Amazon, Web Services, Sharing Economy.
Harry Chen blogs for eBiquity Research Group about an article in Technology Review
(subscription required) that describes the way Amazon has prospered by
opening its API to more than 65,000 developers. A great example of a
“sharing economy” — Amazon prospers by making it easy to partner with
them and prosper yourself.
For example, Alan Taylor (a former Amazon programmer) has developed Amazon Light,
a less cluttered Amazon web store that also offers product links to
external web sites. For example, if the item you are viewing is a DVD,
there will be a button that let's you see in a single click whether the
same disc is for rent at Netflix. If it's a CD, you can check whether
Apple's iTune music store has a downloadable version.
