商务英语术语

The Amazon Model: If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Work with ’Em

Bottom Line

:

Amazon’s embrace of coopetition—

working closely with other firms while also

competing fiercely against them

—

can teach other companies some lessons about counterintuitive

thinking.

In late 2000, just a few years after its evolution from online book purveyor to

all-

around shopping portal, Amazon introduced the “Amazon Marketplace.” This

groundbreaking feature enabled competitors of any size to use Amazon’s online

platform and technological capabilities to present their millions of new, used, and rare

books to millions of customers, right next to similar products sold by Amazon itself.

In effect, the Internet’s leading e

-commerce site was not only allowing customers to

choose between its off

erings and its competitors’, but was also the one inviting those

competitors to join the party in the first place.

Bringing third-

party sellers into Amazon’s own online store sparked debate both

inside and outside the company. But as early as the second quarter of 2002, Amazon

reported that third-party transactions represented 20 percent of its North American

sales, and by 2010, the marketplace accounted for more than 35 percent of sales. It

remains the centerpiece of Amazon’s coopetition

-based approach, an unconventional

strategy that seems purely counterintuitive.

Amazon’s business model also holds lessons for other companies willing to risk

collaborating with their competitors to evolve, grow, and survive, according to a new

study

.

To conduct an in-

depth case study of Amazon’s emphasis on coopetition throughout

its history, the authors analyzed the company’s annual reports, financial statements,

and news releases between 1997 and 2012, as well as case studies, journal articles,

and books about the firm. They also conducted interviews with a key executive who

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