The hypocrisy of Amazon | Hacker News Reader

The hypocrisy of Amazon

weblog.masukomi.org

12 pointsraganwald7 comments

They're doing it because it's cheaper to develop their own app than to pay vast amounts in commision to someone else's app.

Profitability is the good reason they're doing it. That's the point. They're a commercial company not a non-profit.

You're free to use a non-profit alternative such as openlibrary.org instead.

Totally agreed. There are probably elements of quality control and disambiguation as well. How would it benefit Amazon to have dozens of Amazon iPhone apps, likely of variable quality, available to consumers? Seems to make most sense to have a single branded application from a business and user experience perspective.

If that held up in anything beyond the short term then Amazon would have killed their associates program years ago. The fact of the matter is that the associates program may cost them 5% of the sales but they believe it makes them significantly more profit than they would have without it. And, there is absolutely no doubt that Amazon has the stats to back up that belief.

I had the same thought as you, but it just doesn't hold up when you think about it from anything but a short-sighted perspective.

If I were amazon, and people were making apps as cool as Mazo to sell products for me I would set them loose on the world without hesitation. So what if they outshine the Amazon built app. Doing so would result in more enjoyment of a product that drives amazon sales, and provide an extremely cheap form of R&D for what features they should include in their own mobile app / site.

you know, you might have a point. perhaps amazon should open up their mobile apis. but the language you used in your blog entry isn't helping your cause any! you are not likely to get people to change their minds by using inflammatory words like "hypocrisy."

I dunno, thousands of people reading that you're a hypocrite does tend to have an effect. They have two options: 1) do nothing, and watch mobile phone developers either move to whatever API steps in to fill the void or go rogue and use their service without permission or adherence to the rules or 2) open it back up like it used to be.

I realized that Amazon is the 800lb gorilla but if another book / movie seller can step in with a competing API before Amazon stops being stupid, they could steal a significant number of future sales from Amazon.

Also, regarding the use of "hypocrisy" if it weren't true I would agree with you. But in this case it's not just an inflammatory insult. It's like being called a "pig f@#$er" if you don't actually have intercourse with pigs it's just an obnoxious insult. If you do the effects of being called it are radically different.

I called them hypocrites because, in this instance, that's exactly what they are.

The Amazon Associates program has a bunch of limitations on how affiliates can promote Amazon. Their current stance on the mobile channel is not unique in that regard.

I developed a site that allows people to access book info via phone (www.fonefu.com), and was dismayed to find that Amazon rolled out a similar service with the added competitive advantage of allowing the user to pay for the transaction over the phone as well.

They should have opened this up - alas, things like this happen when you play in a walled garden.

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