"vertical integration and expansion is not, inherently, monopolistic" ... my goodness, have your heard of Carnegie Steel, Standard Oil, Loews Corporation (movie production via MGM and distribution via Loews Theaters), or AT&T?
They were all vertical monopolies broken up (with the exception of Carnegie Steel, which, I believe, despite its size and power, was never targeted) by the U.S. Justice Dept.
Unless I'm mistaken all the big trusts broken up by the Justice Dept. in the 20th century were vertical monopolies and not horizontal ones ...
I think you've answered your own question: "It would be worse for the consumer in some ways..."
Nobody wants to buy Sony music from the Sony site (or, worse yet, Arcade Fire music from the Arcade Fire site), DreamWorks movies from the DreamWorks site, Random House fiction from the Random House site, etcetera -- if there's one place to go to find it all. And that, if you haven't noticed, is what Amazon wants to be: the one place to go to find it all, from used PC monitors to shoes to lawn mowers to, yes, books they publish themselves (and, as you note, cut out the middle man).
BTW: several publishers have joined forces to create their own bookseller site (bookish.com), but they're having trouble getting it off the ground. About which no one should be surprised.
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Re: Re: Interesting
"vertical integration and expansion is not, inherently, monopolistic" ... my goodness, have your heard of Carnegie Steel, Standard Oil, Loews Corporation (movie production via MGM and distribution via Loews Theaters), or AT&T?
They were all vertical monopolies broken up (with the exception of Carnegie Steel, which, I believe, despite its size and power, was never targeted) by the U.S. Justice Dept.
Unless I'm mistaken all the big trusts broken up by the Justice Dept. in the 20th century were vertical monopolies and not horizontal ones ...
Re: I have wondered why this hasnt happend sooner
I think you've answered your own question: "It would be worse for the consumer in some ways..."
Nobody wants to buy Sony music from the Sony site (or, worse yet, Arcade Fire music from the Arcade Fire site), DreamWorks movies from the DreamWorks site, Random House fiction from the Random House site, etcetera -- if there's one place to go to find it all. And that, if you haven't noticed, is what Amazon wants to be: the one place to go to find it all, from used PC monitors to shoes to lawn mowers to, yes, books they publish themselves (and, as you note, cut out the middle man).
BTW: several publishers have joined forces to create their own bookseller site (bookish.com), but they're having trouble getting it off the ground. About which no one should be surprised.