Re:Amazon and the “profitless business model” fallacy (2013)
by danielmarkbruce on Friday December 24, 2021 @12:25PM
(#29675446)
It's a false division - physical v digital. Prime customers get free delivery (physical) + video.
AWS is a genuinely different business, the rest of it is all bundled together. So, they have digital loss leaders. And they may not have many physical loss leaders, but the ongoing argument that they have all these lines which are profitable just doesn't mean anything when customers don't want an online shop for X specific thing. They want an "everything store".
Re:Amazon and the “profitless business model” fallacy (2013)
by WoahNoun on Friday December 24, 2021 @09:19PM
(#29679736)
Prime video only exists because of the incremental prime sign-ups, prime renewals, and prime spending money on physical retail. It's all they care about.
Re:Amazon and the “profitless business model” fallacy (2013)
by danielmarkbruce on Saturday December 25, 2021 @12:20PM
(#29684924)
Agreed.
Amazon's doesn't have many loss leaders in physical ecommerce any more. They used them to build those businesses 10-15 years ago, but they don't need them anymore. The only loss leaders as a category they maintain are digital. And even that is pretty limited to Amazon Video/Studios at this point.