Sellers have claimed that marketplaces like Amazon use their data to compete against them. Now, The Information reports that Amazon uses shopper data to bolster its advertising business.
The article, “Amazon’s Quest to Displace Google as Internet Ad Powerbroker,” written by Catherine Perloff, Sahil Patel and Theo Wayt, is behind a paywall, but a tweet from Perloff offers a peek inside:
“Amazon has for years been nervous about being too public about its ad business, discouraging employees from using the word “data” to talk about it Now, Amazon wants to be the biggest power broker in advertising, offering lower fees and AWS discounts.”
The article says Amazon is “nervous about talking about how it uses consumer data, out of a fear of creeping out consumers.”
The Information’s Theo Wayt also noted, “Amazon already has a huge business selling ads on its own website. Now it’s making a push to become the conduit for buying ads everywhere on the internet — just as the DOJ could force Google to sell off parts of its own adtech business.”
Brands, retailers, and online merchants are dependent on mega platforms like Amazon and Google to get visibility through advertising, and buyers and sellers help feed these platforms with data, whether they like it or not.
