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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)
AMZN 220.66+1.6%Nov 21 9:30 AM EST
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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (14216)8/21/1998 3:21:00 AM
From: e. boolean  Read Replies (1) of 164684
 
Apologies for the implication that I was quoting - I meant that to be my exegesis of your position.

I think I do now see what you are expecting. It is highly reliant on the assumption of an analogous mapping from actual space to virtual space, and the costs of actual comparison shopping to the costs of virtual comparison shopping. In other words, it requires that the beloved inefficiencies that operators like Sam Walton could leverage to their advantage will be maintained in e-commerce. As I understand it, Walton would choose communities that were large enough to be worth his while but sufficiently isolated as to be unattractive to his big competitors, drive out the mom-and-pop local competition with cutthroat pricing (to the great acclaim of the locals during a "honeymoon" period), and end up as the only game in town. The nearest competitors were now beyond the efficient reach of the newly dependent consumers.

Can't see that plan working in e-commerce. While it's true that actual pixelspace on a given portals' web pages is limited, there is (virtually) no transaction cost to exercising your right to bookmark a better vendor (aot loading the kids into the vanagon to head to the nearest K-Mart).

Trying to gain control over dependent consumers on the internet is going to be like herding cats.

Anyway, thanks for responding thoughtfully.

e.b.

Q1: If you want to exercise leverage in cyberspace, where do you position the fulcrum?

Q2: How many virtual bookstores can dance on the head of a pin?

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