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People thought they were opening a business on amazon selling retail. Then amazon started selling the profitable products themselves, storing the products thems
by stcredzero 7y ago
People thought they were opening a business on amazon selling retail. Then amazon started selling the profitable products themselves, storing the products themselves, ... basically doing more and more of the work and taking more control and taking money from the people who helped them become powerful.
Isn't this a pattern with big tech companies and their walled gardens? "App devs thought they were starting a business on the bigco app store, selling direct to users. Then bigco started making their in-built versions of the popular apps themselves... basically doing more and more of the work and taking more control and taking money from the people who helped them become powerful."
- pwinnski 7y agoThis is a pattern with every such environment I can think of. Most people are unlikely to stop at a random house on a street with a sign out front saying "Stuff for sale," and will instead meet that same seller with that same stuff at a flea market, because the flea market provides some small aura of respectability. But not a ton, so even more people will only shop at a "real store." The marginal cost of selling out of your house is essentially zero, but your market size is tiny. The flea market costs a little bit, but gives you a little bigger potential market. Getting into a retail store or a big online store like Amazon costs even more, but gives your a much bigger potential market. So as a seller, you do it, but of course all such outlets eventually try to maximize their own profits at the expense of the sellers, and so it continues.