101–110 of 298 posts
So why are these companies still shedding jobs? I'm starting to wonder if the tech industry is disproportionately impacted similar to dot com bubble from 2000.
And they say we are not in a recession.
I think these moves are possible if we're not in a recession. If Amazon underperformed over the year, and its earnings are lower than estimated, they could be simply cutting costs in Q4 to offset the lowered earnings. The cause of that underperformance is really what would tell you if we're headed for a recession and Amazon has their fingers in so many pies it'd be hard to attribute laying off 1/150th of their workfo…
> In 2018, Echo and Alexa lost about $5 billion, said a person with knowledge of the finances. When Amazon introduced new devices this fall in an annual event, it was notably more restrained than past years when it had featured zany products like a sticky note printer and $1,000 home robot. $5B loss from one business line is a lot. Maybe this manner of investment inspired Zuck on the metaverse.
I just don't see the path to profitability for Alexa. Like, sure, it's neat, but how does it make any money? Do they sell the devices at a profit? Does usage of the devices lead to increased sales on Amazon.com? Are those sales that wouldn't have taken place on the app/website otherwise?
Yes. We have a few Alexa's and it's helpful to reorder commodities with your voice as you run out of that item (batteries, tape, printer paper, etc). I just add them to my cart and check the price later, but I like it because I'll likely forget to reorder some of those things if I don't do it right away.
Apple and Samsung own our pockets with their devices (and associated platforms), Amazon wants to own the spaces where our phone isn't always close by or easy to use (mostly home and car).
This is going to be a terrible holiday season for a lot of people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just don't see the path to profitability for Alexa. Like, sure, it's neat, but how does it make any money? Do they sell the devices at a profit? Does usage of the devices lead to increased sales on Amazon.com? Are those sales that wouldn't have taken place on the app/website otherwise?
When Amazon Music Unlimited was an attempted thing, that was a direct path to monetization that basically only happens if you have Alexa/Echo widely deployed. Otherwise, it seems a tenuous link to increasing sales in retail. (I say "was" because they recently rolled part of it out as a Prime benefit a couple of weeks ago, but I can't figure out the exact difference between unlimited and what's included in Prime [and…
You can only play in shuffle mode.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just don't see the path to profitability for Alexa. Like, sure, it's neat, but how does it make any money? Do they sell the devices at a profit? Does usage of the devices lead to increased sales on Amazon.com? Are those sales that wouldn't have taken place on the app/website otherwise?
It's an ads vector Eventually people will say "Alexa buy my groceries" Alexa will buy from the highest bidder
There has been a lot of talk about a correction coming and a bubble bursting specifically in tech for years now. Is this it?
the correction is happening now. the pandemic pushed all these tech companies up artificially. they hired in record numbers to meet demand and thought it would be permanent/the new floor. The economy has since rebounded and companies are returning to previous levels. The war isn't helping however
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not strictly true. I examined a master's degree thesis last semester where the student proved conclusively that Alexa devices are periodically spamming bursts of data back to Amazon HQ even when not woken. Beyond a heartbeat, too - MBs of data, not KBs. No clear idea what that data is, though. There's at least a small chance it isn't benign.
link?
As/when it's put on my institution's open repository I'll post a link. Might be a few weeks though.
> In 2018, Echo and Alexa lost about $5 billion, said a person with knowledge of the finances. When Amazon introduced new devices this fall in an annual event, it was notably more restrained than past years when it had featured zany products like a sticky note printer and $1,000 home robot. $5B loss from one business line is a lot. Maybe this manner of investment inspired Zuck on the metaverse.
I just don't see the path to profitability for Alexa. Like, sure, it's neat, but how does it make any money? Do they sell the devices at a profit? Does usage of the devices lead to increased sales on Amazon.com? Are those sales that wouldn't have taken place on the app/website otherwise?
There has been a lot of talk about a correction coming and a bubble bursting specifically in tech for years now. Is this it?
I think a lot of folks here have never been through a down cycle before though and anything that’s not frantic growth and double digit comp growth YoY will feel like a nuclear winter.