Good article. I use amazon a lot and have tracked them since inception. I’ve never understood why amazon was allowed to practice predatory pricing for years before raising prices after crippling many competitors.
Sure that wasn’t their story line, but price rise was obvious from the start.
[quote=no_such_reality]Good article. I use amazon a lot and have tracked them since inception. I’ve never understood why amazon was allowed to practice predatory pricing for years before raising prices after crippling many competitors.
Sure that wasn’t their story line, but price rise was obvious from the start.[/quote]
When you say predatory pricing, do you mean it in the antitrust way (selling below cost) or in the “it doesn’t seem fair” way?
In the anti-trust way. For years they bankroled major losses. They eventually did away with the super deep discounts, but only after capturing market share and servely damaging their competitors. This was back when Amazon primarily sold books. Their impact has been very similar to Walmart on smaller retailers and bookstores throughout smaller cities and towns.
Amazon has become innovative and branched out, but so did Standard Oil.
Amazon lost money, and a lot of it, from 1994 to 2001 when it turned it’s first $5 million dollar positive quarter. From inception in 1994 to end of fiscal year 2001, they last $2.8 billion and lost over $2.2 Billion before ever turning a profit.
[quote=no_such_reality]In the anti-trust way. For years they bankroled major losses. They eventually did away with the super deep discounts, but only after capturing market share and servely damaging their competitors. This was back when Amazon primarily sold books. Their impact has been very similar to Walmart on smaller retailers and bookstores throughout smaller cities and towns.
Amazon has become innovative and branched out, but so did Standard Oil.
Amazon lost money, and a lot of it, from 1994 to 2001 when it turned it’s first $5 million dollar positive quarter. From inception in 1994 to end of fiscal year 2001, they last $2.8 billion and lost over $2.2 Billion before ever turning a profit.[/quote]
Well, as terrible as it is, Overstock has existed for most of Amazon’s life. In the ebook marketplace there is Apple (which did get in trouble for price fixing, but the *other* direction), Barnes and Noble does have the Nook. For consumer goods Walmart and Target still exist.
The internet has probably killed the mom and pop retail shop. But a lot of Amazon’s price undercutting is economy of scale.
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