dogan

Co-founder @PonyExpressHQ. Previously @Pinterest @Twitter, @Ebay, @Coupa, @Tubitak Space Agency. Alum @ycombinator S12 and @BilkentUniv

[dogan @dgn]

@noahlt I think that’s intentional

[Bay Area Air Quality @AirDistrict]

Visible smoke in parts of the Bay Area is from a warehouse fire in Tracy. Regional air quality impacts are not expected. Check https://t.co/U3NGKXoUWV.

[dogan @dgn]

Black holes and weird things https://t.co/5rIFgT1qFR

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

Amazon just got caught running a secret price manipulation operation with Levi's, Home Depot, Walmart, and many more.

Every time you "comparison shopped" online, you were looking at prices that were already rigged.

Here's what happened:

Amazon would monitor prices on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Chewy in real time. The second a competitor listed a product cheaper than Amazon, they'd contact the brand directly and tell them to "fix it."

And the exact emails are now PUBLIC.

Amazon sent Levi's links to two Walmart listings with the subject line "styles of concern." They basically said the prices on Walmart are too low and we have a problem.

The next day, Levi's responded: "I talked to Walmart and they have partnered with us to take Easy Khaki Classic fit back up to ladder SPP price, $29.99 immediately."

Levi's literally called Walmart and told them to raise the price. Because Amazon told Levi's to make the call.

Walmart complied. Then Amazon matched the HIGHER price.

Both retailers ended up charging more. The customer paid extra. Nobody competed.

Same playbook with Hanes:

Amazon sent them links showing Target and Walmart prices were lower. Hanes confirmed they "reached out to Target and Walmart to have the prices increased."

Target increased the prices. Walmart increased the prices. Amazon kept their margins.

But it gets even worse...

Amazon told Allergan (the company that makes eye drops) that their product was "suppressed" on Amazon because it was cheaper on another site.

Allergan responded: "Walmart got their price back up to $16.99." Amazon then unsuppressed the listing.

They did this with pet treats on Chewy. Furniture on Home Depot. Products across dozens of categories spanning YEARS.

The mechanism is simple but terrifying:

If you're a brand and you sell cheaper on Walmart than on Amazon, Amazon suppresses your product, removes you from the Buy Box, buries you in search results, and effectively makes you invisible to 300 million customers.

Brands can't afford that. So they call Walmart and Target and say "raise your prices or we'll lose our Amazon listings."

Walmart and Target comply because they need the brand's products.

Amazon captures 40 cents of every dollar spent online in America. That gives them the leverage to set prices across THE ENTIRE internet. Not just their own platform.

So turns out, you were never comparison shopping.

You were looking at a coordinated price floor set by Amazon through backroom phone calls between brands and their competitors.

"Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable."

3 separate antitrust trials are now scheduled for 2027. The FTC has its own case. 18 states plus the DOJ are piling on.

This is literally happening during the WORST affordability crisis in a generation. Groceries up 25% since 2020. Housing unaffordable. Wages flat.

And the largest ecommerce company on Earth has been secretly coordinating with brands to make sure you can't find a cheaper price ANYWHERE.

"Competition" in retail is just a fantasy.

[dogan @dgn]

@noahlt Liked it a lot so far, it did trigger my claustrophobia a couple times though. I cant image living in a confined space the size of a bus for the rest of my life. I would probably be in the Mars expedition.

[dogan @dgn]

Took a couple hundred pages to get there, but now I know what Seveneves is. It is "Seven Eves"

[dogan @dgn]

What a busy 3 months

[dogan @dgn]

help. 5 yo started singing 6-7 monster at home.

[Gabrielle Giffords @GabbyGiffords]

Four years ago, four students went to school and never came home. Seven more were injured and an entire community was left devastated.

My heart is with the victims, students, and teachers of Oxford. I’ll always fight to make sure no other family feels this pain.

[CEM TOKER🐬 @tokcem]

Örgütünün, yani PKKnın, en tepesindeki yöneticisinden, yeni katılan savaşçısına kadar, onurlu insanlarmış, suç işlememişler ki af istesinlermiş…
Kadın aynen böyle diyor…

Merak ediyorum:
Tamam anladık, AKP akıllı..
Kafayı kuma gömüyor, topa girmiyor.
Peki bu sürecin mimarı MHP yönetimi ve Bahçeli bu sözlere ne diyor??

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

I am unreasonably excited about self-driving. It will be the first technology in many decades to visibly terraform outdoor physical spaces and way of life. Less parked cars. Less parking lots. Much greater safety for people in and out of cars. Less noise pollution. More space reclaimed for humans. Human brain cycles and attention capital freed up from “lane following” to other pursuits. Cheaper, faster, programmable delivery of physical items and goods. It won’t happen overnight but there will be the era before and the era after.

[CEM TOKER🐬 @tokcem]

@DrDemirdasEn Bunların ne olduğunu, kimlerin adına yapıldığını, neyin simgesi olduklarını, yılda kaç milyon Amerikalının bunları ziyaret ettiğini de yazsanıza Doktor Cin Ali!!!

[David Sinclair @davidasinclair]

I came on an H1B “specialty occupation” visa and there’s no way I could have afforded a $100K fee. The US has just made it virtually impossible for people like me to come here

[Eray Tuzun @eraytuzun]

Öğrencisi, mezunu, ve en son da hocası olmaktan gurur duyduğum Bilkent Üniversitesi Bilgisayar Mühendisliği hakkında: https://t.co/uNDUYSCOBW Her tür sorunuz (Neden Bilkent, neden Bilgisayar mühendisliği? ..) için bana ulaşabilirsiniz.
@CS_Bilkent
@BilkentUniv
#yks2025 #yks25

[Naval @naval]

Stay healthy, get wealthy, seek truth, give love, and create beauty.

[dogan @dgn]

Was going for the sixth one but not enough time

[Kim Stanley Robinson @KSRQuoteBot]

All empires, after death, have a long half-life.

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Most of People still discourage there children when they ask skeptical question.

[dogan @dgn]

At this point, @wilw could read my grocery list and I’d still give it five stars on Audible

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The world’s largest ancient mosaic has been discovered in Turkey.

Archaeological excavations in Antakya, Turkey have turned up the largest floor mosaic at 9,000 square feet (836 m²) made in late Roman period, IV Century CE.