Let's play monopoly

I remember when Amazon first hit the Web, with its useful recommendation database. My husband and I spent so much money buying books on it that we joked about buying shares. Then Amazon became about more than books--and now they're trying to dictate how books ought to be produced.

The Kindle is a nifty device, not perfect nor the only e-reader out there, and Amazon has aggressively marketed it, which is as should be. The problem is that the Kindle requires their proprietary software.

Then Amazon tried to monopolize the POD market by announcing that only books printed through their own BookSurge enterprise can be sold via their site, otherwise five copies would have to be on hand, which defeats the purpose of POD.

So in my eyes, Amazon is no longer playing nice and is trying to strong-arm the industry that helped it become what it is today. I like how Tim O'Reilly states this on his blog:

It is a free-market economy, and competition is the name of the game. But as Amazon's market power increases, it needs to be mindful of whether its moves, even those that may be good for the company in the short term, are ultimately destructive of the ecosystem on which they depend. I believe that they are heading in that direction, and if they succeed with some of their initiatives, they will wake up one day to discover that they've sown the seeds of their own destruction, just as Microsoft did in the 1990s.

At O'Reilly, we have a motto: "Create more value than you capture." It's a wise motto for companies far bigger than we are to adopt. If you do that, you ensure a healthy ecosystem. If you capture more value than you create, watch out, because stagnation is on the way.

Amazon has, so far, created huge value for the publishing ecosystem. Now, as they become more powerful, they need to be especially watchful that they don't irreparably damage an industry on which they too depend.

Until next time.