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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Olu Emuleomo who wrote (67274)	7/12/1999 1:26:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

> Naturally, 35% of my portfolio is in discount brokers..... First they speculated on internut stocks, until those stopped going up as insanely as before.. Then they speculated on the discount brokers, who made a majority of their profits through people speculating on internut stocks. Now that they've stopped going up, what is the next derivative?

To: Olu Emuleomo who wrote (67274)	7/12/1999 1:35:00 PM
From: Eric Wells	Respond to of 164684

I agree - the statement is not as applicable to online brokerage firms or ISPs for that matter - both which pose scenarios that make it difficult for customers to switch (transferring money in the case of brokerages, signing up for a new service and getting a new email address in the case of ISPs). But for online retailers, such as Amazon, switching may be a lot easier - I can buy a book on a number of different sites with little difficulty in switching from one site to another. A key point of competitive advantage will come to the retail site that figures out how to make switching difficult for a customer - it seems that Amazon is banking on a strong brand and good customer service to keep customers from switching. Who knows if this will be enough. -Eric Wells