The Huge Power of FANGs

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Rana Foroohar, in the Financial Times, cites the McKinsey Global Institute in writing of “the huge power of the Fangs—Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google—which now dominate not just the digital business, but the entire economy.”

“Eighty percent of corporate wealth now resides in 10 percent of companies rich in intellectual property, of which the platform companies are the richest.”
And, what is it that these companies control?

The currency of the digital age -- data.

The Seller Summit

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What is the Seller Summit?  It's tricky.  Amazon recently ran an event, referred to as a Seller Summit, attended by 500 interested in selling via the soon to be launched local version of Marketplace, the third party selling platform which generates more than half Amazon’s total global revenue.  The 500 who attended the event will be on a priority list of those to get an invitation-only to sell via Amazon Marketplace.  (Gee, sounds a little bit like the old Gilt business model where you had to wait to be invited.)

Amazon plans to launch in Australia with both a direct retail presence and an Amazon Marketplace offering of local sellers.

“We held the Seller Summit to encourage and educate Australian businesses on how they can use Amazon Marketplace to take their products to a global audience,” says [Rocco] Braeuniger [Amazon Australia country head].

Read more about how Amazon is quietly building a supplier network for direct sales in Australia.

Today in Global Small Business: PayPal Marketplaces Goes Global

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How do you create a workplace that works?  Joselyn DiPetta at Google, and Managing Partner, Present Possibility, will address that topic in the next WEGGinar™ held on Wednesday, December 6 at 11:00 a.m. Central time. WEGGinar™ is no charge but you must sign up to attend: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1837790091765976835.
• Alibaba sets up a hub for small businesses to go global.
• E-commerce offers significant opportunities to the logistics industry. 
• PayPal Marketplaces goes global.  What is PayPal Marketplaces and how does it differ from regular PayPal?  Find out here.
• Learn how two e-commerce giants -- one being Amazing -- are trying to export their success.
• Discover not 1 but 27 social media tools that will help you become a savvy global marketer.

Digital Natives, Undefined

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Is Amazon a retailer?  E-commerce giant?  Cloud-computing service provider?  Logistics king?  Fulfillment behemoth?

Organizations such as these [see below]—digital natives that are not defined or constrained by any one industry—may seem like outliers.

Focusing on other companies such as Rakuten Ichiba (Japan) and Tencent (China), it becomes tough to categorize the industries these firms are operating in.  Why should we?

It's clear that digitization is shifting industry boundaries.

Read more ...