WEBVTT - The Story of Amazon.com: Part 2 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.480 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:14.480 Stuff Looks dot Com either everyone and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.760 I'm Jonathan Strickland, a host of tech Stuff, and I'm 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.840 Lauren bog Obam another post of tech stuff. One of 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.280 these days we will have a standard way of doing 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.800 this ridiculous. Yes. So previously on tech Stuff we talked 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.360 about the history of Amazon dot Com leading up to 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.400 and including the dot Com crash, which was in the 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.640 year two thousand and so today we wanted to start 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:41.920 up where we left off and bring you up to 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:43.960 date on what Amazon has been up to. And it 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:45.680 turns out it's a whole heck of a lot a 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.880 bunch of stuff. But let's let's look back on two 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.480 thousand one. Now, two thousand's when the actual dot com 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.520 crash was. But the crash wasn't. Don't think of it 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.680 like a crash where suddenly all companies lost value. It 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:03.040 was actually more gradual than that. Companies like Amazon saw 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.479 their stock prices hit a steady decline, and that decline 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.160 would hit its lowest point as far as I was 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.840 able to determine any way, in UH in mid two 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:18.160 thousand one, when it hit just below six dollars per share, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.200 And keep in mind that in in they were looking 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.600 at three hundred dollars per share before stock split, and 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.160 it even opened. At the end of the opening day, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.720 it was at three dollars right. Yeah, so yeah, opening 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.800 day before the company had ever done really anything beyond 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:36.960 you know, it had been it had been an operation 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.160 for two years as a private company, had not turned 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.440 a profit, raised fifty four million dollars at twenty three 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.520 bucks a share two thousand one. It weathers the storm 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.040 of the dot com crash if I can mix all 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.120 sorts of metaphors, uh, and ends up at six dollars 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.760 per share. So this is a tough time and some 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.840 companies wouldn't have survived. In fact, a lot of companies 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.840 did not survive this this tumultuous time, and it did 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.240 not stop Amazon. In fact, they they did. They did 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:15.520 cut costs, they like laid off employees, closed or distribution facility. Um. Yeah. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.880 They ended up seeking out and forming alliances with what 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.920 would have traditionally been considered competitors on Target and also 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.200 Borders Group. Yeah, that's a two big competitors right there. 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.520 They also introduced the concept of the for Amazon anyway, 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.760 for in store pick up where you would order an 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.560 item on Amazon dot Com and then go and pick 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.560 it up at what whichever store actually sold that thing. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.440 So they had other alliances, not just with Target and 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.360 Borders they had they had previous alliances with companies like 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.560 Toys r Us and also Circuit City, which you know 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.000 had its own sad story, which I guess we could 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.400 do someday and talk about. Maybe maybe instead of just 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.480 Circuit City, we could talk about all box stores that 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.880 have suffered, because now we're seeing the same sort of 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.200 thing happened with Best Buy, which which survived the Circuit 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.600 City debacle but is now struggling on its own. That's 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.760 neither here nor there at this point. Target makes these 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:18.720 alliances in part to kind of wide Amazon. I mean, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:20.040 I'm sure that it was. You know, Target was in 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.600 it for the same reasons. Yes, Target, Target was, but 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.320 Target as a as a as a traditional retail establishment 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.800 was not affected as badly with the dot com crash 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.440 as web based companies. So thank you for correcting me, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.720 because that was a definite correction that needed to happen. 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.120 But but yeah, Target, for its part, they were having trouble. 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.320 You know, one of the things that that made investors 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.520 kind of wary about Amazon was that its competitors could 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.280 in theory, create their own websites and start to sell 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.000 things in these vast numbers that Amazon was enjoying hypothetically 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.720 right directly to their consumers as opposed to partnering with Amazon. 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.480 But it was take a while for that to work, 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.640 partly because you had these traditional retail establishments that they 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.040 the web space was foreign to them, that was not 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.320 where their expertise lay, and so to get into that 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.560 meant that they made a lot of mistakes. They had 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.800 to work with a lot of companies they weren't familiar with, 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.080 and it took it was it's a slow process. Whereas 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.040 Amazon was coming from the opposite direction they were looking 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.560 at they already had all these systems in place to 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:34.760 to categorize and and organize data about objects exactly, and 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.840 to handle all the customer information as well. So so yeah, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.159 it was one of those things where, uh, it made 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.440 a made sense on both parties because Target could take 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.680 advantage of Amazon's interface, Amazon could take advantage of the 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.919 fact that Target had a lot of stuff that people 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:57.120 wanted and and both companies to Yeah, so they both benefited. 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:58.840 So yeah, by by the end of the year, they 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.080 had made UM three point two billion in sales um, 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.719 which you know, considering after right after the dot com crash, 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.119 that is not bad. And they also reported their first 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.200 net profit during the fourth fourth quarter of that year. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.679 And this is this is major, This is huge because 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:14.680 I mean, you know, not only had they survived this 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.000 terrible crash of two thousand, but also for the very 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.680 first time in their entire history, actually turned to profit. Yeah. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.240 So this is this is kind of confusing in a 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.480 way because you're talking about a year in which they 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.840 see the lowest stock price for a for a share 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.960 of Amazon stock. The same year they have their first 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.559 net profit of one quarter. Again it's just one one quarter, 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.640 but but yeah, their annual loss was at a hundred 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.800 and forty nine million dollars for that year. So so 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.680 they're still losing money, but they're losing a slower rate 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.120 than they were before a trickle. Yeah, so you're talking 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.480 about a billion dollar industry but no profit. So uh, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.720 but still Bezos is in it for the long haul. 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.880 He's able to hold it together despite all of this. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.200 And they move on into two thousand two and uh 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.000 and Amazon continues to diversify and try new things. They 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.800 opened some new stores in apparel and accessories and office products, 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.040 which go hand in hand. I know when I'm shopping 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.920 for slacks, I also often need a stapler of course. 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.960 You know. Also Staples make great air rings. No, no, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.039 don't do that. No listeners at home never never listened 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.640 to me, right, So um. They also launched Amazon Canada. Yeah, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:36.280 so the Canadians finally got to shop. It is Canadians. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.000 I feel your pain as you sit there and think. Wait, 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.120 in that last episode you talked about them launching in 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.960 France and Japan and Germany in the UK. Yeah, they 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.000 got out the Canada, especially since they were in Seattle. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:49.720 I mean you could technically like spitt and hit him 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.880 from where you. I think what Canada would do is 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.400 they would just hop across the border and order things 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.560 and then hop back across. That's probably not true, Canadians. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:00.279 I know you're all too nice to yell at me. 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.400 So um. Also, by the way, if you, if you 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.640 really want to feel superior, Atlanta lost its hockey teams. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.520 So really, I'm just envious of Canada because I happen 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.440 to love hockey and I no longer have a team 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.000 to cheer for, and that's sad. Anyway, moving back to Amazon, 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:21.200 they also created their well, they had already created a 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.240 free Super Saver shipping program right back in back in 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.880 two THO actually missed that point. Yeah, that was when 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.480 if you ordered a hundred dollars or more you could 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.760 you could qualify for free shipping. They had reduced that 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.680 amount to twenty five dollars. Yeah, so this is an 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.720 effort of them trying to continue to to increase sales. Obviously, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.480 they did not want for that momentum to slow down 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.080 because the momentum, frankly, was really all that was keeping 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.520 that company going at that point. Um. They also launched 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.920 Amazon Web Services. This is a one of the things 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.320 that really helped Amazon as well. Uh, this is a 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.320 back end thing that a lot of you know, retail 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.160 customers would never understand, but corporate customers, it's very important. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.600 Amazon Web Services here's a direct quote from the site. 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.160 It offers a complete set of infrastructure and application services 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.920 that enable you to run virtually everything in the cloud, 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.239 from enterprise applications and big data projects to social games 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.040 and mobile apps. So basically what it means is that 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.840 Amazon took all of these amazing bits of technology and 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.120 software and infrastructure that they were using to make their 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.600 own business awesome, and they sold them piecemeal to anyone 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.280 who was interested in using. This is almost like leasing 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.199 really leash. Yeah, not not selling, but um but right yeah, 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:47.160 so so leasing the space, leasing the databases, leasing the programming. Yeah, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.960 and this is this This is a part of a 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.240 conversation that will probably have and yet another episode further 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.200 down the line when we talk about Amazon and its 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.760 impact in the industry. Because while we're talking about the 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.320 history of the company right now and we're talking about 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.360 some big idea is it's hard to stress what sort 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.160 of impact this made. Keep in mind, this is cloud 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:11.040 computing and cloud storage before people were even using that term, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.960 and Amazon. You know, we often think, at least I 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.400 often think of Google as being huge with the cloud, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.400 the cloud storage and cloud services. But really when you 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.319 look at it, it's Amazon that was a real pioneer 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.120 in that space. When you're talking about big big names. Yeah, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.280 not not not for personal use yet they would get 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.560 into that later, but for corporate use. We're talking like 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.199 major companies using Amazon because again, just like I was 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.920 talking about with the retail companies where the web space 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.000 was unfamiliar territory. You had these other big companies that 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.760 had the need to support at some sort of networked 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:51.360 infrastructure or online capability. But it's such a huge investment 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.800 to do that as a company. And to have that, like, 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.200 you have to have the space to to store the servers, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.600 you have to have the people trained to maintain the servers. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.680 You have to have the right kind of space because 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.719 if it gets too warm, the servers shutdown. Kind of 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.240 funny thing about computers. So Amazon was essentially saying, hey, 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.559 we know it's tough. We do this for a living, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.120 so why don't we do it for you? And uh 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.240 and yeah, that ended up opening up a huge business opportunity. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:21.560 Um and also uh, they ended up moving on to 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.480 uh to the next year. We're talking about their first 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.880 profitable year in two thousand three. So uh, two thousand three, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.480 they have their first profitable year. They earn thirty five 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:37.320 million dollars overall, thirty five Okay, so they're sales, by 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.840 the way, so they make thirty five million. Here's how 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.160 much they sold one point nine five billion dollars worth 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:48.440 of stuff, so almost two billion dollars in sales, thirty 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:53.600 five million profit, so not a not a not a 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.800 not great margins. And it turns out, um, you know, 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.560 it had a crazy holiday season that year. They processed 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.320 one million shipments and had twenty million inventory updates in 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.920 a single day. That's that's big. They also opened up 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.240 more stores. I probably won't be talking too much about 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.400 all the different stores they've got at this point. It's 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.520 just more stuff. I will say. That's when gourmet food 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.920 hit so yeah, important the stomach demands that I mentioned 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:26.080 that Also, this was the year two interesting things as 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.960 far as I'm concerned with with Bezos here. Um. One 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.920 was that he decided to pursue his love of space 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:39.040 exploration by funding a startup company called Blue Origin, which 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.319 is a Seattle based aerospace company working on private space flight. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.400 He also had a near death experience that year. He 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:53.000 was on a helicopter, right, Yeah, he was in a helicopter. Uh, 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:58.560 and they were essentially scouting locations for Blue Origin. And 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.600 uh they were that they were about to take off 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.080 in this helicopter in a field I think it was. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.680 And um, while they were starting to take off, the 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:15.320 helicopter drifted, the tail hit a tree, the helicopter began 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.400 to tilt and then it ended up flipping upside down 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:23.600 and landing in a creek. Bezos. Obviously he survived, but 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.400 apparently he said that he was asked like, did your 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.160 life flash before your eyes or did you suddenly have 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.760 like things that you wish you had done? He says, Actually, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.720 what I thought was this would be a dumb way 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:41.080 to die, which is pretty awesome. Um, yeah, so you 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:45.199 know that's that was That was a pretty incredible experience. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.800 He also said in an interview. This is unconnected with 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.080 the helicopter issue. They said an interview with Business Week. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.760 When we can improve our personalization algorithms so that we 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.640 show something to somebody that they wouldn't have discovered in 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.400 any other way, and then that serves them very well, 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.640 that's something that's incredibly valuable. And that goes back to 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.080 something I said earlier. I think it was actually in 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.480 part one of Amazon, this idea of creating algorithms that 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:16.000 can predict customer wants and needs and behavior so that 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.040 you give you give the customer a really great shopping 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.880 experience and also in the process you make more sales, 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.520 so it benefits everyone. So when I go online and 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.480 I think, I really really want to buy that copy 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.880 of of of Halo four. Uh. It also says, hey, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.040 I see that you really like being bad at video games. 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:40.959 Maybe you would also like to be bad at Assassin's 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.880 Creed three. And I say, yes, I would, and I 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.760 add that to the list, and that happened. Um, although 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.360 I should, I should point out right now Assassin's Creed 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.000 three is still in the shrink wrap. I have not 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.760 finished playing Halo four or Border Lens too. As it 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.880 turns out in February. First kids, both Jonathan and I 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.640 are lame at video games, but we we have played 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.240 online at the same time on the same team. We 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.840 did we did, and uh, Matt from from Stuff they 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.880 don't want you to know, John joined in as well. Yes, 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:12.839 we actually had Team House Stuff Works for a while. 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.840 We've had one person suggests that we have a tournament 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.600 of Team House Stuff Works versus Team Twit over this 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.080 week in tech. I don't know if anyone at twit 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.640 plays Halo or any other Xbox three sixty game, but 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.120 if they do, uh, it is on like Donkey Kong. Yes, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.280 call us guys any any time, I as let me know. 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.600 You know, he's my he's my buddy over there, but 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.200 at any rate, Yeah, So getting back over to Amazon, 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.040 they also launched a service called A nine. Now. A 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:49.200 nine had development efforts in five areas product search, cloud search, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.840 visual search, advertising technology, and community question answering, but when 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.000 it originally launched, it didn't actually go live until two 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.120 thousand four, but it was developed in two thousand three, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.040 so this kind of less you have something specific about 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:06.520 two thousand segways into okay. Uh So. Originally the forward 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.280 facing part of A nine was a search portal, So 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.600 this is kind of competing with Google and Yahoo and 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.760 other search engines, but it allowed you to use different 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.000 filters or search groups like it had over four hundred 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:21.920 different groups you could search from, and you could choose 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.120 which groups to include or not include. So it was 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.760 very versatile in that sense, although I guess if you're 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.000 really getting bogged down into it, it it could probably take 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.480 you ages to do a search. But it was discontinued 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.360 that that part of A nine was discontinued in two 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.640 thousand eight because it just wasn't getting a lot of traction. 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.320 But a lot of the technology they developed in A 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.280 nine still powers the search within Amazon itself. So when 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.160 you go to Amazon, you do a product search. That's 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.160 what's powering that search. It also is being used in 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.840 other e commerce sites, so it's not just Amazon that 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:59.360 uses that technology. Also in two thousand four, they launched 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:07.080 Amazon Theater. Uh, they launched more stores. Um. The tsunami, 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.040 the major tsunami that happened in two thousand four. Right, Yeah, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.200 they donated a fifteen point seven million dollars yep, and 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.840 they they offered the ability for users to contribute directly 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:21.760 to the American Red Cross. Uh Amazon payments, so yeah, 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:23.400 you could. You could end up doing that. So that 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:28.400 was a good, uh show of community and support. They 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.520 also had that year bought jo dot Com, which became 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.160 Amazon China. Right. Dot Com was a kind of a 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.080 It became the largest book retailer in China at the time. 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.280 It was a strong contender, but was not yet the 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.560 number one, but did after Amazon bought them. Uh, they 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.680 Amazon Theater. In case you're wondering, it was a short 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:56.640 film series and they took uh the production company. They 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.880 used the production company that was formed by the Scots 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.399 that's a Ridley and Tony um and they produced five 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.720 short films that started Hollywood Actors. These were short shorts 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.439 that were released over several months, and they allowed users 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.159 to watch the films and then buy items that they 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:20.399 saw inside the film. So direct product placement. That's actually 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.280 really interesting. It's one of those things you've been hearing 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.159 about forever, right, Like one of the big promises of 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.480 web tv was that eventually you would be able to 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:33.080 watch a show and say, gosh, you know the Winchester 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.440 brothers on Supernatural, sure to wear nifty clothing. I really 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.480 want that shirt. I want to look I want to 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.200 look like Dean Winchester. So how do I get that jacket? 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.399 I've been watching so much of that show, Guys, I 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.879 really have I can't. I cannot help you. There. I 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.240 went through a Phineas and Ferb stage. It just happens, people. 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:55.679 I mean, you just be thankful you didn't get to 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.400 listen to my breaking bad phase. Um. But anyway, Yes, 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.960 So that was kind of the idea. It was sort 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.680 of a pilot program in a way. Uh didn't really 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.000 go that far, but it's still interesting that they were 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.960 starting to work with that sort of creative element. Yeah, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.600 and and that comes into play again. So Amazon is 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.960 not finished with the creative element by any stretch of 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.160 the imagination. But this was this was sort of an 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.399 early like feeling the water kind of thing, and it 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.159 was just a little chilly as all. Two thousand five, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:32.399 they introduced Amazon Prime, and I was so happy. I 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.800 don't think I got involved in Prime until recently, like 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.679 maybe actually I think that was closer to when I 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.119 did too, but it's still it's uh yeah, yeah. So 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:43.960 Amazon Prime, for those of you who do not know, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.159 it's a program that for a yearly fee, you have 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.160 the option to get to day free shipping on lots 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.199 and lots of products, not everything, because a lot of 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.320 the stuff that's on Amazon is not actually offered directly 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:00.520 through Amazon. It's offered through a partner. Now, the companies 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.800 that partner with Amazon can choose to participate within the primeration, 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:10.720 but it's not necessity. So if they do participate, you 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.920 get two day free shipping on stuff, which is pretty cool. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.760 You would also later on get access to things like 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:24.000 the Amazon Instant Video database for for certain Prime movies 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.840 and TV shows, and also the capacity to loan out 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.640 Kindle books. Yep. That's that's something else that comes to Prime. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:32.600 And we'll talk about more of those things when we 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.440 get to them. But yeah, and then that holiday season 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.880 they announced they sold one and eight million items. Yeah, 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:42.080 that's a lot of a lot of stuff. Yeah. They 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.920 also entered if a film agreement with drug Store dot 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:49.840 Com that year. UH and UH, I had had another 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.200 interesting note in here somewhere, but I can't read. That's 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:54.920 too bad because the clock is ticking. I'm about to 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:56.760 go into two thousand six. As of that year, they've 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:01.440 possessed the world's three largest Linux databases with uh capacities 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.639 of terabytes and tarabytes and tarabtes. Yeah. So again, you know, 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.240 you would sit there and think of like data storage, 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:11.280 you might think Google, but Amazon was the big name. UH. 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.040 In two thousand and six, they launched Amazon Simple Storage 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.600 Service or S three UH, and they this is another 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.080 back end thing, but it's and it's something that eventually 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.960 customers would see in another form that's kind of a 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.560 split off of that. But they made a lot more 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.040 partnerships with merchants, retailers, and manufacturers. UH. They also launched 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.800 Amazon Connect, which was away for authors to reach readers 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.080 through sort of a blog like interface, but that would 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:43.520 eventually get replaced by what they call author pages. But 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.760 the idea was that by giving authors a direct route 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.720 to communicate with readers, it could enrich the experience because 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:52.560 we didn't really talk about it. In fact, this is 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.400 a very important point. But one of the other things 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.640 that really helped Amazon get through the dot com crash 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.040 is that they had, you know, user reviews, and user 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.520 reviews created this rich user experience that made Amazon more 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.320 of what what used to be called web two point oh. 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.040 The concept that a community is important online right crazy 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.479 that there has to the web two point oh has 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.320 a lot of different definitions to it, but part of 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.200 it is interactivity, uh, and the fact that users are contributors, 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:28.040 not just consumers. And also that you have dynamic content, 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.320 meaning that it does change over time. It's not just 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.080 a landing page you go to and it has you know, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.959 a stock amount of information about the company. So and 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:39.440 and this was really revolutionary because being able to jump 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.600 on a website, look at a product that you're thinking 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.119 about buying and see that someone says, you know, I 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.119 really liked the shirt, but I got it and it 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.880 seems ripped in a day and a half and and 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.040 or or on the other hand, like this is a 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.040 terrific thing. I've bought five of them. I've had it 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.320 forever and it's wonderful, right, you know. I bought them 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:57.840 for friends and family for for gifts and everyone loves them. 0:21:57.880 --> 0:21:59.720 That kind of thing and everything in between. And actually, 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.719 you know, Bezos has said repeatedly that that negative reviews 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.800 are just as important as positive ones because it shows 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.040 that Amazon is dedicated to to the to the consumer side. 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:11.840 I think he came under a little bit of fire 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.120 at some point from some companies that were saying, why 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:16.280 are you letting people post these negative reviews? And it 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.400 was like, well, because they're true, because your stuff isn't good, 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:24.480 make better stuff. Uh. You know, he points out that 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.480 to build customer trust, you have to have that. It's 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.720 also one of the reasons why Amazon is very very 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:35.159 keen to uh to get rid of any reviews that 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.399 are gaming the system, because that does happen. You have 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.159 occasionally you'll have a company and it might not be 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.040 the company directly. It might be say an outside PR 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.760 firm that comes in and and without the company's permission, 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.120 goes in and makes a whole bunch of fake reviews 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.920 for for a product on something like Amazon. To drive 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.439