Big Tech’s Flagships Are Leaking

Hi, everyone. One of the consolations of December’s daylight deprivation is the ability to play “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” over and over again. And Darlene Love is still at it!

Is there an Amazon user on planet Earth who welcomes the rise of advertising on this platform? Somehow the company known for its relentless focus on the customer has decided that the best product choices should not be limited to criteria like cost, quality, or, in the case of masks, NIOSH approval. After all, sponsorship is what consumers crave, right? If we were supplied with a drop-down menu of which items to see, undoubtedly we would hover over the option that says, “Products that have paid Amazon for preferential placement.”

That’s what Amazon at least professes to think. Its representative, Tina Pelkey, recently explained to The Washington Post (owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, by the way), “We design our store to help customers discover products we think may best meet their needs—sponsored ads is one of the ways to help them find products they may be interested in.”

If that’s the case, I wonder why Amazon isn’t bolder in making it clear to customers which product choices are paid for and which are earned, beyond the clear labeling that the FTC requires. A recent complaint to the FTC charges that Amazon isn’t even adhering to those rules. Amazon disagrees. In any case, according to eMarketer, Amazon will rake in almost $25 billion in ad revenues this year.

It’s hard to see how customers benefit when a good chunk of the prices for the products they buy must include those marketing fees. That’s money that might otherwise be directed to lower costs or higher quality or simply staying in business. And any Amazon user can tell you that many product pages these days are kind of a stress test, with a baffling mix of sponsored products, “Amazon choices,” and Amazon-branded products alongside the organic results meant to surface what you really want. This from a company with a core value of reducing friction.