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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

AMZN 244.75

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3:15 PM EST

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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (68895)	7/22/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: Eric Wells	Read Replies (1) of 164684

>>I'm curious... what kind of hard data would you expect here. I worked in marketing for Microsoft for several years - I was a product manager for Microsoft Excel and then for Microsoft Office. In the early 90's, with Excel we found ourselves in a very competitive situation with Lotus 1-2-3 and Borland Quattro Pro (both of which we blew away with the release of Excel 5, and then buried with subsequent releases of Office). When Excel was behind in the market, we watched as Lotus and Borland would issue press releases with specific market share numbers touting their leadership in the spreadsheet market - the numbers would come from market research firms such as Forrester or Gartner. Once Excel 5 overtook Lotus 1-2-3 and Borland Quattro Pro - we did the exact same thing - on a regular basis. But I never recall a press release in which it was stated "we believe we are the market leader" - no, our press releases were always of the nature: "Excel is the market leading spreadsheet with 65% market share according to a recent study by Forrester Research". No one ever dreamed of issuing a press release with market share numbers based on faith - it was never even discussed, as it was taken as a given that our corporate customers might view it as irresponsible. So what could Amazon have done? There are independent firms that measure web site traffic - Media Metrix and Neilsen come to mind. Amazon could have commisioned a study to get the exact numbers. Of course if you are talking about revenue numbers - well, Amazon could have broken out their toy revenue numbers and compared those with the publicy available etoys revenue (etoys annual sales are running at $30 million). But Amazon didn't do this. Instead, Bezos made a very vague statement of "We believe we are number 1." To me the statement means nothing. They may be number 1 - or they may not be. We don't know - and the only thing we have to rely on is a statement from Bezos. I just don't like it when a CEO assumes that I as an investor will take something on faith when the resources are available to ascertain fact. Thanks, -Eric Wells

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