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Don't forget Twitch as well. That was a massive acquisition. And Alexa, Box Office Mojo, Zappos, LoveFilm (an early Netflix competitor), and Curse. If I recall

Don't forget Twitch as well. That was a massive acquisition. And Alexa, Box Office Mojo, Zappos, LoveFilm (an early Netflix competitor), and Curse. If I recall correctly, they also own a stake in Wikia/Fandom too. And that doesn't even go into the dozens of book stores and book data companies they've acquired over the last 20+ years. Amazon has gobbled up tons of smaller companies in order to make themselves stronger and more diverse. I'm not sure why Nasrudith singled them out as someone who hasn't really.

Nasrudith 6y ago
In that case because I couldn't think of any that were a major component. Which I suppose is a side effect of their scale my mental modeling. Facebook getting other social networks is cognitively equivalent to roughly an additional third each without checking the numbers - both are big known names. Google and getting YouTube is an influential chunk of their empire even if low margin from the expense - say an additional third of their "main product" along search and Android. That is probably why I couldn't remember others.
gnome_chomsky 6y ago
M&A often involve conservative brand strategies, at least in part to promote a veneer of competition and diversity, while the insidious effects of consolidation are left unsaid and off the public radar after the M&A event. Imagine if all those purchases renamed to include Amazon in their name.
drewmate 6y ago
Zappos was a huge infusion of business DNA into Amazon, and from what I understand had a big influence on Amazon's customer service practices (Zappos was/is known for being maniacally customer focused.) Another acquisition from around the same time was 'diapers.com'. That site is now defunct, and was never huge, but I believe they pioneered the concept of 'subscribing' to consumables like baby formula and, of course, diapers. After that acquisition, Amazon started doing the same with baby products, then their own brands, and now you can subscribe to just about any recurring purchase on the site. In these cases, I think the acquisitions provided much more than the economic value of the business. They infused Amazon with new strategies and ideas to make them, as you said, stronger _and more diverse._

Nasrudith 6y ago

In that case because I couldn't think of any that were a major component. Which I suppose is a side effect of their scale my mental modeling. Facebook getting other social networks is cognitively equivalent to roughly an additional third each without checking the numbers - both are big known names. Google and getting YouTube is an influential chunk of their empire even if low margin from the expense - say an additional third of their "main product" along search and Android. That is probably why I couldn't remember others.

gnome_chomsky 6y ago

M&A often involve conservative brand strategies, at least in part to promote a veneer of competition and diversity, while the insidious effects of consolidation are left unsaid and off the public radar after the M&A event. Imagine if all those purchases renamed to include Amazon in their name.

drewmate 6y ago

Zappos was a huge infusion of business DNA into Amazon, and from what I understand had a big influence on Amazon's customer service practices (Zappos was/is known for being maniacally customer focused.) Another acquisition from around the same time was 'diapers.com'. That site is now defunct, and was never huge, but I believe they pioneered the concept of 'subscribing' to consumables like baby formula and, of course, diapers. After that acquisition, Amazon started doing the same with baby products, then their own brands, and now you can subscribe to just about any recurring purchase on the site. In these cases, I think the acquisitions provided much more than the economic value of the business. They infused Amazon with new strategies and ideas to make them, as you said, stronger _and more diverse._