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Its not a monopoly over all ecommerce. However there are certain markets where the sellers, for example book publishers, are totally at the mercy of amazon beca
by Areading314 6y ago
Its not a monopoly over all ecommerce. However there are certain markets where the sellers, for example book publishers, are totally at the mercy of amazon because they have become the only de facto distribution channel for certain products like e-books (there are others as well). So its great for customers but it still has severe negative consequences for authors and publishers. Technically this is known as a "monopsony" but it's bad just in the same way a monopoly is.
- nickpp 6y agoSo I guess any company becomes a "monopoly" if you reduce enough the definition of its field?!
- BlueTemplar 6y agoIndeed.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoThe key thing economists look to, to define a monopoly, is that the company has the power to set prices. This is in the economic sense: that there isn’t some give-and-take supply-and-demand setting prices for them, and they just happen to record that. When Office Depot was considering a Staples merger a while back, the Feds looked at the price of corporate office supply services in markets where there was only one of each firm, and found them higher than in markets where both competed. This despite the fact they didn’t have a monopoly on, say, copy paper.
- Terretta 6y agoJust because Amazon shoppers may ignore prices elsewhere doesn't mean Amazon can "set" prices. It may mean Amazon understands their shoppers' price sensitivity, to be sure, but I can find almost anything on there elsewhere for less, or also for more.