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

To: Bearded One who wrote (95349)	3/1/2000 2:38:00 PM
From: Bearded One	Respond to of 164684

I find it interesting to compare Amazon's markets to the mail-order markets: Category Previously Successful Totally new paradigm? in mail order? ----------- ---------------------- ---------------------- Books Yes No Music Yes No DVD&Video Yes No Electronics No No Software Yes No Toys Yes No Home Improvement ?? No Auctions No Yes Pet Food No No Drugs No No Two things to note from this chart: 1) some markets such as electronics, petfood, and drugs were not previously successful as mail order. This indicates to me that they will not be successful on the internet. Thus, this is lost money for Amazon. 2) You contact a company and order something. They ship it to you. That paradigm is very old. Whether you contact the company over the internet or via telephone doesn't really change the paradigm. Thus, Amazon isn't doing very much that is new. Which means to me that they won't be generating more profits than anyone else-- even in the best case these markets are being commoditized. 3) Auctions are a new paradigm since they were not as widespread before the internet. Anyway, that's my view. Amazon is a mail-order company which is spending way too much money and investing in unprofitable ventures. They save money over old-style mail order companies by not publishing a catalog and not having phone operators. But ultimately, they don't understand that they are just a mail-order company and that is why they are headed for the toilet.