E-Commerce War declared, Winners: BKS Barnes & Noble BNBN Barnes & Noble Online BOL Bertlesmann OnLine to battle 3 year infrastructure building sleeping AMZN. The 500MillionDM Deutsche Marks is what, about $250 Million Dollars, that alone, the BNBN and BOL alliance will win the war, thats a lot of CDs and a lot of books, and a lot of customer loyalty. a recent study says 52% of e-commerce users do not switch websites, thats the loyalty factor, and AMZN is losing market share here to BNBN and its European partners/shareholders Bertlesmann, no doubt about it. AMZN should have bought brick and mortar rather than waste time building it over 3 years, that was a fatal error I think, although if AMZN survives for 3 years, it may bounce back big then, we will see. Until then, my money is definitely on BNBN.
Your article quoted:
"Tech Headlines Tuesday October 26 10:34 AM ET Yahoo News
Amazon, Bertelsmann Expand E-Commerce War
By Deborah Cole
BERLIN (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc and Bertelsmann AG expanded their electronic commerce war to new fronts Tuesday as each announced the start of music sales from European web sites.
The German media group has tried to challenge Amazon's dominance of Internet bookselling in the United States with its 40 percent stake in Barnesandnoble.com and in Europe with BOL.
The Bertlesmann campaign is part of a drive to regain ground in the multimedia sector lost to successful, nimble Internet start-ups like Amazon.com. Chief Executive Thomas Middelhoff has acknowledged that the group had got a late start online.
BOL said that it would begin selling a selection of 500,000 music compact discs on its German, British, French and Dutch sites from the beginning of November in time to cash in on the Christmas shopping season.
It added that it would support the expansion with a 30-million-mark marketing campaign in traditional media.
BOL said its other two sites, Spain and Switzerland, would begin selling CDs from early 2000 and that national divisions would offer videos, digital versatile discs, magazines and digital book content to download into Rocket eBook pocket computers next year.
The company added that it would start cooperating in Germany with Bertelsmann online auction house Andsold.de on selling college students' used textbooks over the Internet.
Amazon.de, the U.S. group's German unit, hit back Tuesday with the announcement that it had made 200,000 music titles available on its German and British Web sites from Monday.
BOL said it would post 45 million marks in turnover in Europe for the period from its launch in February to the end of 1999, making it the continent's second largest online media retailer behind Amazon.
An Amazon.de spokesman said that the company had posted 40 million marks in its two European markets, Germany and Britain, in the first quarter alone. He declined to comment on plans to sell other products beyond books and music in Europe.
The fight for dominance of the booming e-commerce market in the United States between Amazon.com and Bertelsmann has entered the courts of late.
The companies are locked in a legal battle over electronic commerce in the U.S. over Barnesandnoble.com's alleged infringement of its patented online shopping technology. Amazon.com has filed a complaint with U.S. district court in Seattle.
Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com's other parent, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc (NYSE:BKS - news), also clashed in 1997 before settling litigation over Amazon's claim to be the ``World's Largest Bookstore.'
Thanks for your info. This is why I dumped Amazon in favor of BNBN, I would only consider re-buying AMZN if it was greatly re-valued downward, in line, with its on-line competition and market share. Seems the world market share will belong to BNBN and Bertlesmann partnered e-commerce sites. XMAS ought to be great for BNBN and BKS.
I am,
Truly yours,
-Crystal Ball |
