<
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/flywheel-shyster-and-flywheel/#unfulfilled-by-amazon>
"Amazon is a perfect parable of enshittification, the process by which
platforms first offer subsidies to end users until they're locked in, then make
life good for business customers at users' expense, until they're locked in,
then claw back all the value they can for themselves, leaving just enough
behind to keep the lock-in going.
In a new report for
SOMO, Margarida Silva describes how the end-stage
enshittification of Amazon is playing out in the EU, with Amazon repeating its
US playbook of gouging the small businesses who have no choice but to use the
platform in order to reach its locked-in customers, making European customers
and European sellers poorer:
https://www.somo.nl/amazons-european-chokehold/
The mechanism for this isn't a mystery. Amazon boasts about it! They call it
their flywheel: first, customers are lured into the platform with low prices,
especially through Prime, which requires pre-payment for a year's shipping,
which virtually guarantees that customers will start their shopping on Amazon.
Because customers now start their buying on Amazon, sellers have to be there.
The increased range of goods for sale on Amazon lures in more buyers, who lure
in more sellers, with both sides holding each other hostage:
https://vimeo.com/739486256/00a0a7379a
This flywheel creates a vicious cycle, starving local retail so that customers
can't get what they need from brick-and-mortar shops, which funnels sellers
into offering their goods for sale on Amazon. The less choice customers and
sellers have about where they shop, the more Amazon can abuse both to pad its
own bottom line."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
