"Instead, Amazon's main benefit is the social network, its marketplace (as full of counterfeits and cheap Alibaba peddled goods are... that's a lot of business

"Instead, Amazon's main benefit is the social network, its marketplace (as full of counterfeits and cheap Alibaba peddled goods are... that's a lot of business Amazon has on its marketplace), and AWS." I speak only for myself and do not presume to extend my experience into any kind of larger data, but for me the entire value proposition of Amazon is quick, predictable shipment of items. If I order something from Amazon I will receive it when they claim 99.9% of the time, and the only failures I've ever experienced were the fault of 3rd party package deliver companies (eg. FedEx, USPS...) This will be either same day, next day or two days. I don't use non-prime Amazon, not because it will cost me extra for shipping (I will often spring extra for same-day/next-day shipping on orders less than $35), but because I no longer trust the shipping estimates when it isn't Amazon fulfilled. The only two sites on the whole of the Internet that have ever earned my trust on fast, predictable shipment are Amazon and Newegg. Every other site I've used has failed me in one way or another on fulfillment and lost my trust on predictability.