Hacker News Reader

Comment by mcherm | Hacker News Reader

Summary:

Because they're "proving" they can make a profit when they want to in preparation for spending a decade investing 100% of profits into building a world-wide logistics system.

(I think it's an interesting theory, but the author provided little evidence.)

View on HN

It's no rumor, Amazon is a logistics company. Beit servers or inventory. They just needs a reliable distribution system to compete with UPS and FedEx. I know for sure they are looking begin competing there, as one of my sources put it, "we've outgrown UPS."

I don't think any company will wait a few quarters to invest in something. And if they did that and win, well, they have invented a time machine.

Most big projects require a research & planning phase where a small team tries to learn everything possible about the domain, works out exactly what the opportunities are, and runs a few small trials to verify their assumptions. This is not capital intensive, and it's a good time to build up capital & goodwill for the rollout.

I didn't mean to imply that they are waiting. This is just one part of the preperation stage, so to speak. In fact they already have begun. (see the end of the article for links to rumors and actual current movements into logistics by Amazon.) The timing and the incentives (employee retention) line up.

On the eaernings call, they mentioned they purchased and would be purchasing more trucks airplanes.

So they're going to establish a vertical monopoly on online retail. Great.

You mean they didn't already?

It's no secret news. Rumors about this has been around for several years.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com