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

To: getgo234 who wrote (23868)	10/30/1998 12:53:00 PM
From: Gary Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>AMZN is raising funds in the junk bond market.... Nope, that market is dead right now.

To: getgo234 who wrote (23868)	10/30/1998 1:03:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Respond to of 164684

Of course. That is where the distortion in the analysis comes in - although WallMart currently has a web site, they have not made a significant effort to make it competitive with Amazon. As glorious as the Internet is, it has been very tiny compared with the existing walk-in market that mass retailers serve. This is typical of the "introduction phase" of new products and marketing concepts. During the early days, the competition does more watching and waiting than plunging headlong into untested markets that are in a state of turmoil and still figuring what works and what doesn't. Then as the "early adopters" show some success, they can analyze what works and more easily duplicate and improve upon it. Indeed, Amazon is trying to duplicate some of the back-office practices that have helped to make WallMark highly competitive. They have hired away several people familiar with EDI, vendor relationships, supply logistics and other areas. WallMart, Bertelsmann, B & N, and a host of other competitors are quickly copying Amazon's formula for success and added their own advantages. It's reasonable to assume that WallMart or B&N/Bertelsmann may come up with many effective ways to compete. In any case, the market will reach a phase in which competition becomes much more of a factor and price is more important. This is a very interesting "case study" of the evolution of Internet commerce - I find it useful in developing my own efforts.

To: getgo234 who wrote (23868)	10/31/1998 3:43:00 AM
From: Dwight E. Karlsen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Exactly. >>why do analysts think AMZN has such a unique concept that others cannot duplicate or ameriorate upon it ? At best profit margins will be miniscule if the likes of Walmart want this marketplace.<< Notice how some analysts were thrilled to see how quickly Amazon's CD sales surpassed N2K's and CD-NOW's? Amazon had a larger "web presence", "brand-awareness", customer base, etc. Plus they had the available cash to throw at more advertising. All the ingredients for a successful jump-start into CDs. Now let's throw Wal-mart's, and B&N's available muscle at doing the same thing. Everyone knows Wal-mart is a reputable company to buy things from. They're as down-home as you can get. B&N knows books. They've also been steadily improving their web-site. And as ongoing concerns, let's just say that WMT won't need to worry even if they have to run their web-site selling books at a loss for 10 years straight, if they feel that they have to to build an online customer base. As these two companies get serious about getting a bigger slice of the online book sales market, Amazon is going to be playing defense in a big way. I'm not supposing that Amazon is going to go bankrupt quickly, but the business world is a tough playground. Once the brokerages smell fear in management, the sell-side analysts won't hesitate to pull the "hold" and "reduce" lever. Right now they smell confidence from management, and hold out hopes for more investment brokerage fees for for acquisitions by Amazon.