Epic's App Store Ambition & Amazon's Retail Reign

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Happy to have you along my fellow tech enthusiasts. I'm Sam Bushman Jay Harrison's with me and

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_02]: we keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. You're brought to you by NetworkProvidersInc.com.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_02]: You've got a friend in the IT business, NPITechGuys.com for the show and Jay we're going to call this

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_02]: the Epic episode. What do you say to that? Epic. Absolutely. Epic Games is the deal

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah Epic Games now has their own iOS App Store in the EU anyway in the European Union.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Now that's interesting because this is the first time there's ever been kind of a

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what you want to say a booted up challenge to this, huh?

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's been a break in the Wald Garden for Apple because they have had they've always had a very

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_01]: very tight control over this and they have never wanted anybody to be able to do this.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: This is because Epic Games are the maker of the Fortnite which you've undoubtedly heard about

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01]: announced it's officially launched its rival iOS App Store in the European Union.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: They're also launching one worldwide on Android as well. The App Store is going to have games

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_01]: like Fortnite, Rocket League, Side Swipe, Fall Guys. They're working with developers to launch

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: other games so that developers can go through their store and you know the main thing is

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_01]: when you're buying in-game currency or you're buying loot boxes or whatever people buy on

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: these games you're not paying 30% to Apple. You might only pay 15% to Epic but you're going to

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: be able to save money as a developer and not you know pay such a big cut to Apple.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_02]: But I will say in this regard no matter what competition is good Jay, I believe in this man.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I do too. I mean I think it's kind of a headache for Apple and not just even the

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: hey we hate that people are going to have a different App Store but Fortnite's return

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: to iOS comes after four years of being removed from Apple from their App Store. They've been fighting

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: for this long regulatory changes brought down by the EU's Digital Market Act are forcing Apple to

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_02]: open up to new rivals. It's pretty interesting. It is right now though I guess it's pretty

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_02]: complicated. Regulatory changes is what brought this to being and so I'm not super excited

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_02]: about the regulatory force of this. So I love the competition I'm not sure I like the way

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_02]: that it's going down necessarily. I don't like the way Apple's kind of had a lock on this in the

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_02]: first place and then I don't like the fact that government busts it wide open. However from a user

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_02]: point of view there's a video that Epic published for users to guide them through the steps that

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_02]: it takes to actually do this and I don't want to call it a jailbreak but jailbreak the store?

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: What do you say Jay? Yeah absolutely. We're gonna play a little bit of this video here

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: real quick for you. Hey there you want to play Fork Knight, Rocket League Side Swipe

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and Fall Guides on your iPhone. In the European Union you can get these games through the Epic

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Game Store on iOS. There are a lot of steps and we're here to help. Let's get started.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Open up Safari on your iPhone and head to Epic Dock Download. Push the button.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You'll see a pop-up letting you know your iPhone isn't set up to install new marketplaces

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: from the web yet. To fix this we need to head to the Settings app. Press OK then open up

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Settings. You should see a banner that says Allow Marketplace from Epic Games.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Tap that. Choose Allow and then head back to your browser. Press Install. You'll get another iOS pop-up

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: asking if you want to install the Epic Games Store. Tap Install App Marketplace. Once that's done

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: the Epic Games Store app will be on your iPhone. Open that up and select a game and then install

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: it just like you do with any other app store with one last iOS pop-up for confirmation.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We did it! We know these were a lot of steps. Epic is working with regulators around the

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: world to get the Epic Games Store available on iOS and other locations and to make this

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00]: process easier in the future. Thanks for downloading the Epic Games Store.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I bring that up to show you that it's not super easy. I mean if you follow through it and you've

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: done it a couple of times sure you can figure it out but they're not making it,

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not making it just like a one-click download make it happen. You've got to go

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: through several steps. You've got to go through several, are you sure kind of prompts

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_01]: but they are making it available and Epic is happy as a clam. I mean they're just

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01]: they're loving that they're going to have their own store now and get around this.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Whether this is going to happen in the U.S. or not that remains to be seen.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and the fact that they have it around the world and they don't have it in America is a

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_02]: little bit of a problem too. The difference I guess is government hasn't forced the issue

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_02]: in the United States yet so again I don't know how to feel about this because from a political

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_02]: point of view it's gets very sticky fast. From a user point of view though what happens

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_02]: when we have Apple Store and we have Epic Store, don't you think mean you need a

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_02]: to have the NPI tech guy store Jay? Yeah I mean what are you going to offer on it though?

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01]: What I want is a store and just let everybody else go in there and make that little cut.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll do everything for 5% of in-game currency. I mean can you imagine it's so lucrative these

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_02]: stores. It is and that's the problem is that you know what Apple needs to, I don't know that

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_02]: we really need more stores per se because again when you add more stores now you're adding

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_02]: all kinds of opportunities for you know the Apple systems whatever you want to call them

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_02]: have been some of the most secure in the world for the most part. This is a real problem.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: That's going to change with this right? Absolutely because you're side loading apps basically on your

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: system this way and Apple no longer has control for vetting to make sure that

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: these apps are secure and they're not going to be doing things that they shouldn't be doing

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and you know I personally as a you know we rely heavily on security in our business

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and in IT and advising other people and I'd be the first to say I don't necessarily

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_01]: recommend you do this. I mean I think it's cool. I think it's good for Epic. I don't really like the

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: European Union doing this but you know sometimes what happens in the European Union we see it the

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: rest of the world and the seaport on an iPhone is the prime example since the 14 they've had a

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: seaport or actually I mean for instance a 15 they've had a seaport on the iPhone and that

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: would that basically started in the as far as legislating it happened in the European

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Union. In terms of mandating. Yeah exactly and so it's a problem. The reason that it's

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_02]: accepted in America because that was hardware and was forced you have to in other words if it's

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_02]: going to be mandated and everybody will get an American phone versus a international phone or

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_02]: whatever because it's hardware but this isn't the same because it's software but the principles

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_02]: are all the same right. How do you navigate this how do you deal with it how do you keep

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_02]: security in check if you're Apple. The problem is Apple got too greedy and I'm convinced

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_02]: if Apple would have came to the table and reduce those fees to a reasonable amount

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_02]: like a credit card fee or something Jay I don't think this would be happening right now.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah imagine my most credit card fees are 3% or 30% percent. Yeah I the heck I think if they

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: would take it a little bit more of a long look at this and view in an approach they probably

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_01]: could have started reducing their fees maybe they were high in the beginning because they had to

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: get all this stuff squared away but I think it just ginormous moneymaker for them and

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: it's hard to let go of those reins when you have the cash cow like that but

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they should have pulled back and not let this happen if I was Apple now we're

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: going to see more legislation we're going to talk about this in some future episodes but

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: you got more huge fees and fines coming down for Google and Apple and I wonder I sit back

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and I wonder they already have the market share in these places they already have the name

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_01]: recognition as a worldwide global leader why are they letting the AU boss them around I mean

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_01]: why don't they just say well fine you know you guys can do whatever you want and people

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: in your country want to buy it they can but they're off the order overseas or whatever I

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: reminds me kind of like the deal going on with Brazil and X and they're trying to kick

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_01]: them out of the country and the little spat with the judge and Elon Musk and all that stuff

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: which we've talked about before but I just I wonder why American companies are letting

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: other countries kind of bully him and push him around. Well speaking of that telegram you know

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_02]: you would think with it with all the hoopla about that and the guy getting arrested or

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: whatever else right these things you would think that they would be taking a hit and

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not they're skyrocketing Jay. No they're they're gangbusters they just passed I think

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: one billion skyrocketing active users per month yeah well telegram is a great product I've been

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I've been a telegram fan since 2017 like when they nobody had heard of them and because they were so

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: cross platform they basically did for iMessage or what iMessage did on the iPhone they did it

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: for everybody also telegram has done a lot of the pioneering kind of work in messaging

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: applications for example the ability to edit a message after you send it or the ability to

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: have all these crazy reactions and things like that people you're seeing that now like in

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: in rcs on google and an iMessage on iphone that stuff was pioneered years ago in telegram

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and and even others before that but they're just been I've always been impressed with telegram

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: especially the cross platform use of it and being able to send files between

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: your computer and your phone or other people and everybody even if you're no matter what

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: you're on you can be a windows phone or linux or um android and you see the same interaction

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_02]: in the same message now they say the reason that the guy of telegram got arrested is because there was

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_02]: you know um illegal stuff happening on his platform and I guess my response is you know

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_02]: what I think they're playing games here about winners and losers I don't know why this guy's

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_02]: being attacked and i'm not trying to make this a political discussion but look all the

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: platforms have that kind of stuff on it jay it's about impossible to stop when you're a

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: person communicating about on there it's like um the same thing happens with discord or iMessage

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: or anybody else I mean you can't uh police that you can't possibly have enough police to monitor

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: everybody's communication yet nor would you want to right people want to be secure in their

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: communications and and they don't want something else overlapping it in telegram has

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01]: ensured people's security and and they're they're right to communicate and a lot of places

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and governments don't like that they don't have the ability to see it is there nefarious stuff

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01]: going on on telegram yes is it the majority though no not at all and but they want to play it like

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that like uh oh this just telegram or whatever just this uh bastion of you know filth and crime

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and all these things are not not like that at all I mean I know hundreds of people that use it

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_02]: any big system where you have it's abuse grows beyond unknown um you know ability to verify

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_02]: everything or whatever it gets abused credit card systems are abused and that's like basically

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_02]: you know throwing the bank guy in jail because somehow the bank card got hacked I mean come on

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but name any system with Facebook or anybody else where that kind of stuff doesn't happen on it

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean you can't you can't do that because people are going to be well even Facebook says they

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_02]: delete millions of fake accounts and stuff millions exactly so tell me it's not happening there

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_02]: or so anyway I've got a problem with it uh and I think it's an issue um but I think telegram is

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_02]: one of the better apps out there I wish it was accessible so that I could use it they need to

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_02]: work on that um here's an interesting thing about accessibility there's a lot of things

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_02]: that are accessible j where they claim they're accessible but they're not really example

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_02]: um an example is that like Microsoft Teams or telegram or Slack is great at this they have these

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_02]: web browser type apps that have all kinds of weird keystrokes that you use to do things and so for

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_02]: example f6 or shift f6 will kind of move you around the sections of the app and then you can

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_02]: do things when you're in the section the problem is it's not reliable all the time so let's say

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I press I press f6 and I get to my message list well all the keystrokes are supposed to work in the

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: message list except for if there's a pop-up then they don't work until the pop-up goes away right

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_02]: so it works kind of if you just get lucky in the pop-ups or never there it works and if you get

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: a pop-up then you gotta and so I'm just saying these things kind of work but they don't totally

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_02]: work they're not consistent and they're certainly um what's the word I want to use they're

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_02]: clued you they're not fast they're not really keyboard driven they're their browser mouse driven

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_02]: and yes they've managed to say because you can alt tab or shift tab or f6 to this and

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_02]: then you can denero for that and if you can do this for that and technically they're accessible

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah but they're not monitoring that or making sure that it moves forward I mean

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: people add that stuff sometimes just so they can say hey there is a path but

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_01]: they don't work and I see this all the time in forms you know you go on to somebody's form

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: anywhere online and like the tab order just is wonky you might move from you know you have your

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01]: name your email your phone number and then an address and you go from name to email to the

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: zip code back up to your phone number like it's just I don't know why they don't see that and I

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_01]: guess it's because mostly so many people are not navigating with a keyboard anymore they're

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_01]: you're using touch they're using the mouse and so that probably is why it gets overlooked but

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: it's definitely important and I think they should dedicate some cycles and some resources to

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_02]: making that work right well and it's hard for them because they develop these things that are

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_02]: out browser based I don't know if you know but a lot of these apps now have a browser as their

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_02]: core engine to run the app and even though you don't load a separate browser it's still a browser

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_02]: based kind of an app and it's based on browser code too and so they're limited in their

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: functionality in a lot of ways and so I'll give you a quick example Lotus one two three used

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_02]: to be a old DOS program and it was wicked powerful you could hit keys and do things and so you'd be

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_02]: sitting there and you could take a slash and then you could type you know six keys slash this this

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_02]: this this boom boom boom boom boom you could navigate all the way through these menus it was incredible

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_02]: and then they eventually got windows then it was like okay alt f and o and t and r could get you

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_02]: there and it was similar but not quite as good and then now they have these ribbon interfaces

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_02]: where I mean they don't even really work like that anymore exactly and now everything's buried

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_02]: in these complicated things and and so you can say all of them are accessible because you can say

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_02]: this control or this whatever does have accessibility but it's getting from control to control and then

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_02]: it's dealing within that control and it's it's it I'm just telling you that they're not very

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_02]: accessible yeah I know I just you know kind of derailed the discussion to accessibility but

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's important to understand just because they can claim oh here's your keyboard list of

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: things you can do or just because they can say oh look here's the we've got we've done a video and

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_02]: there's six sections on the screen and here's how you get to these sections and even though they can

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_02]: lay out accessibility that doesn't mean that it's really accessibly usable yeah and I'll give you

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_02]: a last example to make the point then you can okay respond here they say that your cell phone is

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_02]: accessible as a blind person and so you turn on voice over and now you're ready to send an email

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_02]: and yes it's true you can send an email but it's so painfully slow I say that it's not doable because

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_02]: when you have screen reader mode on or you have voiceover on you can move your finger around the

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_02]: screen and it'll say the numbers and letters when you pick up your finger that letter is inserted

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_02]: into your thing into your editor or whatever into the edit box but to literally move around

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_02]: the screen and find the letter you want and then pick up your finger let that letter enter

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_02]: then put your finger on the screen again and move around till you find the letter that you need and

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_02]: put your finger up again it's painfully slow and some blind people have learned to do it reasonably

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_02]: fast but I'm telling you right now when it's somebody that can see they could just tap that

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_02]: thing in 30 seconds write a three paragraphs or not maybe 30 seconds but literally you know

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean this will take you 10 minutes to get done oh yeah I mean you know some people could be

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_01]: faster with morris code putting it in than than some of those interfaces and that's kind of my

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_02]: point so you can say that's accessible but see I would say that it's not agreed I've seen this

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: before relative right in like um Microsoft products especially like excel or something

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_01]: you will see this legacy accessibility where like old shortcut key combinations work

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01]: but you can't find any documentation on it so you get a modern version of Microsoft excel 365

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever and you want to know what the shortcut keys are but you can't you'd have to like just

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_01]: stumble around and explore because you can try alt f in for a new one or whatever and you can maybe

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: find some of those common ones but you there's no documentation and no without you know going

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: online and trying to watch youtube videos or or find somebody who's sat down and put it all

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_01]: together into a sheet um whereas before you could actually look through the menus now you'd

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: alt f and you could see the letters that were underlined that would be the next step to get

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: to where you wanted to go and um they you know they've done some things for like trying to show

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: like little pop up letters and characters on some things but I look at it like legacy

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_01]: excel's ability you could see the stuff that's happened before and they're trying to carry it

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: over but it it's just not executed well in the newer interfaces and I don't know what the best

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: answer for that is but there's got to be one you're right about that and it's something

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_02]: that we need to work towards but I believe accessibility has been set back many times

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_02]: in many ways as society goes forward and it's an epic battle that's for sure amazon remains

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_02]: the world's most valuable retailer for the ninth straight year j it is amazing 308.9 billion is

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that what I'm reading here yeah almost 309 billion dollars according to brand finances 2024 report

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_01]: they put out a cool little graphic um and it shows in in different blocks and icons kind of the

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01]: ranking of the top 10 brands and they are in order amazon and it is uh if you look at the size again

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_01]: this is sort of a visual thing but the size each three times are more bigger than number two which

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_01]: is walmart walmart at 96 billion amazon is that 300 billion 309 billion so well over three times

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_01]: walmart and I remember just a few years ago when they were saying hey amazon just surpassed

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: walmart as the biggest brand now they're more than three times bigger than walmart number two

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: number three is the home depot at 52 billion dollars number four is cosco at 48 billion dollars

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_01]: number five is cbs that's the drugstore 30 billion dollars number six is target at 26 billion dollars

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought they'd be a little bigger than cbs but maybe not uh number seven is loaves the home

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Chinese company on here um actually number eight nine and um 10 I believe are all Chinese companies

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_01]: actually 10 I'm not sure well the other ones are Chinese companies in the sense that they also

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Chinese stuff but they're not Chinese owned tibayo is number eight and team all is number nine

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_01]: these now they may have subsidiaries or companies we've heard of you know it could be um you know

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: what's what's a popular one I can't even think of it now uh timu is the one that I'm thinking of

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_01]: from that tibayo but I don't know if that's if that's true or not but and then number 10 is

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01]: JD.com at 17 billion and um just amazing that amazon it also shows their change so this is another

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: interesting figure this data is for 2024 um ended I think the first quarter or maybe second quarter

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_01]: 2024 is when this uh closes up but amazon's ranking at 309 billion dollars they're up 3% walmart

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_01]: who's number two a distant distant number two at 96 billion dollars is down 15% you're over so they're

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_01]: only they're only uh 20 billion apart no no no they're so amazon's 309 308 versus 96 and walmart's

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_01]: not even 100 yeah yeah walmart or amazon is well over three times I got a question though and and

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not really a uh you know a fan of this but at some point isn't amazon kind of if you get that

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_02]: much bigger than any considerable rival don't say the n word sam isn't it a monopoly kind of thing

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know because you know monopoly is up to the regulator definers right of what is an

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_02]: is a monopoly yeah so I don't know that's huge look take take the next let's just do the top five

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: take the next four combined now these are they even there notice that this is retail brands

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_01]: the are not the biggest brands I mean so apple would uh figure in here quite a bit but these

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_01]: are talking about retail stores and um not necessarily brick and mortar in other words to sell other

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_02]: people's products per se they're a store in and of itself not necessarily a brand correct yep but it's

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_01]: just amazing I think some the uh amount it has its own brands what's the walmart brand called

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_02]: great value yeah great value yeah but no they're talking about a brand too but it's kind of a

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_02]: sub brand this is a store versus a brand or a store versus a they carry other people's products

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_01]: right yeah amazon's releasing its own generic brand too that just came out recently they're

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_01]: going to have I forget the name of it but target has won it's like great value for walmart and

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: they're going to be releasing like generics but so yeah those last three JD.com team all in tebeo

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_01]: those are all three Chinese they're all um growing a little bit well actually according to

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01]: these numbers they're down 34 percent minus 32 percent minus 6 percent so compared to the

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_01]: competition they're not growing um as far as their market share but they three companies make up the

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: end of this mix as far as the top 10 worldwide um you got us don US retailers are dominating the

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: top 10 with all the top seven places and the brand value represents a company's financial worth

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_01]: based on its name alone it's calculated by considering factors like customer loyalty

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and recognition and of course this is like I said all in retail space very interesting well so

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_02]: number two through how many does it take to equal number one jay oh gosh I know you're asking six million

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: plus number three whatever plus how far down do you have to go to even equally well two three and four

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_01]: would be about 200 and then uh five six and seven you'd get maybe you're beginning close to so

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_01]: you take those top seven minus walmart so the next six in that top seven might be getting close to

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_01]: where amazon is at in the in the 300 billion dollar range so see isn't that startling it is

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_02]: looking at that way amazing whoa man so amazon is truly a behemoth is truly an amazon that's for sure

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_02]: yep and you know what's interesting to me too is that with that kind of profits and that kind of

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_02]: you know is it really profit or is it just size of dollars right and then the next question

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_02]: is why do we keep raising the base fee to even be part of amazon that's kind of the other problem

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_02]: none of these other none of these other ones have a fee to be a member like a no cascos in here

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: casco is uh number seven no they're number four and they're you know they're based on a member and

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_02]: they are yeah so it's interesting to me that these club memberships and stuff make these

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_01]: companies just become behemoth I think that that number contributes significantly to the

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_01]: profitability of them though too walmart has a plan to 140 bucks for amazon thing yeah you

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: and there's some bet has one 110 bucks a year about it well casco is mandatory I mean you can't

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_02]: shop there without it right but it's the 110 is like the better membership they got one for

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_02]: like 60 or 70 that's not as good or not as I don't know I live in there I don't know you

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_02]: you don't get money back the same or whatever else and so but it's just shocking how man we

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_02]: we we have services where we pay to get the service then we watch commercials we have services

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_02]: where we pay to get the service and then we go buy products whenever we get in there

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_02]: it's like Epcot at Disneyland you know you go there and you're supposed to get food around the

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_02]: world and you pay a hundred dollar fee to go to Epcot then when you get in there it's like hey

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_02]: you can get all these foods you gotta buy all of them yeah exactly I just paid to get in so I

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_02]: can buy foods it's like what is happening and we the people just love it don't we yeah oh yeah

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_02]: we eat that up our society absolutely I personally think it's a little bit psychotic I

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_02]: just my opinion and it's just like what is happening um and then you know you try to

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_02]: use all these tech AI algorithms to say how do I get the best deals on things and stuff

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_02]: like that and I don't know that anybody else could prosper against behemoths like this how could you

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_02]: start a business and do well unless you have kind of a niche market or something unique and people

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_02]: go to you because of the niche I don't know how you even compete with anything anymore

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_01]: another interesting part of this as far as Amazon's concerned is this is their retail sector

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of people say Amazon's not even a retail business anymore they're real businesses and

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Amazon web services and selling servers so imagine what's going on there oh boy well we

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_02]: keep an eye on tech so you don't have to ladies and gentlemen you can sign up for service pay to

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_02]: have the service and then pay for the product the service sells if you're comfortable with that

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_02]: let's just keep doing it if not maybe we ought to make a change huh all right network providers

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_02]: link dot com where we want to earn your business every month npi tech guys dot com

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_02]: is our show spread the word show the love and make it a great tech day will ya hey thanks