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Alexa had “no profit timeline,” cost Amazon $25 billion in 4 years (arstechnica.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I wouldn't describe it as wasted, even at a stretch. Alexa drives tonnes of money Amazon's way.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Not according to the article:

Per "former employees on the Alexa shopping team" that WSJ spoke with, however, the amount of shopping revenue tied to Alexa is insignificant.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Think of it like Chrome. Doesn't directly generate money, but generates a lot of money

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Except Chrome doesn't lose a ton of money, energy, etc.

[–] MagicShel 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I agree. Plus, right now Alexa is somewhat integrated with my life. I'm constantly interacting with Amazon's ecosystem. Take that away, and it becomes another online retailer (a hugely important one, but nonetheless...) and movie rental service. I could easily step away from Amazon in a way that is more difficult today.

Multiply that across their customers and is the value 6 billion per year? I don't know, that's a lot of money, but it's not a simple cost analysis.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Amazon claims to have Alexa on 100 million devices, so $6 billion/year would be $60/user/year.

It's not peanuts, but... Amazon Prime has 230 million subscribers worldwide, that is $140/user/year.

Sounds like one could be financing the other.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

If you step away from everything Amazon today a consumer... you are still using them for 30% of your web experience, you just don't know it lol