How will Particl Marketplace Compete Against Amazon?

I know I’m jumping the gun on writing this article, which I’m pretty sure a lot of you would agree. As a fellow crypto-currency investor (I’m assuming this is the reason you’re reading this), we know the Particl Marketplace will not be available at least until the last quarter of the year at the earliest, in fact there’s a chance that it might be pushed to early 2018. So why the expletive am I already writing an article comparing this to Amazon?!?!

If you stop to realize the potential of a blockchain technology and what it stands for, you’ll understand that marketplace companies such as Amazon would be vastly different against blockchain projects such as Particl. Both platforms would have different interest and values despite both operating to connect buyers and sellers. One could argue that Amazon’s interest would be to make their shareholders satisfied, whereas Particl would want it for their community. Again, you could debate this all you want, but here are the key advantages of Particl as a decentralized blockchain over Amazon as a centralized company.

Global Service
This is probably the most controversial item that I will mention on this article as I’m saying Particl will have a better global service than Amazon. You might be living in a 1st world country and are enjoying the benefits of your Amazon Prime account. I cannot argue that Amazon provides one of (if not) the best shipping services in the world. Amazon with its same-day shipping is simply better than Particl, but again, I’m talking about global service. I’m aware giant marketplaces would have the financial capacity to scale, but they choose not to as it’s not worth it. At the moment Amazon, currently the largest marketplace operates on 11 countries. This would mean they only need to operate in 185 more in order to be truly global. The fact that you need to hire, register as a company, comply with the country’s regulations etc. would not make sense. This means sellers in countries like Australia, Taiwan, Russia etc. would have to look for other marketplaces within their country.
As Particl is a global blockchain, the platform will be available to the entire world from day one. This would be perfect for sellers in African countries such as Zimbabwe, which widely accepts Bitcoin as a currency, not to mention the countries that are already covered by Amazon. In terms of “global” service, Particl would have a better potential to scale, and if a buyer from let’s say… Australia would buy the same product from Amazon and Particl, chances are there would be a closer seller in

Particl.
Seller Empowerment
As a buyer, you won’t complain about Amazon’s service. As a seller, you might.
For the average person, you might not know that sellers would need to pay at least 15%-30% sales commission to marketplaces like Amazon in return for selling their products on their site. On top of that, you need to fill up a lot of documents and have to comply with Amazon’s fulfillment requirements.
With Particl, a seller would be able to sell something on the platform on a whim. No document fill up, and hardly any fees at all regardless of the product. This gives the option for the seller to get a better markup or even offer more competitive prices to buyers. And as I mentioned this will be offered globally, African coffee bean farmers, struggling artists in France, or Persian rug weavers would be able to sell their items anywhere.

Privacy
Have you ever experienced looking at Amazon for a product? You look at it for 30 minutes and tell yourself “Nah… I don’t want this”, then move on with your life. After 2–3 days, you take a look at a random site then notice the exact same product being advertised on that site. Coincidence? I think not. This could only mean that marketplaces such as Amazon has the capacity to retrieve your details to a specific level and share it on other sites. As stated by the Particl team, Particl Marketplace will provide an end-to-end transaction to buyers and sellers without leaving a trace of metadata.
Some people could say “Yeah, but Amazon provides a very good search engine. Particl search engine will be crap”. Yes you’re right, but Particl Marketplace is not in the business of collecting buyer/seller’s data for upselling or market analysis. In fact, Particl hardly makes any money connecting buyers and sellers. In terms of search engine, it will provide the necessary search that you want and nothing more. So say what you want, It would not be the most convenient search engine compared to Amazon, but it will be the most secured and private search engine to be provided today.

Upkeep
There are some controversies looming around Amazon regarding its Amazon Prime services. Some people are saying that Amazon is losing more money offering this service than what it’s making for the past number of years. In fact, the cost was so expensive there has been news about a bankruptcy recently. Whether you believe the news or not, you cannot deny that employing hundreds of thousands of people in 11 countries would mean that you have make a ton of money to pay them.
Particl employs less than 20 people and hardly spends on anything. Nuff said…

Conclusion
I am by no means trying to say that Amazon is a bad company. In contrast to that, I believe Amazon has done extremely well to get this far. What I have a problem about is the system that Amazon and most companies are operating under. It is shareholder-centric, meaning it ultimately does not aim to please buyers and sellers, but its shareholders.
With Particl I’m aware about the risks the project will experience in the next few years given the markeplace will realistically not be available for more than 4 months, maybe more. But if I’m right based on the advantages that I have provided, Particl might just be the true “global” marketplace.

Disclaimer: This is by no means, a financial advice. As a Particl token holder, I am informing the people the advantages of a blockchain-centric entity compared to a centralized corporation.