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I enjoyed your story and generally believe Bezos and Amazon to be very shrewd marketers and PR manipulators BUT ... do you have any evidence to back up your cla

I enjoyed your story and generally believe Bezos and Amazon to be very shrewd marketers and PR manipulators BUT ... do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

hagbardgroup 13y ago
That's the beauty of manipulating the press. All the evidence is private. Your skepticism is what makes it such an effective method of molding public opinion.
- lifeofanalysis 13y ago
  Thanks for putting it so well. It is mental jujutsu. You leverage your opponent's strength against herself.
tlarkworthy 13y ago
I think the timing is pretty strong evidence
bgilroy26 13y ago
>You can get industrial motors, flanges, valves, fasteners, materials, janitorial supplies This is a precise definition of Alibaba's market segment. Alibaba connects factories directly to businesses. I don't know a ton about the company, my introduction was a story from maybe 2011 about a kid from Michigan who made a million dollars selling iPod minis to his classmates until Apple shut him down Edit: I couldn't find the link, this is the closest thing I could find http://www.startupbros.com/how-you-can-make-big-money-importing-from-china-the-rise-and-fall-of-my-empire/ http://www.startupbros.com/how-you-can-make-big-money-import...
- jonknee 13y ago
  Alibaba does a lot more than B2B. They do regular ecommerce sales like Amazon, run a financial service (you deposit money and earn interest, quite respectable interest too) and a lot more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#Companies_and_affiliated_entities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#Companies_and_aff...
sillysaurus3 13y ago
http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
libria 13y ago
WRT josefresco's request for evidence, could we not discourage these requests by downvoting? I keep seeing this lately, and I don't think he could have phrased it more politely. Whether the data (or lack of it) strengthens or weakens the argument, any challenge improves the quality of discussion, especially polite ones.
mratzloff 13y ago
His track record. Bezos did the same thing the night before Cyber Monday last year with his drone story in order to capture the news cycle for the day and get in front of consumers.

I enjoyed your story and generally believe Bezos and Amazon to be very shrewd marketers and PR manipulators BUT ... do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

hagbardgroup 13y ago

That's the beauty of manipulating the press. All the evidence is private. Your skepticism is what makes it such an effective method of molding public opinion.

lifeofanalysis 13y ago
Thanks for putting it so well. It is mental jujutsu. You leverage your opponent's strength against herself.

tlarkworthy 13y ago

I think the timing is pretty strong evidence

bgilroy26 13y ago

>You can get industrial motors, flanges, valves, fasteners, materials, janitorial supplies This is a precise definition of Alibaba's market segment. Alibaba connects factories directly to businesses. I don't know a ton about the company, my introduction was a story from maybe 2011 about a kid from Michigan who made a million dollars selling iPod minis to his classmates until Apple shut him down Edit: I couldn't find the link, this is the closest thing I could find http://www.startupbros.com/how-you-can-make-big-money-importing-from-china-the-rise-and-fall-of-my-empire/ http://www.startupbros.com/how-you-can-make-big-money-import...

jonknee 13y ago
Alibaba does a lot more than B2B. They do regular ecommerce sales like Amazon, run a financial service (you deposit money and earn interest, quite respectable interest too) and a lot more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#Companies_and_affiliated_entities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group#Companies_and_aff...

sillysaurus3 13y ago

http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

libria 13y ago

WRT josefresco's request for evidence, could we not discourage these requests by downvoting? I keep seeing this lately, and I don't think he could have phrased it more politely. Whether the data (or lack of it) strengthens or weakens the argument, any challenge improves the quality of discussion, especially polite ones.

mratzloff 13y ago

His track record. Bezos did the same thing the night before Cyber Monday last year with his drone story in order to capture the news cycle for the day and get in front of consumers.