Launched in 2007, Amazon Vine is an internal service of
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...
that allows manufacturers and publishers to receive reviews for their products on Amazon. Companies pay a fee to Amazon and provide products for review. The products are then passed to Amazon reviewers who are then able to publish a review. Reviews are not required on any particular item, although Vine members are expected to review most items received. Past and present participating companies include
Logitech
Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe, ...
,
Harper Collins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...
,
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
,
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Bose
Bose may refer to:
* Bose (crater), a lunar crater
* ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha
* Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name)
* Bose, Italy, a ''frazioni'' in Magnano, Province of Biella ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
,
Tefal
Tefal S.A.S. (a portmanteau of TEFlon and ALuminium.) is a French cookware and small appliance manufacturer, owned by Groupe SEB (a global manufacturer of cookware) since 1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests t ...
,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
,
Breville
Breville is an Australian brand of small home appliances, founded in Sydney in 1932.Bosch,
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquarte ...
,
Dyson Dyson may refer to:
* Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson
* Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson
* Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon
* Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pur ...
, Remington,
Case Logic
Thule Group AB () is a Swedish company that owns of a collection of brands related to outdoor and transportation products. These include cargo carriers for automobiles and other outdoor and storage products, with 4,700 points of sale in 136 coun ...
Sennheiser
Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, telephone accessories and aviation headse ...
Black & Decker
Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...
Walker Books
Walker Books is a British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Amelia Edwards, and Wendy Boase.
In 1991, the success of Walker Books' ''Where's Wally?'' series enabled the company to expand into the American ma ...
. Reception for the program has been mixed with some people criticizing the program's use of non-professional reviewers while others cited this as a benefit. The Vine program operates independently on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.ca and Amazon.es.
Membership
Vine members (known as "Vine Voices") are selected from the Amazon reviewer base with the site stating that the selection criteria are "based on the trust
he members
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews". Previously there were two Vine newsletters every month from which the Vine Voices could select items to review. The first newsletter appeared on the third Thursday of the month and the second appeared on the fourth Thursday. Leftover items from these newsletters went to the "Last Harvest" list, from where Vine members could choose an unlimited amount of products.
Products available for review include essentially any type of item that is available for sale on Amazon. In return for products received, members are required to post a review within 30 days of delivery. Members are not allowed to sell or give away products received.
The Vine process last changed October 2016. Vine members voluntarily can check the website for a changing array of items and can select an unlimited number of items to review from both their targeted Vine offers or from "Vine for All". This change was in response to increased vendor interest in this program. Another member change was Amazon ending all customer online discussion boards, including the ones that previously existed for Amazon Vine program members, in October 2017.
Beginning July 1, 2015, Vine members in the
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
were required to provide tax identification numbers to Amazon before receiving any new materials to review. Amazon uses the
estimated tax value
Estimation (or estimating) is the process of finding an estimate or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable. The value is nonetheless usable because it is der ...
(ETV) of products as non-cash, taxable payments to Vine Voices for their services. Ownership of each Vine third-party product transfers to the respective Vine Voice six months after the order date and it is then that the ETV applies for tax purposes. For tax purposes, Amazon issues a 1099 to Vine members. Although included in the Vine Voices list of transferred items, such consumable items such as food, vitamins and makeup, are valued at $0 and thus have no ETV for the reviewer.
Criticism
The program has been met with criticism over the program's lack of transparency and the professionalism of its reviewers. Kristen McLean, formerly of the
Association of Booksellers for Children
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to ...
, commented that Amazon did not initially disclose that publishers paid to have their products included in the Vine program and that "Amazon is not specific about how many people are in the program, how they're chosen." The program also initially met criticism over the visibility of the reviews, with librarian Elizabeth Bird (author and Top 500 Amazon Reviewer) commenting that her reviews were sometimes "shuffled off to the side" while Vine reviews were more prominently and visibly placed. Bird further commented that some of the reviewers were choosing and criticizing books that they were "not the best representative readers for" and that this highlighted the difference between lay readers and professional reviewers, that latter of who would be more able to "give insightful commentary and acknowledge a book's intended audience".