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by mikeryan
3583 days ago
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The interesting symmetry between the two right now is that in 2000 Amazon was regarded as a book/music/video business while under the hood they were building the worlds premier shopping fulfillment platform (and cloud services). Right now Uber is the "taxi service" but is building a world class transportation logistics platform. Noting the Otto acquisition and the self driving car investments you can track their path forward. If Uber can become for transportation what Amazon became for online sales then they have a pretty clear path to success. That being said I think Uber has savvier competition (Google, Apple even GM) who recognize them as a real threat where I think brick and mortar didn't realize Amazon's potential until it was too late. |
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What's striking about the Amazon/brick&mortar comparison is that retailers' senior management did recognize Amazon early as a fundamental threat. (For example, Walmart.com came to life in 2000 and was set up in the Bay Area with plenty of love from the Walton family.) But on an operating level, few retailers' managers wanted to change the business rapidly enough to deal with it.
They fell into the Kodak trap of sticking with the old ways for a few more years of higher margins ... and thus building out online versions that were way too timid and deferential to make it big.
For example: limited supply of hot items? Put them in the physical stores, not the online one. Price war online? Can't compete, because it might mean undercutting the retail-store price and hurting high-margin sales.
It will be interesting to see if the car companies are able to build out new transport platforms that succeed by making life much worse for their existing dealerships. If so, they can give Uber a run for its money. If not, they will compete in slow motion.