Re:The Amazon Empire Strikes Back
by newsbinator on Monday December 06, 2021 @11:00AM
(#29461322)
If we measure "innovation" by solving hard CS problems, sure.
But one definition of innovation is:
> make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
Focussing on the eComm side:
Amazon made and continues to make changes in how people find stuff, pay for stuff, and get stuff. Even something as seemingly simple as Amazon Prime for free+fast shipping. Or keeping a credit card on file and jumping straight to "checkout complete" first, and letting the user modify shipping/billing details for a while after the order is "complete".
None of it was invented at Amazon and all of it is trivial to implement on a small or perhaps medium scale.
But one definition of innovation is:
> make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
Focussing on the eComm side:
Amazon made and continues to make changes in how people find stuff, pay for stuff, and get stuff. Even something as seemingly simple as Amazon Prime for free+fast shipping. Or keeping a credit card on file and jumping straight to "checkout complete" first, and letting the user modify shipping/billing details for a while after the order is "complete".
None of it was invented at Amazon and all of it is trivial to implement on a small or perhaps medium scale.
Amazon's innovation is implementing Amazon.