Amazon is at a crossroads and like the brands who depend heavily on Instagram or Facebook.com, the rule of online retail is multichannel diversification. The product manufacturers and brands who keep up an even-handed approach to acquisition will not be impaired when one channel determines their fates for them.
It is one thing to think with a pamphlet, another to think with a newspaper, yet another to think with a televisual image, and still another to think with a meme.
I have a theory, which has not let me down so far, that there is an inverse relationship between imagination and money. Because the more money and technology that is available to [create] a work, the less imagination there will be in it.
So how do you low-end disrupt a high-quality, ultra-low-margin or even free product? How do you get a price lower than the $0 they’re paying today? You go negative; you actually pay people to use the product, in a currency that gets more valuable as more people join.