Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been reportedly gathering intelligence secretly on its competitors for nearly a decade under the guise of Big River Services International.
What Happened: Big River Services International, a covert arm of Amazon, has been selling goods through various e-commerce platforms, including eBay, Shopify, Walmart and Amazon itself, generating around $1 million in annual sales.
Originating from a 2015 plan code-named “Project Curiosity,” Big River uses its sales data to gather information about rival e-commerce marketplaces, logistics operations, and payment services, The Wall Street Journal reported. This intelligence is then utilized by Amazon to guide its business decisions.
The revelation of Big River’s activities offers new insight into Amazon’s efforts to stay ahead of its competitors like Walmart. The operation’s team members attended rivals’ seller conferences and met with competitors, identifying themselves only as employees of Big River Services.
Senior Amazon executives, including Doug Herrington, Amazon's current CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, were reportedly regularly ...