By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 19th, 2024
Even though Amazon is yet to announce any plans for its own digital assets, a new report which surveyed opinions from several analysts, has claimed that Amazon is very likely to announce a Libra competitor.
A few months ago, Facebook revealed plans for its own cryptocurrency called the Libra, and also announced the Libra Association. The announcement was met with different reactions, most of which were largely polar. Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts seemed to laud the social media giant on its decision to enter the cryptocurrency sector.
These proponents believed that a firm like Facebook, with its estimated 1.5 billion users worldwide, would do a lot for crypto adoption. On the other hand, a lot of people, including United States Congressmen, were against Facebook creating its own currency. Since then, however, a number of potential competitors have sprung up including Binance’s Venus class of stablecoins.
Ben Mezrich, the author of “The Accidental Billionaires”, a book which detailed the early days of Facebook, expressed at the time that a cryptocurrency floated by Amazon was a much better choice than the Libra. Now, it would seem that recent sentiments are corroborating this claim.
Amazon Is a Worthy Opponent
According to a report from a survey carried out by data and analytics firm Cindicator, Amazon is a worthy enough opponent even though it is yet to announce any intentions to enter the sector. The Cindicator report says that nearly 23% of all the analysts who took part in the survey, believe Amazon to not only be a worthy opponent but also the “most likely to announce its own cryptocurrency.”
Amazon is the easily the biggest online e-commerce service and it could easily leverage its millions of users all over the world to create its own digital currency, just like Facebook planned to. However, the firm has not only never shown interest in crypto, but an Amazon Exec, Patrick Gauthier, recently described the Libra as speculative, further adding that:
“At Amazon, we deal in not really the speculative but in the now.”
The Cindicator report also notes that other possible Libra/Facebook competitors include Google, Apple, Walmart, and Microsoft.
Is Facebook ‘Making it Easy’ for the Competition?
Facebook has issues which aren’t random hearsay or fabrications. The social media giant has a long history of privacy breaches and violations and as such, the company’s reputation, especially as it relates to privacy, is almost nothing to write home about. Even David Marcus, the head of the Calibra project, promised Congress that Facebook will do everything it can to comply before the Libra launches, no one is at rest.
The Cindicator report also mentions that there are a considerable number of people who said they would not be eager to use Libra. Of this number, more than 29% revealed that they will not hold any Libra because they had little to no trust in the company. For 11.38%, their reasons were centered specifically around privacy issues.
Another pointer to the fact that Facebook has a lot to do if it is to win the trust of Congress and the general public, is the Libra Association. Facebook announced a few companies as part of the association that will handle the Libra.
Some of the names include Uber and Mastercard, and Facebook has explained that this was done to separate the companies, and to also make sure that the involved firms would serve as a tool for checks and balances. This, however, didn’t work out as the firm planned it to, as it was accused by Congress of single-handedly choosing the firms that make up the association, for its own gains.
If Libra is to be successful, Facebook needs to go on a reputation clean-up campaign, before Amazon changes its mind and decides to give Facebook a run for its money.