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amazon.com also was really profitable when AWS was launched. IDK, at this point I think we can just agree Google is bad at diversifying. The day their ad busine

• kortilla 5y ago
  It was profitable, but nothing like Google’s margins. It was still just a glorified Walmart with delivery (i.e. not much of a moat).
• emodendroket 5y ago
  The fear that they were plateauing was a major motivator. Google doesn’t really face that.
• oblio 5y ago
  That could take a ton of time to die off and they could still pivot. But they're the least diversified, after Facebook, agreed.
• ec109685 5y ago
  Amazon.com wasn’t really profitable. They ran at low margins for years. In 2006, their profit was like 500m against 10B in revenue.
  • jethro_tell 5y ago
    Because they were using all profit to build out EC2, fulfilment centers and fullfilment tech. It wasn't that there wasn't profit because the margins were low, there wasn't profit because they were pouring it all into different verticals and building moats. So yeah they weren't profitable but they weren't just scraping by either. I think that's one of those things that people miss when they compare a not-so-profitable startup to Amazon. The size, scale, and huge number of product markets that Amazon plays in is really pretty astounding for a company that is only 25 years old.