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Is there any economics term for being "too big to care"? This seems to be a case of that, and it seems to be quite widespread at Amazon in particular. Just look

Is there any economics term for being "too big to care"? This seems to be a case of that, and it seems to be quite widespread at Amazon in particular. Just look at the mess that is the AWS console UI as another example. With all those billions and billions, you'd think that they could remedy a lot of this stuff. But alas, why bother when you are in such a dominant market position? Of course I could think of a lot of reasons, but this seems to be the mentality.

pas 5y ago
This uncaring attitude is directly a result of lack of competition. Amazon won. (Sure, there are some other big names in the game, but the online retail market is in a pathological state. As in case of other "natural monopolies" the network effect is very large, thus barriers to entry is absurdly high, hence no real competition. The incumbents are optimizing and diversifying, participating in meta-games - eg. lobbying, regulatory capture, PR, etc. Not to mention the endless cross-financing between services that muddies the waters. Eg. just as Google Search funds Chrome development, AWS finances the Amazon expansion.) Basically one oneline retail market participant optimized out almost all competition. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Retail is not really a winner take all market though. It has very low barriers to entry. There are multitude of options to use as an alternative to Amazon. https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecommerce-though-its-market-share-varies-by-category https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecomme... To Amazon's credit, they did move fast and bet big on online retail first. But since it is a low barrier to entry business, there is next to profit to be had in it, so they really do not have an incentive to keep pouring into it. Why bother playing for 2% profit margins versus Walmart and Target and Home Depot and Costco when you can earn 15%+ as a platform. If people stop using you, then oh well, switch to web services or media which have double digit profit margins, but it is not really a big loss. So I would say the uncaring attitude is due to lack of profits margins, compared to their alternative.
  - orangepenguin 5y ago
    Exactly. Once I realized I didn't like Amazon's tactics, I started switching to other sellers. For example, I now buy books on bookshop.org. For every type of product I want, I've managed to find a decent alternative either online or locally.
  - pas 5y ago
    Do we know if Cliff uses Amazon as a retailer or as a platform? > There are multitude of options to use as an alternative to Amazon. Network effects still matter. Sellers won't maintain presence on every retail site.

pas 5y ago

This uncaring attitude is directly a result of lack of competition. Amazon won. (Sure, there are some other big names in the game, but the online retail market is in a pathological state. As in case of other "natural monopolies" the network effect is very large, thus barriers to entry is absurdly high, hence no real competition. The incumbents are optimizing and diversifying, participating in meta-games - eg. lobbying, regulatory capture, PR, etc. Not to mention the endless cross-financing between services that muddies the waters. Eg. just as Google Search funds Chrome development, AWS finances the Amazon expansion.) Basically one oneline retail market participant optimized out almost all competition. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Retail is not really a winner take all market though. It has very low barriers to entry. There are multitude of options to use as an alternative to Amazon. https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecommerce-though-its-market-share-varies-by-category https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecomme... To Amazon's credit, they did move fast and bet big on online retail first. But since it is a low barrier to entry business, there is next to profit to be had in it, so they really do not have an incentive to keep pouring into it. Why bother playing for 2% profit margins versus Walmart and Target and Home Depot and Costco when you can earn 15%+ as a platform. If people stop using you, then oh well, switch to web services or media which have double digit profit margins, but it is not really a big loss. So I would say the uncaring attitude is due to lack of profits margins, compared to their alternative.
- orangepenguin 5y ago
  Exactly. Once I realized I didn't like Amazon's tactics, I started switching to other sellers. For example, I now buy books on bookshop.org. For every type of product I want, I've managed to find a decent alternative either online or locally.
- pas 5y ago
  Do we know if Cliff uses Amazon as a retailer or as a platform? > There are multitude of options to use as an alternative to Amazon. Network effects still matter. Sellers won't maintain presence on every retail site.