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Originally Posted by ottdmk
Hmnn. Anecdotal evidence like that letter really makes me wonder if Amazon is heading towards monopsony power. Seems like it, but more evidence (preferably solid & numbers based) is required...
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Heading towards monopsony? Amazon is said to abuse its power already by applying monospsony.
Interesting opinion article in NYT (
How Book Publishers Can Beat Amazon) that is clearly anit-Amazon, but not with enough fact to back it all up. It says for example that the last time around in 2010 it used its monopsony power to:
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Amazon exercised what has been described as its “nuclear option”: It promptly deleted the “buy” buttons in the Amazon online store for all of Macmillan’s books. In an instant, Macmillan’s entire business was in jeopardy
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And then recommends to the current event that it is time for:
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publishers will have no choice but to employ their own nuclear option: pull all their books from Amazon and throw their weight behind a law-abiding alternative. Perhaps the best solution would be an online marketplace controlled by the publishers
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Give the power to the publishers to fight Amazons monopsony by implementing an oligopoly? The publishers had their chance and missed it a long time ago to enter the ebook market. They cannot directly compete with other publishers as they don't sell the same books. And they cannot compete on price with their own books - one book cannibalizing sales of another book they are trying to sell as well? What is left is retailers that sell different publishers books and competing on price and service. Price not so much if they get their way with agency pricing.
Another article that is not as drastically anit-Amazon (
Burying the Hachette) has similar numbers as the first article I mentioned concerning market share today:
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Although data are hard to come by, Amazon is thought to handle 15-30% of big publishing houses’ sales in America, more than twice as much as the next-largest seller. It is said to control 60% of the market for e-books. Though shop owners can choose how to run their business, they may not abuse a dominant market position. A new chapter in the book trade has just begun.
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Amazon has power in negotioation, but not clearly enough to call it illegal monopsoly.
If anything the publishers went down this rabbit hole all by themselves back in 2010 by leaning on Amazon. Now Amazon is leaning back. Amazon is somewhat protected from ever beeing accused (legally) for monopsony: they will never aim for a monopoly on ebook sales. And as long as they do not have a monopoly on ebook sales, how can they have a monopsy in ebook buying?