Starting Point: Where people start their search (to buy something or find something).
Decision Engine: Where people make a decision.
Buying Point: Where people actually buy.
What are all the reviews at Amazon for?
Amazon is both a decision engine and a buying engine. They are trying to wean off starting engines like Google and that is why they first tried A9 and now are trying devices in customers' hands.
If you step out of your attempt to defend the poster of the first article you'll realize that her article (not her, just the article) is very short-sighted.
The Internet is destroying entire industries - yet she thinks fashion internet startups should instead compete in the real world.
That makes no sense. We should all play to our strenghts. While she's trying to do backend stuff and help existing Fashion companies, some 'only 3 to 8%' earning Internet startup is going to disrupt the entire industry.
A hacker, in my opinion, is not meant to figure out how to solve the problems the existing industry power players created or want solved.
A hacker, again in my opinion, should solve the most elegant things and solve things for actual people.
You are missing a very key point here: consumers do not decide what they wear, the fashion / PR machine decides that for them.
Think about this: while a girl may discover a cool, new designer on Pintrest and buy a dress from that designer, trust me, she will still scratch out some girl's eyeballs to get the new Louis Vuttion bag. And why? Branding. And hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing to create an image, an illusion, and an object that conveys status. LVMH is the most powerful and profitable luxury conglomerate in the world for a reason (it is about 3x more profitable than Amazon with 20% less revenue).
Brands either die or thrive based on their ability to do two things: create a desirable brand and manage inventory. The entire function of branding and marketing is not going to be replaced by Svpply. Or Pintrest. Or whoever.
Lastly, it's comical you keep mentioning Amazon. One of the biggest reasons for their success is their ability to manage a supply chain better than almost anyone else.
I've found that almost nobody in Silicon Valley gets this, especially engineers (speaking as one). They treat the "product problem" as a technology problem (more data, better recommendations), but it's really a psychology problem (how do you make people fall in love?).
Mapping the social web onto the latter problem is actually more straightforward, IMO, than trying to, say, mine my Facebook account to make more "personalized" apparel recommendations.
Starting Point: Where people start their search (to buy something or find something).
Decision Engine: Where people make a decision.
Buying Point: Where people actually buy.
What are all the reviews at Amazon for?
Amazon is both a decision engine and a buying engine. They are trying to wean off starting engines like Google and that is why they first tried A9 and now are trying devices in customers' hands.
If you step out of your attempt to defend the poster of the first article you'll realize that her article (not her, just the article) is very short-sighted.
The Internet is destroying entire industries - yet she thinks fashion internet startups should instead compete in the real world.
That makes no sense. We should all play to our strenghts. While she's trying to do backend stuff and help existing Fashion companies, some 'only 3 to 8%' earning Internet startup is going to disrupt the entire industry.
A hacker, in my opinion, is not meant to figure out how to solve the problems the existing industry power players created or want solved.
A hacker, again in my opinion, should solve the most elegant things and solve things for actual people.