Hacker News Reader

Comment by ineedasername | Hacker News Reader

I don't see how this is a threat to Google or Facebook. Amazon isn't encroaching in their ad spaces. They're just placing ads in their own site. (And they already do some of this)

Regardless, I think it's a bad move. If there's one thing I'd dislike more than having to scroll though a few pages of miscategorized items, it's having to go through more ads to do it.

View on HN

Amazon has the best data on user purchase history. They are already building the tech for displaying mobile ads and ML based targeting behind the scenes. The choice to show them only in the Amazon app is a business decision and not a technical limitation. One day some VP from the ads team will make a fancy presentation to Bezos on how Amazon could make a killing by supporting more mobile apps and then the business direction will change instantaneously. This day is the threat to existing ad platforms.

This would mimic the strategy they've always taken, of building now products to serve themselves, and then turning them into a platform for others.

The data they collect on users is the threat to google or Facebook. That means they can have better targeting and start their own ad network.

If commerce based data is better than search or “like” based data (which it should be) then they can offer a more cost effective platform. This is a direct shot across the bow.

Product advertising isn't necessarily better than search or social advertising, it's just different. It's unlikely that amazon will be competitive with FB on political advertising, advertising for events, local advertising, ect.

But what would their own ad network run on besides their own e-commerce ecosphere? It leaves google and facebook with their unique offerings, and simply adds a third. Unless you think advertising dollars would shift from google to amazon?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com