[epups]

If it's not about percentages, then what's the difference here? Walmart and Amazon are not fundamentally different. If the Apple Store can be compared to a mall, then we are in the same economic model we've been for decades.

[ilayn]

You can switch to a different location and continue business, should a conflict arises with a landlord in a mall.

With Amazon, if you have a conflict, you are done. You cannot come back to the mall. And there is a single (or very few malls).

In other words, it is not a market, where people come together for business) anymore it is being bound to a higher power to grant you rights of doing business.

[epups]

This is the same dynamics we have seen before. How many national supermarket chains are there? Crossing Walmart or Amazon seem very analogous here. If anything, business in the past was more feudalistic, as people were bound to a given market and they are now able to negotiate more broadly.

All of the replies here seem to point out that monopolies are bad and tech companies tend to be monopolistic. This is obvious and we all agree. However, when asked what is the difference between a mall and Apple Store, Varoufakis did not mention a monopoly or oligopoly as the issue, he mentioned rent. Specifically he mentioned that getting a percentage of profit was the biggest issue. I think this is not a strong argument for calling it a new economic model.

[darkwater]

Exactly. And probably in 300-400 years from now, if Humanity is still there or it can entertain itself studying its past, they will laugh at how we permitted that.

[dzonga]

one example - Yanis gave on channel 4: was Amazon not only owns the mall. But with their algorithm - they can decide to show you what shops they want you to see. in a regular mall -- you can explore the mall willy nilly. nothing is exactly out of bounds in terms of the shops you see. you wanna visit a sex store - that's on you.

on amazon / google etc with their algorithm certain shops / websites are blocked from you ever noticing they exist due to their algorithms.

[bluetomcat]

The marketplace dynamics are different. Numerous physical malls scattered around the world sell different sets of products to local clienteles. A centralised "online" mall sells a single set of products globally, offering a particular subset to a particular customer thanks to a finely-tuned algorithm analysing individual behaviour. It's not quite a "free market" anymore.

[vladms]

> sell different sets of products to local clienteles

> offering a particular subset to a particular customer

Aren't those in fact the same?... It's just that you can adjust faster and more granular, but as you yourself mentioned it happened before as well.

And really everybody talks about "the evil fine tuned algorithm" but when I am looking for something to buy many times those "smart" algorithms make very stupid suggestions and I feel the same as in the supermarket - I need to be very very specific about what I want and look for myself otherwise I don't get it.

[jahnu]

I guess another way to view the point(s) he's making is that the supplier of the thing that enables you to make your own business, prices that thing based on how hard and smart you work and not based on how hard they work.