For years, Amazon has operated as a pillar of the e-commerce establishment, claiming nearly 40% of the U.S. online retail market; beneath the surface of its sprawling empire, however, lies a lesser-known part of the story that could rival a spy thriller’s plot. This covert operation, known as ‘Project Curiosity’, involves Amazon’s subsidiary, Big River Services International, which has secretly gathered intelligence on competitors such as Walmart and eBay, as uncovered by the Wall Street Journal.
Established in 2015 under the guise of a typical online retail operation, Big River, headquartered in Seattle, has been more than just a vendor on platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. Officially, it posts about $1 million in sales annually from a diverse array of products ranging from beach chairs to Marvel T-shirts. But its real mission, according to sources familiar with the company, is to collect valuable data on pricing, logistics, and seller experiences across various e-commerce marketplaces.
Big River’s dual role emerged from Amazon’s benchmarking team, which traditionally examined competitors to enhance Amazon’s own offerings. As e-commerce grew, so did the importance of understanding and potentially outmaneuvering other platforms. Amazon’s employees at Big River went to great lengths to mask their true employer, using non-Amazon email addresses for external communications and even attending competitor conferences under their Big River alias.
The lengths to which Big River went to maintain secrecy were significant. Employees were given strict instructions on how to respond if their true identities were compromised, emphasizing that their work was part of a group aiming to enhance the Amazon seller experience. This narrative, however, simplifies the depth of data being collected, procedure ranged from tasks as mundane as buying out products from local stores, to as complex as setting up fake brands to penetrate marketplaces with traditionally high barriers to entry.
The implications of these revelations are significant. Elizabeth Rowe, a trade secret law professor at the University of Virginia, explains that while benchmarking—observing and learning from public data about competitors—is legal, crossing the line into misrepresentation or espionage can lead to serious legal consequences. This is especially pertinent as Amazon currently faces antitrust charges from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and several states, accusing it of anti-competitive practices.
Amazon defends its practices by stating that benchmarking is a common industry practice aimed at improving customer and seller experiences. A company spokesperson emphasized that similar research is likely being conducted by their competitors. Nevertheless, the revelations about Project Curiosity contribute to a growing scrutiny of Amazon’s business practices, questioning whether its market dominance is being fueled by innovation and customer obsession, or strategic, and potentially unethical, intelligence operations.
