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Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

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Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#11

Post by ryptophan »

kahwooi wrote: post #6

Amazon isn't making any money yet. Maybe in future they will make some. I don't like using AWS (I just don't know why), I prefer Microsoft Azure and Digital Ocean.

Haven't tried Azure yet - will give it a spin eventually. I love Digital Ocean compared to AWS. Sure, AWS has a lot of bells and whistles, but this simplicity of DO is just what I need most times.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#12

Post by sabalaba »

I see this letter as an attempt at vindication for the controversy sparked by the NYT article on Amazon's corporate culture. Jeff Bezos was clearly affected and I see this as a defense of their "distinctive culture". "For better or for worse" that culture got them to $100 billion in annual sales faster than any company in history.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#13

Post by adventured »

kahwooi wrote: post #6

Amazon isn't making any money yet. Maybe in future they will make some. I don't like using AWS (I just don't know why), I prefer Microsoft Azure and Digital Ocean.

$596 million in net income the last four quarters to be exact. So yeah, they are making money.

Further, AWS is a money printing machine. It's generating over $700 million in operating income per quarter, and that's growing very fast. It'll be at $5+ billion per year in operating income within perhaps just two or three more years. There aren't very many technology businesses anywhere producing that kind of operating income.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#14

Post by kahwooi »

msandford wrote: post #10
kahwooi wrote: post #6

Amazon isn't making any money yet. Maybe in future they will make some. I don't like using AWS (I just don't know why), I prefer Microsoft Azure and Digital Ocean.

> Amazon isn't making any money yet. Amazon makes TONS of money. They aren't currently returning any of it to shareholders as profits, they're continuously reinvesting it in the company. The difference between gross profit and net profit is how much Amazon is spending on building new businesses that after a few years start grossing $10b a year in sales like AWS. That got funded out of the gross profits from regular A…

LOL. Ballmer say so:

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/ex-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-...

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#18

Post by resu_nimda »

peteretep wrote: post #9

Help me understand how: "We learned from our failures and stayed stubborn on the vision" isn't mutually exclusive

Usually vision is paired with the concept of execution. The vision was to build a business out of being a marketplace where third parties can sell goods, they failed twice on the execution.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#19

Post by sib »

peteretep wrote: post #9

Help me understand how: "We learned from our failures and stayed stubborn on the vision" isn't mutually exclusive

There's another part of the quote that was not included that relates to being flexible on tactics (...while being stubborn on vision). So the "why" and "for whom" stay constant, but the "what" and "how" may change as you learn.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#20

Post by davidrusu »

peteretep wrote: post #9

Help me understand how: "We learned from our failures and stayed stubborn on the vision" isn't mutually exclusive

They are convinced of the vision and have an unwavering belief that they will achieve this vision, but there are many paths one can take. So to act rationally when encountering a failed attempt, given their belief, is to learn and try something else. :)
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