Amazon see what friends bought

A few years ago, a friend of mine made an app called Mad Cash where you could link a credit or debit card and see where and how much money friends had spent on something. Think the Venmo feed, but for everything you buy.

The product, while fun, ultimately ended up dying on the vine. People don’t like sharing their financial information, especially when the app doesn’t have much utility.

This did get me thinking about “social shopping” and products like Amazon. Many items on the Amazon Marketplace have amassed thousands of reviews, but they lack that personal touch. What if you could link your contacts when onboarding to Amazon, and then they use this information to show people you know who bought certain items.

This could be helpful, even with products like Gas-X (never used it, just tried to choose a product that worked as a punch line for this idea). However, people like their privacy. I struggle to see a world where people are okay with surfacing this information, regardless of the value it may bring.

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