Amazon.com’s secret retail empire

venturebeat.com

20 points·aj··5 comments

How is this in any way a secret? Sure, they don't go and shutdown sites and disrupt services for months while integrating acquired companies like Google does, but the bottom of the amazon.com home page lists their sites. Amazon buys sites that do well independently, and they do it publicly. For some anecdotal evidence, see the kindle for sale on woot.com when Amazon bought them.

"Secret" being a hyperbole, they meant "little known". I'm betting that if you surveyed the general public, few would be able to name even one of these other brands.

Arggh, language dilution is frustrating. I wonder if someday "secret" will colloquially come to mean "public information", similar to what happened to the word "literally". :P

Whoa whoa, your 'language dilution' train stops here. Secret's latin root is secernere, _literally_:

> without; aside, by itself

Also, no complaining about language degradation while also using emoticons ;)

> Only Endless.com, a shoes-and-handbags site launched in-house, and Small Parts are “powered by Amazon.com,” a status which means Amazon.com customers can use their accounts on those sites.

I know at least Audible also has this functionality, so it's pretty safe to assume this isn't a comprehensive list or portrayal of Amazon's second party brands and sites.

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