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

To: Gary Walker who wrote (31543)	12/29/1998 3:55:00 AM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164685

hype, only goes so far... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . at least i used to think so ;-)

To: Gary Walker who wrote (31543)	12/29/1998 8:06:00 PM
From: Webfoot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164685

AMZN is "only" a 16 billion company. With a brand as strong as Yahoo, they've got another 10-12 billion to catch up to the top tulip. AMZN's "BS" output pales compared to Yahoo, where every flakey outfit in the country who manages to pony up a couple hundred a month to buy a link gets a splashy review like it's the rebirth of ecommerce. Of course, they never publish the traffic that they really account for on these purchased links, so the turnover keeps feeing the PR machine. Then there's YHOO's propensity to inflate numbers like crazy. First, embed an "auto refresh" tag in every page -- so every user who takes a break keeps registering "page views" because his browser does it automatically. Then structure your site so it takes 4-6 page loads to get to any real content -- that drives up page views. Then tell us that you've got over 40 million "registered users" -- well folks, they're asking us to believe that 75% of all online users world wide have "registered" with Yahoo. Talk about BS! (oops .. I meant PR) AMZN has built a real business. They run real affiliate programs which add value to customers, they provide a quality service, and their business model is a direct cut of each transaction -- one that YHOO only aspires to at this point. Further, they are a class act! (Imagine sending $5 gift certificates to people who ordered some items too late for Xmas delivery .. they did not have to do that!) Mary Meeker is a cheerleader, who exposes her fundamental ignorance of key business measures like customer acquisition and retention in some of her emotional declarations like: "YHOO is another Microsoft" (Hah!) and "In some categories it is GAME OVER .. I wouldn't know how to compete with Yahoo" Give us a break Mary. Yahoo is one click to get there, one click to leave. No OS to un-install. Just a cluttered TV Guide site. Easy come, easy go. Do I need Yahoo to do things I do repeatedly on the web? No (Do I go to my Yellow pages every time I want to grocery shop?) Glad you are on our side tho - keep writing so those 30 point up days keep coming Mary. Make sure your talk at your upcoming January conference is broadcast far and wide. So if YHOO is worth over $25 billion (it is not, I agree, but then the market says otherwise), AMZN certainly could be too. It is not just PR, it's the proven ability to deliver, to scale to service huge numbers of users, to extend their infrastructure investments to new product categories at low cost, and to effectively manage cash and apply their huge marketing budgets effectively. YHOO rose to a then "impossible" $207, split 2:1, and has now risen to as high as $281. AMZN could easily double again post split.