Word: likelies
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...like, a groundhog convention...
...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...
...daunting task. For three years, defining Amazon was easy: it sold books. Then it sold books, music and videos. Now it sells toys, home-improvement products, consumer electronics and software as well. Then there are the equity stakes in start-ups like drugstore.com pets.com and Gear.com and struggling eBay-wannabe divisions: zShops and Auctions. Who are these guys now? What does Amazon represent? And will the company's more than 13 million customers stick around for power drills and wide-screen TVs? "No one's sure where all this is going," says Carrie Johnson, an analyst with Forrester Research...
What Johnson and other believers agree on is the wisdom of the company's relentless reinvestment in new markets in lieu of banking premature profits. Bezos' strategic analysis goes like this: customer acquisition is only going to get harder tomorrow, so you have to grab every customer you can today. For those 13 million customers translate into dominant market share. And dominant market share means the power, for instance, to strong-arm suppliers for better deals, which could lead to profitability. BMVP2000...
...revolve around how to phone-screen the countless job supplicants; recently more than 400 people applied for four openings. "I had five interviews with five people on two different days, and this was for a temp job," says an ex-employee. Amazon detractors are easy to find. The company, like any growing society, has developed a caste system that embitters some in the lower orders. "I hated working there," says the ex-employee. "I was totally underutilized. My bosses were bad managers who just happened to sign on earlier than I did. There was this arrogance, like, 'I'm employee...