Classic innovator's dilemma. The benefit of spotting fake reviews is too small for a company of Amazon's scale, so the company doesn't spend (meaningful) resources in pursuit of that goal. Amazon has no way of knowing which, among the infinite number of small projects that may end up becoming a commercial necessity, are fated to grow to that size. This allows smaller competition (here, Fakespot) to do move quickly, execute, and seize that benefit which, for a company of Fakespot's size, is highly meaningful. The momentum that a company like Fakespot builds while building out Fakespot's service allows the quality of Fakespot's service to outstrip and embarrass Amazon's parallel attempts.

> I think this argument is getting a bit old, as Amazon's growing reputation for fake reviews (and fake products) is turning off even mainstream shoppers and giving a huge boost to big & small competitors. Amazon now has a very big financial incentive to move beyond whack-a-mole and truly tackle these problems

Citation (unfortunately, still) needed. "Very big" means something quite different to Amazon at Amazon's scale.