In retrospect the idea of selling everything online was the first great idea. Even if it was a bit of rehash of Sears I think they were the only one that had that vision.
Second great idea was free 2 day shipping with Prime. Great for their cash flow and customer retention.
Third great idea was AWS.
Still TBD are advertising and the marketplace. They make a lot of money but at the long term risk of customer satisfaction.
Also TBD are the media plays (Twitch, video,music,.etc.). Not clear if they will ever make money.
And yet, reviews are still horribly broken and have been for years. Also counterfeit products and books are everywhere on the site.
Amazon is going to have to fix those hugely important things before I'll buy the Kool-Aid that they're "firing on all cylinders", which is just CEO pep talk.
The marketplace makes me use Amazon less now. I don't care if there are 40 5v-DC power bricks and 10 of them are 10% cheaper. I care about vetted products and the confidence I'm buying the product I'm looking for.
The media part could be about owning the consumer, even at a loss, or owning the providers, or preventing Google from approaching the user login market to tight, etc.
Second great idea was free 2 day shipping with Prime. Great for their cash flow and customer retention.
Third great idea was AWS.
Still TBD are advertising and the marketplace. They make a lot of money but at the long term risk of customer satisfaction.
Also TBD are the media plays (Twitch, video,music,.etc.). Not clear if they will ever make money.