4 ms·

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

by tomp 11y ago

pavs 11y ago
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.
- massysett 11y ago
  "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.
  - cle 11y ago
    Neither is leasing out compute resources. The devil's in the details. Scale, convenience, ease of use...
    - bcbrown 11y ago
      How long has leasing out compute resources been an industry? 1-2 decades? I'm sure there were leases on timesharing systems in the 50s and 60s, but that's still just a half century, and hardly the same industry as AWS.
      - oarsinsync 11y ago
        It's not the same industry as AWS in the same way as Amazon isn't really the same industry as catalog/mail order businesses of yore (around 1850s I believe that began). You could get limited amounts of compute time on a mainframe back in the day, just like you could order flannel and get it delivered in days/weeks. Now you get massive scale compute resources on demand and fresh fruit, veg and almost anything else delivered within an hour. Neither of them are dissimilar from present offerings, but neither are the same industry as their predecessors.

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

by tomp 11y ago

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

pavs 11y ago

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.

massysett 11y ago
"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.
- cle 11y ago
  Neither is leasing out compute resources. The devil's in the details. Scale, convenience, ease of use...
  - bcbrown 11y ago
    How long has leasing out compute resources been an industry? 1-2 decades? I'm sure there were leases on timesharing systems in the 50s and 60s, but that's still just a half century, and hardly the same industry as AWS.
    - oarsinsync 11y ago
      It's not the same industry as AWS in the same way as Amazon isn't really the same industry as catalog/mail order businesses of yore (around 1850s I believe that began). You could get limited amounts of compute time on a mainframe back in the day, just like you could order flannel and get it delivered in days/weeks. Now you get massive scale compute resources on demand and fresh fruit, veg and almost anything else delivered within an hour. Neither of them are dissimilar from present offerings, but neither are the same industry as their predecessors.