back to article Jeff Bezos' AWS cash machine finally catches up with Amazon's US, Canada e-shop

Dictionary editors are crossing out their definitions for "cloud" and "money" and replacing it with "n. Amazon." In the past three months, Amazon Web Services (AWS) had made about as much money – $521m (£338m) – as its online shop did in the US and Canada. The public cloud has more than one million active customers in 190 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Here in Blighty...

    Amazon is no longer good value when shopping in the UK

    It may be convenient and has a bit of loyalty having been competitive in the past.

    But people shop around. I can see them losing ground in the retail arena.

    AWS I don't know enough about to comment on, but on shopping I'm going elsewhere more often.

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Here in Blighty...

      In the US, Amazon sells most items at a discount over BM retail with 1-2 delivery for prime accounts. Some online sellers can beat Amazon's prices in certain niches but they lack Amazon's breadth in the US.

      All retailers rely on customer loyalty because they survive on repeat sales.

    2. Gordon 10

      Re: Here in Blighty...

      Can't say I've seen that - only Ebay under cuts Amazon in general for the stuff I buy., and that's only in the Widgety tat from China department,

      Quite often I choose Amazon coz they can get it to me faster than everyone else, that's worth 50p more.

      Like them or hate them their Logistics model is batshit insanely good although I guess it has to be to correct for Yodels ability to fuck up.

      Last week I had bought a CO alarm, returned it as faulty and got a new one over Thurs to Tue all from the comfort of my keyboard,

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why would a rise in interest rates slow them down?

    Any increase in the cost of capital affects everyone. If there's an interest rate hike soon (and it's a big if given the fragile nature of the global economy) and if that causes Amazon to increase prices (a much bigger if given their historic willingness to tolerate margin-free growth and their regularly recycled story about AWS costs always going down) then those businesses thinking about buying their own gear instead will also have higher financing costs to contend with.

    If, on the other hand, AWS take a decision not to pass on those cost increases then the TCO analysis will move in their favour. Microsoft have already demonstrated that they'll pour huge amounts of money into cloud to try to stay relevant and that will likely keep AWS from raising prices even if they feel a pinch from interest rate rises.

    I'd say when interest rates go up that's when things will start to look even bleaker for DMC, HP, IBM et al. as their shareholders have much less tolerance for eroding margins.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Logic out the window

    OK revenue of $26B and a profit of a tiny $79M. Less than 0.3% return. IBM Q3 revenue $19.3B and profit of $3B. Apple Q3 an amazing $49.6 billion in revenue, $10.7 billion.

    Everyone says Amazon is reinvesting it all back into the business, but when will they start to make some real returns like other businesses are expected to do?

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Logic out the window

      It's possible Amazon are re-investing their revenue. It's possible it's a tax dodge. But it's just possible they're a bit crap at turning a profit. And it's not promising if you can't get it right after 20 years....

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