Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

551–560 of 727 posts

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#551

Post by aogl »

theturtletalks wrote: post #458
viahoptop wrote: post #449

What is the difference between this and the store brands at supermarkets?

This is different that Costco selling their own brand vodka or toilet paper because buyers can see those items side by side when shopping. Amazon has their products on the top every time and if 3rd party sellers want to be next to them, they have to pay for ads. Amazon doesn't pay for its own ads so they can effectively hide their competition.

You say Amazon doesn't pay for ads, but by them taking the space of the ads others aren't buying, they're losing ad money, which probably equates back to the value of the ad. ?

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#553

Post by gk1 »

throwaway_aws wrote: post #521
nateburke wrote: post #266

About 10 years ago I met the head of IT for B&H cameras in NYC. Among many things, he was in charge of the hosting for their online store. After he complained about dealing with physical servers, I asked him if he had ever considered using AWS ec2 for the website, and he replied that his boss refused because he believed that Amazon would pull data on B&H products and use it to compete more effectively. I'm not sure t…

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. In the past, AWS has used the data from third party hosted services on AWS to build a similar service and in fact start poaching their customers. Source: I used to be at AWS and know the PM & his manager who built a service this way. I was hired on that team.

You should talk to this guy: https://twitter.com/daiwaka

He wrote this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/amazon-aws-clo...

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#554

Post by tomt2323 »

reaperducer wrote: post #531
nieve wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal conspiracies by corporate execs are not all uncommon in the history of business and presuming that you can't possibly run into one because you personally haven't is taking an unnecessary risk. One thing due diligence is supposed to look for is criminal behavior. This is not because they never find it.

Criminal conspiracies by corporate execs are not all uncommon in the history of business Actually, they are quite uncommon, which is why they make headlines when discovered. I'm not taking a side here, just pointing out a fallacy.

This is even more fallacious- the only thing that unsourced opinion proves is that certain types of criminal conspiracies that are uncovered are deemed sensational enough to sell news services. It says nothing about the commonality of successfully covert conspiracies nor about the frequency of uncovered ones that are hard for the general public to understand/care about.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#555

Post by rsanek »

vntok wrote: post #500
rsanek wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are different entities, how come Amazon Basics can use the same name as the platform? Did Amazon sell the rights to another company to use their brand?

"Did Amazon sell the rights to another company to use their brand?" But of course, why not? These kinds of trademark licensing agreements are all over the place, there would be no difference here.

Then I'm not sure why it's a problem. Ostensibly anyone could have bid to license that name; I see no issue with that.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#557

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

CerealFounder wrote: post #362
sacks2k wrote: post #171

I saw this happening a decade ago, but I had no real proof. I had a profitable Amazon store in 2010. I found niche products that Amazon didn't sell. As soon as I started getting traction on any one product, Amazon would start undercutting me, and my sales would drop to almost zero over the course of a couple of weeks. I had near 100% feedback and I had a single customer complaint that I sold them the wrong product. W…

It's pretty anti-competitive that a company can operate a marketplace and sell on the same marketplace. It would seem like an obvious law to enact.

It's one of those Schrodinger's laws that applies to companies like Amazon. They're either a marketplace or not depending on the complaint. Complain about shady sellers and fakes? They're a marketplace and not responsible! Complain about anti competitive practices? Well this is clearly the Amazon store, says so right on it, clearly not a marketplace!

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#559

Post by granzymes »

snowwrestler wrote: post #436
entee wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major question I don’t have a good answer to is, “Why is this different than brick and mortar store brands like Safeway signature?” Surely a part of is is placement, but Safeway could put own brand ketchup at the same level (and I think sometimes does) as Heinz and still wouldn’t sell the same volume. Amazon is clearly getting a big advantage here, I’m just curious about what the underlying dynamics are that allo…

The difference is that Safeway does not have any other sellers on their shelves. Safeway buys inventory at wholesale and sells it at retail. Everything that is sold in Safeway was intentionally selected by Safeway to be there. If you see a product on a Safeway shelf, the company that makes that product already got paid--by Safeway. If Safeway puts a generic ibuprofen bottle next to a bottle of Advil, that's fine with…

I don't see as big of a distinction between Safeway and Amazon. The demand for pain medication is relatively constant, so if sales of Safeway's generic ibuprofen increase it will come at the expense of Advil because Safeway will start buying fewer units. The harm is one step removed but is still there.

I think a better argument would be the scale of the data collected by Amazon vs physical stores. But on the other hand, Safeway has an online store where they can collect the same information and if they are anything like Walmart then they also already have startlingly detailed insight into the supply chains and logistics of their suppliers that surely rivals what Amazon sees if you use their warehousing service.

I don't think it makes sense to draw a clear distinction between Amazon generics and Safeway/Walmart generics. It seems like a fuzzy line at best.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#560

Post by secretasiandan »

throwaway_aws wrote: post #521
nateburke wrote: post #266

About 10 years ago I met the head of IT for B&H cameras in NYC. Among many things, he was in charge of the hosting for their online store. After he complained about dealing with physical servers, I asked him if he had ever considered using AWS ec2 for the website, and he replied that his boss refused because he believed that Amazon would pull data on B&H products and use it to compete more effectively. I'm not sure t…

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. In the past, AWS has used the data from third party hosted services on AWS to build a similar service and in fact start poaching their customers. Source: I used to be at AWS and know the PM & his manager who built a service this way. I was hired on that team.

Have you ever been tempted to tell people (journalists, government) about it? If not, are there any particular reasons?
Post reply on HN