The world is witnessing an unprecedented centralization of economic power by the leading tech companies Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA). Presently, an astonishing 83% of all product searches start with either Amazon or Google. Every second book in the United States is sold via Amazon, who also controls the e-commerce infrastructure: globally more than 4 million merchants use the Amazon marketplace and underlying services as sales channel. This market dominating position allows Amazon to dictate prices and terms and conditions to use their services, factually subordinating merchants across the globe.
Furthermore, the four tech giants are continuing to spread to virtually every aspect of our daily lives, increasing their market power even further. While the convenience is beneficial for the consumer, the objectivity is held back by adverse selection processes driven by the data pool of the these companies.
For merchants, online and offline alike, the market position of Amazon is a real threat, as long as the dependence of merchants of Amazons remains unchanged. Merchants selling via Amazon can be blocked and be driven out of business, successful products can be sold directly by Amazon and prices for advertising to drive traffic to one’s products can be dictated. While the online share of retail trade is constantly increasing, the power of Amazon will naturally grow along with the trend.
This vicious circle of centralization forces must be broken.
For those and many other reasons, we are introducing:
GAMB — the Global Alliance of Merchants on the Blockchain.
GAMB is powering the decentralized marketplace of the future, ultimately governed by smart contracts, with no decision making unit other than the owners of the marketplace themselves.
Merchants selling through GAMB will be given the opportunity to join a merchants alliance, granting more control and ownership of their own retail space, and becoming part of a growing digital, retail community, less reliant on a single dominant marketplace.
The greater the number of merchants using and supporting GAMB, the more influential and independent they will become. The merchants themselves propose the marketplace rules, eventually removing the top down power which hinders merchants in existing marketplaces.
Our goal with GAMB is to provide merchants and customers the opportunity to trade in a truly democratic marketplace, which offers the best results for all online businesses and retailers of any size. By using blockchain technology, we can provide a platform which not only provides secure transactions, but an opportunity to create a thriving ecosystem of vendors and merchants which is self governing and well ahead of the digital retail curve.
