Week 06 Response - The Monopoly of Amazon

This is a question posed by @nziske "Do you predict that Amazon will monopolize and put a majority of companies out of business in the future?"
Yes, I do believe that Amazon will monopolize and put a majority of companies out of business, and in fact, they already have. Currently, Amazon mostly has control over all aspects of its distribution from start to finish. This includes a website to sell products, warehouses to store products, airplanes/trucks to distribute products nationwide, and delivery trucks to go straight to the doors of their customers. Amazon does not rely on any outside company to sell their goods, except for the obvious need for companies to list their items on Amazon’s website. The last step for Amazon to become completely self-sufficient is by producing their own products to sell on their website, and it has already begun.
Currently, Amazon has many products listed on its website under the “Amazon Basics” family, ranging from phone chargers to fans to batteries to even memory foam mattresses. These are made by Amazon to compete and force out other companies’ products that are listed on the website. The process starts with a business, small or big, listing their products on Amazon’s website. When 50% of online spending in the United States occurs on Amazon’s website, many businesses have no other choice but to list on Amazon. Hypothetically, let's say the product starts selling very well and is popular with customers. Amazon from there has the ability to create their own version of the product with most of the time lower costs, and of course, being the top item when searched for said product. Using their algorithms they can also eliminate the customer from seeing your product unless they specifically search for it. This is occurring every day at Amazon and no one can do anything about it. While it may seem great for consumers to be able to get a product at a cheaper price, small businesses are struggling to get their product out on the market without Amazon making a spinoff and killing their business.

Image Source