Amazon created a company called Big River Services International to gather intelligence on competitors by posing as independent e-commerce sellers|Phil Murphy|CC BY-NC 2.0

Amazon created and operated secret companies to spy on its rivals, including Walmart, Overstock, Etsy, Alibaba, Wish, Rakuten, Best Buy and eBay, to gather information, according to an investigation led by the Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, the shopping giant created “Big River Services International” in 2015 under a program internally known as “Project Curiosity.”

What did the secret company do?
Big River gathered intelligence on competitors by posing as independent e-commerce sellers. It created brands like “Rapid Cascade” and “Svea Bliss” to sell on competitors’ sites.

It also gathered intel on FedEx Fulfillment, a competitor to Fulfillment by Amazon, by getting accepted as an early customer of the logistics company. Due to the partnership, Big River received details of pricing strategies and other information from the logistics company. Amazon then used the insight to improve its own fulfillment centers’ services.

According to the WSJ, Big River team members also attended rival conferences and meetings, concealing their Amazon affiliation.

To maintain secrecy, they were told not to reveal that they were employed by Amazon to other companies. The team members were also asked not to discuss their work internally with other Amazon employees not part of the project.

They used non-Amazon email addresses for external communication and disguised their reports to senior executives by printing and numbering presentations.

In 2017, Project Curiosity was renamed the “Small Business Insights” to downplay its clandestine nature.

Despite efforts to hide Big River’s ties with the retail giant, team members listed Amazon as their employer on LinkedIn and used the Seattle headquarters address in official documents, which might have given them away.

Amazon’s covert effort has drawn criticism, given its past controversies and antitrust lawsuit regarding data use and treatment of third-party sellers—including accusations of using third-party seller data to copy products and then raise the prices of their products.

The retailer has denied all claims that it was spying.