Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon promoting its own brands isn't much different from a supermarket offering its own brand items. Amazon promoting its own brands is completely different from a supermarket offering its own brand items. You're confusing a bazaar with a retail store; the two are nothing alike legally or economically. The supermarket pays for everything on its store shelves (except, rarely, for certain new products on a consignment…
So many inaccuracies in this. > it uses its access to their sales data to come up with its own competing products. Every retail chain has data on what gets sold inside and where it was kept, how it was promoted etc. They can very well use this data and most probably are using it. > Thus, it is irrelevant to the manufacturer whether the supermarket promotes their store-brand product or the name brand product; Only til…
FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
471–480 of 736 posts
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#472Honestly, while I have my doubts about this succeeding, it nevertheless feels like the big tech suit most likely to succeed. Amazon promoting its own brands isn't much different from a supermarket offering its own brand items. Apple isn't a monopoly in phones because of Android. And Google's search is so inherently tied to selling ads as a business model that separating them is a difficult argument -- plus search com…
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#473Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thus, it is irrelevant to the manufacturer whether the supermarket promotes their store-brand product or the name brand product; they've already been paid by their primary customer. That might be true if Safeway is going to buy the same number of cereal boxes from you every quarter, but that's not what happens. Stores adjust their purchases based on what sells, so if Safeway starts promoting their own cereal then the…
That might be true if Safeway is going to buy the same number of cereal boxes from you every quarter, but that's not what happens. Stores adjust their purchases based on what sells, so if Safeway starts promoting their own cereal then they will start buying less of yours. You do know that the companies that make the name brand cereals...also make the store brand cereals... It's about market fit. Price sensitive custo…
Let me clue you in on a few facts.
Retail stores are not paying upfront. Name a single major retailer that does this. I've yet to hear of a single one doing this.
Amazon is a bookstore. Go to any other bookstore or even distributor, and ask how quickly folks get paid who sell into their market. These folks drag the absolute HELL out of payment.
And yes, the local bookstore can return the books. They are generally not taking inventory risk.
Same thing with a grocery store. Want to get on shelf? Pay a fee? Want to sell in store? Until you prove sales volume so risk is gone, you will need to be willing to accept product returns and pay fee to cover whatever you replaced.
Want data on how your product sold at store level / by day / time etc? Be prepared to PAY for that. BTW - amazon merchants get most of this for free.
The time to pay for a product that sells in a retail store and amazon is different, and much WORSE for the retail store. You can get next day payout availability for FBA from amazon. If you sell a product through a distributor into retail - if you think you are going to get next day payment - dream on.
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seeing sharing in a social graph is easy. Defining what is "propaganda" is all but impossible.
Idk, I really don't think so. shrugs
Which one is propaganda? The one you disagree with? The one that doesn't fit with your preconceived notions? The one that doesn't fit with your personality profile? Both positions? Neither position? Do we just shut down all thinking on the internet? Who watches the watchers?
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Walmart paid for the products on their shelves. Amazon does not pay for most of the products you can buy on Amazon. The difference, in case it's not clear: Walmart is the manufacturers' primary customer, so it's irrelevant from their point of view what products Walmart chooses to sell in its stores. The third-party sellers are the manufacturer's customers. The manufacturers still get paid either way. But we're not co…
I don't think this distinction actually justifies treating Amazon in a dramatically different way than Walmart. I agree that Amazon and Walmart have different strategies for managing inventory, in house branding and product placement. Walmart also operates an in house clone of Amazon in the form of their online store. Why exactly is Amazon so much worse?
But Amazon's Marketplace is 100x the size of Walmart.com. Generally, with antitrust you start with the biggest fish and work your way down as needed.
(Walmart Retail, as discussed elsewhere, isn't comparable to Amazon.com for many reasons.)
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no way to provide access to the social graph in a privacy preserving way. It's not okay to allow a third party to access the data your friends have shared with you without your friends consenting. Unencumbered API access to the social graph is exactly what led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and promising to restrict API access was part of Facebook's settlement with the FTC.
> There's no way to provide access to the social graph in a privacy preserving way. If we're not okay with other companies having access then why is it okay for a single company to have that access? Do you know and trust every facebook employee including those that don't work there yet with your data? Do you trust that that data will be securely handled when the company is sold after declaring bankruptcy? I think you…
Privacy is in the process of becoming antiquated. It is sad, but I think it is inevitable. Surveillance technology advances with technology in general, and counter-surveillance becomes more and more cumbersome. Eventually, we will reach a point where anyone can afford tiny stealth drones to watch what is happening in their neighbors' houses. The counter-measures necessary - hermetically sealed living space, faraday cage enclosure - are so burdensome that only people who currently live in bunkers will implement them for their living spaces.
If we accept that premise, let's think about what we are losing. In my understanding, there are two main reasons why privacy is so important:
1) Allowing individuals to avoid becoming targets of persecution for having some attribute. Targeting by oppressive governments for holding idea X, targeting by an evil megacorp for threatening to disrupt industry Y, etc.
2) Allowing individuals to avoid social stigmatization and shame for having some attribute. Getting caught eating one's boogers, viewing porn of people dressed up as pieces of furniture, etc.
For point 1, I think the real issue is imbalance of information. Schemes to abuse access to someones previously private information mostly wouldn't stand up to public scrutiny themselves. Unless, of course, you have some ultra-powerful organization like a well run totalitarian regime, in which case individuals by definition have no privacy rights anyways.
For point 2, I think shrinking privacy will seriously reduce the social response to this kind of information. "So what if I watch porn of people dressed up as furniture; you masturbate while dipping your toes in peanut butter! That's way weirder!" Sure, there are plenty of painfully normal people out there, but I think most shameful weirdness would become commonplace when the full extent of weirdness is out in the open.
All that being said, I do think anonymity is important, and can probably be preserved, as it is distinct from privately acting in physical space, or online while tied to some form of identity. Also, I don't want to argue against efforts to preserve and advance privacy for individuals for as long as possible. I just think that per point 1, we might want to devote effort to reducing the privacy of organizations to try to maintain parity of information access as our individual privacy slips away.
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thus, it is irrelevant to the manufacturer whether the supermarket promotes their store-brand product or the name brand product; they've already been paid by their primary customer. That might be true if Safeway is going to buy the same number of cereal boxes from you every quarter, but that's not what happens. Stores adjust their purchases based on what sells, so if Safeway starts promoting their own cereal then the…
That might be true if Safeway is going to buy the same number of cereal boxes from you every quarter, but that's not what happens. Stores adjust their purchases based on what sells, so if Safeway starts promoting their own cereal then they will start buying less of yours. You do know that the companies that make the name brand cereals...also make the store brand cereals... It's about market fit. Price sensitive custo…
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
You didn't need any traffic snooping to notice millions of Instagram and WhatsApp users. Acquisitions were no brainer for Facebook.
> Acquisitions were no brainer for Facebook. And hindsight is 20/20.
Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon promoting its own brands isn't much different from a supermarket offering its own brand items. Amazon promoting its own brands is completely different from a supermarket offering its own brand items. You're confusing a bazaar with a retail store; the two are nothing alike legally or economically. The supermarket pays for everything on its store shelves (except, rarely, for certain new products on a consignment…
> Moreover, in essentially all cases, the name brand also made the store brand. Whoa, what? Total news to me. Source? Or do you work in this sector? This is really interesting.
With cars, there are often just superficial differences to create a much larger perceived value difference between an Audi or VW or a Lexus or Toyota (on some models).
I find this topic quite fascinating, as it relates to human psychology.