This report aims to pull back Amazon’s cloak of invisibility, it shows how the company’s tightening grip is stifling competition, eroding jobs, and threatening communities - it presents new data; draws on interviews with dozens of manufacturers, retailers, and others; and synthesizes a broad body of previous reporting and scholarship.

Key findings

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In 2016, half of all U.S. households were subscribed to the membership program Amazon Prime, half of all online shopping searches started directly on Amazon, and Amazon captured nearly one in every two dollars that Americans spend online.

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As a retailer, its market power now rivals or exceeds that of Walmart, and it stands only to grow: By 2021, one-fifth of the U.S.’s $3.6 trillion retail market will have shifted online, and Amazon is on track to capture two-thirds of that share.

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Amazon increasingly controls the underlying infrastructure of the economy. Its Marketplace for thirdparty sellers has become the dominant platform for digital commerce. Its Amazon Web Services division provides the cloud computing backbone for much of the country, powering everyone from Netflix to the CIA.

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