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it is usually used in the context of selling at a loss. so if amazon makes a ton of money on aws and then starts selling everything on amazon.com AT A LOSS, to
by basch 8y ago
it is usually used in the context of selling at a loss. so if amazon makes a ton of money on aws and then starts selling everything on amazon.com AT A LOSS, to purposely drive their competitors out of business, because nobody else can afford to sell at a loss for a substantial period of time. to prove it, you basically need written/recorded communication of them admitting they priced things that way to be anti competitive.
theres probably some argument to be made that uber/lyft and any of the venture capital products being sold with vc subsidization are kind of doing this.
- scarface74 8y agoI assume that almost every company that YC funds is losing money and selling thier services at a loss. How could I compete by selling profitably? The whole idea of most VC backed companies is to grow big and lose money until they get acquired.
- basch 8y agowhich is not the same as trying to purposely extinguish competition. its about INTENT, not just selling at a loss.
- jjeaff 8y agoA textbook example of this would be Bezos dropping diaper prices through the floor and doing it long enough to nearly drive diapers.com out of business. After which, he squired the company.
- scarface74 8y agoOr YC funding a company until its non YC funded competitor went out of business to make its investment worth more. I’m not saying that YC has ever done that. I’m just taking the argument to it’s logical conclusion.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- scarface74 8y agoSo all you have to do to keep from establishing “intent” is for Bezos not to send an email saying “let’s undercut price to kill the competition”....