How do you define "short-term"? Amazon IPO'd 17 years ago.
And there's a big difference between "maximizing short-term profitability" and being even marginally profitable.
I'm not even saying Amazon is doing the right thing. But they are doing exactly what they have been doing successfully for the last 17 years. Why do we keep getting worried about it?
Uh, that's pretty much the definition of "unprofitable".
Amazon is putting food on the table for thousands of people. They are facilitating the sale of product for tens (hundreds?) of thousands of businesses. Their technology underpins and enables many of the startups we love. Their cash flow was and is healthy. That is very different than being unable to turn a profit.
edit: What I meant by "a profitable business" is that Amazon is in several different industries. They have profitable business. They offset their profitable business with growth expenses, but they have business that is profitable.
A company that chooses to reinvest its profits is profitable; it is simply choosing not to distribute those profits to its shareholders.
Because Amazon has real competition now that they have to pay sales tax.
All useful retailers now have online sites. Most brick-and-mortar retailers will match Amazon prices so Amazon doesn't have a structural advantage anymore now that they also have to pay sales tax. And the brick-and-mortar retailers have in-store returns and pickups--often now faster than Amazon Prime.
Amazon used to deliver somewhat reliably but fast (and sometimes faster). Now, it's a crapshoot. I will not order anything time sensitive from them anymore.
So, I'm pretty much back down to buying non-time sensitive books from Amazon. And this last round, they scattered my delivery dates for each so far that I'm rethinking that idea.