My colleague Matt Yglesias once half-joked that the company amounts to “a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.” Bezos denied this, insisting that the interests of Amazon customers and shareholders will align in the long run. One thing nearly everyone agrees on, though: Amazon’s ridiculously low margins cannot be good for its rivals in the retail sector, who aren’t blessed with the same license from investors to lose money quarter after quarter.
I don’t have a lot to add to what Yglesias has already said about the company, except to point out that yet another quarterly earnings report shows Amazon increasing its revenue while failing (or, more accurately, refusing) to make any profit whatsoever. This time it posted $17 billion in net sales, reported a net loss of $41 million, and saw its stock leap nearly 10 percent.
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