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I wish this elaborated more on how Amazon is a monopoly. The interviewee defines it as having the power to set prices and exclude competition. I don’t see eithe
by mikeash 7y ago
I wish this elaborated more on how Amazon is a monopoly. The interviewee defines it as having the power to set prices and exclude competition. I don’t see either of those happening. There’s a ton of competition, more than enough to severely limit their ability to set prices.
- scoofy 7y agoYou're looking at it as the customer being the people buying things off of amazon. They are in a sense, but not the sense that is important here. The the sellers on amazon are customers of their marketplace. Much like Colgate and Crest might fight over ideal shelf space in a supermarket (and be changed accordingly by the market), the sellers on amazon must pay the price to be on amazon. Amazon has the power to set prices of appearing in their marketplace, where, and for what keywords. Amazon is also now selling their own merchandise on those same (digital) shelves. There are few alternatives to amazon for online retailers. So, to reach customers, many retailers must use amazon, despite the rent-collection they do. The next marketplace for online retail is walmart.com, which, and lets be honest, when was the last time any of us went to walmart.com...
- mikeash 7y agoThere are plenty of alternatives to Amazon for sellers too. None of them are as big, but they are there. If Amazon has the power to set prices, why are their prices the same as everyone else’s?
- scoofy 7y agoWe don't see the price to use amazon to sell things. We only see the retail price. A marketplace can be using monopolistic-pricing to capture returns from the retailer.