Inside Amazon-dot-com

Less than an hour ago, Amazon prompted KDP authors (like me) to write an email to  Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch,  supporting their point of view in their negotiation with Hachette.   It's interesting on how Amazon is finally realizing that it's bullying tactics towards traditional media corporations that are already facing financial challenges are no longer working, and given the enormous size of Amazon, the public now views Amazon with suspicion and as the bully.  While in its email Amazon makes some valid points about how lower cost will actually increase the size of the business by increasing volume, it fails to mention that lowering prices of popular, top-rated eBooks will also result in increased sales of the Kindle devices, eventually allowing it to sell those devices at profit rather than selling them as a cost. This is called vertical competition, consumers have a annual budget for books in their mind and if eBooks are lot cheaper than books, then the br...

Interesting infographic by  Institute for Local Self-Reliance  presents the darker side of Amazon.com. 

Amazon.com (AMZN) is putting up its first warehouse in Mumbai, India’s largest city, practically announcing just how serious it is in breaking into the market of second most populous country in the world. Mumbai alone has a 12-million-strong population and more than 3 million active users on the Web. It’s an e-commerce market worth more than $5 billion in 2010 – and it’s expanding at a double-digit rate year after year! Admittedly, most of this value comes from the Internet travel industry, which is not (yet) Amazon’s line of business. Nonetheless, India’s e-commerce sector is also growing at a rapid pace.  What Amazon will probably do is acquire a significant local Indian retailer, fold the acquired retailer into Amazon, and then grow from there.  That’s how they did it in China, remember? Amazon bought Joyo.com for $75 million and turned it into Amazon.cn.  In India, Letsbuy.com, FlipKart, and Specifically.in – all trusted local online retailers – a...