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December 30, 2004
Why stop now?
Joi Ito's Web: Amazon's tail was a bit shorter
Chris updates some figures from his original article where he had written that "57% of Amazon's book sales are of books not available in stores". He writes in an update, "I've now spoken to Jeff Bezos (and others) about this. He doesn't have a hard figure for the percentage of sales of products not available offline, but reckons that it's closer to 25-30%. That would put it in line with Netflix's and Rhapsody's figures." There is an interesting discussion going on in the comments as well.
Of course the interesting question is the reverse. What percentage of books NOT available from amazon are available in other bookstores. And if it isn't 'available' in 24 hours, is it available, or is it just in their database. And of course my question is what you would expect, why is it that people stop in their line of questioning before they get beyond the most superficial conclusions? Amazon IS bigger than any one book store, but like any tool that constructs attention, it also constricts options. The tools we create limit what we can create, and tools for access in tern limit what we can access...
Posted by jason at December 30, 2004 11:32 PM