Word: amazon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...moans Susan Benson, Amazon's editor in chief. "That was cruel...
...troops are silent. Stunned. Amazon, profitable? It's autumn 1999. For years these people have been racing toward a horizon that no one, save perhaps their utopian-futurist boss, even really sees. They know much of the Silicon Valley/Wall Street/media complex believes the commodification of online retailing will lay their company to waste. Amazon the Web's golden child, darling of NASDAQ day traders who raise its market cap even faster than the company bleeds money, is also Amazon the avatar of all that may be ephemeral and fraudulent about the dotcom revolution. Now Bezos has named a date...
...raptly while Jeff Bezos explains what it means. There are two types of businesses, he tells the troops: baby businesses, which need growth and feeding, and adult businesses, which must pay their own way. This brings him to B, M and V, which stand for books, music and video, Amazon's three oldest product lines. And the P is the news, for this trinity is nearing adulthood. "By the end of the year 2000," Bezos says, "we're going to make them profitable...
Their fearless leader notes their angst and offers a beneficent smile. "You can cheer," Bezos says. So the troops cheer. Imagine it. Amazon, profitable...
This is ground zero of the New Economy? At age five, Earth's Biggest Bookstore is now Earth's Biggest Selection, in keeping with Bezos' plan for world domination. Meaning what, exactly? Well, in a sense, Amazon isn't about technology or even commerce. Any moron can open an online store. The trick is showing millions of customers such a good time that they come back every few days for the next 50 years. Amazon is, like every other site on the Web, a content play...