2013/10/10/The Time Jeff Bezos Went Thermonuclear on Diapers.com
- when: 2013/10/10
- author: Will Oremus
- source: Slate
- topics: Amazon.com Diapers.com Jeff Bezos
- keywords
- link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future tense/2013/10/10/amazon book how jeff bezos went thermonuclear on diapers com.html
- title: The Time Jeff Bezos Went Thermonuclear on Diapers.com
- summary: "Amazon tracks its competitors extremely closely. So when an upstart called Diapers.com began catching on with parents by allowing them to easily schedule recurring orders of diapers and other essentials, Jeff Bezos took notice..."
First, in 2009, Amazon sent a senior vice president to have lunch with the founders of the startup behind Diapers.com, called Quidsi. He warned them that Amazon was thinking about getting into the diaper business and suggested they think about selling. As Stone tells it, this was not a friendly suggestion. It was more like [the kind of offer you can't refuse. From Businessweek:
Soon after, Quidsi noticed Amazon dropping prices up to 30 percent on diapers and other baby products. As an experiment, Quidsi executives manipulated their prices and then watched as Amazon's website changed its prices accordingly. Amazon's pricing bots – software that carefully monitors other companies' prices and adjusts Amazon's to match – were tracking Diapers.com.