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Amazon will likely begin competing with many of their AWS customers. Step 1: develop a Trojan horse to gather growth and profitability data (QuickSight). Step

Amazon will likely begin competing with many of their AWS customers. Step 1: develop a Trojan horse to gather growth and profitability data (QuickSight). Step 2: roll out home-grown apps to compete with their most profitable AWS customers. This is exactly how Amazon.com operates[1]. I can only imagine how the conversation went: Bob: We need to diversify! Earl: You're right! Let's do some research. Susan: That'll cost a ton... Ed: Eureka! We'll just let everyone give us their data. It'll be a quick sight into all the markets! Becky: Ed... You're a genius! Ed: I am? Becky: Yes. We'll call it QuickSight! 1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/got-a-hot-seller-on-amazon-prepare-for-e-tailer-to-make-one-too https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/got-a-hot...

empath75 10y ago
Yeah, it seems like if you are building a business on AWS, they are either going to buy you (Twitch) or compete with you (Netflix), and I don't see how you beat them when they're taking x% of your profits off the top.
- apathy 10y ago
  I'm starting to appreciate that Trump may not be all bad. If he actually brings antitrust suits against Amazon for this sort of malarkey, and gets rid of the EC, and adds term limits, maybe the country will take longer to turn into Putin's Russia. On the other hand maybe Amazon will just turn into Gazprom and the voting will become irrelevant. I'm not opposed to California seceding, just trying to envision what bad things might have been more likely had Trump not been elected. Sort of a "well, that chlorine gas attack sure cut down on the traffic in Aleppo!" type of thing... :-/
mbesto 10y ago
Curious - what stops an Apple employee working on the App Store from personally investing in an early stage startup that has seen tremendous growth on the App Store? Or similarly from insights on traffic from a Google team member? AFAIK, there is nothing legally that precludes you from doing so...
- candiodari 10y ago
  They sign a contract stating they won't do it when joining Apple. Needless to say that doesn't work, especially given the number of enforcement officials at the SEC and the capacity there, and the fact that Apple would have to sue it's own employees (plus the fact that you wouldn't want them to be heavy-handed at all). So SOX means that very few employees can have access to such data. The more enterprising amongst them still do of course - as do the ones that you really don't want to have access to it. The ones that would both "need" the data (not really), and would know exactly how to profit from it - general and financial management.
kevinconroy 10y ago
This is irresponsible conjecture. AWS has very strict privacy and data safe guards in place. There are a number of laws (particularly in the EU) that forbid such practices. https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/ https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/ The reason AWS is successful is because Amazon takes privacy and security seriously. Why does Netflix trust AWS when there's Prime Video? Because Netflix knows that they have legal recourse against Amazon if they tried to do anything underhanded. I suspect Amazon would quickly fire anyone who breached customer data.
- rogerthis 10y ago
  Sincere question: how are such clauses enforced?

empath75 10y ago

Yeah, it seems like if you are building a business on AWS, they are either going to buy you (Twitch) or compete with you (Netflix), and I don't see how you beat them when they're taking x% of your profits off the top.

apathy 10y ago
I'm starting to appreciate that Trump may not be all bad. If he actually brings antitrust suits against Amazon for this sort of malarkey, and gets rid of the EC, and adds term limits, maybe the country will take longer to turn into Putin's Russia. On the other hand maybe Amazon will just turn into Gazprom and the voting will become irrelevant. I'm not opposed to California seceding, just trying to envision what bad things might have been more likely had Trump not been elected. Sort of a "well, that chlorine gas attack sure cut down on the traffic in Aleppo!" type of thing... :-/

mbesto 10y ago

Curious - what stops an Apple employee working on the App Store from personally investing in an early stage startup that has seen tremendous growth on the App Store? Or similarly from insights on traffic from a Google team member? AFAIK, there is nothing legally that precludes you from doing so...

candiodari 10y ago
They sign a contract stating they won't do it when joining Apple. Needless to say that doesn't work, especially given the number of enforcement officials at the SEC and the capacity there, and the fact that Apple would have to sue it's own employees (plus the fact that you wouldn't want them to be heavy-handed at all). So SOX means that very few employees can have access to such data. The more enterprising amongst them still do of course - as do the ones that you really don't want to have access to it. The ones that would both "need" the data (not really), and would know exactly how to profit from it - general and financial management.

kevinconroy 10y ago

This is irresponsible conjecture. AWS has very strict privacy and data safe guards in place. There are a number of laws (particularly in the EU) that forbid such practices. https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/ https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/ The reason AWS is successful is because Amazon takes privacy and security seriously. Why does Netflix trust AWS when there's Prime Video? Because Netflix knows that they have legal recourse against Amazon if they tried to do anything underhanded. I suspect Amazon would quickly fire anyone who breached customer data.

rogerthis 10y ago
Sincere question: how are such clauses enforced?