May be a silly question, but why on earth did Amazon want to buy a reviews site for a moderately niche industry (compared to selling millions of usb cables etc)? It feels like the effort of owning it would entirely outweigh any value it gave them, and has nothing to do with any part or their existing business?
Making sure it doesn’t grow into anything that could cause competition might be enough of a reason. Keeping it running helps ensure no one independent can get an easy foothold in the same space.
I imagine it was because they saw review sites as a vector to online stores. They could also have viewed review sites as competitors to Amazon's own reviews which drive sales on Amazon of course
