Amazon buys dpreview

tsk1979

Whoa: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0705/07051402amazonacquiresdpreview.asp

Will they remain independent enough now?

wxwax

Phil cashes in. It's what building an internet business is all about. :cool

tsk1979

the dpreview news forum has become entertaining with members accusing Phil of selling them out to the "Big bad corporations"
Phil is on damage control mode telling everyone that he still gets to keep editorial and content control, and this will not affect his reviews in any way.
Anyways good for Phil.

cmason

Heck I see it as great news. Solves the problem of needing $$ to run the site, $$ which can only come from camera vendors or resellers. Taking $$ from camera vendors always strikes many as creating influence, so I think Phil has been reluctant to take it.

With Amazon, he now has permanent advertising support: Amazon. And Amazon doesnt care what camera you buy, as long as you buy it from Amazon. Fine by me. Since I imagine there will be very few items in reviews not available from Amazon, I doubt there will be any 'editorial conflicts'. I know how to find cameras for sell from other places, so no problem...heck I always check Amazon anyway, for comparison and customer reviews...so this will just make me check Amazon first in many cases.

IMDB shows the model works, as they still do indepenant movie reviews and are still a highly referenced source, just like dpreview.com is.

I also think Phil has a review model that is extremely comprehensive, expensive to duplicate, and has generated trust with his audience.

I trust Amazon, I trust DPReview. Good marriage...

Andy

cmason wrote:

Heck I see it as great news. Solves the problem of needing $$ to run the site, $$ which can only come from camera vendors or resellers. Taking $$ from camera vendors always strikes many as creating influence, so I think Phil has been reluctant to take it.

With Amazon, he now has permanent advertising support: Amazon. And Amazon doesnt care what camera you buy, as long as you buy it from Amazon. Fine by me. Since I imagine there will be very few items in reviews not available from Amazon, I doubt there will be any 'editorial conflicts'. I know how to find cameras for sell from other places, so no problem...heck I always check Amazon anyway, for comparison and customer reviews...so this will just make me check Amazon first in many cases.

IMDB shows the model works, as they still do indepenant movie reviews and are still a highly referenced source, just like dpreview.com is.

I also think Phil has a review model that is extremely comprehensive, expensive to duplicate, and has generated trust with his audience.

I trust Amazon, I trust DPReview. Good marriage...

+ 1billion

I'm amazed at the whingers on Dpr that are shouting OH NOES Dpr will never be the same, and *$(^)$(^)*drat you, Phil, you sold us down the river!

Good on Phil, very happy for him

jfriend

Andy wrote:

+ 1billion

I'm amazed at the whingers on Dpr that are shouting OH NOES Dpr will never be the same, and *$(^)$(^)*drat you, Phil, you sold us down the river!

Good on Phil, very happy for him

It will be interesting to see how Phil's personal style fits inside a big corporate parent. On dpreview, he seems to be pretty autocratic where he gets to decide everything and it's his way or the highway. That can work fine when you run your own business (in fact if you are right most of the time, it can be very efficient), but it can run into real problems when you try to fit into a larger corporate culture that has other decision makers and other agendas that success requires you to colaborate with.

Time will tell.

Thusie

Good for Phil

wxwax

tsk1979 wrote:

Phil is on damage control mode telling everyone that he still gets to keep editorial and content control, and this will not affect his reviews in any way.

We shall see.

The history of small companies being bought is that the founder thinks he/she will keep doing things as they always have.

Within a few months they become disillusioned as they realize it ain't so. The new owners paid plenty to have things the way they want them.

Within a year or two the founder is gone (often to start another business.)

davidweaver

Congrats to Phil !

IMDB got a whole lot better after Amazon bought it. This should make DPR rock!

wxwax

cmason wrote:

IMDB shows the model works, as they still do indepenant movie reviews and are still a highly referenced source, just like dpreview.com is.

They do?

Where?

wxwax

Andy wrote:

+ 1billion

I'm amazed at the whingers on Dpr that are shouting OH NOES Dpr will never be the same, and *$(^)$(^)*drat you, Phil, you sold us down the river!

Good on Phil, very happy for him

It's the classic internet success story, the stereotypical path.

wxwax

davidweaver wrote:

IMDB got a whole lot better after Amazon bought it. This should make DPR rock!

How are the sites similar?

davidweaver

wxwax wrote:

How are the sites similar?

They are both owned by Amazon.

If you are a SmugMug user then you are using Amazon S3 storage services, which is a really smart thing for a lot of businesses.

Amazon S3 link

cmason

wxwax wrote:

How are the sites similar?

Both provide independant recomendations for products. Both provide reviews and comments from members.

Obviously a movie does not require the same level of testing detail, but IMDB provides info on movies not readily available in say the paper or in the promo material from the studio, much as DPReview does for cameras.

Both are supported by an advertising model. Both have very active forums. IMDB actually offers paid content as well, interesting, didn't know that.

Oh, and now both are owned by Amazon.

So I think they are remarkably similar in terms of what they do and offer, and in this case, IMDB was bought in 1999, and remains IMDB today, exanded, but not AmazonIMDB.com. If you click on a DVD link, it will take you to Amazon. Movies in Amazon include data from IMDB. To me, this points to an example where indeed Amazon bought a company and let them do what they do best. I see no reason to think DPReview will be any different.

wxwax

cmason wrote:

Both provide independant recomendations for products. Both provide reviews and comments from members.

I must be blind.

I don't see any movie reviews on IMDB. All I see are member comments on movies.

Could you link me to reviews provided by IMDB itself?

DavidTO

Sid, I don't think it's so much that they have anything in common right now. The hope is that they will have something in common: being owned by Amazon will improve the user experience.

David_S85

DavidTO wrote:

The hope is that they will have something in common: being owned by Amazon will improve the user experience.

My user experience got forever shelved a few years back when I was banned for no understandable reason.

EDIT: Related... My email to Jeff Bezos asking to be un-banned continues to go unanswered. :cry

EDIT 2: The DPR natives are getting restless. I just read a post at DPR titled "Prisoners of Askazon." I have remained uninterested in that site except for the dslr reviews and related news, but reading the current threads is getting rather interesting as the forum crowd has been awakened and stirred with this news. Many are predicting doom and gloom. Overreaction as usual. The faithful Askazons just want the 1DmkIII review see the light of day.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

Sid, I don't think it's so much that they have anything in common right now. The hope is that they will have something in common: being owned by Amazon will improve the user experience.

I see. Thanks.

Maybe they'll improve the forum software?

I still have no idea why folks are comparing IMDB and DPReview.

tsk1979

wxwax wrote:

I see. Thanks.

Maybe they'll improve the forum software?

I still have no idea why folks are comparing IMDB and DPReview.

Their forum though a little antique can take some load. Vbulletin starts asking for serious hardware(esp if you have lots of mods) once the online user number crosses 700!

cmason

wxwax wrote:

I must be blind.

I don't see any movie reviews on IMDB. All I see are member comments on movies.

Could you link me to reviews provided by IMDB itself?

Waxy: you are correct IMDB does not review a movie...it provides detail info. Again, I am not saying they do the same things, that isnt true. How they compare are that they were independant web businesses, that offered a service to members, and had a thriving community. Amazon bought them both.

IMDB is an example of an business like DPReview, that was bought by Amazon...and then left alone or made better. Not changed for the worse, or really changed at all.

My point is simple: There is no reason to think DPReview will change because of the purchase. IMDB didnt change, why should we expect DPReview to change?

wxwax

cmason wrote:

Waxy: you are correct IMDB does not review a movie...it provides detail info. Again, I am not saying they do the same things, that isnt true. How they compare are that they were independant web businesses, that offered a service to members, and had a thriving community. Amazon bought them both.

IMDB is an example of an business like DPReview, that was bought by Amazon...and then left alone or made better. Not changed for the worse, or really changed at all.

My point is simple: There is no reason to think DPReview will change because of the purchase. IMDB didnt change, why should we expect DPReview to change?

I'm not saying it will.

And I feel like this is tangential to the greater story, so I don't want to needlessly drag on the discussion. I was just surprised at folks who used IMDB as evidence that DPR wouldn't change, when the two are not at all alike.

As for why things might change? As I pointed out earlier, business history is replete with examples of small business owners who hit the jackpot, sold control of their company, quickly realised they no longer had final say, and ultimately left to pursue other interests. It's a culture shock to lose control of your business, no matter how willingly you give it away. Also, I rather wonder if Amazon will be carefree about linking a store product to a negative review. Common sense suggests otherwise. But I could be wrong, they don't edit user comments, positive or negative.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent.

cmason

:deadhorse

Well if you look at a really poorly rated movie, like the classic "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2:, which got a deserving 1.8 our of 10, you can still link to Amazon and buy this DVD, if you dare:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270846/

Amazon will take your money, regardless of why.

wxwax

cmason wrote:

:deadhorse

Well if you look at a really poorly rated movie, like the classic "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2:, which got a deserving 1.8 our of 10, you can still link to Amazon and buy this DVD, if you dare:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270846/

Amazon will take your money, regardless of why.

User rating, not review by IMDB.

richW

Currently on IMDB:

At $12.95 per month, IMDbPro.com is the lowest priced film and television resource available.

Will this be the next step for dpreview?

Nikolai

wxwax wrote:

We shall see.

The history of small companies being bought is that the founder thinks he/she will keep doing things as they always have.

Within a few months they become disillusioned as they realize it ain't so. The new owners paid plenty to have things the way they want them.

Within a year or two the founder is gone (often to start another business.)

Call me a pessimist, but I'm with Sid on this one.
Being in software industry, seen/heard/read of that too many times, sometimes up close and personal.
"A time to cast away stones..."

Pezpix

Bah, does this mean that Phil's rants and tactics (The smugmug link controversy for instance ) will have somebody else higher up than him questioning his actions? If so then woohoo

Never been a big fan of Phil or his site specifically due to the arrogance factor that comes into play with all things Phil there. I'll stay in my happy little corners of the internetses message board world happily amongst friends anyway.

But congrats to him for selling out errrrr selling his site.