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The issue with your proposed model is that it assumes Amazon is a neutral actor who are attempting to accurately predict what you would like. In reality, Amazo
by Closi 5y ago
The issue with your proposed model is that it assumes Amazon is a neutral actor who are attempting to accurately predict what you would like.
In reality, Amazon are incentivized to sell you more stuff, so allowing them to calculate ratings through some mysterious black box would introduce perverse incentives (i.e. Amazon is incentivized to sell more higher-margin stuff - would they be more tempted to inflate a product that is actually a '4 star' to a '5 star' to close the deal? Also how can we be sure that their black-box algorithm doesn't generally inflate Fire tablets and deflate iPads? This can happen even if the algorithm is entirely open).
Secondly, would probably reduce trust in the product rating system (as it will be necessarily opaque and hard to understand compared to the existing approach of averaging the reviews).
Amazon won't even fix basic review gaming - not because they can't (otherwise they would have acquired Fakespot) - but presumably because fake reviews help with sales.
- rgavuliak 5y agoYou say Amazon is incentivized to sell you more stuff, but this case clearly says they care more about objective ratings than about sales :)
- Closi 5y agoI don't think that logically follows :) If Amazon had a ratings black box, they would not be incentivised to be fair with it. But a simple-to-understand ratings system may help sales more than an untrustworthy-black-box calculated rating (particularly considering reviews are about trust).
- nisegami 5y agoI feel like the returns are the problem here.
- Fnoord 5y agoIn a healthy free market a competitor to Amazon might fix the problem and grab serious marketshare in the process. I have some hope. Not much though, due to the sheer size of the behemoth.