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Can Amazon as a company fail unless they spin-off AWS to separate entity?

neaden 8y ago
Sure, they could make some colossal mistakes and get in a huge amount of debt, or some new competitor could come into cloud computing in a way we can't predict and Amazon can't compete with. The future is weird and things that seem like they will last forever can quickly vanish, and afterwards it seems inevitable.
noxToken 8y ago
As a whole? Probably not. As an online merchant. It's unlikely but possible. The HN crowd and its ilk have been complaining about quality control for a while. Electronic components and labor for assembly are getting cheaper by the year. Grab a popular electronic item's circuit diagram (say Bluetooth earbuds), spend a few hundred reproducing the form factor of a popular major manufacturer, volume manufacture in China, and sell! Better yet, brand yours as a competitors (or however that works) and reap the profits as your cheap knockoff gets sold as the most popular item in that category. It's gotten so ridiculous that even my non-tech peers are starting to steer away from Amazon for certain purchases. I've even seen claims that there are fake/counterfeit diapers masquerading as ubiquitous brands. But it's not just limited to counterfeit goods. The quality in general of certain products (usually electronics) is abysmal. I don't fault Amazon for this - you can find cheap electronics in big box stores that will break just as quickly as an something on Amazon. Brick and mortar stores had shelf space on their side. If you go to a big box store for wireless earbuds, you'll likely see Beats, Samsung, Apple, Bose, etc. taking up most of the shelf space. If you do a search on Amazon for wireless earbuds, the first page (for me) has 15 organic results, and Apple is the only brand that I recognize. Again - not inherently bad, but I'm hard pressed to believe that even with hundreds to thousands of reviews per item, you're buying a quality product that will last for more than a year of regular use. I've bought a popular set of earbuds before based on Amazon's search. The first pair lasted 3 months. I got a second pair under warranty, and it died in the same manner after 3 months. Amazon is a titan in this space. It would take a lot of neglect for their retail side to outright fail. But if they don't fix their quality issues with their supply, they're going to start trending in the wrong direction.

Sure, they could make some colossal mistakes and get in a huge amount of debt, or some new competitor could come into cloud computing in a way we can't predict and Amazon can't compete with. The future is weird and things that seem like they will last forever can quickly vanish, and afterwards it seems inevitable.

noxToken 8y ago

As a whole? Probably not. As an online merchant. It's unlikely but possible. The HN crowd and its ilk have been complaining about quality control for a while. Electronic components and labor for assembly are getting cheaper by the year. Grab a popular electronic item's circuit diagram (say Bluetooth earbuds), spend a few hundred reproducing the form factor of a popular major manufacturer, volume manufacture in China, and sell! Better yet, brand yours as a competitors (or however that works) and reap the profits as your cheap knockoff gets sold as the most popular item in that category. It's gotten so ridiculous that even my non-tech peers are starting to steer away from Amazon for certain purchases. I've even seen claims that there are fake/counterfeit diapers masquerading as ubiquitous brands. But it's not just limited to counterfeit goods. The quality in general of certain products (usually electronics) is abysmal. I don't fault Amazon for this - you can find cheap electronics in big box stores that will break just as quickly as an something on Amazon. Brick and mortar stores had shelf space on their side. If you go to a big box store for wireless earbuds, you'll likely see Beats, Samsung, Apple, Bose, etc. taking up most of the shelf space. If you do a search on Amazon for wireless earbuds, the first page (for me) has 15 organic results, and Apple is the only brand that I recognize. Again - not inherently bad, but I'm hard pressed to believe that even with hundreds to thousands of reviews per item, you're buying a quality product that will last for more than a year of regular use. I've bought a popular set of earbuds before based on Amazon's search. The first pair lasted 3 months. I got a second pair under warranty, and it died in the same manner after 3 months. Amazon is a titan in this space. It would take a lot of neglect for their retail side to outright fail. But if they don't fix their quality issues with their supply, they're going to start trending in the wrong direction.