DeepSummary
The podcast episode reveals that Amazon set up a secret shell company called Big River Services International to gather intelligence on its competitors' operations, strategies, and pricing. For years, Amazon employees posed as sellers on rival platforms like eBay, Walmart, and Alibaba, taking screenshots and gathering data without disclosing their ties to Amazon.
The project, code-named 'Project Curiosity', started in 2015 under the guise of understanding the seller experience on Amazon's platform. However, it evolved into an undercover operation to collect sensitive information from competitors. Amazon went to great lengths to conceal the project, using separate email addresses, warehouses, and strict protocols to prevent leaks.
While some legal experts suggest misrepresenting oneself to gain proprietary information could lead to lawsuits, Amazon maintains that benchmarking competitors is a common practice. The revelation contradicts Amazon's public stance of focusing on customers rather than competitors and raises questions about the company's competitive tactics and ethics.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Amazon set up a secret shell company called Big River Services International to gather competitive intelligence on rival platforms like eBay, Walmart, and Alibaba.
- Employees posed as sellers on these platforms without disclosing their ties to Amazon, taking screenshots and gathering data on pricing, logistics, and operations.
- The project, code-named 'Project Curiosity', started in 2015 ostensibly to understand the seller experience but evolved into an undercover operation.
- Amazon went to great lengths to conceal the project, using separate email addresses, warehouses, and strict protocols to prevent leaks.
- The revelation contradicts Amazon's public stance of being customer-obsessed rather than competitor-focused, raising ethical questions about the company's competitive tactics.
- While Amazon maintains benchmarking competitors is common practice, some legal experts suggest misrepresenting oneself to gain proprietary information could lead to lawsuits.
- The episode highlights Amazon's obsessive focus on monitoring and gathering intelligence on its competitors, going beyond what is considered standard practice in the industry.
- The undercover operation lasted for nearly a decade, involving teams across multiple countries and the creation of fake brands and products.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “When they presented their findings to senior Amazon leaders, they very often relied on paper printouts that were numbered, and what they would do is they would hand those out to the Amazon managers to read and take notes on. And at the end of the meeting, they would collect it all back. They'd make sure they had every single paper because it was numbered. There was no paper trail for a lot of this. And that was all by design.“ by Dana Mattioli
- “So this matters because, first of all, it's just very much a direct contradiction to how the company portrays itself. When you speak to anyone at Amazon, you know, including in Jeff Bezos speeches, they go on and on about being customer obsessed and they outright deny that they focus on the competition.“ by Dana Mattioli
- “You know, this just shows the extent to which they very much focus on the competition to the point where they're going above and beyond what most companies would consider doing to track the competition.“ by Dana Mattioli
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Episode Information
The Journal.
The Wall Street Journal & Gimlet
4/29/24