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Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

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Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#291
post #244

Amazon is the third largest advertising company after Google and Meta. Its ad revenue is $32B (and growing fast, the run rate is $40B). That is half the revenue of AWS, which is worth 70% of Amazon's market cap. The inescapable conclusion is that Amazon's advertising is worth the remaining 30% of Amazon's market cap and Amazon's e-commerce arm is deemed worthless by Wall Street , its only purpose being to support the…

Sorry, but can you share some source for that?

Like, on first page I've found in Google (https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/amazon-revenue/) it says: AWS – ~17B Ads – ~9B Online stores – ~66B

I actually wouldn't be surprised if I'm misunderstanding something and you're right, but can I ask where you got these numbers?

Edit: On second read I realized the source I sent was misleading – the title talks about annual revenue, but hidden in the text there's a note saying that sub-headings actually show quarterly revenue. I'm still not sure about AWS-to-sales ratio, but my apologies for earlier confusion.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#292

I’m part of the I’m sure infinitesimal and ever-shrinking portion of Amazon’s userbase who actually try to use the site to buy rare and used books. Most annoying for my experience is that they recently replaced what was in fact a best-in-class recommendation engine, which lead to a lot of my purchases, with a totally useless ad bar that displays universally terrible “related” books. There’s a world where after effect…

It seems buying rare and used books has mostly migrated to Facebook groups and ebay, at least for the sorts of stuff I collect.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only pro of amazon is that you can contact them months after the purchase and still get a free replacement/refund. With aliexpress I doubt they'd refund you even if you received a bag of dirt instead of your product

AliExpress also has strong buyer protections, which you would have seen had you ever ordered from there. You have to confirm delivery for every order else the seller doesn't get the money.

Half the time I order something from AliExpress, it's worthless junk that isn't what I wanted or way out of spec, and the confirmation thing you're talking about was a lot more limited than you're implying

To be fair, though, said worthless junk was like 1/5th the price it'd be in the USA, so it was still worth the gamble

the only major issue I have with AliExpress is how hard they make it to log in

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find the products that you need?

I tend to find `site:reddit.com $product` is often worth a shot.

This is no longer reliable as companies know people are searching Reddit so account for it in marketting

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#296

My process for getting usable results on Amazon (.co.uk, presumably the others too): 1. Search for thing 2. Filter by department (necessary for 3) 3. Filter by Seller: only Amazon 4: Filter by reviews: 4 stars+ 5: Sort by price, Low > High 6: (Further filters as appropriate) 7: Look at only products with a high number of reviews 8: For every product, "See all reviews" and filter on "Verified purchase only" and "Show…

I applaud anyone who leaves a non 5 star review, gets contacted by the company with bribes to make it 5 stars, and updates their review to report the company doing that.

They don't need to bribe anymore. Negative reviews get removed pretty easily. It's happened to me.

It's the new normal. Airbnb is even worse, they used to (and still might) actually have customer service edit reviews. Your review will get removed with no notice, Amazon will let you know.

If you remove some or most negative reviews but leave positive ones, what do you get.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#297

My process for getting usable results on Amazon (.co.uk, presumably the others too): 1. Search for thing 2. Filter by department (necessary for 3) 3. Filter by Seller: only Amazon 4: Filter by reviews: 4 stars+ 5: Sort by price, Low > High 6: (Further filters as appropriate) 7: Look at only products with a high number of reviews 8: For every product, "See all reviews" and filter on "Verified purchase only" and "Show…

I've bought and seen crap with good reviews. On Amazon.

You have a good chance to end with some chinese crap if you rely only on Amazon.

On some product, I prefer finding a specialized seller (that isn't dropshipping). Or find a real blog (tends to be hard with all those fakes websites listing top 100 products, but they nmask hemselves when all products are chinese crap on Amazon). Reddit also work to get advice from peoples.

What's more. I make research on the compagny producing the thing. LinkedIn helps with that. Only commercials on a tech product ? Get out.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#298
post #244

Amazon is the third largest advertising company after Google and Meta. Its ad revenue is $32B (and growing fast, the run rate is $40B). That is half the revenue of AWS, which is worth 70% of Amazon's market cap. The inescapable conclusion is that Amazon's advertising is worth the remaining 30% of Amazon's market cap and Amazon's e-commerce arm is deemed worthless by Wall Street , its only purpose being to support the…

Sorry, but can you share some source for that? Like, on first page I've found in Google ( https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/amazon-revenue/ ) it says: AWS – ~17B Ads – ~9B Online stores – ~66B I actually wouldn't be surprised if I'm misunderstanding something and you're right, but can I ask where you got these numbers? Edit: On second read I realized the source I sent was misleading – the title talks about…

Yea no I'm also left scratching my head. I've never heard of a methodology to attribute market cap portions to business units; eager to hear some clarification too.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#299
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I only started using them in 2017 and I still do use them sparingly. But typically only for stuff I buy directly from the brand's store on Amazon. Does this work? My spouse recently purchased some 3M N-95 masks directly from 3M’s Amazon store. They’re supposed to arrive in a box that has a code on it which you can enter into 3M’s website to verify it’s real and not a counterfeit. Instead they arrived in a clear pla…

If you have the time/effort (which I appreciate you may well not -- there's a limit to how much it feels worth trying to tilt against megacorp windmills) it would be better to return them to Amazon, because otherwise it looks to Amazon like a successful purchase. Amazon do at least make returns less hassle than some other e-commerce places I've used.

And contact your country's customs agency as they monitor ports and try to watch for counterfeits. Assuming they came from outside the country.

Here's where you can report this fraud in the US: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/e-allegations/violations

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#300

I’m part of the I’m sure infinitesimal and ever-shrinking portion of Amazon’s userbase who actually try to use the site to buy rare and used books. Most annoying for my experience is that they recently replaced what was in fact a best-in-class recommendation engine, which lead to a lot of my purchases, with a totally useless ad bar that displays universally terrible “related” books. There’s a world where after effect…

I stopped ordering books from Amazon after twice receiving books shipped loose in oversized boxes, with obviously inadequate padding, leading to corners damaged in transit.

This would've been unthinkable in the old days (Amazon customer since 1995).

I'm assuming you order from Amazon marketplace retailers who you trust, and do their own shipping.

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