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I worked in the ads org at Amazon an year ago and yes I can tell you the revenue generated by ad products across their services is insane. It's a well executed

I worked in the ads org at Amazon an year ago and yes I can tell you the revenue generated by ad products across their services is insane. It's a well executed operation and it is only growing rapidly year over year. From a customer perspective they are also very relevant most of the time. The remaining part is making sure they don't upset customers way too much since that would conflict with the idea of "customer satisfaction" the company has.

bigiain 6y ago
> From a customer perspective they are also very relevant most of the time. I wonder just how that is measured, and how much of a bullshit metric only calculated and reported on to get someone promoted? I’ve managed to get myself into the “buys webcams” demographic, but buying a webcam. I now suspect all the pointless webcam ads Amazon send me are all highly ranked for “relevance”, even though it’ll probably be 5 years before I buy another one...
- princevegeta89 6y ago
  Doesn't matter if it's going to be 5 years, they still know what you might be interested in. To a lot of people it is much shorter than 5 years.
Griffinsauce 6y ago
It's sad how "We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company." turns into "not conflicting too much" real quickly when there's money on the table.
- AniseAbyss 6y ago
  The reason why webshops got big isn't because they have better customer service but because they are cheap. With online shopping it always ends in a race to the bottom.
- Cederfjard 6y ago
  Surely "we aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company" is still a means to the end which is money, not some altruistic goal?
mritchie712 6y ago
Can you put some numbers around "rapidly"?
patja 6y ago
I've always been stunned by how irrelevant the ads were on my Kindle, until I became so annoyed I paid the fee to turn them off. Ads for Kindle ebook titles I had already purchased, ads for household cleaning products, ads for books in genres I have never read (romance), etc. My spouse still gets them on their Kindle so I can see things have not improved one iota. I actually found it a bit offensive, as in "how stupid do they think I am to be tempted to buy a book I already bought from Amazon", mixed with being puzzled and confused over why a company like Amazon would do such a disservice to its shareholders by doing advertising so very poorly and leaving money on the table.

bigiain 6y ago

> From a customer perspective they are also very relevant most of the time. I wonder just how that is measured, and how much of a bullshit metric only calculated and reported on to get someone promoted? I’ve managed to get myself into the “buys webcams” demographic, but buying a webcam. I now suspect all the pointless webcam ads Amazon send me are all highly ranked for “relevance”, even though it’ll probably be 5 years before I buy another one...

princevegeta89 6y ago
Doesn't matter if it's going to be 5 years, they still know what you might be interested in. To a lot of people it is much shorter than 5 years.

Griffinsauce 6y ago

It's sad how "We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company." turns into "not conflicting too much" real quickly when there's money on the table.

AniseAbyss 6y ago
The reason why webshops got big isn't because they have better customer service but because they are cheap. With online shopping it always ends in a race to the bottom.
Cederfjard 6y ago
Surely "we aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company" is still a means to the end which is money, not some altruistic goal?

mritchie712 6y ago

Can you put some numbers around "rapidly"?

patja 6y ago

I've always been stunned by how irrelevant the ads were on my Kindle, until I became so annoyed I paid the fee to turn them off. Ads for Kindle ebook titles I had already purchased, ads for household cleaning products, ads for books in genres I have never read (romance), etc. My spouse still gets them on their Kindle so I can see things have not improved one iota. I actually found it a bit offensive, as in "how stupid do they think I am to be tempted to buy a book I already bought from Amazon", mixed with being puzzled and confused over why a company like Amazon would do such a disservice to its shareholders by doing advertising so very poorly and leaving money on the table.