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What anticompetitive position is being leveraged against Amazon in this case? The chromecast doesn't pretend to be an open marketplace for any apps. Amazon does

What anticompetitive position is being leveraged against Amazon in this case? The chromecast doesn't pretend to be an open marketplace for any apps. Amazon does pretend it's an open marketplace for goods.

benwilber0 9y ago
* Google refuses to support Amazon Prime Video on Chromecast. * Amazon refuses to sell Chromecast devices. There's nothing really "anti-competitive" going on here. Two consumer tech giants are refusing to support each others' stuff. That's it. Consumers are free to pick one, or both!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- bduerst 9y ago
  Chromecast is a feature that you develop on your own apps - i.e. Amazon can add it to their Prime App. Google isn't preventing Amazon Prime from having Chromecast support.
- refurb 9y ago
  Yeah I don't get it either. It doesn't impact consumer's ability to get either product. Would we force Ford dealerships to sell Hondas as well? For Whole Foods to carry Safeway-branded products? Of course not.
  - prklmn 9y ago
    Your car dealership analogy doesn’t hold any water. Amazon is an “open” marketplace with millions of products, some of which are amazon private label and compete against other third party sellers on Amazon. Amazons track record with this is ugly http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/amazon-copies-merchants/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/amazon-copies-merchants/ This is more akin to a scenario if apple were to block Spotify from the App Store because apple provides a competing service to theirs, totally leveraging and abusing their power to diminish competition. It’s hard to argue that not allowing them to sell the physical product on amazon isn’t anti-competitive, regardless if amazon does or doesn’t develop chrome cast capabilities into fire sticks. This is laughable - >> Both the Apple TV and Chromecast were pulled from Amazon in late 2015. The company’s justification for the move was that consumers would be confused and frustrated if they purchased streaming devices that didn’t offer a direct, convenient way to view Amazon Prime Video content https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/14/16777508/amazon-brings-back-apple-tv-google-chromecast https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/14/16777508/...
    - refurb 9y ago
      How is Amazon any more an "open" marketplace compared to a grocery store? Because it's online?
      - prklmn 9y ago
        I would say so, they are not limited to a certain amount of shelf space or square footage like grocery stores are. On average, grocery stores work much more intimately with their vendors than amazon works with theirs (or did, now that they’re breaking into the grocery business). I was mainly thinking of how an unlimited number of third parties can essentially sell whatever they please on Amazon, unless of course you’re google or apple selling a competing product that doesn’t help amazon achieve their goals for an ancillary service that has nothing to do with their online marketplace. I can’t think of a good analogy to a grocery store scenario.
      - fjsolwmv 9y ago
        Amazon calls itself "The Everything Store" and has enough market share that it is legally reasonable to think about if it is a deal facto monopoly governed by antitrust law
        refurb 9y ago
        Monopoly? There is nothing stopping other companies from selling the same things Amazon does. Any what is Amazon's share of all retail sales? My understanding it's in the single digit percentages.
        antonvs 9y ago
        Amazon had 4% of US retail sales in 2017, although that's 44% of US online retail sales. Online sales were 9% of retail sales.
    - fjsolwmv 9y ago
      Apple policy is in fact to block aps that compete with iOS standard apps, unless the are so popular that apple is forced to concede
- discoursism 9y ago
  This is some pretty high level misinformation. Amazon (or anyone) can write apps against the Cast API (https://developers.google.com/cast/ https://developers.google.com/cast/). Amazon has just chosen not to.
r3bl 9y ago
I'm just transferring rumors, but I've read multiple times that Amazon reacted this way after Google blocked YouTube access to Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV. Seems like it's a back and forth kind of a thing between the two companies, with users being the ones facing consequences.
- y4mi 9y ago
  Which was blocked (the app) because Amazon distributed it outside of the play store, which is against the TOS iirc. I believe it's still possible to access YouTube through a browser, but can't test anymore because I flashed lineage os on my Kindle tablet.
bduerst 9y ago
Source? Last I checked, AppleTV has Prime Video and Google is not blocking Amazon from adding Chromecast to Amazon apps. Amazon is choosing not to add the feature. >But it’s Amazon’s own fault that Prime Video doesn’t work with Chromecast. Amazon has the power to make it happen. https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16738752/google-youtube-amazon-punishing-customers-feud https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16738752/google-youtube-a...
- chrischen 9y ago
  The Google chromecast store does not allow you to purchase amazon firesticks.
  - discoursism 9y ago
    If Amazon only sold Amazon products and accessories for those products, that would be an insightful observation. As it is, I think you're missing that these two stores are different in kind.
  - Buge 9y ago
    And I can't buy Windows laptops at an Apple store. That's because Apple stores only sell Apple products, nothing else. People don't go to an Apple store when they want to buy some arbitrary item. People do go to Amazon when they want to buy an arbitrary item, because Amazon sells almost everything (but not chromecasts).

benwilber0 9y ago

* Google refuses to support Amazon Prime Video on Chromecast. * Amazon refuses to sell Chromecast devices. There's nothing really "anti-competitive" going on here. Two consumer tech giants are refusing to support each others' stuff. That's it. Consumers are free to pick one, or both!

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bduerst 9y ago
Chromecast is a feature that you develop on your own apps - i.e. Amazon can add it to their Prime App. Google isn't preventing Amazon Prime from having Chromecast support.
refurb 9y ago
Yeah I don't get it either. It doesn't impact consumer's ability to get either product. Would we force Ford dealerships to sell Hondas as well? For Whole Foods to carry Safeway-branded products? Of course not.
- prklmn 9y ago
  Your car dealership analogy doesn’t hold any water. Amazon is an “open” marketplace with millions of products, some of which are amazon private label and compete against other third party sellers on Amazon. Amazons track record with this is ugly http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/amazon-copies-merchants/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/amazon-copies-merchants/ This is more akin to a scenario if apple were to block Spotify from the App Store because apple provides a competing service to theirs, totally leveraging and abusing their power to diminish competition. It’s hard to argue that not allowing them to sell the physical product on amazon isn’t anti-competitive, regardless if amazon does or doesn’t develop chrome cast capabilities into fire sticks. This is laughable - >> Both the Apple TV and Chromecast were pulled from Amazon in late 2015. The company’s justification for the move was that consumers would be confused and frustrated if they purchased streaming devices that didn’t offer a direct, convenient way to view Amazon Prime Video content https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/14/16777508/amazon-brings-back-apple-tv-google-chromecast https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/14/16777508/...
  - refurb 9y ago
    How is Amazon any more an "open" marketplace compared to a grocery store? Because it's online?
    - prklmn 9y ago
      I would say so, they are not limited to a certain amount of shelf space or square footage like grocery stores are. On average, grocery stores work much more intimately with their vendors than amazon works with theirs (or did, now that they’re breaking into the grocery business). I was mainly thinking of how an unlimited number of third parties can essentially sell whatever they please on Amazon, unless of course you’re google or apple selling a competing product that doesn’t help amazon achieve their goals for an ancillary service that has nothing to do with their online marketplace. I can’t think of a good analogy to a grocery store scenario.
    - fjsolwmv 9y ago
      Amazon calls itself "The Everything Store" and has enough market share that it is legally reasonable to think about if it is a deal facto monopoly governed by antitrust law
      - refurb 9y ago
        Monopoly? There is nothing stopping other companies from selling the same things Amazon does. Any what is Amazon's share of all retail sales? My understanding it's in the single digit percentages.
        antonvs 9y ago
        Amazon had 4% of US retail sales in 2017, although that's 44% of US online retail sales. Online sales were 9% of retail sales.
  - fjsolwmv 9y ago
    Apple policy is in fact to block aps that compete with iOS standard apps, unless the are so popular that apple is forced to concede
discoursism 9y ago
This is some pretty high level misinformation. Amazon (or anyone) can write apps against the Cast API (https://developers.google.com/cast/ https://developers.google.com/cast/). Amazon has just chosen not to.

r3bl 9y ago

I'm just transferring rumors, but I've read multiple times that Amazon reacted this way after Google blocked YouTube access to Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV. Seems like it's a back and forth kind of a thing between the two companies, with users being the ones facing consequences.

y4mi 9y ago
Which was blocked (the app) because Amazon distributed it outside of the play store, which is against the TOS iirc. I believe it's still possible to access YouTube through a browser, but can't test anymore because I flashed lineage os on my Kindle tablet.

bduerst 9y ago

Source? Last I checked, AppleTV has Prime Video and Google is not blocking Amazon from adding Chromecast to Amazon apps. Amazon is choosing not to add the feature. >But it’s Amazon’s own fault that Prime Video doesn’t work with Chromecast. Amazon has the power to make it happen. https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16738752/google-youtube-amazon-punishing-customers-feud https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16738752/google-youtube-a...

chrischen 9y ago
The Google chromecast store does not allow you to purchase amazon firesticks.
- discoursism 9y ago
  If Amazon only sold Amazon products and accessories for those products, that would be an insightful observation. As it is, I think you're missing that these two stores are different in kind.
- Buge 9y ago
  And I can't buy Windows laptops at an Apple store. That's because Apple stores only sell Apple products, nothing else. People don't go to an Apple store when they want to buy some arbitrary item. People do go to Amazon when they want to buy an arbitrary item, because Amazon sells almost everything (but not chromecasts).