Have a great idea and want to pitch it to Amazon? Is Amazon interested in investing in your company? Think twice. The Wall Street Journal reported today the online behemoth has a penchant for stealing ideas. The newspaper reported:
Ms. Braga is one of more than two dozen entrepreneurs, investors and deal advisers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal who said Amazon appeared to use the investment and deal-making process to help develop competing products.Amazon doesn't play nice. Imagine.
In some cases, Amazon’s decision to launch a competing product devastated the business in which it invested. In other cases, it met with startups about potential takeovers, sought to understand how their technology works, then declined to invest and later introduced similar Amazon-branded products, according to some of the entrepreneurs and investors.
An Amazon spokesman said the company doesn’t use confidential information that companies share with it to build competing products.
Dealing with Amazon is often a double-edged sword for entrepreneurs. Amazon’s size and presence in many industries, including cloud-computing, electronic devices and logistics, can make it beneficial to work with. But revealing too much information could expose companies to competitive risks.....
In April, the Journal reported that Amazon employees on the private-label side of its business have used data about individual third-party sellers on its site to create competing products. Amazon said it was conducting an internal investigation into the practices described in the story....
In 2010, Amazon invested in daily-deals website LivingSocial, gaining a 30% stake and representation on the startup’s board. Former LivingSocial executives said Amazon began requesting data. “They asked for our customer list, merchant list, sales data. They had a competitive product and they demanded all of this,” said one former executive. LivingSocial declined to hand over the data, this person said.
LivingSocial executives began hearing from clients that Amazon was contacting them directly and offering them better terms, some former executives said. Amazon also began hiring away LivingSocial employees. Groupon Inc. bought LivingSocial, including Amazon’s stake, in 2016....
“They find technology they think is extremely valuable and seduce people to engage with them, and then cut off all communication after initial sessions with an inventor or company,” Mr. Fabricant said. “Years later, lo and behold, the technology is in an Amazon device.” ... Rest of article.
7 comments:
You’re right. Bezos (Amazon) doesn’t play nice. He is on the “list” of people that you don’t want to be associated with right now. So, to say the least he will do what it takes to make a dollar and damaging people doesn’t mean anything to him. After all, you can say Amazon this or Amazon that but I’m the end Bezos is where the buck stops. It really makes me want to delete my amazon account. Wealthy people don’t get wealthy being good people.
Everyone should be in the process of disconnecting themselves from Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc. Even this platform, Blogger, is infested with the AI reCaptcha.
As if we don't all have enough on our plates...what the hell difference does this make? Meanwhile, half the new trucks on the road have stolen the Ford F-150 tailgate profile almost to perfection. And everybody's making a fried chicken sandwich.
All the companies will do that when they get too big. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, et. al. have all engaged in shady ways to get into new, innovative areas. Eventually they will cross an invisible line, but most of the time they simply get away with it.
Amazon prices aren't even that good anymore. Check around. Try to support your local businesses. They hire your kids during the summer and contribute to the local economy. Amazon doesn't give a rats ass about Mississippi.
Nothingburger story. All companies do this to some extent, and the so-called victim companies are naïve and negligent in not contractually protecting themselves from Amazon during negotiations. Hire an attorney next time.
Wasn't aware of what it meant. Fixed. Thanks.
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