Why does Amazon have no Western rivals?

3 days ago

Amazon holds a dominant e-commerce market share with 40.5% in the US and 30% in the UK, far ahead of rivals like Walmart (9.2%) and eBay (3%).
Key factors for Amazon's dominance include first-mover advantage, long-term shareholder support for reinvestment over profits, and using profits from AWS to subsidize retail operations.
Amazon's ecosystem—including third-party sellers, Prime membership, and diverse services like streaming and cloud computing—creates a reinforcing network effect that is hard for new competitors to break.
Allegations of anti-competitive practices, such as penalizing sellers for lower prices elsewhere, are under legal scrutiny in the US, potentially stifling competition.
Future threats to Amazon may come from AI-integrated shopping experiences (e.g., via ChatGPT) rather than traditional retail rivals.

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