Amazon plays it dirty to pull down Google

Rule one of winning a competition – Keep your rival far, far away from the competition.

In simple terms, this is Amazon’s strategy against Google. It might not sound so fair; but hey, everything’s fair in war and love.

Both tech giants are equally good at bringing out innovative products, often belonging to the same categories. But Amazon has an upper hand with an e-commerce platform that is so huge that Antitrust authorities are behind them. And Amazon is all set to take full advantage of this.

Passing over an order that “came from the top,” Amazon has told Google that the e-commerce platform will sell Nest products only till the current stocks last. The company had earlier refused to sell Nest’s smart thermostat and a few other products, as well as the Google Home voice assistant speaker and Google’s Pixel smartphones. Though the online retailer had promised that it would resume sale of Google Chromecast, the product is yet to hit the shelves.

Nest, previously a standalone unit of Alphabet, was later absorbed back into Google. It is likely that Google is looking to leverage Nest’s capabilities in the development of its smart products. Nest has decided to stop restocks once the current inventory runs out, under the argument that Amazon should either sell all its products or none at all.

Passing over an order that “came from the top,” Amazon has told Google that the e-commerce platform will sell Nest products only till the current stocks last.

It is yet to be ascertained whether third-party sellers will continue to sell Nest products on Amazon.

Google, meanwhile, has not been slow at hitting back. The search king had removed YouTube from Amazon Fire TV, Echo Show and Echo Spot claiming violation of terms of service.

Amazon and Google compete directly in the areas of smart home products and digital voice assistants. These constant swipes at one another could be attributed to this rivalry. It is likely that Amazon, which is vigorously promoting Alexa, does not wish to provide a huge advantage to one of its main competitors.