Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Steve Lachance who wrote (11239)	7/22/1998 2:13:00 PM
From: llamaphlegm	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

WOW! I think he's really snorting something. You should go read some of the replies. It's getting ornery over there. LP From TMF's Top fool (that would be lowercase). Subject: Re: Amazon isn't a bookseller? Number: of 4919 Author: DavidGardner read profile \| read interview Date: 7/22/98 12:48 PM (ET) Amazon isn't just a bookseller, no. They sell a lot of books, yep. But they also sell music now, and if they're not already #1 in market share in that business (I think they are), they will be shortly. In addition to these things, they have amassed (and continue to amass) one of the more amazing lists of customer information available today -- a list that is growing exponentially relative to most other businesses out there, and is far more telling and complex. When they begin high-margin targeted advertising, some people who think they're "just a bookseller" will have their eyes opened further, just as those people's eyes were opened when Amazon began selling music. That may not happen for a while -- I have no idea when. But I know it will happen. I believe Amazon is the only one of the top 25 sites on the Internet that does not presently have advertising. And they have much better information on their customers. When Amazon begins selling movies, that'll open eyes further, and when Amazon begins to move into higher margin items like software sales, one of the more plausible bear arguments will begin to disappear. Probably the profoundest thing to be written on this message board in recent memory was this simple line from greeneggs: Now I'm not going to guess about the next business line but if they wanted to be the Internet's leading seller of lobster they probably could do it very easily. There is only one company in the world about which somebody could make that statement (with the possible exception of a lobster company itself), and that is Amazon. It continues to amaze me how some people are blind to that reality. Listen, Amazon is now potentially threatening retailers in every business, in the same way that Microsoft is threatening Internet companies in every business. Not actively and directly, but potentially... and likely. Those who fail to recognize these potentialities -- and in some cases, these soon-to-be realities -- those who reflexively train their sights backward and seem incapable of visualizing the future -- will continue to be flabbergasted by this stock's valuation. There is tremendous risk associated with this investment, just as there is with many Internet stocks. Because they came public earlier than most, we the public have (amazingly) been pitched "venture capitalist" opportunities -- along with their attendant risks. Some people can think like venture capitalists, and those by and large are the ones who've made money thus far in AMZN stock. Some people (and I grow more convinced of this as I grow older) simply do not and cannot think like venture capitalists, so for them they simply should avoid stocks like Amazon.com, or America Online (which had so many of the same bearish arguments against it back in 1994 -- I recognize this conversation -- 35 bags ago). There are many ways to make money in the stock market -- many different companies can lead you there. Suit your approach to your perspective, your time horizon, and your mentality. Fool on, David Gardner