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AWS annual revenue is $50+ billion. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-run-rate-hits-54-billion-annual-run-rate/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-run-rate-hits

AWS annual revenue is $50+ billion. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-run-rate-hits-54-billion-annual-run-rate/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-run-rate-hits-54-billion-a...) Anything that they can get from "naive students" and developers who don't notice small recurring charges is so utterly insignificant that it can't justify any decision whatsoever. If the public relations aspects of it cause even a 0.01% change in AWS growth, that's already $5 million of lost revenue; if you can assure developers worldwide that it's not so risky to try and adopt AWS a bit more and get a 1% extra growth, that would be worth $500 million and justify walking away from all kinds of irrelevantly small cash flows.

throwawaaarrgh 6y ago
If bad PR affected their business, they might have something to consider. But this will never affect their growth. They're not going to lose a single solitary sale that isn't already accounted for by their standard profit model. The only bad PR that would affect their business is if their actual reputation as a service provider were tarnished. Charging people money for a service they used does not tarnish AWS's reputation. It's their whole business model. When you stay in a hotel room longer than you're supposed to and they charge you for another half day, or you eat food from the mini fridge, or buy a pay-per-view movie, etc, you could claim ignorance, and create stories about how terrible it is that people get charged for these things unknowingly. But Holiday Inn's bookings are still not going to take a noticeable hit. Moreover, they don't even need to offer a Free Tier to get people to use AWS. They're AWS. They're the gold standard. It's like saying IBM would need a Free Tier (back when IBM wasn't trash). It wasn't a question of whether you should use IBM, it was whether you could afford it.

throwawaaarrgh 6y ago

If bad PR affected their business, they might have something to consider. But this will never affect their growth. They're not going to lose a single solitary sale that isn't already accounted for by their standard profit model. The only bad PR that would affect their business is if their actual reputation as a service provider were tarnished. Charging people money for a service they used does not tarnish AWS's reputation. It's their whole business model. When you stay in a hotel room longer than you're supposed to and they charge you for another half day, or you eat food from the mini fridge, or buy a pay-per-view movie, etc, you could claim ignorance, and create stories about how terrible it is that people get charged for these things unknowingly. But Holiday Inn's bookings are still not going to take a noticeable hit. Moreover, they don't even need to offer a Free Tier to get people to use AWS. They're AWS. They're the gold standard. It's like saying IBM would need a Free Tier (back when IBM wasn't trash). It wasn't a question of whether you should use IBM, it was whether you could afford it.