5 ms·

This may be the funniest and saddest thing I've read all year. So $MEGACORP abuses their absolute monopolistic position in the market to underhandedly negotiat

This may be the funniest and saddest thing I've read all year. So $MEGACORP abuses their absolute monopolistic position in the market to underhandedly negotiate with book publishers and force their hand into working the way $MEGACORP wants: in order to gain access to $MEGACORPs completely dominated (but technically not a monopoly*) audience who wishes to buy books in a convenient way online, book publishers must bow down to $MEGACORP and pay the tax. Meanwhile, everyone else who sells books through alternative avenues is decimated because the audience only wants to buy books through $MEGACORP. And you can replace $MEGACORP with both 'Apple' and 'Amazon', and it is 100% factually accurate. Beautiful. It's fucking turtles eating turtles all the way down.

lostlogin 3y ago
> This may be the funniest and saddest thing I've read all year. ‘Funniest thing in a fortnight’ sounds less impressive. You’re comment is actually funny, the OPs just makes one sad and frustrated.
dsign 3y ago
This must be f*cking really hard with our culture. I for once can say that I have been reading less because Amazon's recommendation algorithm keeps throwing at me books with trendy covers that make me cringe. And same with the blurbs. Sometimes, if I manage to go over my cringe reaction to those two things, the book under it is actually good. Therefore, I get a feeling authors and publishers feel they need to imitate the crowd and make the book look childish from the outside, in order to mollify The Algorithm.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
  Have you tried storygraph?
fallingknife 3y ago
It's not really comparable because Amazon never did anything to try to stop anyone from buying books through any other channel. The platform they do own, AWS, unlike the iphone, is perfectly open to competitors to Amazon's retail business.
- stetrain 3y ago
  Unless you count selling books at a loss to hurt their competition. It's a less direct form of market manipulation and one that doesn't usually meet the US's legal standards for antitrust, but it's a strategy Amazon loves to use.
  - fallingknife 3y ago
    A quick google search doesn't turn up many good sources on that allegation. The best I could find says that they do make a small profit but at a much lower margin than bookstores, which makes sense given Amazon's business model. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/07/13/the-book-h-is-for-hawk-lists-for-26-amazon-sells-it-for-40-less-is-that-a-problem/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/07/13...
    - stetrain 3y ago
      That article lists one example which "likely still turns a small profit", and contains allegations from other groups that Amazon is selling some books below cost. That small margin above wholesale in the article's example is probably still effectively selling at a loss when you account for overhead of running the store, shipping, etc. It certainly would be for a smaller competitor. Either of those represents a price that a competitor whose only business is selling books cannot compete with. Amazon can offer these prices as a loss leader because of their position in other markets, not because it has found a more optimal way to run the business of selling books.
      - fallingknife 3y ago
        News articles are for clicks. If they could find an example of selling at a loss, they would have used that because it would get more clicks. The fact that they couldn't find one tells me that the allegations are likely to be false. The fact that googling "Amazon selling books at a loss" didn't turn up massive amounts of articles from anti-tech media companies also tells me that. The fact that selling books at a loss to drive out competition (which is, in fact, illegal) is not even mentioned in the anti-trust complaint against Amazon tells me that the allegations are false.
macspoofing 3y ago
Indeed - the irony was not lost on me of someone from Amazon complaining about Apple's anti-competitive behaviour. The difference is that what Amazon does is not limited to the book publishing space and a particular device. Amazon forces ALL of their sellers to normalize prices for all customers an all platforms.
fennecfoxy 3y ago
And the losers at the end of the day, are the consumers. Amazon & Apple are still making money hand over fist.
rustcleaner 3y ago
Piracy: it's the only sure way out!

lostlogin 3y ago

> This may be the funniest and saddest thing I've read all year. ‘Funniest thing in a fortnight’ sounds less impressive. You’re comment is actually funny, the OPs just makes one sad and frustrated.

dsign 3y ago

This must be f*cking really hard with our culture. I for once can say that I have been reading less because Amazon's recommendation algorithm keeps throwing at me books with trendy covers that make me cringe. And same with the blurbs. Sometimes, if I manage to go over my cringe reaction to those two things, the book under it is actually good. Therefore, I get a feeling authors and publishers feel they need to imitate the crowd and make the book look childish from the outside, in order to mollify The Algorithm.

SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
Have you tried storygraph?

fallingknife 3y ago

It's not really comparable because Amazon never did anything to try to stop anyone from buying books through any other channel. The platform they do own, AWS, unlike the iphone, is perfectly open to competitors to Amazon's retail business.

stetrain 3y ago
Unless you count selling books at a loss to hurt their competition. It's a less direct form of market manipulation and one that doesn't usually meet the US's legal standards for antitrust, but it's a strategy Amazon loves to use.
- fallingknife 3y ago
  A quick google search doesn't turn up many good sources on that allegation. The best I could find says that they do make a small profit but at a much lower margin than bookstores, which makes sense given Amazon's business model. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/07/13/the-book-h-is-for-hawk-lists-for-26-amazon-sells-it-for-40-less-is-that-a-problem/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/07/13...
  - stetrain 3y ago
    That article lists one example which "likely still turns a small profit", and contains allegations from other groups that Amazon is selling some books below cost. That small margin above wholesale in the article's example is probably still effectively selling at a loss when you account for overhead of running the store, shipping, etc. It certainly would be for a smaller competitor. Either of those represents a price that a competitor whose only business is selling books cannot compete with. Amazon can offer these prices as a loss leader because of their position in other markets, not because it has found a more optimal way to run the business of selling books.
    - fallingknife 3y ago
      News articles are for clicks. If they could find an example of selling at a loss, they would have used that because it would get more clicks. The fact that they couldn't find one tells me that the allegations are likely to be false. The fact that googling "Amazon selling books at a loss" didn't turn up massive amounts of articles from anti-tech media companies also tells me that. The fact that selling books at a loss to drive out competition (which is, in fact, illegal) is not even mentioned in the anti-trust complaint against Amazon tells me that the allegations are false.

macspoofing 3y ago

Indeed - the irony was not lost on me of someone from Amazon complaining about Apple's anti-competitive behaviour. The difference is that what Amazon does is not limited to the book publishing space and a particular device. Amazon forces ALL of their sellers to normalize prices for all customers an all platforms.

fennecfoxy 3y ago

And the losers at the end of the day, are the consumers. Amazon & Apple are still making money hand over fist.

rustcleaner 3y ago

Piracy: it's the only sure way out!