Why would I want to buy a book through a user interface that doesn't even allow me to browse the book or the reviews?
I can understand asking Alexa to restock the cereal if I buy the same brand all the time, but buying anything unique like a book, or an item of clothing or electronics, would seem to require much more interaction than such an interface is capable of.
I mean like "Hey Facebook Messenger, order me this book". The vision was about bypassing Amazon (and the Internet) and having Messenger at the heart of commerce.
If Facebook becomes a middleman for Amazon (or some other retailer), they're going to want a cut of the transaction, so going directly to Amazon would probably get you a better deal (or at least fewer ads). And it's no easier to buy something through a Facebook app than through an Amazon app. (If people really want to type "buy me book X", Amazon can add that to their own app very easily.) So it's not clear what value Facebook would be adding here.
(I don't think that Facebook would actually want to be the retailer in this transaction - that would involve competing with Amazon at something that Amazon is very good at and Facebook knows nothing about, like warehousing, shipping, purchasing, etc... and requires billions of dollars to build. So I don't see Facebook having any role except being a middleman.)
ESCAP is the regional arm of the United Nations in Asia and the Pacific.
We are building and maintaining several web applications in Java/Spring for our internal usage,
using Java Spring, deployed on linux/tomcat, interfacing with other systems via WS(REST/Soap).
To know more and/or apply, email us at escap-it-recruitment+hn0217@gmail.com
