{"id":33945,"date":"2021-10-19T16:24:18","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T20:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=33945"},"modified":"2021-10-19T16:40:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T20:40:29","slug":"amazon-knockoffs-and-search-placement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/19\/amazon-knockoffs-and-search-placement\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Knockoffs and Search Placement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aditya Kalra and Steve Stecklow<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

A trove of internal Amazon documents reveals how the e-commerce giant ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoff goods and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India - practices it has denied engaging in. And at least two top Amazon executives reviewed the strategy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Adrianne Jeffries and Leon Yin<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

An investigation by The Markup found that Amazon places products from its house brands and products exclusive to the site ahead of those from competitors—even competitors with higher customer ratings and more sales, judging from the volume of reviews.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Mother Jones<\/em> cited several journalists who, in the words of one, claimed that Amazon is “the only company [they have] dealt with that has directly lied to me”. Several reporters used that word, “lie”, or said the company was deceitful in its responses to journalists — that it goes far beyond a typical carefully worded corporate message.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Manish Singh<\/a> (via Slashdot<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Five members of the House Judiciary Committee have accused<\/a> (PDF) Amazon’s top executives of either misleading or blatantly lying to it about its business practices and said they are considering an investigation following publication of two damning reports last week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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There’s a good argument for Amazon on this front that store brands are as old as retail. That Sears did the same thing a century ago<\/a>, and that Walmart does it now. And that of course retailers with house brands — including Amazon — look at sales data to choose what to make. But that’s not what Amazon — and Jeff Bezos in particular<\/a> — have said under oath. Bezos left Jassy with a serious mess to clean up here.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n