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Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#41

Post by dexen »

yorwba wrote: post #35
neither_color wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about this. China has its own app ecosystem, as does Russia. India is pushing towards having its own as well. What about Europe? Is it harder because you have to localize to so many languages?

It's not localization that's stopping European companies from taking over the entire EU market, it's competition from other companies. If a French company wants to expand into the Spanish market, they can localize their app all they want; if their prospective customers in Spain are already using a different app that works just as well, they're going to have a hard time convincing them to switch. The same dynamic also…

>It's not localization that's stopping European companies from taking over the entire EU market

It very much is about localization - both language and to some extent also culture. Both are notable problems with b2c, and there are no "good enough" automated solutions.

My point of reference is the success of Polish domestic "Allegro" ecommerce platform, which was able to out-fox EBay, and later on Amazon, and still maintains dominant position on the local market. There were no significant technological advantages, nor any notable political connections. The platform won purely on being local.

In spite all the local success the platform could not expand to the west of Poland due to localization (language and partly culture). It did expand a little bit to Ukraine and Czech Republic. And while it's possible to browse foreign offers, it's rather rare to do so - due to the language barrier.

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#43

Post by pc86 »

missedthecue wrote: post #36
ska wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but has a calculation ever been done the other way? The usual answer to something that is both an obvious question and clearly impactful is "yes, extensively". Which is separate from the question of how well the research has been done of course (in either direction). > I would hazard a guess that this number is an order of magnitude greater than seedy business owners short changing their staff. What broad data are…

Well there doesn't seem to be much data, hence my original comment. My assumptions are based primarily on my own anecdotal observation. I work a relatively low wage job with a lot of relatively low wage coworkers. Most of them make a deliberate effort every day to do as little work as possible, to the point that it occurred to me that they might be engaging in more effort than if they just did their jobs anyway. I'm…

> I work a relatively low wage job with a lot of relatively low wage coworkers. Most of them make a deliberate effort every day to do as little work as possible, to the point that it occurred to me that they might be engaging in more effort than if they just did their jobs anyway.

Do you work in a state government's IT department?

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#44

Post by pc86 »

nullandvoid wrote: post #23
missedthecue wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most theft in USA is wage theft by employers" This is something I hear repeated ad infinitum on the net, but has a calculation ever been done the other way? That is, workers stealing from employers by deliberately clocking out early/late, or by goofing off on HN while on the clock. I would hazard a guess that this number is an order of magnitude greater than seedy business owners short changing their staff.

Spotted the guy who underpays their staff

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#45

Post by teatree »

This article looks at data without understanding the reason behind it.

Many educated Indians choose to buy from these 33 Amazon owned / equity linked sellers because of the experience they offer - odds of receiving wrong/damaged product is low, and in case where that happens the return / replacement process is hassle free.

Amazon has brought price discovery to many product categories in India. For expensive products I check Amazon's ClouldTail / Appario seller's price before making a purchase from even local vendors, keep that as a reference and negotiate.

Eg: Every computer component, laptop has a ridicules MRP (Maximum Retail Price) in India. A RAM module sold at INR 5500 has an MRP of INR 20,500.

The sad part is even companies like AMD collude with distributors in cheating end customers.

Instead of fixing problems which makes citizens flock to few sellers at Amazon every Indian government irrespective of political party chooses to appease the voting block of traders union - who are nothing but middle men making prices expensive to the end consumer.

A country grows when builders and innovators contribute to the economy, not leeches who don't even understand what they are selling. Everyday I lose a little hope of India ever becoming a developed country, we have our priorities backwards.

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#46

Post by c22 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #40
kmeisthax wrote: post #11

I'm starting to think the reason why tech companies are so well-valued is purely due to regulatory evasion skills and a dash of political engineering. Effectively, every tech company has been given a pass on something . Facebook doesn't have to worry about defamation lawsuits. Google doesn't have to worry (as much) about copyright. Amazon built it's business on evading sales tax. Uber broke the back of your local cit…

> Uber broke the back of your local city's taxi medallion scheme. Posted it in an other thread [0] but do we really want to go back to the medallion system? Pre-Uber, either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that planned to use it a…

Uber is just a different rent seeker, though. Over time the situation will likely just keep getting worse until it is as bad as the system it is replacing (many things about the ride-sharing ecosystem are already not great...)

While it's always nice to see a broken rent-seeking system in our world become eroded we should not laude the transfer to another fiat regency.

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#47

Post by cccc4alll »

908B64B197 wrote: post #40
kmeisthax wrote: post #11

I'm starting to think the reason why tech companies are so well-valued is purely due to regulatory evasion skills and a dash of political engineering. Effectively, every tech company has been given a pass on something . Facebook doesn't have to worry about defamation lawsuits. Google doesn't have to worry (as much) about copyright. Amazon built it's business on evading sales tax. Uber broke the back of your local cit…

> Uber broke the back of your local city's taxi medallion scheme. Posted it in an other thread [0] but do we really want to go back to the medallion system? Pre-Uber, either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that planned to use it a…

Uber and Lyft reworked the medallion system into mobile apps.

Instead of a physical medallion bolted on the car, it's a verified driver ID and rating in Uber/Lyft app.

Uber/Lyft are now collecting what the medallion owners were collecting previously from the drivers.

The apps are more convenient for riders and there are more efficiencies in the routes. But, it's still the same system. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Re: Amazon documents reveal company’s strategy to dodge India’s regulators

#48

Post by kevinkeller »

unmole wrote: post #25
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article focuses on Amazon, but the Indian native company Flipkart is facing the same challenges. As the article hints at, these regulations are set up specifically to prevent internal competition; the Indian government wants to protect traditional retail networks against competition from online stores.

> the Indian government wants to protect traditional retail networks against competition from online stores. Nope, the government wants to protect Jio from global competition.

The regulation will also benefit other smaller players, no? For example, Tata Cliq, Snapdeal.
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