Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#1

Post by fgeahfeaha » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

A common silicon valley move is to acquire a ton of users with a low priced product, then slowly keep raising the price over time to increase profitability.

With so many companies deeply entrenched with AWS, what happens if they do this?

Its not like netflix where you can just cancel it if the price raises too much

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#2

Post by belter » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

Dont wake a sleeping dog...let's keep like this: https://aws.amazon.com/pt/blogs/aws/category/price-reduction...

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#3

Post by jqpabc123 » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

There are other providers that people can move to.

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#4

Post by eimrine » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 7:49 PM UTC

Raising prices means a lot of hardware is doing nothing. Raising prices while some hardware shortages (flood on HDD factory, lack of top notch videocards) kind of works.

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#5

Post by thdxr » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 7:50 PM UTC

nothing is literally stopping them besides a deep understanding of what it takes to make companies that can last a hundred years

amazon ruthlessly drives down costs because they know the moment they leave the door open too far, someone will eventually come in and supplant them

an example is how SQS has gotten 99% cheaper since it launched

bezos is the one who said "your margin is my opportunity"

they can one day turn around and start cranking up prices but this is how the last generation of companies (Oracle, IBM, etc) died

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#6

Post by PaulHoule » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

Azure. It's not too bad.

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#7

Post by thayne » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

jqpabc123 wrote: post #3

There are other providers that people can move to.

Only if you have been careful from the beginning to design your system in a platform agnostic way and don't rely on AWS specific services and APIs.

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#8

Post by thayne » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 8:03 PM UTC

I suspect doing so would probably draw some major anti-trust scrutiny.

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#9

Post by GGO » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 8:07 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #6

Azure. It's not too bad.

It has never been better than too bad

Re: Ask HN: What is stopping AWS from raising prices?

#10

Post by aq9 » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 8:09 PM UTC

What do you mean? Prices are going up. Costs have been falling since AWS was introduced faster than they have reduced prices. I am willing to bet that their gross margin is higher today than it was last year, 5 years ago or 10 years ago.