As of 2011, Amazon was the world's largest bookseller.
Mixed Partly true and partly false in roughly equal measure.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.
What would count as true or false
Judged as of August 2011. True: credible industry data or reporting from 2010–2011 identifies Amazon as the world's largest bookseller by book sales (for example after Borders went bankrupt, with Amazon's book revenue above Barnes & Noble's or any other retailer's worldwide). Mostly true: Amazon was the largest by most measures (for example combined print and e-books, or US/global retail) but a narrower measure placed a rival level with it or slightly ahead. Mixed: sources are roughly split on whether Amazon or Barnes & Noble was the largest. Mostly false: Amazon led only in a sub-segment, such as online or e-books, while another retailer had larger total book sales. False: evidence shows another bookseller clearly had larger book sales in 2011.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (4)
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E1 Print vs. Digital Media: Overview | Communication and Mass Media | Research Starters | EBSCOhost EBSCOhost (Research Starters) · 6 June 2025
“According to a Credit Suisse report from 2010, as cited in a Business Insider article, Amazon.com became the largest book vendor in North America in 2009, controlling approximately 18 percent of the North American book market.”
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E2 Independent Bookstores – Ask the Agent Andy Ross Agency (WordPress blog) · 9 April 2011
“The most surprising number above is that Barnes and Noble (retail and on-line) continues to be the largest outlet for trade sales in America, far surpassing Amazon.com.”
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E3 Amazon: Love Them? Hate Them? Let’s Follow the Money - Publishing Research Quarterly Springer (Publishing Research Quarterly) · 2 June 2010
“Barnes and Noble/B Dalton collected $4.52 billion (2008), while Borders/Waldenbooks combined revenue was $3.11 billion (2008).”
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E4 Print vs. Digital Media: Overview | Communication and Mass Media | Research Starters | EBSCOhost EBSCOhost (Research Starters) · 6 June 2025
“This made Amazon.com as big as its next-largest competitor, the mainly brick-and-mortar book chain Barnes & Noble, and far larger than the third-largest US bookseller at that time, Borders.”
Reasoning
E1 cites a 2010 Credit Suisse report saying Amazon became the largest book vendor in North America in 2009, with about 18% of the market. E4 says this made Amazon as big as Barnes & Noble, which suggests the two were about level rather than Amazon clearly leading. E2, an April 2011 literary-agency blog post, says Barnes & Noble (retail and online) was still the largest outlet for US trade sales, far ahead of Amazon. E3 gives only 2008 revenue for Barnes & Noble and Borders, with no Amazon figure to compare. None of the sources gives worldwide figures, and they disagree on whether Amazon or Barnes & Noble was the largest, which matches the 'mixed' criterion.
Cite this claim
Marc Andreessen, “As of 2011, Amazon was the world's largest bookseller.” (said 20 August 2011). Verdict: mixed. Reliability API, claim c_211102ac811d, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_211102ac811d
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
More factual claims by Marc Andreessen
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Mixed
“And these people are completely giving up the entire moral foundation of the system that’s been built for them, which by the way, is paid for virtually 100% by taxpayer money.”
The system that has been built for these people is paid for virtually 100% by taxpayer money.
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Mostly true
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Mixed
“Technological innovation in a market system is inherently philanthropic, by a 50:1 ratio.”
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Mostly false
“There are only three sources of growth: population growth, natural resource utilization, and technology.”
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Mostly true
“We believe markets lift people out of poverty – in fact, markets are by far the most effective way to lift vast numbers of people out of poverty, and always have been.”
Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.