Amazon Reports Surge in Profit • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#51

Post by fgonzag » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

prohor wrote: post #26

eva1984 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same...But good to know that it is executing well. Go google cloud go! Bring AWS price down!! We need competition!!

Google indeed seems the strongest competitor now for AWS, but there are far more providers who compete - see a comparison: https://www.cloudorado.com/ . We just need to choose them to avoid monopoly or at least oligopoly.

I wouldn't touch any Google product that my business critically depended on with a 10 foot pole. Their non existent customer service, willingness to kill products if it does not meet their user or revenue expectations, among many other things. It's a good strategy for them, but bad for their consumers.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#52

Post by arca_vorago » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

badloginagain wrote: post #49

Quinner wrote: post #42

Why do people link to basic stories like this behind a paywall? If WSJ has an original piece out, fine, but this could've come from any one of a thousand sources. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/amazon-sal...

The latest trick for wsj articles is to append /amp before /article More readable, less ads, and no-paywall.

This was the only of the above "tricks" that worked for me without having to allow too much crazy javascript junk.

Side note: I hate any website that try to load more than 5 js scripts.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#53

Post by justinhj » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

chmaynard wrote: post #47

Quinner wrote: post #42

Why do people link to basic stories like this behind a paywall? If WSJ has an original piece out, fine, but this could've come from any one of a thousand sources. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/amazon-sal...

WSJ subscribers may not be aware of this, but if you share an article via email, WSJ generates a shortened link to the same article that works for non-subscribers. Try this: http://on.wsj.com/1SNz3dT

That didn't work for me, I see the paywall.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#54

Post by pavs » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #36

tuna-piano wrote: post #25

Amazon's rationale for its lack of profits is well known... Why does this rationale not apply to its cloud business? Is the cloud business so good that it generates profits regardless of the investment it makes... or is the retail business so bad that it can't generate profits regardless of the investment AMZN makes in it?

The retail business is competing with a very old, very established industry. The cloud business pretty much created a new industry.

I think its also true that their online retail store created a new industry. They might not be the first online retail store, but they definitely spearheaded the online retail industry. I think the some of the reason why AWS is more profitable or has been profitable longer because.

- Amazon reinvested its revenue on its growth.

- AWS was a by product of Amazon retail store infrastructure (at least initially).

- AWS customer base are mostly businesses with big pocket and less likely to worry about spending money.

- Amazon retail store is built on the business of selling products cheaper.

- AWS profit margin tends to be higher than retail store.

Just thinking out loud.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#55

Post by draw_down » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:37 PM UTC

chmaynard wrote: post #47

Quinner wrote: post #42

Why do people link to basic stories like this behind a paywall? If WSJ has an original piece out, fine, but this could've come from any one of a thousand sources. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/amazon-sal...

WSJ subscribers may not be aware of this, but if you share an article via email, WSJ generates a shortened link to the same article that works for non-subscribers. Try this: http://on.wsj.com/1SNz3dT

Nope.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#56

Post by draw_down » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:37 PM UTC

phodo wrote: post #48

downandout wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ subscribers probably don't even think about the paywall when they share it here, since they are already logged in. But that is what the "web" link is for. If you see a known paywall site, always just click on the web link.

You can always google the title and get around the paywall.

No, that doesn't work anymore.

edit: the /amp trick mentioned below works beautifully, however.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#57

Post by lostsock » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:38 PM UTC

justinhj wrote: post #53

chmaynard wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ subscribers may not be aware of this, but if you share an article via email, WSJ generates a shortened link to the same article that works for non-subscribers. Try this: http://on.wsj.com/1SNz3dT

That didn't work for me, I see the paywall.

As do I

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#58

Post by massysett » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:41 PM UTC

pavs wrote: post #54

tomp wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The retail business is competing with a very old, very established industry. The cloud business pretty much created a new industry.

I think its also true that their online retail store created a new industry. They might not be the first online retail store, but they definitely spearheaded the online retail industry. I think the some of the reason why AWS is more profitable or has been profitable longer because. - Amazon reinvested its revenue on its growth. - AWS was a by product of Amazon retail store infrastructure (at least initially). - AWS c…

"spearheaded the online retail industry"

"Online retail" is not an interesting category even if they did spearhead it. Amazon is nothing more than a catalog retailer, something Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward pioneered eons ago. Shipping goods to consumers out of a warehouse by common carrier is not a new industry.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#59

Post by nxzero » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:43 PM UTC

Quinner wrote: post #42

Why do people link to basic stories like this behind a paywall? If WSJ has an original piece out, fine, but this could've come from any one of a thousand sources. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/amazon-sal...

This is something HN should just do anyway; that is high rep users flag a source as paywalled, and going forward the submitting user gets an alert with suggested alt links. No idea why HN isn't open source with an open source API to insert data too.

Re: Amazon Reports Surge in Profit

#60

Post by abhi3 » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 10:45 PM UTC

cosmoharrigan wrote: post #17

It's interesting to note that Amazon third-party seller unit share is at 48% of total units shipped, which is a record high. It has grown by 1% per quarter for the last 4 quarters in a row.

Does this share included international sales? If so it could have something to do with Amazon growing in India where it has to route all sales through a third party.

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/RjEDJkA3QyBSTsMDdaXbCN/Ama...