Flying business
Yes, seems like Amazon is trying to control the world, making people buy stuff faster than a blink, building a harmful new consumerism cycle guided by all the new tech and gadgets they can have access to. Despite the significant innovations made by the company, now it feels like the giant got totally out of the tracks, driving towards directions where the only possible destination are the profits.
The easy life, one click of distance, became Amazon’s business core. More people can buy things without thinking, more easy their job becomes. This outrageous way of thinking probably was the seed of the new Dash Buttons that came up last year. The idea of getting everything quickly and magically, simply by pushing a button, was presented like an ultimate innovation, combining Amazon services with the hype around the IoT (Internet of Things). But let’s not get back to all discussions about those creepy buttons, since it’s already old news, and many people just realised how that service is not aligned with basic notions of ethics that should guide contemporary business.
The thing is, that since April last year, they have been putting many efforts to start the Premier Air Service, Amazon’s drone delivery. After many fights against US “new drone rules”, they finally started the tests that will carry products in the air, aiming to, in a near future, being able to send express packages within few hours after the buying process.
The idea is good, yes it is. Is a good service being handed by a new and cheap technology that somehow can reduce logistics costs, reduce the needs of huge human power and also create a more efficient and fast process. But no, probably this is not the main idea behind the new flying innovation that will soon land in your garden. Amazon is just trying to make even easier to you buy stuff, reducing the time people have for decision making, pushing everyone to an endless environment of non-stop consumerism.
But no panic, everything’s not lost and Amazon is not all about bad things. By using the power they have, even the Prime Air Service could turn into an amazing innovation. In Tokushima, a small town in Japan for example, the government, partnering with a private drone company, started tests with drones for delivering groceries, especially around mountainous areas, where many elderly people can’t easily go down for buying their stuff.
As some people might know, Amazon also have the “Fresh” service, that was born to connect people with their local groceries shops around their neighbourhoods. A good combination of this service with the Air Delivery could potentially create some positive impact for those who can actually need, improving both services. Especially because that the idea of substituting the local community connections just for online clicks can break an important environments, creating cities less and less humanised.
However, back in Japan, another city also announced drone tests. Another company partnering with the local government, is planning to start tests to delivery medicine for elderly people around Chiba city. In this case, did not take longer to Amazon announce they joined the project, expanding the tests also for household supplies delivery, what is not necessary bad, if we do not consider the obvious plans they might have in a near future, when the idea of drone services become an everyday thing.
For the bad and for the good, all those big companies have nowadays power and technology to use their services to actually bring some shared value to our society, but unfortunately more and more we see the opposite coming from them. Luckily we can also see all the new business, startups and small entrepreneurs turning even more empowered, creating new perspectives for the same business, giving us some kind of hope.
Of course they are small and probably won’t break the big names. But this still representing an important factor, which is spreading all those new ideas among people and corporations, inspiring them and hopefully awaking the critical sense we need inside those business.
Mateus Bagatini
Content creator
