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Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

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Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#231

Post by awa »

igravious wrote: post #77
vinceguidry wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I listened to a talk by Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogels, where he was explaining that Amazon's entire strategy is to build an infrastructure for itself, then rent that infrastructure out to its competitors. This was the game played by John D. Rockefeller. He had so much infrastructure built up by the time they split up Standard Oil, that each new state Standard Oil immediately had everything it needed to keep operation…

Blimey. Fascinating. Sounds like a rather frightening and ruthless individual. Am curious. What would your nominations be for the Rockefeller of the tech (software/hardware) world? Ever thought about that?

Bill Gates with Microsoft.

At its peak Windows was running on 90% of computers and the biggest rival Apple (Steve Jobs) was taking money from Microsoft (Bill G) to survive.

Bill was able to leverage almost all other software companies to create software for Windows to create a lock in fro the customers.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#232

Post by dredmorbius »

baddox wrote: post #185
veb wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? (nice term, btw). I like to say yes. I think. I mean, he may have destroyed hundreds of people's livelihoods/jobs/companies, but his efforts these days are literally saving peoples lives. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I'm a firm believer people can change and while this might not be Bill Gates…

What pain and suffering did he cause, other than running his business better and offering a better product to customers than his competitors? He cut the price of kerosene by 90%, which must have vastly improved the quality of life for a lot of people.

Blowing up competitors comes to mind.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#233

Post by xorcist »

veb wrote: post #148
smacktoward wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that was my thought too. > John offered three choices to rival refiners, cash, Standard Oil stock, or to get crushed ... is also a pretty good description of how Microsoft approached anyone they considered competition in the '80s and '90s: you either licensed your software to them ("cash"), sold your company to them ("stock"), or got destroyed by them. Gates' charitable efforts have earned him a warmer and fuzz…

Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? (nice term, btw). I like to say yes. I think. I mean, he may have destroyed hundreds of people's livelihoods/jobs/companies, but his efforts these days are literally saving peoples lives. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I'm a firm believer people can change and while this might not be Bill Gates…

That's absolutely impossible to measure. What parts of Microsofts business can be accurately ascribed to him? What patent trolls are completely Microsoft-owned? What damage do they do?

They did an absolutely unprecedented assault on the Internet on the developer, policy, and user front when they found out they could not compete there, until they turned that policy around. We only see vague results of this today, on that all development of the web itself was put on an 8 year hiatus, and in some of the crazy proprietary formats that still plague us.

But how do you put it in economic terms? How much is the break-ins at RSA, Cisco Google, Valve, and inbetweens unknown worth to the global economy, because bad business practice forced peoples email clients to have the ability to run code?

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#234

Post by psychometry »

samstave wrote: post #190
psychometry wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What lasting change has Musk effected? The potential is certainly there, but the average person's life isn't much different than it would be had Musk never existed.

Uh, the private space industry? Really, you don't see what is happening here? Who else mounted a private space company able to dock with that of the global governmental effort that is the ISS?

Did you read my comment? The average person can't take advantage of anything offered by the private space industry.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#235

Post by psychometry »

Karellen wrote: post #221
psychometry wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What lasting change has Musk effected? The potential is certainly there, but the average person's life isn't much different than it would be had Musk never existed.

Paypal.

Paypal was certainly an important development, but it's not exactly the Model-T of our time. Someone else would've built and funded a similar solution anyway.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#236

Post by saryant »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #200
baddox wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps less frightening when you consider that he manage to cut the end-user price of kerosene by 90%.

Cut prices on a finite and polluting resource. No, not really less frighting. Also a reminder that the term "visionary" is very relative to your horizon.

Rockefeller built an enterprise that continues on to this day. An empire that has seen nineteen American presidents come and go, watched superpowers rise and fall and is (IMO) the most important company in history.

Exxon still breathes Rockefeller, his imprint can be seen all over that company. To call him a visionary is absolutely appropriate.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#237

Post by dusklight »

gnaritas wrote: post #149
veb wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? (nice term, btw). I like to say yes. I think. I mean, he may have destroyed hundreds of people's livelihoods/jobs/companies, but his efforts these days are literally saving peoples lives. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I'm a firm believer people can change and while this might not be Bill Gates…

> Hmm, does his charitable efforts these days make up for the pain and suffering he caused back when he was a barracuda? No. Changing doesn't remove your past sins and helping one person doesn't balance your hurting another. To believe so would mean saving a life makes up for taking another life, obviously it doesn't.

Does that mean he should stop and go back to being a barracuda?

It's certainly not fair to make the comparison of saving one life in exchange for taking another. A better comparison would be saving many (millions?) of poor, non-white lives in exchange for stealing money from privileged white men (majority of people in the software industry during his era).

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#238

Post by cwp »

psychometry wrote: post #234
samstave wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, the private space industry? Really, you don't see what is happening here? Who else mounted a private space company able to dock with that of the global governmental effort that is the ISS?

Did you read my comment? The average person can't take advantage of anything offered by the private space industry.

The average person doesn't make use of communication satellites? Ok, maybe not directly, but without them you wouldn't be able to live sports on TV.

http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/07/14/falcon-9-launches-orbc...

http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/08/06/spacex-launches-asiasa...

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#239

Post by bwaxxlo »

dredmorbius wrote: post #230
mrottenkolber wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with these american HC documentaries is that they are employ certain stylistic means which make them impossible to watch for me.

What stylistic means, if you don't mind my asking?

Overtly bias portrayals to an extent that it becomes celebratory in nature. While I can understand the need to do so, it has become so ingrained that it is impossible find any historically objective documentary that allows viewers to understand the mindset of the period.

Re: Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works

#240

Post by coliveira »

vinceguidry wrote: post #66
exelius wrote: post #24

I listened to a talk by Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogels, where he was explaining that Amazon's entire strategy is to build an infrastructure for itself, then rent that infrastructure out to its competitors. That way, increased competition can actually fuel your growth. The talk was about APIs, but Amazon views APIs as a general term: "Fulfilled by Amazon" is an example of a non-technical API. Likewise, I think Amazon's s…

> I listened to a talk by Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogels, where he was explaining that Amazon's entire strategy is to build an infrastructure for itself, then rent that infrastructure out to its competitors. This was the game played by John D. Rockefeller. He had so much infrastructure built up by the time they split up Standard Oil, that each new state Standard Oil immediately had everything it needed to keep operation…

Rockefeller was able to do this at a time when building a monopoly was just OK. That is not the case anymore, and anytime Amazon is accused to do something similar they will be destroyed by the government.
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