Hacker News Comments on
Amazon Go Is About Way More Than Groceries
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All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.Reposting my other comment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA2-iMz479o
I watched this video a while ago about what Amazon Go is a precursor for. In summary, if AWS is renting out server infrastructure for people, then you can imagine that Amazon can make the infrastructure to lease out Amazon Go to other stores. They first integrate it with Whole Foods, then as customers expect no more checkout areas, they will only go to Whole Foods because it's faster and maybe cheaper. Then because customers want it everywhere, Amazon could force other stores like Walmart and Target to integrate Amazon Go infrastructure to their stores, without Amazon directly competing with these stores, and make a ton of money leasing it out without spending money on building whole new stores. Of course, the acquisition could also be like nodes for warehousing and delivery, but both avenues are not mutually exclusive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA2-iMz479oI watched this video a while ago about what Amazon Go is a precursor for. In summary, if AWS is renting out server infrastructure for people, then you can imagine that Amazon can make the infrastructure to lease out Amazon Go to other stores. They first integrate it with Whole Foods, then as customers expect no more checkout areas, they will only go to Whole Foods because it's faster and maybe cheaper. Then because customers want it everywhere, Amazon could force other stores like Walmart and Target to integrate Amazon Go infrastructure to their stores, without Amazon directly competing with these stores, and make a ton of money leasing it out without spending money on building whole new stores. Of course, the acquisition could also be like nodes for warehousing and delivery, but both avenues are not mutually exclusive.
⬐ tuna-pianoCounterpoint... is Amazon Go really that difficult to build? If given three years, do you not think a different software company can build a similar system as well? Is this type of system really a winner-take-all market?⬐ ranman⬐ ice109I work for AWS but no relation to the go store, opinions are my own: but I'd argue it's non trivial to build this system. I don't think you could automate an entire store without a few million in funding and a couple of people. It's not a solo project and it's not a cheap one. Like self driving you can get to 95% really fast with relatively little effort. To go from 95% to 99.99%? That's where you spend your 3 years.⬐ cercatrovaSure but scope is required in order to create the monopoly, which only Amazon has currently. They can distribute to a thousand stores at once, and a startup competitor will not be able to compete, especially because the switching cost is so high for a customer like Target since it's hardware instead of the traditional software model. If everyone is using Amazon Go, then the network effect is established and shoppers won't download a separate app for something else.⬐ dx034Same with AWS. First they were the only ones, now they seem to lose market share to Google and Microsoft.Amazon doesn't have a monopoly in any of their businesses, they're just very successful in a lot of them.
it's much much harder to license and distribute hardware than it is software.⬐ cphooverbingo...Implementation will be key. But I also agree in believing that this will be their strategy.
⬐ taurathGive me digital receipts so I can easily track my spending, food intake and waste and I'll be a happy camper. Everyone already tracks sales via loyalty programs.
Amazon Go Is About Way More Than Groceries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA2-iMz479o