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Amazon is winning because they have realized in the information age, central planning has become far easier and more effective. The bigger they get, the more th

by namlem 9y ago

Amazon is winning because they have realized in the information age, central planning has become far easier and more effective. The bigger they get, the more they'll grow until they take over everything.

imtringued 9y ago
And then they will outsource their core competencies to dubious third parties as they did with the amazon marketplace.
mattmanser 9y ago
The bigger they get, the more the chorus for anti-trust will grow. Look at this article for example: https://www.ft.com/content/aba8d444-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a https://www.ft.com/content/aba8d444-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f31... Which cites this too: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-parado... The problem for some of their competitors too is that if they do suddenly trigger a slew of new laws, then Google Play and the Apple Store will probably get caught up in it too. The other thing that could happen is the balkanization of the internet, where heavy trade tariffs will start being applied to America's dominant internet firms. It's already effectively happened in China. They've certainly not engendered any positive will in the rest of the world either for all their tax dodging.
- gxs 9y ago
  Unlike most accusations of a monopoly (see Apple) this is actually approaching something close to being applicable. One piece of anti-trust law is that you can't leverage one monopoly to create another. Can definitely see this become an issue as Amazon gets bigger and bigger.
irrational 9y ago
When I first saw the movie Wall-E, I assumed the mega-corporation Buy-N-Large was a thinly disguised Amazon. Every year that goes by reinforces that assumption.
- reaperducer 9y ago
  And Mega-Lo-Mart from King of the Hill is a thinly disguised Wal-Mart.
saalweachter 9y ago
Central planning, whether governments or megacorporations, has always let you win big ... when the central planners were competent and lucky. The reason decentralized capitalism has done so well in the long run even when centralization can really stomp it in the short run is because sooner or later you have a bad run. Maybe your central planner loses their touch or is replaced, maybe they just get unlucky and a new development or natural disaster turns a good bet bad. When that happens in a decentralized system, some part of it fails, the rest prospers, and new businesses start to replace the failed. In a centralized system, if the bet that went bad was big enough, it's game over. Healthy pieces are dragged down with the rest, and only a shattered shell remains. The information age may make it easier for a central planner to manage, but it doesn't change that basic problem.
pitaj 9y ago
Amazon isn't that centrally planned, though, is it? They are mostly a middle-man between either publishers and consumers (for books and other media) or between buyers and sellers (for all of the goods on the marketplace).
nine_k 9y ago
This is funny to read if you remember that teams within Amazon are given a lot of autonomy and responsibility, instead of being given plans from a central authority. IIRC, AWS was built as an internal thing to allow independent IT teams within Amazon to cooperate more easily, and then productized.
- tyingq 9y ago
  Probably spawned by the famous memo... https://apievangelist.com/2012/01/12/the-secret-to-amazons-success-internal-apis/ https://apievangelist.com/2012/01/12/the-secret-to-amazons-s...

by namlem 9y ago

imtringued 9y ago

And then they will outsource their core competencies to dubious third parties as they did with the amazon marketplace.

mattmanser 9y ago

The bigger they get, the more the chorus for anti-trust will grow. Look at this article for example: https://www.ft.com/content/aba8d444-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a https://www.ft.com/content/aba8d444-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f31... Which cites this too: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-parado... The problem for some of their competitors too is that if they do suddenly trigger a slew of new laws, then Google Play and the Apple Store will probably get caught up in it too. The other thing that could happen is the balkanization of the internet, where heavy trade tariffs will start being applied to America's dominant internet firms. It's already effectively happened in China. They've certainly not engendered any positive will in the rest of the world either for all their tax dodging.

gxs 9y ago
Unlike most accusations of a monopoly (see Apple) this is actually approaching something close to being applicable. One piece of anti-trust law is that you can't leverage one monopoly to create another. Can definitely see this become an issue as Amazon gets bigger and bigger.

irrational 9y ago

When I first saw the movie Wall-E, I assumed the mega-corporation Buy-N-Large was a thinly disguised Amazon. Every year that goes by reinforces that assumption.

reaperducer 9y ago
And Mega-Lo-Mart from King of the Hill is a thinly disguised Wal-Mart.

saalweachter 9y ago

Central planning, whether governments or megacorporations, has always let you win big ... when the central planners were competent and lucky. The reason decentralized capitalism has done so well in the long run even when centralization can really stomp it in the short run is because sooner or later you have a bad run. Maybe your central planner loses their touch or is replaced, maybe they just get unlucky and a new development or natural disaster turns a good bet bad. When that happens in a decentralized system, some part of it fails, the rest prospers, and new businesses start to replace the failed. In a centralized system, if the bet that went bad was big enough, it's game over. Healthy pieces are dragged down with the rest, and only a shattered shell remains. The information age may make it easier for a central planner to manage, but it doesn't change that basic problem.

pitaj 9y ago

Amazon isn't that centrally planned, though, is it? They are mostly a middle-man between either publishers and consumers (for books and other media) or between buyers and sellers (for all of the goods on the marketplace).

nine_k 9y ago

This is funny to read if you remember that teams within Amazon are given a lot of autonomy and responsibility, instead of being given plans from a central authority. IIRC, AWS was built as an internal thing to allow independent IT teams within Amazon to cooperate more easily, and then productized.

tyingq 9y ago
Probably spawned by the famous memo... https://apievangelist.com/2012/01/12/the-secret-to-amazons-success-internal-apis/ https://apievangelist.com/2012/01/12/the-secret-to-amazons-s...