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This is false in Amazon's case. Amazon sells you a rake made by a 3rd party who was put into FBA by a wholesaler and makes a reasonable cut of the profit in th

This is false in Amazon's case. Amazon sells you a rake made by a 3rd party who was put into FBA by a wholesaler and makes a reasonable cut of the profit in the process. Amazon has more control but also takes all the blame when things go wrong. Tbh, as someone who works at a business who does both the ads & selling stuff via Amazon as a manufacturer...Google actually makes more money off of us than Amazon does. I don't mean like a "little more money", I mean something like 5x as much money. This part is anecdotal obviously but I think you are very, very wrong in assuming that "Sell Product" > "Sell Ad".

sharkweek 12y ago
Amazon hardly takes all the blame when something goes wrong - they mostly just discretely recoup from the vendor all while looking like a benevolent company.
- opendais 12y ago
  Eh, I suppose. Personally, I have a very much love/hate relationship with Amazon and I blame them, not the vendor. I've had to issue a chargeback because of Amazon's incompetence...which most customer's probably haven't. It is literally the second chargeback I've ever had to do in my life, so it tends to stick with me more than it might for other people.
  - JVIDEL 12y ago
    My problem is the price: at $199 with contract is going against a lot of much better phones. The eye tracking is nothing new and 3D as a sale gimmick crashed and burned years ago and I don't amazon doing anything revolutionary with it here. If it were $200 unlocked then I can see it selling like crazy, but the current plan makes no sense, if amazon was providing the service as a MVNO and offered stuff like truly unlimited data and stuff then maybe, just maybe, but $199 for this phone and on AT&T? PASS....
giovannibajo1 12y ago
When you say 5x, are you considering the acquisition cost for each product sold, or the annual budget? Unless you only sell through Amazon, then a global comparison wouldn't be fair, because Google is semi-monopolist in ads while Amazon is far from it in retail. You should compare your average user acquisition cost with the wholesale margin left to Amazon; eg: how much does it cost to acquire through ads a user that buys products for $100? And how much of those $100 are left to Amazon?
- opendais 12y ago
  > When you say 5x, are you considering the acquisition cost for each product sold, or the annual budget? When I say 5x, I mean Google gets 5x the amount of money than Amazon does. I think that is more relevant than a "per item" basis. > Unless you only sell through Amazon, then a global comparison wouldn't be fair, because Google is semi-monopolist in ads while Amazon is far from it in retail. It isn't my fault Amazon can't sell more of our products. ;) > You should compare your average user acquisition cost with the wholesale margin left to Amazon; eg: how much does it cost to acquire through ads a user that buys products for $100? And how much of those $100 are left to Amazon? That is a bad way of comparing for purposes of this conversation. Amazon has to pay for shipping, pick & pack, customer service, return shipping, etc. That isn't free.
  - whatusername 12y ago
    Don't forget -- Google will show ads to me when I go looking for a rake. Amazon will tell me "Sorry, we don't ship rakes to your country"
    - modfodder 12y ago
      Or Amazon will tell you that rake's not available because they are trying to renegotiate their contract with the rake supplier.
    - opendais 12y ago
      More importantly, Google knows when you are looking for services and can market to that as well.
autokad 12y ago
- Amazon has more control but also takes all the blame when things go wrong. that would make it sound like amazon's current business model isnt working, which I think its doing pretty well. Amazon has razor thin margins for sure
- opendais 12y ago
  That isn't what I meant. Amazon's business model works. It just doesn't take "100% of the profits" by any stretch of the imagination. Sorry if that was unclear.
- autokad 12y ago
  ops, yeah i get you now

sharkweek 12y ago

Amazon hardly takes all the blame when something goes wrong - they mostly just discretely recoup from the vendor all while looking like a benevolent company.

opendais 12y ago
Eh, I suppose. Personally, I have a very much love/hate relationship with Amazon and I blame them, not the vendor. I've had to issue a chargeback because of Amazon's incompetence...which most customer's probably haven't. It is literally the second chargeback I've ever had to do in my life, so it tends to stick with me more than it might for other people.
- JVIDEL 12y ago
  My problem is the price: at $199 with contract is going against a lot of much better phones. The eye tracking is nothing new and 3D as a sale gimmick crashed and burned years ago and I don't amazon doing anything revolutionary with it here. If it were $200 unlocked then I can see it selling like crazy, but the current plan makes no sense, if amazon was providing the service as a MVNO and offered stuff like truly unlimited data and stuff then maybe, just maybe, but $199 for this phone and on AT&T? PASS....

giovannibajo1 12y ago

When you say 5x, are you considering the acquisition cost for each product sold, or the annual budget? Unless you only sell through Amazon, then a global comparison wouldn't be fair, because Google is semi-monopolist in ads while Amazon is far from it in retail. You should compare your average user acquisition cost with the wholesale margin left to Amazon; eg: how much does it cost to acquire through ads a user that buys products for $100? And how much of those $100 are left to Amazon?

opendais 12y ago
> When you say 5x, are you considering the acquisition cost for each product sold, or the annual budget? When I say 5x, I mean Google gets 5x the amount of money than Amazon does. I think that is more relevant than a "per item" basis. > Unless you only sell through Amazon, then a global comparison wouldn't be fair, because Google is semi-monopolist in ads while Amazon is far from it in retail. It isn't my fault Amazon can't sell more of our products. ;) > You should compare your average user acquisition cost with the wholesale margin left to Amazon; eg: how much does it cost to acquire through ads a user that buys products for $100? And how much of those $100 are left to Amazon? That is a bad way of comparing for purposes of this conversation. Amazon has to pay for shipping, pick & pack, customer service, return shipping, etc. That isn't free.
- whatusername 12y ago
  Don't forget -- Google will show ads to me when I go looking for a rake. Amazon will tell me "Sorry, we don't ship rakes to your country"
  - modfodder 12y ago
    Or Amazon will tell you that rake's not available because they are trying to renegotiate their contract with the rake supplier.
  - opendais 12y ago
    More importantly, Google knows when you are looking for services and can market to that as well.

autokad 12y ago

- Amazon has more control but also takes all the blame when things go wrong. that would make it sound like amazon's current business model isnt working, which I think its doing pretty well. Amazon has razor thin margins for sure

opendais 12y ago
That isn't what I meant. Amazon's business model works. It just doesn't take "100% of the profits" by any stretch of the imagination. Sorry if that was unclear.
autokad 12y ago
ops, yeah i get you now