5 ms·

Monopoly usually follows monopsony. I do not expect book prices to be kept low by Amazon, if Amazon manage to kill off the major publishing houses. And their wi

Monopoly usually follows monopsony. I do not expect book prices to be kept low by Amazon, if Amazon manage to kill off the major publishing houses. And their willingness to make exceptions for politician's books in their corporate spats is outrageous.

icebraining 12y ago
Monopoly usually follows monopsony. Does it? For a business with a low barrier to entry like selling books? I'd like to see some examples. The reason Amazon can have a monopsony is because it keeps prices low. It retains customers and forces publishers to go through them. If they raised prices, they'd lose their advantage, and there are plenty of competitors ready to take the market, including well funded companies (e.g. Apple and Google). If this was what's usually called a "natural monopoly", maybe that could be argued, but book selling - and especially ebook selling - is anything but.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  Hmm, you have a very good point. Amazon are sitting pretty at the moment, but if something like crowdfunding authors became popular, Amazon could lose market pretty quickly. That said, if you look at the big 4, they largely consist of mergers of very old companies, and Amazon is really the only successful ebook seller in english at the moment, even Google seems to have problems getting far in that market. So the barriers to entry may be higher than you think.
  - monkeyprojects 12y ago
    The barrier to entry against the Kindle that is on my bedside cabinet and many others is virtually impossible to remove. Amazon offer a painless way of adding books to the device. Buying a book takes seconds and it magically appears on the front page of the device waiting to be read. Its one reason why book piracy didn't go as insane as music piracy, the means of adding books was easier than the device
    - fpgeek 12y ago
      Yes, but the Kindles on bedside cabinets are a rounding error compared to the smartphones and tablets in use today (let alone in a few years). I know there are people who prefer e-ink readers, but they're a small and shrinking slice of the market (at least if the pace of new e-reader releases is anything to go by).
      - monkeyprojects 12y ago
        True but once you've got that original library of books on your reading device on what app are you going to purchase additional books on? On my ipad I have iBooks, Marvin and Kindle. The first app I open is the Kindle due to the 180+ books that already sit on Kindle's cloud. And I doubt that is going to change. As an utter aside I do have an e-ink reader. I went from an ipad and kindle to an ipad mini and then back to the former. Reading on an e-ink device a fall asleep reading on an ipad mini the light kept me awake...
        fpgeek 12y ago
        > once you've got that original library of books on your reading device on what app are you going to purchase additional books on? My answer is: it depends. My wife and I have well over a thousand books on Kindle, but I've got a growing library of Kobo books (from taking advantage of some impressive discount coupons) and almost everything DRM-free I get outside a major ebookstore (e.g. books bought directly from publishers or authors) goes straight into Google Books (they're the best with uploads). Yes, having books scattered across multiple apps isn't perfect, but it isn't that big a deal, either. Amazon has a significant edge (especially with customer service), but it is nowhere near insurmountable.
    - PeterisP 12y ago
      I see no entry barrier caused by those Kindles - a book from Amazon appears on the device just as fast as a book from any other supplier that is willing to email that book to myname@kindle.com . If your service doesn't give easy access to drm-free ebooks in standard formats, then any barriers are caused by them and not Amazon.

icebraining 12y ago

Monopoly usually follows monopsony. Does it? For a business with a low barrier to entry like selling books? I'd like to see some examples. The reason Amazon can have a monopsony is because it keeps prices low. It retains customers and forces publishers to go through them. If they raised prices, they'd lose their advantage, and there are plenty of competitors ready to take the market, including well funded companies (e.g. Apple and Google). If this was what's usually called a "natural monopoly", maybe that could be argued, but book selling - and especially ebook selling - is anything but.

lotsofmangos 12y ago
Hmm, you have a very good point. Amazon are sitting pretty at the moment, but if something like crowdfunding authors became popular, Amazon could lose market pretty quickly. That said, if you look at the big 4, they largely consist of mergers of very old companies, and Amazon is really the only successful ebook seller in english at the moment, even Google seems to have problems getting far in that market. So the barriers to entry may be higher than you think.
- monkeyprojects 12y ago
  The barrier to entry against the Kindle that is on my bedside cabinet and many others is virtually impossible to remove. Amazon offer a painless way of adding books to the device. Buying a book takes seconds and it magically appears on the front page of the device waiting to be read. Its one reason why book piracy didn't go as insane as music piracy, the means of adding books was easier than the device
  - fpgeek 12y ago
    Yes, but the Kindles on bedside cabinets are a rounding error compared to the smartphones and tablets in use today (let alone in a few years). I know there are people who prefer e-ink readers, but they're a small and shrinking slice of the market (at least if the pace of new e-reader releases is anything to go by).
    - monkeyprojects 12y ago
      True but once you've got that original library of books on your reading device on what app are you going to purchase additional books on? On my ipad I have iBooks, Marvin and Kindle. The first app I open is the Kindle due to the 180+ books that already sit on Kindle's cloud. And I doubt that is going to change. As an utter aside I do have an e-ink reader. I went from an ipad and kindle to an ipad mini and then back to the former. Reading on an e-ink device a fall asleep reading on an ipad mini the light kept me awake...
      - fpgeek 12y ago
        > once you've got that original library of books on your reading device on what app are you going to purchase additional books on? My answer is: it depends. My wife and I have well over a thousand books on Kindle, but I've got a growing library of Kobo books (from taking advantage of some impressive discount coupons) and almost everything DRM-free I get outside a major ebookstore (e.g. books bought directly from publishers or authors) goes straight into Google Books (they're the best with uploads). Yes, having books scattered across multiple apps isn't perfect, but it isn't that big a deal, either. Amazon has a significant edge (especially with customer service), but it is nowhere near insurmountable.
  - PeterisP 12y ago
    I see no entry barrier caused by those Kindles - a book from Amazon appears on the device just as fast as a book from any other supplier that is willing to email that book to myname@kindle.com . If your service doesn't give easy access to drm-free ebooks in standard formats, then any barriers are caused by them and not Amazon.