Jeff Bezos + Amazon + Shareholder Supremacy = Monopoly
Jeff Bezos, the man who surpassed Bill Gates and Warren Buffet as the richest man in the world, with a net worth grossing hundred and fifty billion dollars, seems confinement that his Amazon monopoly in the making won’t at all be an issue or a shark in the water. Today Amazon approaches to be the second company in the world to pass the one trillion dollar mark. Moreover, as of the last 2018 quarter – Amazon reports profits of three billion dollars with a spike in revenue 24 times higher in the last year. With the major success of Amazon Web Services, as the world’s leading cloud computing service, Amazon reports continual growth with a net worth soon bypassing the hundred and fifty billion dollars mark. The success of Jeff Bezos is attributed to shareholder supremacy, regardless of strenuous conditions of its warehouse workers, and cutthroat working hours…all that matters is if Amazon’s share value is growing, with customers satisfied with the performance of the Amazon ecosystem.
In the Netflix series ‘Patriot Act’, Hasan Minhaj Breaks Down Amazon’s treatment of its employees and whether current antitrust laws need to be updated from “Consumer welfare standard” of an 1890’s law. But, though Hasan and other comedians, I might add, stress that we are inherently lazy and that we are so dependent Amazon services – we are left polarized… leaving us no real choice (well as far as online sales go). As comedian Tom Segura notes in another Netflix special: “No, no, no. You can sit on your couch, pull up your phone, and if you want to, just be like, “I want bananas. And I want hammers….I want an eagle’s beak…Amazon’s like, [blows raspberry] “It’s on your f— doorstep.” How about that? Isn’t that insane to you? You don’t have to leave your home to see people. You should. You don’t have to. Just hold up the same device and be like, “Hi….Bye.”
Let’s face it, Amazon absolutely dominates e-commerce, they have a stronghold on roughly half of all online sales, Amazon claims more than 90% market share. Jeff Bezos vertically integrates into strategic markets across many categories, undercutting competitors with predatory pricing. In an ideal world Trust regulators would have intervened way before Amazon would have assumed it’s dominant positions. Also because these online listing platforms serve as critical intermediaries for sellers who seek exposure in a forum that is in no way reviled, Amazon assumes dual roles when it set-ups a platform to one day potentially exploit information collected on companies using Amazon services – potentially undermining sellers as competitors, this can really form a monopoly. One way to stop this Amazon complete take-over, is potential regulations or perhaps incentives to new platforms for other businesses, for example Target has just launched it’s first third-party website similar to Amazon FBA – consumers can be prompted through brand activation and engagement of new platforms to spar Amazon and go head to head when tackling this inevitable Goliath.
Resources:
Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox
Lina Khan – https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/amazons-antitrust-paradox
In the Age Of Amazon, It’s Time To Forget What We Know About Monopolies
Allison Schrager-Allison Schrager – https://qz.com/1476480/fear-mononoplies/
What Amazon Tells Us About Antitrust Today
Zachary Mack – https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/5/18212213/amazons-facebook-break-up-antitrust-paradox-lina-kahn-vergecast
Target Launches a Curated Third-party Marketplace
Leo Sun – https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/02/27/target-launches-a-curated-third-party-marketplace.aspx