Amazon is really going to be split up! The results of the US antitrust investigation are announced

Not only that, Amazon has also used its platform advantages to build huge barriers in logistics and cloud services, hindering its cloud service competitors and logistics competitors such as FedEx and UPS from entering the third-party seller market.

The most serious monopoly behavior of Amazon is still on the Amazon platform. The Amazon e-commerce market, which consists of millions of third-party sellers, is the most important part of Amazon. This has always been the focus of antitrust investigations in the United States and other countries. In this report, the Antitrust Committee believes that Amazon is using its great power to squeeze third-party merchants selling on the platform.

Amazon uses its platform advantages to develop products by collecting and analyzing third-party sellers' sales data, and defeats these third-party sellers with lower prices and traffic support advantages. This dual identity of "referee" and "athlete" has caused a serious internal conflict of interest for Amazon, making it inevitable for Amazon to (illegally) access the data and information of its competitors.

In multiple interviews with third-party sellers sampled in the report, many sellers told the Antitrust Committee that sellers are generally the "bullied" party on the platform, often worrying about financial losses due to account suspensions and product removals, and usually in such cases, sellers usually do not have much opportunity to appeal.

In addition, the antitrust team also found that Amazon's A9 search algorithm, which claims to be "customer experience first", was actually adjusted in a direction that was most beneficial to Amazon itself, which was contrary to Amazon's statement and greatly damaged the legitimate rights and interests of third-party sellers. Most of the time, third-party sellers cannot even feel this damage because Amazon does not disclose its algorithm mechanism at all.

In summary, Amazon's monopoly situation exists and is very serious. It is recommended to take a variety of remedial measures, including splitting and separating different businesses. According to the initial idea of ​​the Antitrust Committee, Amazon will be divided into three parts: e-commerce platform business, private brand and product sales business, and cloud service . The three businesses are independent of each other and subject to supervision.

I have summarized the contents of the report above. Sellers who want to read the original text of the more than 400-page investigation report can chat with me privately (English original, add my WeChat ID: zyqmda)

Now Amazon has also responded, of course opposing the investigation results and saying that splitting the business will reduce the competitive pressure on sellers in the market, resulting in fewer choices for consumers and higher prices for goods.

After years of antitrust investigations, there is finally a result. Sellers have waited too long. Amazon’s response is a bit irrelevant and does not shake the core issue of the antitrust investigation. If this continues, splitting and regulation will definitely come.

After the relevant measures are implemented, the competitiveness of self-operated businesses will inevitably decrease a lot, and under effective supervision, third-party sellers who open stores and sell on Amazon will also usher in a better business environment. For example, because the European site is currently subject to supervision, Amazon must notify sellers 30 days in advance before freezing their accounts . This is a manifestation of the limitation of Amazon's hegemony, and the US site will also usher in such changes in the future.

Official self-operation is restricted, and platforms cannot do what they want and must be regulated. For third-party sellers, our days will get better and better. Now focus on the upcoming Prime Day, lay a good sales foundation and prepare for a more favorable business environment!