The daily business briefing: December 5, 2017

Amazon launches in Australia, Netflix commits to resuming House of Cards production without Kevin Spacey, and more

Robyn Wright from House of CArds
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

1. Amazon launches in Australia

Amazon launched in Australia on Tuesday in a move that could disrupt the retail market in the world's 12th largest economy. The site opened with limited product offerings, however, and higher prices than rivals feared. Rival retailers' stocks gained ground after falling in recent months. Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey called Amazon's launch a "non-event" that fell short of the "hype" that had driven down his company's share price. "It's just amazing that this sort of thing can gather this sort of momentum and ended up so lame," Harvey said. Experts, however, expect the world's largest retailer to get more competitive in Australia soon. "It's early days — it's day one," said Jack O'Leary, a U.S.-based analyst at global retail insights firm PlanetRetail RNG.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.