That's amazing. It's clearly a scam and it's been going on for almost 1 year. This really hurts Amazon's credibility and can't be good for them in the long-term. It doesn't seem rational at all.
If I’m reading commentary correctly, Amazon would invest in other companies using its Alexa fund in order to gain access to their data and then actively operate in a way that undermines the success of the company. Sounds like they’re essentially enjoying most of the benefits of purchasing a company but for a fraction of the price. Rather than spend their own capital to do the hard legwork of building and validating a product idea, they’re effectively spending others’ and then swooping in for the bait and switch kill.
If I were a founder or board member I’d be super skeptical about ever taking money from Amazon in light of this news.
If this isn’t illegal it at least seems wildly unethical. If it’s neither of those and considered an acceptable tactic, then perhaps companies are generally undervaluing themselves otherwise it wouldn't be financially feasible?
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That would make sense if it's the case, but in that case, is it really worth it for Amazon to give up that protection for the tens of millions of dollars at stake here? I would've thought they'd still prefer to pay that.
Wow this is something where Amazon wants to kill a service for no apparent reason. Maybe to use the domain for their Alexa AI instead? Otherwise to restrict information on the internet.
SlickDeals developed something similar but my understanding is that Amazon "asked" them to kill it or severely cripple it. Amazon's got a big stick and isn't afraid to weild it.l here.
Well, yes, and that's not some circumvention of measures like this, but the intent of these sorts of anti-competitive laws.
Amazon can use the same data they've been using all this time, but they must not put themselves in a special position in acquiring that data. If they want to publish their sales data for free or for a price that they themselves pay, that's fine, as long as others can also get the data.
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