Month: June 2018

Amazon & Private Label. It started with a simple battery.

~ David J. Katz ~ Leave a comment

On the surface Amazon‘s move into private label appears to be a deft move.

Analysts predict that nearly half of all online shopping in the United States will be conducted on Amazon’s platform in the next couple of years. That creates a massive opportunity for Amazon to more than double revenue from its in-house brands to $25 billion in the next four years. That’s the equivalent of all of Macy’s revenue last year.

It started with a simple battery.

Continue reading “Amazon & Private Label. It started with a simple battery.” →

“We cannot build technology for equality and democracy unless we have and we harness diversity in its creation.”

~ David J. Katz ~ Leave a comment

“Continue to engage with people outside your discipline, your gender, your race. Talk with people who grew up in different places, who believe different things, who live and worship differently than you do. Talk with them, listen to them, get their perspectives… and encourage them to work in and with technology too.” – Sheryl Sandberg, in her Massachusetts Institute of Technology commencement speech.

“Even the newest technology can contain the oldest prejudices and our lack of diversity is at the root of some of the things we fail to see and prevent,” said Sandberg.

Trust, Mistrust & Antitrust. Amazon is Not Broken. Should it be Fixed?

~ David J. Katz ~ Leave a comment

“In Amazon’s early years, a running joke among Wall Street analysts was that CEO Jeff Bezos was building a house of cards. Entering its sixth year in 2000, the company had yet to crack a profit and was mounting millions of dollars in continuous losses, each quarter’s larger than the last. Nevertheless, a segment of shareholders believed that by dumping money into advertising and steep discounts, Amazon was making a sound investment that would yield returns once e-commerce took off. Each quarter the company would report losses, and its stock price would rise. One news site captured the split sentiment by asking, “Amazon: Ponzi Scheme or Wal-Mart of the Web?”” – Lina Kahn, Yale Law Review

Eighteen years later, it’s no longer a joke. No one seriously doubts that Amazon is anything but the titan of twenty-first century commerce.

Success, efficiency and scale are achievements to be admired. Should they be regulated?

Continue reading “Trust, Mistrust & Antitrust. Amazon is Not Broken. Should it be Fixed?” →