Amazon Spark, the e-commerce giant’s Instagram/Pinterest mashup, is only a couple of weeks old, but it’s already overrun with ads.
During a recent scroll through Spark’s feed, 20 posts out of 55 were labeled #sponsored (by Amazon, no less). That Amazon would use Spark as a thinly veiled marketing channel to boost its own sales should surprise no one; its community guidelines prohibit brands from steering customers to products sold off Amazon. But that it would do so this aggressively raises an important question: What’s the point of posting to Spark if you’re not being paid to do so?
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