prevent anyone from selling anything Apple-branded there. The fact that they're doing the opposite is just crazy to me. I looked more closely and they don't seem to sell iPhones, which is I guess where I get the impression from. Their other items have weird pric…

amazon.com/apple forwards me to https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/77D9E1F7-0337-4282-9DB6-B... The Apple storefront. Lots of macbooks and watches to buy. Oddly enough, the iPhone only shows up in searches as used/renewed items, not brand new. Is that an Amazon thing or an Apple thing?

Yeah, I clicked that link in the article and was surprised. I had never seen it before, but I guess I just assumed given how often-counterfeited anything Apple is, that it's something I'd never look for on Ali... em... Amazon. Meanwhile, ordering something from the Apple Store is super simple (since I have many nearby), and you know that the Apple Store isn't going to be selling counterfeit Apple products.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#27

Post by deelowe »

neogodless wrote: post #25
jrockway wrote: post #19

I had no idea Apple got preferential treatment. I have never seen what I thought to be a genuine Apple product on Amazon. I assumed Apple was taking steps to prevent anyone from selling anything Apple-branded there. The fact that they're doing the opposite is just crazy to me. I looked more closely and they don't seem to sell iPhones, which is I guess where I get the impression from. Their other items have weird pric…

amazon.com/apple forwards me to https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/77D9E1F7-0337-4282-9DB6-B... The Apple storefront. Lots of macbooks and watches to buy. Oddly enough, the iPhone only shows up in searches as used/renewed items, not brand new. Is that an Amazon thing or an Apple thing?

Might be a carrier thing.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#28

Post by neogodless »

alberth wrote: post #22

Dumb question: why is this not allowed? Presumably, Apple paid Amazon to reduce the number of ads. What's so wrong about that? All companies allow large enterprise customers (who drive high revenue), to have custom / tailored offerings based on their requests.

It's allowed. The word in the article was scrutiny.

The law suit is not about the ads, per se. It's about price-fixing, which you can probably agree should not be allowed.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#29

Post by kube-system »

alberth wrote: post #22

Dumb question: why is this not allowed? Presumably, Apple paid Amazon to reduce the number of ads. What's so wrong about that? All companies allow large enterprise customers (who drive high revenue), to have custom / tailored offerings based on their requests.

When a company controls a large part of a market, regulators give extra scrutiny to any efforts that company may make that harms competition.

Re: Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

#30

Post by malfist »

wnevets wrote: post #18

Amazon knows all about of the garbage being sold on its site but only does something about it if you're a massive tech company who threatens to sue, very cool. I wonder how many of these thumb drives are legit. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=2+tb+thumb+drive&crid=YZ410MSN6L1...

Amazon makes money from those garbage companies having an ad war over who gets to deceive the eyeballs of Amazon's customers first, and then takes a cut when it gets sold.

Customer Obsession and Earns Trust might be two of Amazon's Leadership Principles, but no principles stand in the way of cold hard cash.

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