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Originally Posted by Gudy
As for their market share - 11% doesn't sound like a lot, but that may very well still make Amazon the largest book retailer in Germany by a good, solid margin.
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Also, that's 11% of the total book market. They are apparently pressuring for higher rebates for e-books, though, where they have a 70% market share.
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The German book market may be price-fixed, but just what exactly that means for e-books isn't clear.
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If Amazon were indeed the market leader at 11% then that would be a stfong health market with no need for government meddling. Antitrust isn't about who is top dog but about the ability to control the market and actually *abusing* that power. It would a historical first if a company with such a small market share could, by itself, control a market where it can't even set its own prices.
German ebook penetration has been growing...to maybe 7% of the total market so that, oh, scary!!, 70% number is meaningless in an antitrust context. 70% of a trivial segment is still trivial. IBM once had 100% of the PC market simply because nobody else was making PCs; whoop-dee-doo! First movers and pioneers in immature markets acquire big share numbers that evaporate like morning mist once the market matures. Still no reason to go whining to government.
As for the impact to consumer prices, german readers here can speak to that better, but what I hear is they face unacceptably high ebook prices anyway. One reason why ebooks amount to so little there. Where Amaxoncan bring change there is towards lower prices if they foster a healthy indie ebook marketplace as in the US/UK.
All I see in that environment is a bunch of deeply entrenched players looking to screw consumers and retailers as long as possible and amazed that anybody would dare talk back to them. And scared that Amazon might foster an indie ebook revolt like they have in the US/UK.
Not impressed.