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by andybak 506 days ago
This could be summarised as "companies leverage their power" which is unsurprising.

If you were to list occasions where entities acted intentionally against their best interests then that would be more noteworthy!

2 comments

There's nuance to this. A company can achieve power by giving customers a better experience and in that way insert itself between customer and the industry. Thus wielding power in the interest of the customer. A company can also achieve power by giving producers a better experience and insert themselves between producer and industry.
I think my point is that in the majority of cases companies will do both. i.e. (when run "effectively") they will use all available levers.

If they fail to, it will usually be an oversight than a deliberate strategy.

Of course - some companies push harder, overstep more bounds and neglect the possible negative 2nd order effects more. But assuming there's an obvious lever that says "make more money legally" - the vast number of companies will reach for it.

Is it in Amazon's interest to destroy the publishing industry? Is it in publisher's interest for writing books to not be a viable career?