Tony Talks Business
The Many Ways Amazon Makes Money
You buy something on Amazon for 30 dollars. Amazon didn't make it, doesn't own it, and in most cases never bought it. Somebody else did, and that seller hands about 13 of your 30 dollars straight back to Amazon for the privilege of having been found. Amazon put through 717 billion dollars last year and turned 80 billion of it into operating profit, and 57 percent of that profit came from a division that sells no products at all.
This is how Amazon makes money, and why the vans, the boxes and the warehouses are the least profitable part of the whole thing.
Chapters
- 0:00The 30 dollar order Amazon never made, owned or bought
- 1:08Seven businesses in one company: where the 717 billion comes from
- 2:341. The shop: 588 billion in sales, 34 billion in profit
- 4:592. The marketplace: the 13 dollars of your 30 that Amazon keeps
- 7:48The Buy Box, and why sellers can't afford to leave
- 9:593. Advertising: selling the top of the search results
- 12:384. Prime: the subscription that doubles what you spend
- 14:515. AWS: 18 percent of the revenue, 57 percent of the profit
- 18:166. Delivery: the cost centre that became the country's biggest carrier
- 20:057. Devices, publishing, Whole Foods and the long bets
- 22:42Landlord, referee and player: how the machine fits together
- 25:37What could actually break this
- 27:13Where the money really is
