A ridiculously busy week for everyone’s favourite cardboard abuser. Jeff Bezos both made +$13 billion in under 25 hours and was also called to testify in Congress on Wednesday. Look out for ramifications next week – and there will be many.
The three big stories this week surround competition and how Amazon chooses to run the business. Google wants to drag Sellers away from Amazon and eliminated the fees it charges retailers to let people buy direct from Google Shopping service. A huge move and show of Google’s intent to Amazon. Google wants a bigger slice of the pie – and with only 3,700 stores compared to Amazon’s 3 million active Sellers (Marketplace Pulse). Google has a long road ahead it to get there. Google is nowhere near Amazon. Without these merchants, Google won’t have enough product listings to be a leading e-commerce destination. Bloomberg has the story
“Google is the world’s dominant search engine, but almost half of Americans start looking for things to buy on Amazon, while only 22% start on Google, according to a survey last year from research firm CivicScience. Google Shopping has been around for years, but until recently retailers had to buy ads to list their products, and if people bought directly on Google the seller was on the hook for commissions of as much as 12% of the transaction. The company is nixing both these barriers, and has also started showing free product listings directly in the main search results.”
An explosive +2,000 word WSJ piece, timed with the upcoming anti-trust hearings, has highlighted Amazon’s strategy when it comes to talking with startups and then creating competitive products. Essentially, the piece alleges, Amazon invests in companies, gains their data and information and then creates products that are incredibly similar. The piece contains a description of Amazon behaving like a ‘wolf in wolf’s clothing’.
“Ms. Braga is one of more than two dozen entrepreneurs, investors and deal advisers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal who said Amazon appeared to use the investment and deal-making process to help develop competing products.
In some cases, Amazon’s decision to launch a competing product devastated the business in which it invested. In other cases, it met with startups about potential takeovers, sought to understand how their technology works, then declined to invest and later introduced similar Amazon-branded products, according to some of the entrepreneurs and investors.
An Amazon spokesman said the company doesn’t use confidential information that companies share with it to build competing products.”
Prime Day was officially delayed – without a new date set – by Amazon this week. The Verge covered the story and also notes how the COVID-19 crisis has made Bezos +$70 billion richer.
“Amazon Prime Day has been delayed in the US, the company announced today. The annual shopping event, which promises discounts for Amazon Prime members, is usually held in mid-July, but Amazon has now confirmed that it intends to hold the event “later than usual” this year. The company did not set a new date, but said it would be “sharing more details soon.”
”This year we’ll be holding Prime Day later than usual, while ensuring the safety of our employees and supporting our customers and selling partners,” a spokesperson for the company told The Verge. They added that the company plans to go ahead with a discount event in India on August 6-7. “Members all around the world will experience Prime Day later this year,” the spokesperson said.”
Think you know enough about Amazon? Now you do.
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