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> Aren't they playing really nice and even operating at loss until they become a monopoly? No, they aren't. They publish their financial statement every quarte

> Aren't they playing really nice and even operating at loss until they become a monopoly? No, they aren't. They publish their financial statement every quarter. Generally their revenue is very close to their expenses. Given that, it's impossible that "operating at loss" is an accurate characterization of their business strategy. Jeff Bezos has a saying; "Your margin is my opportunity." It lays out pretty clearly what Amazon's actual business strategy is, and it lines up well with their financial statements. Target a very small profit margin, move into every possible market by accepting a lower profit margin than incumbents, make money by leveraging scale and network effects to drive down costs in ways that other businesses can't replicate.

mrtksn 7y ago
What I meant was pre-monopoly. The times when a company is constantly loosing money, like Uber. Anyway, what happens when there are no competitors because the margins are too slim to be profitable without being at Amazon scale? If they are not a charity these margins will get fattier as much as their hearts desires. Their potential competitors won't be able to say "your fat margins are my opportunity" because Amazon will be able to do all kinds of anti-competative things. Thanks god we have laws that keeps monopolies in check but sometimes these laws can move quite slowly and the damage may not be possbible to repair. Like with the case with Mocrosoft and Google.
- dodobirdlord 7y ago
  > Anyway, what happens when there are no competitors because the margins are too slim to be profitable without being at Amazon scale? If they are not a charity these margins will get fattier as much as their hearts desires. If Amazon significantly raises their prices, then suddenly their prices aren't particularly hard to compete against. > Amazon will be able to do all kinds of anti-competative things I think we can cross this bridge when Amazon starts doing anti-competitive things.

mrtksn 7y ago

What I meant was pre-monopoly. The times when a company is constantly loosing money, like Uber. Anyway, what happens when there are no competitors because the margins are too slim to be profitable without being at Amazon scale? If they are not a charity these margins will get fattier as much as their hearts desires. Their potential competitors won't be able to say "your fat margins are my opportunity" because Amazon will be able to do all kinds of anti-competative things. Thanks god we have laws that keeps monopolies in check but sometimes these laws can move quite slowly and the damage may not be possbible to repair. Like with the case with Mocrosoft and Google.

dodobirdlord 7y ago
> Anyway, what happens when there are no competitors because the margins are too slim to be profitable without being at Amazon scale? If they are not a charity these margins will get fattier as much as their hearts desires. If Amazon significantly raises their prices, then suddenly their prices aren't particularly hard to compete against. > Amazon will be able to do all kinds of anti-competative things I think we can cross this bridge when Amazon starts doing anti-competitive things.