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Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

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Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#31

Post by inopinatus »

sharkweek wrote: post #24
sabalaba wrote: post #12

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.

I live in Seattle and am friends with a lot of Amazon folks. Most work very hard and complain from time to time, but I only know one who left for another job because most who are there now actually really like their jobs. One friend put it best after he transitioned from a small department in the ecommerce side of the business to one of AWS's early-ish hires, that most young departments have the thrill of working at…

I'll echo that from personal experience. I left AWS to start my current company. I had a regret-prevention imperative to do so, but it was still the toughest call.

Amazon's culture is highly polarising. The emergent properties of which are all the truths and lies you ever read about the place.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ProAm wrote: post #28
msandford wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

How long should an investor wait to get any ROI on a 20 year old company? (honest question)

[deleted]

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#34

Post by ProAm »

darkclarity wrote: post #30
shuri wrote: post #3

You have to love this sentence "We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member."

I like being that irresponsible one. Though it is impressive that Amazon has turned a delivery fee - that most people don't like paying - into an exclusive subscription service. A service that customers fall over themselves to sign up for when it's offered at a discount.

It's very Apple-esque to be a member of an elite community.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#36

Post by jfoutz »

ProAm wrote: post #28
msandford wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

How long should an investor wait to get any ROI on a 20 year old company? (honest question)

If you want defined returns you can buy amazon bonds today. if you want to try to triple your money in 5 years, well, maybe that'll happen with the stock again. who knows?

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#38

Post by taneq »

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…

This seems like a huge distinction that people don't make often enough with high-performing, fast-growing companies. You see it with Tesla, too, when people claim that the Model S is "sold at a loss", ignoring the fact that a large part of the company's current expenditure is in setting up huge new factories.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#39

Post by rorykoehler »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #33

I'm trying to do some math. What is the total economic value of the actual Amazon river, and how many Amazon rivers economies did Amazon.com make last year. Anybody?

If the Amazon river dried up we'd all be dead. Most of it's 'economic' value isn't recorded in our myopic economic measurements.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders

#40

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

ProAm wrote: post #28
msandford wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

How long should an investor wait to get any ROI on a 20 year old company? (honest question)

1st July 2006 Amazon shares traded for $26, they're currently bouncing around $600.

See here: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AMZN+Interactive#{"range"...

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