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Consumer power and the world wide web - a Jeff Bezos interview

Interviewer: Colin Bayers (1999)

Abstract: Jeff Bezos discusses his online consumerism ideology and predictions for the future. In this interview Bezos suggests consumer culture will force changes upon the web and the balance of power will shift to the customer and their demands.

This article chronicles the success of website Amazon.com's founder, chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos. It looks at his youth, philosophies and future visions for the internet as a medium for selling, marketing and defining culture. Of particular interest is Bezos' ideology on consumerism and predictions on the empowerment the internet will give individuals in their daily lives.

Bayers (p. 116) writes that Bezos "reserves an evangelical passion for the changes he expects in the most manipulative aspects of today's consumer culture". Bayers (p. 117) quotes Bezos: "We want to turn visitors into customers, and we want to make the experience as welcoming as possible".

The consumer empathy which drives Bezos and Amazon.com influences the broad information design and the way Amazon products are marketed and delivered, argues Bezos. He says the decentralised and free-flowing nature of the internet over-runs exaggerated marketing hype used in retailing information today. "And that shifts the balance of power ­ which since the origins of department store and mass merchandising has favoured the merchant ­ back into the hands of consumers" (Bayers, p. 118).

Within 10 years, the future of internet retailing will permeate culture in a way never thought possible, says Bayers. Customers will submit requests for high-involvement purchases, and retailers will compete for the business. Personal online diaries will contain events, entertainment and news added to people's calendars automatically. This is important ­ Bezos says that consumer culture will force changes upon the internet, particularly in terms of how it functions and meets needs of people using online services.

In the Bezos vision, internet information design will be dictated by the users, not the owners, of the web sites which provide services.