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by blowski 1221 days ago
If they have a monopoly control of the market, then the prices could be higher with sellers having little choice between paying and not selling at all.
4 comments

I think you might be getting at Monopsony, which is the only place for sellers to sell to. Monopoly means the only place to buy from.
Monopoly also means "exclusive or near exclusive access or control of something" for instance "she is monopolizing her time" and in that usage the original poster is using it correctly.

In fact, I think we should retire the term monopsony exactly because its actual usage is a subset of the usage of monopoly and nobody ever cares about the distinction.

Well the sellers aren't selling to Amazon.

Monopoly is the most generic term so I don't think it's 'wrong', and technically neither are correct so...

I don't know if I would characterize them as having monopoly control of the market because nearly 100% of all of my purchases are made online and 0.0% of my purchases have been made using amazon.com (or walmart.com).

Generally speaking I prefer to buy a product directly, or from a specialized retailer.

Last week I purchased a stethoscope from an online stethoscope retailer. A benefit of doing this is that they offer laser engraving-- something that Amazon, with its warehouses of robots and robot-like employees, cannot easily do.

The specialty retailer also carries a wider array of color and finish combinations, because that's their product niche.

Using a specialist retailer has allowed me to flex on my fellow volunteer EMTs with a personalized Technicolor stethoscope, which is dumb but nice.

You are looking at the wrong side of the market. You need to look at the market from the perspective of the seller v

For examples, do the 7 bigges supermarkets in britain, Tesco, Lidl, etc, have a monopoly?

I can buy all my food from the snaller shops and market markets, as a buyer.

But if I am a seller, and I need to sell mass market food, and all the big supermarkets refuse to carry it, you will go bankrupt.

Does Amazon have a monopoly on the market, then? Because if not, I don't see your point
It depends on the exact market segment (Amazon does not have a monopoly on groceries, for instance), but yes, I think Amazon is effectively a monopoly. Or at least part of an oligopoly, which is no better.
I don't see how you can think this. Amazon is not the only payment processor, it's not the only inventory management company, not the only delivery company, not the only online store company.

There are any number of permutations of different service providers you could use to sell online. In fact, a very large number of people who sell online don't use Amazon at all. Or they will sell on Amazon as well as in other channels, or even direct.

For mainstream retail in the US, you have Amazon, Walmart, and... who?
Target, Nordstrom, etc?
Yes, I think you could argue Target. But Nordstrom? I don't think they have that sort of power.

Remember, an oligopoly (or even monopoly) doesn't necessarily mean there aren't other players, it means that the oligopoly is the only thing that can really influence the market. It's about who is writing "the rules", so to speak.

Amazon has a monopoly on creating a web page and selling and shipping stuff? There are literally thousands of merchants that setup their own sites or sell through Facebook, Instagram or Etsy
Amazon had 13% of global e-commerce: https://www.statista.com/statistics/664814/global-e-commerce...

Only Alibaba has more market share than it. But it is indeed quite far from a monopoly.