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One is the content owner and the other is a distributor offering a platform and a market. They are also an ebooks monopoly and control more than half of US book

One is the content owner and the other is a distributor offering a platform and a market. They are also an ebooks monopoly and control more than half of US book sales in general. Censorship actions taken by them have effects as impactful as censorship actions undertaken by governments. Now they’re also abusing their monopoly to hinder the activities of libraries (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/amazon-library-ebook-monopoly/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/amazon-...). These big tech companies have way too much centralized power and influence. They should be regulated like utilities (required to uphold first amendment and provide equal service to everyone) or broken up or both.

tzs 6y ago
> They are also an ebooks monopoly and control more than half of US book sales in general. They have more than half of US book sales, but I wouldn't say they control half of US book sales. There are other large retail stores, such as Walmart and Target, that have large collections of books for sale that include the books that make up the vast majority of what the public buys. Oh, and Barnes and Noble is still around and they have a huge selection, too. Walmart's in-store selection is pretty limited, but they have a big online selection, and it is not just the popular books. They go pretty far into books of very limited general appeal. For example, Walmart's "Gravity Science Books" section [1] is just full of things I can't imagine more than a handful of people worldwide wanting, even if you filter it down to just books sold by Walmart and covered by Walmart+ free shipping, rather than sold by third-party resellers through Walmart's marketplace. [1] https://www.walmart.com/browse/science-books/gravity-science-books/3920_8529612_1841429_4043011 https://www.walmart.com/browse/science-books/gravity-science...

tzs 6y ago

> They are also an ebooks monopoly and control more than half of US book sales in general. They have more than half of US book sales, but I wouldn't say they control half of US book sales. There are other large retail stores, such as Walmart and Target, that have large collections of books for sale that include the books that make up the vast majority of what the public buys. Oh, and Barnes and Noble is still around and they have a huge selection, too. Walmart's in-store selection is pretty limited, but they have a big online selection, and it is not just the popular books. They go pretty far into books of very limited general appeal. For example, Walmart's "Gravity Science Books" section [1] is just full of things I can't imagine more than a handful of people worldwide wanting, even if you filter it down to just books sold by Walmart and covered by Walmart+ free shipping, rather than sold by third-party resellers through Walmart's marketplace. [1] https://www.walmart.com/browse/science-books/gravity-science-books/3920_8529612_1841429_4043011 https://www.walmart.com/browse/science-books/gravity-science...