> Evidence suggests that Amazon is keenly aware of and interested in exploiting these opportunities. For example, the company has reportedly used insights gleaned from its cloud computing service to inform its investment decisions.374 By observing which start-ups are expanding their usage of Amazon Web Services, Amazon can make early assessments of the potential success of upcoming firms. Amazon has used this “unique window into the technology startup world” to invest in several start-ups that were also customers of its cloud business.375
> How Amazon has cross-leveraged its advantages across distinct lines of business suggests that the law fails to appreciate when vertical integration may prove anticompetitive. This shortcoming is underscored with online platforms, which both serve as infrastructure for other companies and collect swaths of data that they can then use to build up other lines of business. In this way, the current antitrust regime has yet to reckon with the fact that firms with concentrated control over data can systematically tilt a market in their favor, dramatically reshaping the sector.
Is there actual independent reporting on this alleged business practice?
I have heard Amazon folks "refute" this 'myth' a few times -- around the likes of WalMart / Target / BestBuy refusing to use AWS -- assuring customers that AWS and Amazon retail are strictly separate businesses.
But haven't seen real reporting on any specifics. Is it mostly conjecture?
EDIT: The part of the report I quoted has a footnote / reference to this Reuters report (dated 2011) https://www.reuters.com/article/amazon-cloud-idUSN1E7A727Q20...