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Comment by flashyfaffe2 | Hacker News Reader

Everything being equal,isn't what Amazon did before anyone else? Burning astonishing amount of cash and create a massive monopoly. Prof Galloway, gave very interesting thoughts:

https://www.profgalloway.com/wewtf

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I don't think so. Per Crunchbase, Amazon only took $108 million in investment. Uber took $8 billion. Although I have plenty of issues with Amazon's behavior, I think they earned their market dominance the hard way.

Amazon has been raising money though bonds for a while now, though. They even recently raised $10 billion in bonds at a crazy low rate.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/amazon-raise...

Fair point. Although I think Amazon is doing that based not on speculation about the possibility of gaining market dominance, but because they already have it. The fact that it's bonds and not venture funding is a sign.

Retail shopping had incredible inefficiencies and economies of scale that a personal chauffer doesn't have.

Amazon successfully created a monopoly, with a combination of choosing the right market, and good execution.

Uber failed to create a monopoly, both due to their choice of market and poor execution.

Just because it is possible to create a monopoly, does not mean you will necessarily succeed.

Amazon remains very price competitive. For Uber to make a profit they need to raise prices to cover all their operational expenses. Traditional taxi companies can remain viable at lower prices due to their lower operational spending.

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