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This argument seems sound. Amazon is not a neutral entity or a public space. It's a private platform with its own interests that are very often in conflict wit
by dgb23 3y ago
This argument seems sound.
Amazon is not a neutral entity or a public space. It's a private platform with its own interests that are very often in conflict with sellers.
There is this weird cultural expectation of platforms and platform-like applications (social media, multiplayer video games, online stores, proprietary libraries/engines, even entertainment media "universes" and franchises etc.). Participants and consumers seem to think that these platforms are somehow public spaces that they partially own, or at least they act that way.
But you only own what you actually own.
There are legal instruments and structures that actually let you partially own things and/or grant you rights so you can act on these kinds of expectations: coops, open source and other such licenses etc.
When internet culture and commerce wants to mature, then maybe we should start focusing more on building on _legally_ trustworthy foundations.
- Eisenstein 3y agoExcept when you corner the entire market and use your position to stifle competition. Then it doesn't matter what you 'own'; you are breaking the law.
- fyrn_ 3y agoThat's nice, but the reality is that Amazon has almost 90% control of e-commerce. They have huge monopoly power, and laws exist to protect consumers from that. Is it the ideal way to build a society? No, But the government should still step in when it happens.
- abduhl 3y ago90% by what metric?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- fyrn_ 3y agoI actually misread fig. 14 from the article which was the set of top market participants. So it has a 90% share of the ecommerce of those top 5, not the whole market. Honestly feel the article intended that misreading
- nearbuy 3y agoThey have about a 38% market share of e-commerce in the US, far ahead of any competitors, but also far from 90%. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274255/market-share-of-the-leading-retailers-in-us-e-commerce/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/274255/market-share-of-t...
- mcguire 3y ago(The next leading market share is Walmart's 6.3%.)