Amazon

Amazon Product and Service Ecosystem

Financial performance

Main article: Amazon's financial performance

Business in Russia

Main article: Amazon in Russia

Internet audience

2021: Sixth on list of most visited sites

2020: In the top 50 largest Internet sites in the world

2018: Top 20 internet giants by size of internet audience

Acquisitions of companies and sale of assets

Main article: Acquisitions and divestment of Amazon assets

Employees and working conditions

Main article: Employees and work at Amazon

Partner Program

Main article: AWS Partner Program

Amazon offices

Main article: Amazon Offices

History

2024: Amazon secretly sends employees to rival companies to collect information

In mid-April 2024, it became known that Amazon for many years secretly collected information about its competitors in the areas of retail and logistics, as well as in related areas. Well-known market players such as eBay, Shopify, Walmart and FedEx became targets.

According to The Wall Street Journal, to collect closed information about competitors, Amazon launched an initiative codenamed Project Curiosity in 2015. As part of this project, Big River Services International was formed, which sold various products - from clothing to beach accessories - on well-known e-commerce sites. Thanks to this, it was possible to collect information about the business operations of competitors - information about tariffs, advertising models, logistics, etc. That data was then shared with Amazon, where it was carefully analyzed and used in strategic decision-making.

Amazon has been secretly collecting information about its retail rivals over the years

To maintain secrecy, Big River Services International employees carefully concealed their association with Amazon, minimizing electronic footprints. They, in particular, used email addresses that had nothing to do with Amazon servers. There is no mention of the head structure on this firm's website. Even when interacting with Amazon staff, Big River Services International employees adhered to strict protocols to ensure privacy.

It is noted that Big River Services International conducted activities in major cities of the world - Seattle, Tokyo, London, Munich and Bengaluru. Moreover, to penetrate rival platforms such as Flipkart in India, own brands including Crimson Knot and Not So Ape were created. Thanks to these methods, Amazon received closed corporate information.^[1]

2023

The largest DDoS attacks on Google and Amazon have been going on for 1.5 months

On October 10, 2023, Amazon, Cloudflare and Google (part of Alphabet Holding) reported the most powerful DDoS attack on their services in history. Information security experts say that such large-scale attacks can cause serious damage to the Internet infrastructure. Read more here.

Spain fines Apple and Amazon €194 million for squeezing competitors out of the market

On July 18, 2023, Spain's National Competition Commission (CNMC) reported fining Apple and Amazon for violating antitrust laws and conspiring to squeeze competitors out of the market. The total amount of recovery is €194.1 million. Read more here.

In the top 5 world ranking of DBMS developers PostgreSQL

Amazon () AWS entered the top 5 world developer ranking with, DBMS open source PostgreSQL prepared and published at the end of March 2023 by analysts. The EnterpriseDB (EDB) top five also includes EDB,, and. Postgres Professional Fujitsu Microsoft

The EDB ranking ranks companies by their contribution to the 15 version of PostgreSQL, released in September 2022. For analysis, EDB used release notes as well as a list of PostgreSQL committers. The analysis did not take into account independent and freelance developers. Read more here.

Amazon Halo Medical Bracelet Development Unit Closure

On April 26, 2023, Amazon announced the closure of its Halo division, which was developing medical bracelets, related accessories and services. Read more here.

2022

Amazon employee Thompson Page stole the data of 100 million bank customers. He was given a term

In early October 2022, a former Amazon engineer was convicted of seven counts of fraud after the personal data of more than 100 million bank customers was stolen from unsecured accounts on a cloud platform. Read more here.

$740 million fine for violating EU data law

Enter into a multi-year agreement with SoftwareONE

On January 25, 2022, SoftwareONE Holding AG announced a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate the adoption of cloud technologies from its customers. Read more here.

2021

A fine of €1.13 billion for imposing its logistics

In December 2021, the antimonopoly authority Italy imposed a fine of €1.13 billion for Amazon abuse of its dominant position in the market and damage to competitors in the field of logistics services. e-commerce

The state department also introduced behavioral measures, including ordering Amazon to set fair and non-discriminatory standards for third-party sellers to gain sales and visibility benefits. These measures will be checked by the trustee of the department.

The watchdog began its investigation in 2019 over concerns that Amazon was giving sellers using its logistics service a better chance of appearing as Amazon's choice for users looking for an item featured in a separate section of the site - after a purchase. This is a pop-up that shows shoppers additional items when they make a purchase. Among these advantages, the most significant is the prime label, which simplifies commerce with more than 7 million of the most loyal and wealthy consumers participating in Amazon's loyalty program, emphasized in the decision of the state regulator. The prime label, among other things, allows you to participate in well-known special events held by the company, such as Black Friday, Cyber ​ ​ Monday, and increases the likelihood that the seller's offer will be selected as recommended, the regulator points out. Amazon said the company plans to appeal the regulator's decision because the proposed fine and remedies are unreasonable and disproportionate.

Earlier, the European Commission also launched an investigation into similar practices, but struck Italy out of the scope of its investigation to allow the country's antitrust authority to continue working. In January 2021, Amazon challenged that exception. Like the Italian body, Brussels is investigating potential anti-competitive practices involving Amazon allegedly pushing sellers to use the company's logistics and delivery, including a prime service. The investigation focuses on how third-party sellers are selected to be included in the box of purchases, including an in-depth look at the criteria Amazon uses in selection.^[2]

Amazon and Apple will pay €200 million for collusion squeezing sellers out of the market

On November 23, 2021, the Italian antimonopoly authority fined Apple and Amazon a total of more than €200 million for general cooperation to limit competition in the sale of products under the Apple and Beats brands in violation of European Union rules. The investigation found that some provisions in the agreement, which was concluded in 2018 between American technology companies, exclude the access of a number of Apple sellers who are not authorized by the company to Amazon's Italian website. Read more here.

Launch of Quantum Computing Research Centre

On October 26, 2021, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced that Amazon is opening a new research center at the university to develop advanced technology in the field of quantum computing. Read more here.

Spending on lobbying interests in the EU - €2.75 million

At the end of August 2021, the costs of leading IT companies to lobby their interests in the European Union became known. Amazon spends about €2.75 million annually. Read more here.

Speaking Out Against U.S. Government Antitrust Bills

On June 24, 2021, it became known that, Apple, and Amazon Facebook Google opposed the adoption of USA antitrust bills. More. here

The court overturned the fine of the European Commission for Amazon in the amount of 250 million euros

The second oldest court in the European Union overturned the order of the European Commission, obliging Amazon to pay about 250 million euros as repayment of tax arrears in Luxembourg.

The decision of the European Commission was made in 2017 following an investigation launched in 2014. The investigation found that Amazon transferred the profits of the entity that is required to pay taxes in Luxembourg to another entity exempt from payment.

According to regulators, Amazon managed to get three-quarters of revenue in Europe out of tax.

The head of Amazon sold shares of the company for $2.5 billion

In early May 2021, Jeff Bezos sold Amazon shares worth $2.48 billion. This is reported in the documents that the company provided to the US Securities Commission and Exchange (SEC). Read more here.

Launch of the organization for the development of the Rust programming language

In early February 2021, Google, Microsoft, AWS, Huawei, Mozilla launched the Rust Foundation, a non-profit organization. She will be responsible for supporting the ecosystem and developers of the Rust software language, as well as sponsoring the project. Read more here.

Bezos' resignation as Amazon CEO

In February 2021, it became known that Jeff Bezos would resign as CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy would take over in the third quarter.

2020

Lobbying costs

In 2020, Amazon spent at least $18.5 million on lobbying, up from $16.1 million a year earlier. Read more here.

French regulator fined Google and Amazon €100 million and €35 million, respectively

On December 10, 2020, TASS reported that the national commission on informatics and freedoms of France imposed fines on Google and Amazon in the amount of €100 million and €35 million, respectively, for non-compliance with cookie legislation ("cookies," a small piece of data sent by the web server and stored on the user's computer). Read more here.

Investing in smart scooter maker Voi Technology

In early December 2020, Swedish smart scooter manufacturer Voi Technology completed a Series C funding round and raised $160 million to expand the company. Now Voi Technology is valued at $1 billion. Read more here.

Firing drone developers

In mid-November 2020, it became known that Amazon was laying off dozens of research and design department employees who had worked on a drone delivery project. Amazon has been building drones since 2013, but has never released a single one, and is now seeking outside help to implement long-standing plans.

The company struck preliminary deals with the two manufacturers to build components for its drone, which will deliver small packages of orders to Amazon customers. The full terms of agreements with the Austrian company FACC Aerospace and Spain's Aernnova Aerospace are still being finalized. Both FACC and Aernnova specialize in the production of composite components for the aviation industry, among their customers can be noted Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and others. Additional deals with other companies may soon be concluded.

Despite the fact that the creation of drones was launched at least seven years ago, in 2013, large-scale deliveries of unmanned aerial vehicles still loom only in the future. An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the wave of layoffs, explaining that the unit is moving into a new phase of limited drone testing.

We are reorganizing one team within the larger Prime Air division to better meet the needs of our customers and business, "said spokeswoman Kristen Kish. - We will try to select the affected employees positions in such areas that best suit their experience and needs.

Amazon has not disclosed how many employees are working on the drone project. The company's public recruitment website lists 57 open positions in Prime Air, mostly related to software and systems management.^[3]

Jeff Bezos sold 1 million shares of Amazon for $3 billion

In early November 2020, it became known that Jeff Bezos he sold about 1 million shares Amazon worth more than $3 billion. This is evidenced by the materials. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) More. here

Obtaining the status of an air carrier for the organization of delivery by drones

At the end of August 2020, the US FAA allowed the company to expand testing of parcel delivery by drones, assigning it the status of an air carrier.

Permission does not mean immediate mass delivery of goods to the addressee by air, but allows you to start providing this service on a commercial basis. Earlier, UPS and Wing from Alphabet received the same permission.

The first commercial drone deliveries will obviously be in the US. Several areas of the Pacific Northwest are ready for the tests.

The next major phase in commercial operation of courier drones will be the FAA's finalization of air traffic regulations for them, expected before the end of the year. In particular, the requirements for transponders and flights over people will be specified.

The. Amazon domain is included in the DNS root zone

On June 4, 2020, the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain (CC) reported that the root DNS zone was replenished with three common top-level domains. This domain is.AMAZON, as well as domains. アマゾン (.xn--cckwcxetd) and. 亚马逊 (.xn--jlq480n2rg), which are internationalized versions of AMAZON in Japanese and Chinese. All of them are brand domains, and registration of domain names in them can only be carried out by Amazon. Read more here

Amazon bans police officers from using its Rekognition program for facial recognition

This is stated in the blog of the company^[4]. Amazon explained: it is necessary that the US government begins to introduce "stricter rules" that can regulate facial recognition systems and technologies. They clarified that the company is ready to help the authorities in this.

According to the media, Amazon believes that the American government, using facial recognition systems, violates human rights and freedoms.

Using Merchant Data on Your Site to Create Custom-Branded Analogues

On April 23, 2020, it became known that Amazon uses the data of its partners selling in its online store to release similar products under its own brand. This conclusion was made based on the results of an investigation conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

As journalists found out, some Amazon executives got access to the statistics of sellers to find out how well a particular product sells. And in order for them to do so, they found a loophole in Amazon's domestic politics.

An Amazon spokesman said the company reviewed the data in question and found that it contained generalized information from sales of product groups, which did not allow useful information to be extracted.

We strictly prohibit our employees from accessing the confidential, non-public data of our partners, "he added. - We do not believe that what was described did take place. Nevertheless, we consider it our duty to respond to the publication, so we have launched an internal investigation.

The journalists' findings directly contradict Amazon's previous claims about how it uses data from third-party sellers to create products under its own trademarks. For years, Amazon has traded its own products under the AmazonBasics brand, which includes many groups ranging from clothing to furniture. The company also produces products under other brands. Amazon argues that its internal policies explicitly prohibit the creation of products based on its partners' sales data.

The AmazonBasics brand has been repeatedly criticized by sellers who have accused the store of manipulating search results so that the company's own products appear higher in results. In July 2019, at a hearing in that case before the House Committee on USA Antitrust Issues, an Amazon representative denied the allegations.^[5]

Closure of warehouses in France after the court's demand to sell only important goods

Amazon in mid-April 2020 temporarily suspended the work of 4 fulfillment centers in France after a local court issued a corresponding order. The authorities demanded that the world's largest online store refuse to process all orders, with the exception of those related to vital goods.

The court took on Amazon after it received a complaint from a union organization in early April 2020. Employees complained about the employer that he is not taking sufficient measures to protect them from COVID-19 infection and continues to work as if "nothing happened."

The decree says that Amazon can resume work in the same mode, but only after it takes all the necessary measures to protect employees from the coronavirus. "So far, the company has shown no willingness to comply with this requirement," the court said. In case of disobedience, the court threatened Amazon with penalties of 1 million euros for each day of violation.

Amazon responded by saying it disagreed with the decision and claims to spend heavily on providing its employees with all necessary personal protective equipment. The company appealed, which in fact postpones the restrictions imposed by the court on work, however, it nevertheless decided to suspend the work of the centers.

This week we asked our employees to stay at home, - commented in the company.

Amazon decided that closing the centers completely would be the best option, since it is too difficult to control the types of goods shipped - at any time someone can make a mistake and send the customer a product that is not included in the list of vital goods.

The company added that the suspension of the fulfillment centers will negatively affect the French small business, the sales of which are processed by these Amazon centers.^[6]

Amazon lacks homeware

In mid-March 2020, Amazon announced a shortage of household goods due to panic amid the coronavirus pandemic. The online store Amazon.com lacks everyone a large number of products.

Representatives of the company turned to buyers in the official blog:

Currently, some popular brands and products are out of stock. This mainly applies to products from the category of household goods. We work with sales partners around the clock to ensure all of our products are available and provide additional delivery opportunities for all of your orders.

Product shortages affect not just Amazon Prime Now customers, but Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market customers.

Inventory and delivery may be temporarily impossible due to increased demand, Amazon says. - You can confirm the presence of the product at the checkout.

Many items in demand, including toilet paper and bottled water, are out of stock, and all of the quick delivery options available on the site come with a warning of a few days delay.

Users are unhappy and complain about delivery times and shortages on Twitter. Amazon employees are also unhappy with the situation. In their opinion, the measures taken by Amazon in connection with the pandemic are "not enough." So far, it is known that Amazon is offering a two-week vacation with pay to all employees with a positive COVID-19 test result, as well as employees in quarantine.

Amazon is also giving them the opportunity to apply for grants to "support employees and contractors around the world who face financial hardship during qualifying events."

However, they have not introduced preventive measures, that is, they are not even trying to slow down the spread of the pandemic or alleviate suffering or reduce the risk of death if infected, said a Chicago Amazon warehouse worker.[7]

War with Trump

In mid-February 2020, it became known that Jeff Bezos he wanted to interrogate USA Donald Trump the president and find out if he personally intervened in the case of Pentagon a $10 billion cloud tender. Amazon Microsoft The military contract for this amount was not received, but, which now creates a cloud infrastructure for the Pentagon called JEDI. Amazon believes Trump may have intervened in government operations for personal gain. More. here

Amazon launches 10,000 electric rickshaws in India to deliver goods

In mid-January 2020, Amazon India announced the start of expanding its delivery fleet to 10,000 electric vehicles. After the successful launch of pilot projects in several Indian cities, the company was able to present scalable and long-term options for expanding the number of courier machines. Read more here.

2019

13 deaths and dozens of accidents: what is the fast delivery from Amazon

At the end of December 2019, BuzzFeed News and ProPublica released the results of their own investigation, which showed that since 2015, drivers delivering Amazon packages have been involved in 60 accidents. The consequences include dozens of serious injuries and 13 deaths. In October 2019, one of Amazon's drivers knocked a child to death in Chicago.

The authors of the publications believe that this tragedy, like a number of others, could have been prevented. According to journalists, as the scale of the service has increased, Amazon has increasingly begun to prioritize faster delivery and increased revenues without caring about driver safety. Amazon executives have lifted measures to improve driver safety, including requirements proposed for drug use checks, according to the report. In an attempt to quickly gather the required number of drivers, Amazon mistakenly hired a man with twilight vision problems as well as a driver who used marijuana "for medicinal purposes."

The investigation also blamed major crashes on Amazon's internal GPS app for drivers, called Rabbit, which often gives unsafe instructions. Amazon denies all the allegations and claims the company has "always paid enough attention to driver safety" and continually assesses the safety measures applied.

Yet Amazon has already faced legal action in 2019 related to insufficient security at the delivery network level. Senators sent a letter to the CEO of the company Jeff Bezos asking for information on employee safety practices. An Amazon spokesman responded that "safety is Amazon's top priority."^[8]

Amazon hid 60% of working capital from tax

At the end of November 2019, Attac and les Amis de la Terre, non-governmental organizations fighting for environmental safety, as well as the Solidaires trade union association in France, released a report pointing out Amazon's negative environmental impact and the company's reluctance to pay taxes.

Amazon hid 57% of the working capital of the French representative office in 2017, the report said. The company indicated 1.67 billion euros in the declaration, while the real working capital, according to the authors of the study, amounted to 3.9 billion euros.

It is alleged that Amazon is removed from distorting financial statements thanks to transactions concluded through branches in Luxembourg (the country is known for its preferential working regime for international corporations), through which many French operations are carried out. So, in 2015, three quarters of the activities of the French office were carried out through other countries. In 2017, the indicator concerned half of operations, moreover, these are "minimum estimates."

In addition, public organizations say that Amazon artificially reduces harmful emissions into the atmosphere on paper, despite its large activity, which consists in mass transportation of goods. The company's greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere reached 55.8 million tons in 2018, which is about the same as in all of Portugal.

One of Amazon's main negative environmental impacts is product disposal. In France alone, the company destroyed about 3 million new goods.

The authors of the report also draw attention to the fact that the company prefers to hire people under unsafe short-term contracts. That means "there are two liquidated jobs for each new workplace," they said.^[9]

Amazon chief bans PowerPoint at company

At the end of October 2019, it became known that Jeff Bezos banned the use of PowerPoint at Amazon meetings and thereby increased employee efficiency by 25%.

The average manager spends about 50% of his working time at meetings (a third of them are completely useless). This is a huge decline in performance, and the application of PowerPoint further exacerbates the problem - many scientific studies show that the use of PowerPoint reduces organizational intelligence. Jeff Bezos decided to deal with this once and for all, and now Amazon meetings begin with members silently reading a printed document with the information needed to discuss the issue.

It turned out that replacing PowerPoint with documents is a very reasonable step from a financial point of view - avoiding meaningless and lengthy presentations is incredibly time-saving. When using PowerPoint, the information is spoken by the speaker; reading a document takes much less time, so that an hour-long presentation is reduced to five minutes. Since the information document provides all important information at the beginning of the meeting literally "on one page," the discussion becomes shorter and more specific. In addition, now attending the meeting is not so important - if earlier the employee, having missed the report, could not catch up, now it is enough to get acquainted with the information document.

Information documents reduced the number of useless meetings and turned out to be at least twice as efficient as PowerPoint. Replacing presentations with informational documents, Bezos effectively increased management performance across the company by at least 25%. Given that he did not spend a single dollar, the profitability of this strategy tends to infinity.^[10]

Amazon secretly changed search algorithm in favor of products that make the company the most profit

In mid-September 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had secretly changed search algorithms in favor of goods that generate the most profits, instead of bestsellers or goods that are most relevant to consumers.

The company adjusted the search system in late 2018. It turned out that the leaders put pressure on engineers involved in search algorithms. Retail executives believed Amazon should pay more attention to its own brands, similar to how grocery stores promote their own products. However, the employees who worked on the project opposed, because they understood that such a search algorithm did not work in favor of the client. Even Amazon's own lawyers opposed such changes, noting that such machinations could attract additional attention from antitrust authorities.

An Amazon spokesman noted that he did not change search results to promote expensive Amazon products, but acknowledged that long-term profitability is one factor used in evaluating new search features. He also noted that Amazon's online sales account for nearly 1% of global and 4% of U.S. retail sales, while private-brand sales account for just 1% of total product sales on the site.

After the article surfaced, Amazon again faced antitrust investigations. In early September 2019, as part of a broader antitrust investigation into big tech companies, House Judiciary Committee leaders asked Amazon for documents explaining how the company's own products count in the search algorithm, as well as what data is provided to sellers on the platform.^[11]

Tesla's solar panels suddenly light up. Amazon and Walmart dropped them

At the end of August 2019, it became known that Tesla solar panels suddenly light up. In this regard, a number of large customers, including Amazon and Walmart, stopped using this equipment. Read more here.

Amazon offers $10 for access to browser history

In mid-July 2019, Amazon launched a promotion for American customers, offering them a $10 discount on Prime Day's annual sale days in exchange for providing access to internet browsing history in. browser Read more. here

Court allowed to punish Amazon for defective goods of third-party sellers

On July 3, 2019, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled against Amazon, allowing customers to sue the company for selling defective products to third-party sellers on the site Amazon.com.

In its online hypermarket, Amazon sells not only its own products, but also products from other manufacturers. The latter can store their products in Amazon warehouses using the retailer's delivery, as well as independently deliver the goods to customers.

In the first quarter of 2019 alone, Amazon earned $11 billion from providing services to third-party sellers, according to the company's financial report. According to analysts at Statista, about half of the goods on the Amazon.com are owned by third-party sellers.

As Reuters notes, liability for goods with defects in the United States, as a rule, is regulated by state law. The court decision issued in early July 2019, which makes Amazon responsible for defective goods on its website, is based on the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, where the initiator of one of the lawsuits against the company, Heather Oberdorf, lives.

The woman sued Amazon in 2016, saying she was blind in one eye because of a leash purchased from the retailer's website that was bought for a dog. This product was manufactured by a third-party supplier. At the moment of using the leash, he unexpectedly clicked and jumped back, hitting Heather in the face.

According to one of the judges, Amazon may be partially responsible for the incident with defective goods. The commission sent the case back to the lower court, which will have to decide whether the leash was actually defective.

After several proceedings and taking the case to appeals, a verdict was reached that makes Amazon responsible for defective third-party products.^[12]

US presidential candidate proposes splitting Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook

In mid-March 2019 USA Elizabeth Warren , the senator and Democratic presidential candidate proposed breaking up tech companies like,, and Apple. Facebook Amazon Google The senator's campaign received support on social networks. More. here

Amazon has made billions of dollars worth of mistakes. Here are the biggest

In early March 2019, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos called his company "the best way to go bankrupt." Bezos has created a culture where failure is an acceptable and even necessary part of doing business. Management made mistakes that cost the company billions. dollars The largest of them are cited by BusinessInsider journalists.

Short-lived shops

In March 2019, it became known about Amazon's plans to close all 87 one-day stores and curtail this program. These stores were supposed to be live storefronts where customers interested in smart gadgets like the Amazon Echo and Fire TV could appreciate them in action before buying. The released funds will be sent to Amazon Books (sells books) and Amazon 4-star (sells goods with the highest rating on the Amazon.com website).

Quick Order Buttons

Quick order buttons were supposed to offer users a convenient way to replenish the shopping cart without having to go to the site. These devices were a transitional stage between online stores and smart homes: now that AmazonBasics microwave can automatically replenish popcorn, the user simply does not need a separate button for $5.

Amazon Tap

Amazon Tap was a mobile version of popular smart speakers with support. Alexa But because Amazon now uses Alexa in just about all products, a separate handheld has lost its value and been taken off the market.

Whole Foods 365 store closures

Whole Foods 365 stores were designed for young shoppers with small incomes. In January 2019, the company announced the closure of such stores, citing a price difference that did not justify itself as a reason.

2018

Amazon Fresh service closure

Amazon Fresh is Amazon's home delivery service for fresh produce. The previously launched "Local Manufacturer" initiative, which allowed third-party suppliers to deliver their goods to customers along with Fresh orders, was closed in 2018 without further explanation.

Lobbying costs of $14.2 million

At the end of January 2019, a US federal lobbying report was issued, according to which in 2018 the five largest technology companies in the country spent $64.3 million on lobbying government officials. Amazon's spending for these purposes amounted to $14.2 million. Read more here.

China spied on Apple and Amazon through chips in hardware

In early October 2018, it became known that China spied on Apple, Amazon and other technology companies by installing special chips in equipment used in data centers. These chips could be installed by Super Micro. Read more here.

Amazon bought 20 thousand Mercedes cars for the new service

In early September 2018, Amazon announced the purchase of about 20 thousand cars from Mercedes-Benz, which will be used in the new service of the American Internet company - Delivery Service Partner. Read more here.

Amazon wants to ditch Oracle software. Larry Ellison says it's impossible

On August 7, 2018, OracleLarry Ellison, co-founder, commented on rumors about Amazon's plans to move away from using Oracle software. According to the businessman, Amazon is unlikely to be able to do this, since before it did not work out either for the company itself or for Oracle's competitors. Read more here.

Amazon Restaurants service closure

In April 2018, Amazon closed its food delivery service from Amazon Restaurants.

Chip development

In February 2018, it became known about the development of Amazon's own chips. They focus on computational tasks related to artificial intelligence (AI).

The fact that Amazon decided to become a chipmaker was reported by The Information, citing its own sources. The American company confirmed the creation of the chips, but refrained from further comment, only noting that Amazon seeks to follow the trends in the market.

An interlocutor of The Information, familiar with Amazon's plans, says that the semiconductor solution, which was developed by the Internet giant, will help devices with a voice assistant Alexa perform tasks more efficiently, "processing more data on the gadget itself than in the cloud."

According to the publication, Apple and Google are also working on their own chips for artificial intelligence, which, together with Amazon, can hurt the business of traditional GPU manufacturers like Nvidia.

Moreover, Apple has already begun to introduce AI solutions into its equipment. The Apple A11 processor uses a neural network that empowers the Face ID facial recognition system and the ARKit augmented reality platform with machine learning algorithms.

As the Ars Technica resource notes, the capabilities of the Alexa service are constantly growing as third-party developers come up with new features for it. In this regard, it becomes logical that with the evolution of these skills of the technology, more and more resources are required,  aoblastic calculations imply a certain delay. The own chip on the device takes some of the load on itself, speeding up the assistant.

On the day when it became known about Amazon's intentions to enter the chip market, the company's shares rose by almost 1%. Over the previous 12 months, they have risen in price by 64%.^[13]

Establishing a Health Care Company

On January 30, 2018, Amazon Berkshire Hathaway JPMorgan Chase they announced the creation of a joint medical company with the aim of improving the quality health care and reducing the cost of medical services for their employees. The name of USA the new legal structure has not been announced by the time of the announcement. More. here

Lobbying costs

At the end of January 2018, it became known that the American IT giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google in 2017 spent a record amount on lobbying their interests and trying to influence the American authorities - almost $50 million.

The world's largest online retailer Amazon spent $12.8 million on the same purpose, increasing lobbying costs by almost 4 times compared to 4 years ago. The company has sought policy easing on a wide range of issues, ranging from taxes on online sales to the introduction of commercial drones to deliver online purchases. Read more here.

2017

Payment of €100m tax evasion fine

In December 2017, the Italian tax authority announced that Amazon had agreed to pay a €100m fine for tax evasion.

As the Italian regulator pointed out, the agreement on the payment of 100 million euros concerns both the European and Italian divisions of the company - Amazon EU S.ar.l and Amazon Italia Services srl, respectively.

Amazon confirmed that it had reached an agreement with the Italian authorities "on cases of the past," but did not disclose details.

According to the Milan tax police, cited by Reuters, between 2011 and 2015, Amazon owed Italy between 120 and 130 million euros in taxes.^[14]

Amazon's small tax deductions explained the small taxable profits of the company in Italy, which, in turn, is associated with a lack of significant investment in the development of local businesses.

Amazon entered the Italian market in 2010. For seven years, the company spent more than 800 million euros on its activities in the country. By December 2017, the number of jobs provided by Amazon in Italy is about 3 thousand. In May 2015, Amazon created a subsidiary in Italy, for which expenses, revenue and profits from retail sales have since been recorded.

Amazon has repeatedly found itself at the center of high-profile tax scandals. So, in the fall of 2017, the European Commission demanded that the company return to Luxembourg 250 million euros received as a result of illegal tax breaks.

According to Bloomberg, the Italian government has been fighting tax evasion of international corporations for many years, making this fight one of the priority areas of its policy. In May 2017, Google agreed to pay the country 306 million euros to settle tax claims.^[15]

Imprisonment of an employee for selling sensitive data

In December 2017, it became known that former Amazon financial analyst Brett Kennedy was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of $2,500 for leaking confidential financial information about the quarterly income of an American Internet company. Read more here.

Quidsi Service Closure

Amazon shut down Quidsi's service in 2017, saying it could never make it profitable. The Quidsi company was bought for $545 million, it owns the world's largest online store of children's goods Diapers.com and also such projects as Soap.com, Wag.com, BeautyBar.com, Casa.com and YoYo.com.

Launch Instant Pickup Fast Delivery Service

In 2017, Amazon introduced a new way to get items within minutes of ordering, naming it Instant Pickup. Customers could order snacks, drinks and essentials from the Amazon app and use a barcode to receive purchases at special locations. An Amazon employee had to put the item in an Instant Pickup locker within minutes of placing the order. However, Amazon shut down that service months later with no explanation.

2016: Amazon Restaurants launch in Britain

Amazon Restaurants is a service that uses the same delivery workers as Amazon Prime Now, but delivers freshly prepared meals from restaurants. In London, the service was launched in 2016, but in 2018 it ceased to exist. Amazon attributed this to high competition in the delivery market.

2015

Amazon Local Register closure

The Amazon Local Register allowed small businesses to accept credit card payments through Amazon's payment processing system using a memory card reader connected to a smartphone. In 2015, Amazon ended the initiative.

Amazon Local closure

In 2015, the Amazon Local service was closed, which provides the user with information about the most profitable offers in the region of his residence.

Amazon Destinations closure

In April 2015 Amazon , it launched Amazon Destinations, a hotel booking site in major cities such as New York or Seattle. The service did not last long and was closed in October of that year.

Amazon Webstore closure

Until 2015, Amazon had Amazon's Webstore platform, which helped small companies build their own online retailers and start online trading without any problems. In 2015, Amazon announced the closure of the platform. Amazon later partnered with Shopify, directing its former customers to the company.

Feature film production plan at Amazon Studios

Amazon intends in 2015 to launch the production of feature films and release a dozen films a year for screenings in cinemas and through the video service of Prime Instant Video, according to the Amazon website. The release of films will be carried out by the division of Amazon Studios, created in 2010. Prior to that, it released a number of series, one of which, "Obvious," was awarded the last Golden Globe Award in the category "Best Television Comedy."

Films will first be released in cinemas, and after four to eight weeks they will appear on Prime Instant Video, the subscription price for which is $99 per year. Usually feature films get to video services only 39-52 weeks after the premiere in cinemas, the message says.

"Our goal is to

create up to 12 films a year, with production scheduled to begin this year. We hope that we will not only be able to provide Prime Instant Video customers with exciting, unique and exclusive films shortly after their premiere in cinemas, but also give new opportunities to film manufacturers who too often have to fight for the new film to reach the screens, "said Roy Price, vice president of Amazon Studios

.

2014

Firephone smartphone announcement

Firephone - a Fire tablet in the form of a smartphone - was introduced in June 2014. However, the phone received poor reviews from critics due to the lack of many features and a high price, and soon Amazon reduced the price from $200 to $0.99, and a year later completely stopped releasing this product. Critics see Firephone as Amazon's first and biggest failure. In October of the same year, Amazon's quarterly income statement included a line about the write-off of $170 million, "primarily due to the liquidation of Firephone stocks and payment for supplier services."

Amazon Wallet closure

The Amazon Wallet service, which was an Android app that stored gift cards and loyalty cards for different stores, was launched in 2014 and closed six months into its existence.

2012: Closing the Endless.com

In 2012, Amazon closed the Endless.com online store, which at one time became the first standalone brand for online shopping outside of Amazon.com. The focus was on fashion shoes and accessories. After the closure of the service, its visitors to the site began to be redirected to the page Amazon.com/fashion. The same fate befell the MyHabit.com site, although its visitors are no longer redirected to Amazon.com.

1998: Music and video sales start

In June 1998, the store began selling music records, and in November of that year, video products. Later, the Amazon.com began to cover 34 categories of goods, including e-books, consumer electronics, children's toys, food, household goods, sports goods and much more.

The company is expanding into online trading markets outside the United States: there are national clones of the Amazon brand in Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, France and China.

1995: Jeff Bezos launches online bookseller

Amazon.com was created in July 1995 by American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos and initially sold only books.

The company has been successful due to its unique corporate policies. Amazon.com was the first to use the potential of the Internet: the ability to contact a much larger number of customers than a regular "physical" store, a larger number of items, not limited to what is in stock.

One of the features of the website of the online store is that customers can leave reviews of purchased goods and evaluate them. This helps you choose the right good quality thing.

Notes