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Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

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Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#31

Post by thinkling »

kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

People said this 20 years ago about Microsoft.

They were king of the PC, imposing a Windows (and Office-) tax on every other business. They were trying to extend that dominance to the internet: Internet Explorer, CitySearch, Expedia, MSN portal, MSN Shows, MSN Messenger, you name it. They were building interactive TV, software for cars, and a mobile phone platform. For a while they were building a bill presentation and payment service. They had an e-reader platform and tried to sign up publishers for it.

You name, if it had software in it, Microsoft was trying to dominate it. They knew they were the new IBM and that IBM had stumbled, and they were paranoid about that happening to them. And here we are.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#33

Post by kbos87 »

gigatexal wrote: post #19
kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

As long as competent politicians exist (a misnomer?) to break up true monopolies I say let incumbent industries pay the price for failing to innovate. Why should we have car salesmen for example? A new car is more or less a homogeneous good so why does it need a middleman? I would buy a car from amazon in a heartbeat. Why should I have to wait in line for a teller or a free lane for self checkout at a grocer? Because…

Your argument overlooks all of the negative externalities associated with a single large player that dominates all of these disparate industries. When smaller businesses can’t compete, there are hundreds of downstream effects. Businesses close. Real estate values fall. People lose a connection to the places they actually live in. The money we spend is funneled somewhere else. Our choices of employers become more and more limited. Wages fall, as do the prospects for anyone who wants something other than a future working as an undervalued cog in a big tech machine.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#35

Post by usaphp »

ams6110 wrote: post #21
Osmium wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon’s weaknesses are in the first case high-end design Just design generally, including their website ... anecdotally, so many people I know don't really know that Amazon Prime Video exists, or if it does exist how to find it. Likewise for Music. Apple has this discoverability problem too (Apple Music doesn't have a web UI, it might as well not exist if you can't install iTunes, and then Apple wonders why its so…

> so many people I know don't really know that Amazon Prime Video exists, or if it does exist how to find it. Likewise for Music. I know these things exist, but I don't use them much even as an Amazon Prime member. Why? Because Prime Video UX is poor compared to Netflix (and Netflix is no great shakes either, but it's better than Amazon), and Music has a pretty poor catalog and again a pretty poor UX.

Prime video UI is really good on iPads and iPhones. And it has a much better video selection for kids. I wish they release an Apple TV app finally too.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#36

Post by kbos87 »

throwawayjava wrote: post #22
kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

> It pains me that my generation, a generation of people who dream of being makers and business owners... Not just business owners, but startup founders. Also, emphasis on the "owner" not the "maker". There's no real fetish for hackers disconnected from business ownership in the zeitgeist. Why would a temporarily embarrassed monopolist support monopoly busting?

Would there be so many “temporarily embarrassed monopolists” if people had an easier time imagining a world in which they didn’t have to be the end all be all winner in order to build and be proud of something sustainable?

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#37

Post by JustSomeNobody »

WisNorCan wrote: post #6

Apple iPhone seems to be doing quite well relative to Amazon’s Fire Phone. Also, Azure is doing surprisingly well relative to AWS despite a late start. Wouldn’t surprise me if Azure exceeded AWS in the near future. Amazon’s weaknesses are in the first case high-end design And in the second enterprise.

Apple isn't as awesome as they may once have been. They have made some controversial moves lately (headphone jack, MBPro keyboards, touchbar, The Notch, keeping an iPhone design that's going on 4 years, etc.). Also, the quality of iOS and MacOS has suffered a bit the past couple iterations. Way too buggy out of the gate!

I still believe they make great products, just not as great as they have been.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#38

Post by refurb »

rtpg wrote: post #13
kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

I understand the dangers of monopoly, but I wish there was a stronger argument here. We've seen this sort of thing happen before, with Walmart. And none of these arguments worked! Walmart is big and dominant. It killed off smaller places, but people don't care because it has mostly everything and is cheap. "This convenient good thing is actually bad!" isn't super convincing I guess.... EDIT: the ultimate irony being…

the _best case scenario_ for this economic model leads to a terrible status quo

Terrible status quo? You realize that competitive pressure is what drives progress right?

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#39

Post by ewzimm »

kbos87 wrote: post #33
gigatexal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as competent politicians exist (a misnomer?) to break up true monopolies I say let incumbent industries pay the price for failing to innovate. Why should we have car salesmen for example? A new car is more or less a homogeneous good so why does it need a middleman? I would buy a car from amazon in a heartbeat. Why should I have to wait in line for a teller or a free lane for self checkout at a grocer? Because…

Your argument overlooks all of the negative externalities associated with a single large player that dominates all of these disparate industries. When smaller businesses can’t compete, there are hundreds of downstream effects. Businesses close. Real estate values fall. People lose a connection to the places they actually live in. The money we spend is funneled somewhere else. Our choices of employers become more and…

If small businesses can’t compete, it’s time for them to get creative and adjust their business models to become relevant again. There are all sorts of negative externalities involved in everyone just doing business as usual. No business has the right to stand still in the face of technological innovation and increased efficiency. For all the damage Amazon might do, they’re also forcing their competition to get better and know their customers.

Re: Can Anyone Beat Jeff Bezos?

#40

Post by ringaroundthetx »

kbos87 wrote: post #10

I don’t think that the world can quite fathom how dangerous Amazon actually is to virtually every industry. When it comes to purveyors of physical goods, Amazon has the power to reshape the fabric of our streets and neighborhoods in ways few people can fathom. Say goodbye to grocery stores and ground floor retail if they get their way. They are just smart enough to do it slowly enough where they don’t have any jarrin…

Apparently Amazon is only able to do this because Sears left a void in the market 50 years ago.

Sears ditched their convenient mail system, a differentiator at the time, for brick and mortar stores, the big box carcasses of suburbia we all loath yet yearn for.

If this was the end game of capitalism, sears would have done it 100 years ago, while Standard Oil was masquerading as the end game of capitalism.

Yes, but this time its different. Not to trivialize the threat, just to point out the irony. The capitalist pressures are such that Amazon may drop some less profitable lines, eventually, and others get to fill the void, again.

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