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Comment by vadym909 | Hacker News Reader

So then Amazon is not a success either?

First off, Amazon never lost a billion dollars in a single year.

More importantly, Amazon could have been profitable for much of the time. Amazon was losing money because they were taking the profits from they successful ventures and pouring it into new ventures.

With Uber, what change do they make right now to switch to a very profitable company? Amazon had that option, Uber does not.

...Increase prices?

Amazon's position in the market is so weird that Matt Levine calls it a charity for the American consumer sponsored by the stock market. But it's at least clear how Amazon could generate money long-term; if it wasn't, nobody would invest in it.

I think you mean Yglesias?

Yes, Levine quoted Yglesias

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-02/quant-awa...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/04/12/amazon_as_cor...

Can you explain what Amazon's end game will be?

Amazon's endgame is to become the retailer, the only one.

It's customers are fucking g happy. What's the end game you're talking about? Have you invested into them? As a customer I LOVE them. As a student, I studied them in HBX.

In 2015, Amazon made $596,000,000 on revenues of $107,006,000,000, or a profit margin of 0.6%. In 2012 and 2014, it lost money. How long should investors wait to see a real profit? Should they expect revenue growth to continue indefinitely?

How much profit should they make?

If there was a machine where you could insert a 20 dollar bill and it spit out the 20 and an additional 12 cents, would you not use that machine?

How much would you pay to buy one?

Except that if you buy the Berkshire Hathaway machine you'll put in $20 and get back a dollar.

I dunno, how much money would you keep in a savings account that yields 0.5% APR?

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