Hacker News Reader

But isn't it the case that the cash cow for Amazon is actually AWS? That is, without AWS would we consider Amazon to be the success we see it as today?

View on HN

Yes we would.

Keep in mind that while the store brings in a majority of revenue, it provides less than 20% of operating income. A majority of operating income comes from AWS (which provides less than 20% of revenue).

https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/01/10/amazon-e-commerce-...

Forget about AWS and simply compare Amazon with other offline/online/mixed stores.

"In 2023, Amazon accounted for 37.6% of all e-commerce sales in America, which was light-years ahead of second-place Walmart at 6.3%."

Amazon is highly successful even without AWS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com