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My take on this is that it sounds an awful lot like a sensing network for Amazon to discover which products are taking off and if it's viable to produce a low c

My take on this is that it sounds an awful lot like a sensing network for Amazon to discover which products are taking off and if it's viable to produce a low cost clone. At which point Amazon will not only have cloned your product, but also own your main distribution channel. Approach with caution?

jdcarter 10y ago
There's certainly precedent for that: http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-best-products-on-amazon-and-selling-them-for-less-1652879/ http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-bes... However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with you later. On the other, you'd have to run your own distribution, and it's less likely your product would ever take off in the first place.
- Pyxl101 10y ago
  > However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with you later. If you're worried about this, then you should also worry that competitors might compete with you anyway, whether or not you use their distribution channels. The real question to consider is whether using their channel makes them more likely to compete with your or less, weighed against the other tradeoffs.
shostack 10y ago
I too have wondered about this as well as how AWS might also be a signaling point for an analyst to point out other services Amazon might want to get into. How different is this from store brands in the grocery store? He who owns the distribution calls the shots. The digital world was supposed to free suppliers from this with infinite shelf space but instead it just morphed into a slightly different and much more dangerous beast.
- kristianc 10y ago
  That is the purpose of AWS and APN. APN is actually a fairly similar offer to this.
enos_feedler 10y ago
I think this is always true for any platform. With Apple you worry that your popular app might get so popular, Apple creates it themselves. In some ways, I think the point of platforms is to scale the vision beyond what you can do yourself.... until you can do it yourself.
- kristianc 10y ago
  The difference between the App Store and Amazon's model is that it's barely worth Apple cloning a competitors app because compared to their overall income, Apps will only ever be a rounding error. Amazon Retail on the other hand, sell physical stuff. It's their bread and butter.
tlb 10y ago
The best defense is to have a product that's hard to clone. If the only reason competitors aren't cloning your product is that they don't realize there's a big market for it, you don't have a sustainable advantage.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  No, you don't, but you do have an immediate advantage, that can be used to establish a userbase and obtain other sustainable advantages before other players get involved. Amazon's treatment of their smaller partners (Android, Basics) has not been ideal, fwiw.

jdcarter 10y ago

There's certainly precedent for that: http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-best-products-on-amazon-and-selling-them-for-less-1652879/ http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-bes... However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with you later. On the other, you'd have to run your own distribution, and it's less likely your product would ever take off in the first place.

Pyxl101 10y ago
> However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with you later. If you're worried about this, then you should also worry that competitors might compete with you anyway, whether or not you use their distribution channels. The real question to consider is whether using their channel makes them more likely to compete with your or less, weighed against the other tradeoffs.

shostack 10y ago

I too have wondered about this as well as how AWS might also be a signaling point for an analyst to point out other services Amazon might want to get into. How different is this from store brands in the grocery store? He who owns the distribution calls the shots. The digital world was supposed to free suppliers from this with infinite shelf space but instead it just morphed into a slightly different and much more dangerous beast.

kristianc 10y ago
That is the purpose of AWS and APN. APN is actually a fairly similar offer to this.

enos_feedler 10y ago

I think this is always true for any platform. With Apple you worry that your popular app might get so popular, Apple creates it themselves. In some ways, I think the point of platforms is to scale the vision beyond what you can do yourself.... until you can do it yourself.

kristianc 10y ago
The difference between the App Store and Amazon's model is that it's barely worth Apple cloning a competitors app because compared to their overall income, Apps will only ever be a rounding error. Amazon Retail on the other hand, sell physical stuff. It's their bread and butter.

tlb 10y ago

The best defense is to have a product that's hard to clone. If the only reason competitors aren't cloning your product is that they don't realize there's a big market for it, you don't have a sustainable advantage.

WalterSear 10y ago
No, you don't, but you do have an immediate advantage, that can be used to establish a userbase and obtain other sustainable advantages before other players get involved. Amazon's treatment of their smaller partners (Android, Basics) has not been ideal, fwiw.