Amazon Buys Satelitte Company to Control Your Shopping Habits from Space

Amazon is looking to take over space. That's right. Amazon is dominating your doorstep, your doorbell, your living room, and now they want to dominate space as well. They just spent $11 billion buying a satellite company that you've never heard of called Globalstar. So, why on earth would Amazon, a company that specializes in flooding our streets with Amazon Flex drivers, want to get into space way up there? Well, a lot of it has to do with the relaunch of one of their biggest failures in company history, but also a big part of it is controlling where you shop. Amazon announced this week that it's acquiring the satellite company Globalstar for $11 billion. Globalstar has only about 24 satellites in orbit. Now, 24 satellites is measly. Amazon right now has 241 satellites in space as part of its Project Kuiper, now called Project Leo, which they started in 2023. And their goal is to have over 3,000 satellites in a constellation in the coming years to build a rival to, you know what company, Starlink. And in fact, that rival to Starlink is already operating. Amazon Leo is designed, according to Amazon, to extend reliable high-speed internet to those beyond the reach of existing networks, including the millions of businesses, government entities, and organizations operating in places without reliable connectivity. Think industries like mining or offshore drilling. But make no mistake about it, eventually Amazon wants to be able to offer internet to actual consumers like you and me. It only makes sense. You have Prime Video, you have Prime Music, and soon you'll have Prime Internet. But Amazon's existing satellites have one big problem. They cannot talk to consumer devices directly without special hardware. So right now Amazon satellites couldn't connect to your iPhone even if you wanted them to. Globalstar though does have direct-to-device capability. D2D technology allows satellites to connect directly to standard smartphones and wearables without requiring specialized hardware. Now getting that approval for D2D technology is heavily regulated and could take Amazon years upon years and they may not even ever get it. So big part of Amazon buying Globalstar is to bypass all of this. But why would Amazon want a service to talk to cell phones directly when it doesn't even offer a cell phone? As you might remember, Amazon's only foray into cell phones was a colossal failure with the Fire Phone nearly 10 years ago. Well, that's because right now they don't have a cell phone. As we announced earlier this month, plans were leaked recently that Amazon plans to launch a new cell phone at some point soon. And this new phone is designed to basically be a shopping app in your pocket. It's not even meant to be your primary phone, it's meant to be a secondary shopping phone. By Amazon being able to offer their own mobile data directly to their phone, it will give Amazon a fighting chance to compete against Samsung and Apple in the cell phone market. Oh, and by the way, Apple is a huge investor in Globalstar. They own roughly 20% of the company and they rely upon it for its SOS service. So Amazon acquiring Globalstar now puts them in direct competition with Apple. Okay, so if you sell online, why should you care about Amazon buying some cell phones? Well, this is all an effort for Amazon to become completely dominant in everyone's homes. It started with dominating how you buy books. Then they moved into streaming music and videos. And then they started listening to your every word with Amazon Alexa. And then they started watching every person that enters or leaves your home with acquisition of Ring. And by the way, Amazon's Ring technology has been the center of controversy, specifically centered around spying, for many years now and as recently as this year's Super Bowl. And now Amazon want to control your cell phone and your internet. There is no other company in the world, not even Facebook, not even Google, that knows as much about you, your family, and your shopping habits as Amazon does. Controlling where you buy will be easy. So, what do you think? Are you worried about Amazon planning to launch thousands of satellites into space? Do you think it will affect you as an online seller? Drop a comment down below and until the next one, happy selling.