Culture is future » Innovation and digital

DEBATES - Amazon, actor of referencing and prescription of cultural contents on the Internet by Andrew Cecil

Andrew Cecil, Director Public Policy, Amazon EU

 What are the goals of Amazon ?

Amazon has three main goals. First, the company wants to make the largest offer as possible for its clients, being physical or digital products.

Then, proposing the easiest client experience as possible: from the access to the platform, to the delivery options and its gratuity. This experience is about the integration of the possible wishes of the client, looking for a discovery, or a book in particular.    

At last, the question of price is crucial for Amazon.  Clients like to find attractive prices. While respecting the legal framework, the platform proposed the most attractive prices as possible. 

What are the main principles of your model of economic development ?

Amazon is a platform which try to respond to clients’ expectations, widening the range of products with experience and price.

The hard cover book remains very important in the Amzon’s model and Amazon is also a platform for othee: editors and booksellers. In France, thousands of bookshops use Amazon as a platform of distribution. They are very important because they widen the offer and the choices for clients through Amazon’s platform.  

From a business and strategic point of view, Amazon is also a b2b2c platform because it has direct relations with providers (content editors)   and allows enlarging the offer for the client, it is lever effect, a reference’s contributor. Amazon does not settle the prices of those products: the edition and bookseller do.

Could you describe the main mechanisms of your platform which plays a role in referencing? 

Regarding referencing, Amazon wants to have to most exhaustive offer as possible. Hence, the company also works with other actors to enlarge the choice of available productions on its website. Booksellers have the possibility to use Amazon as a distribution platform.  

Regarding the digital offer, we are at the beginning of the experience, even if Kindle already proposes hundreds of thousands of books. Amazon has also developed an self-edition platform on Kindle. We have already a large number of authors who used this mechanism, with a great success. Some of these books became Bestseller. In parallel to this self production activity and to its activity of distribution, Amazon has, in the USA, an editor activity.

And regarding prescription?

The website of Amazon has its own research engine. IT gives the opportunity to the client to find a book in particular but also to guide the Internet user who searches randomly, highlighting for instance the reviews of other clients or a community around a book.

Amazon privileges the diversity of prescription means so that the client can personalize his or her experience.

Amazon integrates the comments of Internet users and of professionals on the totality of the products. With the highlight of Internet users’ comments on the platform, the client can decide on the quality of content.

A last, Amazon puts forward on its platform, several products: bestsellers and the most researched products. Amazon has always been looking for and keeps on proposing a diversified and large offer to its clients.