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How Apple’s newest iOS replace may assist Amazon’s rising advert enterprise

How Apple's latest iOS update could help Amazon's growing ad business

Ein illustratives Bild der Amazon Shopping App, das auf einem Handybildschirm vor einem alten (L) und einem neuen (R) Amazon Shopping App-Symbol auf einem Bildschirm angezeigt wird. Amazon hat sein neues Amazon Shopping-App-Symbol stillschweigend geändert und das blaue Band oben ersetzt, das einige ungünstige Vergleiche gezogen hat. Am Mittwoch, dem 3. März 2021, in Dublin, Irland.

Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Das Werbegeschäft von Amazon steigt rasant.

Die massive “andere” Geschäftskategorie des Unternehmens, bei der es sich hauptsächlich (aber nicht ausschließlich) um Werbeeinnahmen handelt, stieg im ersten Quartal um 77% auf 6,9 Mrd. USD.

Die jüngsten Datenschutzänderungen von Apple, die es den Nutzern erleichtern, Werbetreibende daran zu hindern, sie zu verfolgen, könnten das Wachstum des Unternehmens beschleunigen.

Amazon verfügt über eine enorme Menge an detaillierten Verbraucherdaten. Bis zum letzten Monat gab das Unternehmen an, mehr als 200 Millionen Mitglieder weltweit in seinem Prime-Programm zu haben. Mit dem Inkrafttreten der Änderungen der App-Tracking-Transparenz von Apple werden die Daten von Amazon wahrscheinlich zu einem selteneren und wertvolleren Gut für Vermarkter.

Durch die Änderungen von Apple an iOS 14.5 können iPhone- und iPad-Benutzer die Art der Nachverfolgung, mit der Werbetreibende Anzeigen gezielt ausrichten oder messen können, ob Anzeigen funktionieren, einfacher deaktivieren. Obwohl Amazon diese Aufforderung auch seinen Kunden zeigen muss, ist dies für den E-Commerce-Riesen weniger wichtig. Wenn Benutzer bei Amazon angemeldet sind, kann das Unternehmen weiterhin nachverfolgen, was sie in der App tun, welche Anzeigen sie gesehen, angeklickt oder gekauft haben, unabhängig davon, ob sich ein Benutzer angemeldet hat oder nicht.

Es ist noch nicht klar, wie sehr oder wie lange andere wichtige Akteure, die sich mehr auf Informationen von Drittanbietern verlassen (wie Facebook), von Apples Änderungen betroffen sein werden. Die Verantwortlichen der Werbeagenturen teilten CNBC mit, dass ihre Kundenbudgets größtenteils stabil bleiben, während sie abwarten, wie sich diese Änderungen auf die Leistung ihrer Kampagnen auswirken.

Viele in der Marketingwelt gaben jedoch an, Amazon und ähnliche datenreiche Anzeigenangebote von Unternehmen wie Walmart oder Target als zuverlässigen Weg zu betrachten, um die Art von Daten zu erhalten, auf die sie sich verlassen, um Anzeigen auszurichten und die Leistung zu messen. Aufgrund der starken Erstanbieterbeziehung von Amazon zu Verbrauchern kann Amazon weiterhin Aktivitäten über seine verschiedenen Immobilien hinweg sammeln. Wenn Käufer beispielsweise eine Anzeige auf Prime Video ansehen und später einen Kauf tätigen, sollte sie in der Lage sein, Marketingfachleuten diese Informationen anzubieten.

Mit diesem Status auf dem Markt scheint Amazon bereit zu sein, seine Rolle im Anzeigen-Ökosystem weiter auszubauen. Es könnte von seiner traditionellen Rolle als Ort, an dem Vermarkter von Konsumgütern bestimmte Produkte vorantreiben, zu einem potenziellen Kraftpaket für Markenwerbung werden.

Vertreter von Amazon lehnten es ab, sich zu den Änderungen an iOS 14.5 und den möglichen Auswirkungen auf die Werbeeinnahmen des Unternehmens zu äußern.

Was die Änderung von Apple für die Anzeigen von Amazon bedeutet

Apple hat letzte Woche iOS 14.5 veröffentlicht, ein regelmäßiges Update seines iPhone- und iPad-Betriebssystems. Das Update enthielt ein neues Framework, das den Benutzern mehr Transparenz und Kontrolle über Apps bietet, die sie für Werbezwecke verfolgen möchten.

Wenn Benutzer unter dem neuen iOS eine App öffnen, wird ein Popup-Fenster angezeigt, in dem sie gefragt werden, ob die App auf ihre eindeutige Geräte-ID für Werbetreibende zugreifen kann. In diesem Popup werden Sie gefragt, ob sie nachverfolgt werden möchten, und es wird angezeigt, warum Sie sich für die App anmelden möchten. Beispielsweise könnte eine App anzeigen, dass Sie Anzeigen erhalten, die für Ihre Interessen relevanter sind, wenn Sie die Nachverfolgung zulassen.

Die Auswirkungen dürften variieren. Im Januar veröffentlichte MKM Partners eine Studie, die auf einem Rahmen basiert, um das IDFA-Risiko für Online-Unternehmen anhand von sieben Faktoren zu bestimmen. Von den untersuchten Unternehmen würde Amazon zu den niedrigsten Risikopositionen gehören, sagten sie.

Experten sehen die “ummauerten Gärten” von Facebook, Google und Amazon größtenteils weniger unter den Veränderungen in der Branche. Obwohl Werbung einen Großteil der Daten verliert, auf die sich die Spieler verlassen haben, haben die großen immer noch Daten darüber, was die Leute auf ihren eigenen Grundstücken tun.

Aber selbst auf der Ebene der ummauerten Gärten hängen die Auswirkungen ab, und soziale Netzwerke verfügen möglicherweise über weniger Daten, die Vermarkter benötigen als ein E-Commerce-Player wie Amazon.

“Nicht alle ummauerten Gärten sind gleich”, sagte Shane McAndrew, Chief Data Strategy Officer von Mindshare.

Wenn es um die Brot-und-Butter-Anzeigenprodukte von Amazon geht – Anzeigen, mit denen Unternehmen Placements auf Amazon-Websites und -Apps kaufen können -, werden Werbetreibende wahrscheinlich nur geringe Auswirkungen haben, sagte Will Tjernlund, Chief Marketing Officer von Goat Consulting, einem Unternehmen, das sich auf Marken konzentriert Verkauf bei Amazon.

“Die traditionellen, älteren Werbeprodukte bei Amazon werden keine Wirkung zeigen. Sie sollten genauso gut wie normal sein”, sagte Tjernlund. “Da sie Amazon-eigene Daten verwenden, ziehen sie Menschen auf Amazon-eigenen Websites oder eigenen Apps an.”

Wenn Benutzer über verschiedene Amazon-Eigenschaften angemeldet sind, sollten diese Daten nicht beeinträchtigt werden. Wenn beispielsweise jemand bei der kommenden IMDb TV-App von Amazon angemeldet war, können diese Daten für Marketingzwecke in der Amazon-App verwendet werden, selbst wenn dieser Benutzer die Freigabe seiner Anzeigenkennung auf seinem Telefon deaktiviert hat.

“All diese Daten sind ein faires Spiel für die Ausrichtung von Anzeigen auf Amazon-Nutzer in Amazon-eigenen Immobilien”, sagte Eric Seufert, Analyst und Inhaber der Website Mobile Dev Memo.

Wenn Werbetreibende in einer Post-IDFA-Welt auf Schwierigkeiten mit Amazon stoßen könnten, handelt es sich um Anzeigenprodukte des Unternehmens, die eine externe Nachverfolgung beinhalten und keinen großen Teil seines Geschäfts ausmachen.

Beispielsweise hat Amazon möglicherweise Probleme mit seiner nachfrageseitigen Plattform, mit der Werbetreibende Verbraucher sowohl auf Amazon-Websites als auch auf Websites von Drittanbietern erreichen können.

Amazon teilt die Einnahmen für seine verschiedenen Produkte nicht öffentlich auf, aber Experten glauben, dass Anzeigen, die außerhalb der Website geschaltet werden, einen relativ kleinen Teil seines Anzeigengeschäfts ausmachen. EMarketer schätzt, dass 89% der Nettoeinnahmen von Amazon in Bezug auf digitale Anzeigen in den USA aus E-Commerce-Kanalanzeigen stammen, was bedeutet, dass Anzeigen vor Ort wahrscheinlich die überwiegende Mehrheit ausmachen.

Nach den Änderungen von Apple und Google, die planen, Tracking-Cookies von Drittanbietern zu verwerfen, wird das Tracking außerhalb der Website nicht so einfach sein.

“Es wird eine Herausforderung für sie sein, Medien außerhalb des Unternehmens mithilfe ihrer Daten von ihrem Grundstück zu kaufen. Wir wissen, dass dies ein Problem auf dem Desktop und auf Mobilgeräten sein wird”, so Forrester senior Analyst Collin Colburn sagte. “Der Gegenwind wird sicherlich außerhalb des Geländes sein, eine Kategorie, die sie zu wachsen versucht haben.”

Die Pandemie und der Aufstieg der “Einzelhandelsmedien”

Amazon steht an der Spitze eines weiteren Marketingtrends.

Da so viele Verbraucher zu Hause waren und zu Beginn der Pandemie nicht in Geschäften einkauften, suchten Marken nach noch mehr Informationen darüber, wer ihre Kunden sind und wie sie einkaufen.

Walmart, Target, CVS, Kroger und eine Reihe anderer Unternehmen bieten Anzeigenangebote im Bereich “Einzelhandelsmedien” an – die Möglichkeit, Anzeigen auf Produkte auszurichten, bei denen Verbraucher sie tatsächlich auf diesen Websites kaufen. Forrester Research schätzt, dass Marken im Jahr 2020 mindestens 5 Milliarden US-Dollar für Einzelhandelsmedien ausgegeben haben. Obwohl einige dieser Angebote seit Jahren bestehen, haben sich Einzelhändler wie Walmart in der Region verdoppelt.

“Es boomt. Ich meine, es ist zu diesem Zeitpunkt absolut riesig”, sagte Colburn. “Wir haben sehr konservativ gesagt, dass Marken im Jahr 2020 mindestens 5 Milliarden US-Dollar für Einzelhandelsmedien ausgegeben haben. Es ist viel mehr als das.”

In einer Welt, in der es Werbetreibenden schwerer fällt, Verbraucher über Websites hinweg zu verfolgen, bieten Einzelhandelsmedienlösungen eine Möglichkeit, am Kaufort mehr Einblicke zu erhalten.

“Das Problem ist, wenn Sie auf eine Google-Anzeige oder eine Facebook-Anzeige klicken und nicht wissen, ob diese konvertiert wird oder nicht”, sagte der ehemalige Amazon-Mitarbeiter und CEO von CommerceIQ Guru Hariharan. CommerceIQ berät Marken in ihrem Amazon-Geschäft. “Sie wissen, dass es angeklickt wurde, aber Sie wissen nicht, wer darauf geklickt hat. Wir sehen also, wie sich ein Haufen dieser Dollars bewegt.”

Nach den Änderungen von Apple “wird die Fähigkeit für mich, Sie als Profil oder Verbraucher anzusprechen, verringert, was bedeutet, dass es noch weniger messbar wird, während Amazon und Walmart immer messbarer werden”, sagte Hariharan. “Wenn Sie General Mills sind, wird Walmart für Sie viel interessanter, weil der Einkauf von Lebensmitteln immer noch mehr bei Walmart als bei Amazon stattfindet.”

Den Trichter nach oben bewegen

Werbetreibende möchten wissen, dass sie auf ihre Kosten kommen. Selbst wenn sie große Branding-Anstrengungen unternehmen, die einen Verbraucher nicht unbedingt dazu drängen, ein Paar Shorts zu kaufen oder sofort eine App herunterzuladen, möchten sie wissen, dass die Werbung etwas bewirkt hat. Marken suchen möglicherweise nach Werbeumgebungen, die ihnen diese Antworten geben, sobald diese Fähigkeit schwieriger wird und sie sich nicht mehr auf so viele Daten von Drittanbietern verlassen können. Amazon positioniert sich mit seinen umfangreichen Datenbeziehungen von Erstanbietern zu so vielen Verbrauchern zunehmend als eine Lösung.

Das boomende Werbegeschäft von Amazon wird derzeit hauptsächlich von kauforientierter Werbung angetrieben. Dies schließt “niedrig hängende Früchte” wie gesponserte Anzeigen bei der Suche oder an anderer Stelle auf der Website ein, sagte Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer von Mediaocean. Aber Amazon setzt sich zunehmend auch für markenorientiertere Werbung ein, was das Wachstum erheblich beschleunigen könnte.

Amazon hat bereits signalisiert, dass es seine Markenwerbeinitiativen vertieft. Während seiner Eröffnungspräsentation von NewFronts am Montag hob das Unternehmen die Möglichkeiten für Vermarkter hervor, seine Videoeigenschaften zu nutzen, darunter die Streaming-Plattformen Prime Video, IMDb TV und Twitch sowie Veranstaltungen mit großen Eintrittskarten wie “Thursday Night Football”. Zu diesem Zweck erreicht der werbefinanzierte Videoinhalt von Amazon mittlerweile mehr als 120 Millionen Zuschauer pro Monat.

Vermarkter und Branchenanalysten sagten gegenüber CNBC, dass es nicht lange dauern wird, bis Amazon auch die Audiowerbung hochfährt. Das sagte das Unternehmen letzten Monat auf dem jährlichen Führungstreffen des Interactive Advertising Bureau, bei dem es über die bevorstehenden Schritte im Podcast-Werbebereich sprach. Das Unternehmen kann den kürzlich erfolgten Kauf des Podcasting-Start-ups Wondery und des werbefinanzierten Amazon Music-Dienstes nutzen, um zusätzliche Werbeeinnahmen zu erzielen, indem Marken neben Audioinhalten auch Anzeigen kaufen können.

Amazon baut auch Markenwerbung auf seiner zentralen E-Commerce-Plattform aus, indem gesponserte Videoanzeigen in der Suche geschaltet werden. Dies ist ein wertvolles Tool für kleine und große Unternehmen, die Produkte bei Amazon verkaufen.

“Ich denke, dies ist eine enorme Chance”, sagte McAndrew von Mindshare. “Sie werden sehen, wie sie gezielt in den Bereich der Markenwerbung vordringen, wie sie es noch nie zuvor getan haben. Sie haben alle Zutaten”, um in diesem Bereich zu gewinnen, sagte er.

Aber in diesem Bereich gibt es noch viel zu tun, sagte Nicholas Seo, Markteinführungsdirektor von MightyHive.

“Für einige dieser kreativeren Formate, bei denen es sich mehr um Ausführungen und Integrationen handelt, muss im Backend viel Arbeit geleistet werden”, sagte er. “Ich denke, das Interesse ist definitiv da, zumindest von unseren Kunden, aber mehr noch, Amazon hat Prioritäten zu setzen, wo sie sich konzentrieren möchten. Aber wir sehen definitiv eine Menge Dinge auf dieser Seite.”

Und es könnte ein noch höheres Wachstum fördern.

“Ich denke immer noch, dass sie aufgrund der direkten Reaktion um 70% weiter wachsen können. Ich denke, dass sie nördlich von 100% wachsen können, sobald sie die Markenchance vollständig monetarisieren”, sagte Goldman und wies auf Möglichkeiten wie Video- und Audio-Anzeigen hin.

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Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ will value a minimum of $465 million

Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' will cost at least $465 million

Still from “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”.

New Line Cinema

Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” television show is becoming a costly endeavor for the technology company.

On Friday, New Zealand’s Minister of Economic Development and Tourism announced that the fantasy drama would be one of the most expensive television series ever made. The price for the first season is around $ 465 million.

“But I can tell you that Amazon will spend about $ 650 million in season one alone,” Stuart Nash told Morning Report. The number he provided was in local currency.

The production count is huge and probably the largest sum any studio has spent producing a single television season. For comparison: HBO’s “Game of Thrones” cost around $ 100 million per season. Season one episodes cost around $ 6 million each and eventually rose to around $ 15 million by season eight.

Amazon spent approximately $ 250 million on the rights to the Tolkien property in 2017.

“This is going to be the greatest television series ever made,” said Nash.

The numbers, released under the New Zealand Government’s Official Information Act, were first reported by New Zealand Outlet Stuff. According to their report, Amazon plans to shoot five seasons in the country and possibly produce a spin-off series.

Amazon’s spending in New Zealand will generate a tax break of approximately $ 114 million and has been classified as a “significant financial risk” by the country’s Treasury Department. There’s no cap on how much Amazon can spend, and so New Zealand could be hooked for hundreds of millions of dollars to help subsidize the project.

However, manufacturing is likely to bring a big financial boost to the local economy as Amazon pays for local workers, hotels, and groceries, among other things. Then there is the future tourism dent. Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies were a great boon to New Zealand as they drew travelers from all over the world.

The “Lord of the Rings” series is currently in production and is expected to be released in late 2021.

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Amazon’s Clashes With Labor: Days of Battle and Management

Amazon’s Clashes With Labor: Days of Conflict and Control

In the past few weeks, there has been a heated discussion on Twitter about whether Amazon employees have to urinate in bottles because they don’t have time to go to the bathroom – a level of control few modern companies would dare to practice.

“Amazon is reorganizing the nature of retail work – something that is traditionally physically undemanding and has a large amount of downtime – into something that resembles a factory that never wears off,” said Spencer Cox, a former Amazon employee who writes his Ph .D. Thesis at the University of Minnesota on how the company is transforming work. “For Amazon, it’s not about money. This is about controlling the workers’ bodies and every possible moment of their time. “

Amazon had no comment on this story.

Signs that Amazon is putting more pressure on its control are mounting. In February, Lovenia Scott, a former warehouse worker for the Vacaville, Calif., Company accused Amazon in a lawsuit of “doing such an immense amount of work” that she and her colleagues were given no breaks. Ms. Scott is seeking class action status. Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Last month, the California labor officer said 718 delivery drivers who worked for Green Messengers, a Southern California contractor for Amazon, owed $ 5 million in wages that never made it to their wallets. Drivers were paid for 10-hour days, the labor commissioner said, but the volume of parcels was so large that they often had to work 11 or more hours and through breaks.

Amazon said it no longer works with Green Messengers and would appeal the decision. Green messengers could not be reached for comment.

An Amazon warehouse in the Canadian province of Ontario showed a rapid spread of Covid-19 in March. “Our investigation found that a shutdown was needed to break the chain of transmission,” said Dr. Lawrence Loh, the regional medical officer. “We gave Amazon our recommendation.” The company, he said, “didn’t answer.” Health officials ordered workers to self-isolate and close the facility for two weeks. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.

And five US senators wrote a letter to the company last month asking for more information on why it fitted its vans with surveillance cameras that constantly monitor the driver. The technology, the senators said, “raises important questions about privacy and worker surveillance that Amazon needs to answer.”

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Dr. Seuss books shoot to the highest of Amazon’s bestseller checklist

Dr. Seuss books shoot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list

Books by Dr. Seuss flooded Amazon’s US bestseller list after it became known that six of the author’s publications were dragged over racist imagery.

“The Cat in the Hat” is currently the best-selling book on Amazon’s US store, closely followed by “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” and “Green Eggs and Ham” as well as several other titles by the late Theodor Seuss Geisel. A total of 15 Dr. Seuss publications were in Amazon’s top 20 list on Friday morning.

“Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat” also featured in Amazon Canada’s top 10 best-selling books.

This happened after Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that manages the late author’s estate, made a decision on Tuesday to stop publishing and licensing six of his books: “And to think I saw it on Mulberry Street,” “If I did ran the zoo, “” McElligot’s Pool, “On Beyond Zebra!”, “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer”.

“These books portray people in hurtful and incorrect ways,” said Dr. Seuss Enterprises in the statement, with some of the author’s books criticized in recent years for displaying racist images.

The announcement was made on Read Across America Day on Tuesday, Geisel’s 117th birthday, which has been linked to the author.

Dr. Seuss’ never before published book “Which Pet Should I Have?” will be on display in the Books and Books Store on July 28, 2015 in Coral Gables, USA, on the day of publication

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

President Joe Biden has Dr. Seuss is not mentioned in his proclamation on Read Across America Day on Monday, which signals a further distancing from the author. Former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama welcomed Dr. Seuss mentioned in her earlier speeches.

After rumors of a ban on Dr. Seuss Books, Loudoun County, Virginia, school district issued a statement last weekend to clarify that it had not, but had “instructed schools not to connect” over the past few years. Read Across America Day exclusively for Dr. Seuss. ”

“Research over the past few years has shown strong racist overtones in many of the books written / illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” the statement said.

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“Working Backwards” and the Secrets and techniques of Amazon’s Success

"Working Backwards" and the Secrets of Amazon's Success

Separating myth from reality in evaluating Amazon’s methods has taken on a new urgency both inside and outside the company as the future is viewed without Mr Bezos at the helm. He announced this month that he would step down as managing director this summer. So it’s time two former Amazon executives, Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, promised to pull back the curtain on their new book, Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets of Inside Amazon.

The authors say they interviewed “many Amazonians past and present” and, based on the glowing blurb, at least had the tacit approval of current management. The fact that “working backwards” is much closer to an authorized company profile than a tell-all does not necessarily affect its interest. Mr. Bryar and Mr. Carr each played an important role in the company during critical phases: One as Chief of Staff for Mr. Bezos when the Kindle and Amazon Web Services were put into operation, and the other started and ran Prime Video. Their portrait of Amazon’s culture and processes is fascinating and insightful, if not always in the way they intend.

First, the authors want to show the operating philosophies that are responsible for the monumental achievements of Amazon. Rather than offering a boring catalog of the company’s 14 governance principles and three implementation mechanisms, Mr. Bryar and Mr. Carr provide concrete and accessible examples of how these are put into practice across a range of roles, from attitudes and communication to organization and product Design. Mr Bezos was clearly not joking when he said in his first letter to shareholders that Amazon employees are not free to choose whether to work “long, hard or smart”. (It must be all three.)

“Working backwards” conveys the company’s exhaustive focus on customer satisfaction. However, many of the individual business practices described are not fundamentally original. Although they have often acquired catchy Amazon-specific labels, many are just variations of well-known Six Sigma processes and management theories or practices developed by other companies such as Toyota or Microsoft. For example, as the authors put it:

When Amazon teams encounter a surprise or confusing problem with data, they are adamant until they discover the root cause. Perhaps the most widespread technology at Amazon is the COE process (Correction of Errors Process), which is based on the “Five Whys” method developed by Toyota and used by many companies around the world. When you see an anomaly ask why it happened and repeat it with a different “why?” until you get to the underlying factor that was the real culprit.

There is nothing wrong with adapting a portfolio of existing best practices, adding a few of your own, and then stepping on the gas. However, the authors repeatedly claim that these practices, both individually and collectively, provide “a tremendous competitive advantage”. Your competitors cannot simply copy the definition of a competitive advantage. If, as the authors claim, Amazon’s secret sauce is just a collection of “teachable business practices,” then they cannot represent a competitive advantage.

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How Andy Jassy, Amazon’s Subsequent C.E.O., Was a ‘Mind Double’ for Jeff Bezos

How Andy Jassy, Amazon’s Next C.E.O., Was a ‘Brain Double’ for Jeff Bezos

SEATTLE – In 2002, Andy Jassy, ​​a young manager at Amazon, began closely following Jeff Bezos, the founder of the online bookstore.

Mr. Jassy followed Mr. Bezos everywhere, including board meetings, and participated in his phone calls, said Ann Hiatt, who was Mr. Bezos’ executive assistant from 2002 to 2005. The idea, she said, was for Mr. Jassy to be “a brain-double” for Mr. Bezos so that he can challenge his boss’ thinking and anticipate his questions.

“I thought I had very high standards before I started this job,” said Mr Jassy in a podcast interview last fall over the 18-month period alongside Mr Bezos. “Then, with this shadow job, I realized that my standards weren’t high enough.”

Now Mr Jassy, ​​who had learned from Mr Bezos for more than two decades, was accused of having advanced the Bezos Way. This summer, the 53-year-old will take over the running of Amazon while the 57-year-old Bezos is stepping down to become chairman of the board.

Only a few corporate succession are observed so closely. Mr. Jassy has Amazon – which grew into a $ 1.7 trillion company with 1.3 million employees and worldwide operations in e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, entertainment, and devices – under the watchful eye of Mr Bezos controls who is still the largest shareholder.

Amazon, which has seen a surge in growth, is also facing growing challenges. In Europe and the US, the Seattle-based company is being scrutinized for power by regulators and lawmakers. The own workforce has become louder and more active in dealing with the company. And given its size, some investors and employees are wondering if Amazon can keep its innovative ways without bureaucracy blocking them.

Mr Jassy has not spoken publicly about his vision for Amazon, but those who know him said it was clear he would continue what Mr Bezos had built – and not take a sharp break from it. The quintessential Amazonian life, Mr. Jassy helped design and proselytize many of the mechanisms and internal culture of the company.

“Andy is an integral part of the overall culture,” said Tom Alberg, managing partner of Madrona Venture Group and board member of Amazon through 2019. “I really think this will be a strong sequel.”

Amazon declined to make Mr. Jassy available for an interview. In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing the transition, Mr. Bezos said, “He will be an excellent leader and he has my full confidence.”

Mr. Jassy grew up in Scarsdale, NY, as the middle of three children. His father ran a white-shoe law firm, and his mother ran the household and supported arts organizations. He studied government at Harvard and worked on the business side of The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.

Mr. Jassy wanted to become a sports caster, but ended up in direct marketing after graduating. He also tried starting a business with a colleague before going to Harvard Business School.

In 1997 he got the call for an interview on Amazon while going to a Shawn Colvin concert in New York City. He got the job, took his final exam on a Friday, and started working at Amazon the next Monday, three weeks before the company went public, he said in the podcast interview.

After serving in marketing and music, Mr. Jassy was referred to as his “shadow” by Mr. Bezos in 2002, a chief of staff-like role for promising leaders.

“His job was to be an intellectual sparring partner for Jeff,” said Ms. Hiatt, former executive assistant to Mr. Bezos who is now a management consultant. She said Mr Jassy helped Mr Bezos discuss the benefits of offering memberships to the Prime Express Mail program to persuade a skeptical board of directors.

When Mr. Jassy followed Mr. Bezos, he also led Amazon’s step into a new field: cloud computing. At the time, Mr. Bezos was frustrated with Amazon’s software development teams taking longer than expected to complete projects, even though the company hired many new engineers to help introduce products faster. He asked Mr. Jassy to find out.

Mr. Jassy discovered that product teams spent more time designing and building their own infrastructure than developing products. Amazon ultimately decided to reconfigure its technology systems so that different groups could share the same basic technical building blocks.

In 2003, Mr. Jassy and other executives gathered for a meeting at Mr. Bezos’. They said they smelled a business opportunity to help other companies solve the same problems Amazon had encountered.

Before the project could proceed, Mr. Jassy had to present the Amazon board with a “six pager” – a narrative memo that contained a vision for a new idea – and explain what resources would be needed.

“I was so nervous. I wrote 30 drafts of this paper,” Jassy said in a 2017 presentation at the University of Washington.

He asked for 57 people, a meaningful question since Amazon employed about 5,000 people at the time. Mr. Bezos “didn’t flicker,” said Mr. Jassy.

The project became Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s largest source of income. Companies were quick to accept the idea of ​​paying Amazon only for the computers and storage they used, rather than investing large sums in buying, building, and maintaining their own computer systems.

By 2012, Jassy said, Amazon’s cloud entity grew so rapidly that it added roughly the number of computers per day it took to run the entire company in 2003.

Amazon Web Services, known as AWS, ran like a start-up within the company. Mr. Jassy developed a reputation for being tough but not yelling or undercutting staff according to current and former employees. He would ask specific questions in meetings, but would also sit back and let others challenge it while he took in their arguments.

In emails, Mr. Jassy responded to good news by simply saying, “Fine,” with a seemingly random number of exclamation points, said current and former employees. Many debated whether the number of exclamation marks had a secret meaning.

Mr. Jassy also made time for staff activities. He acted as master of ceremonies at an annual Buffalo Wing dining competition known as the Tatonka Bowl. He granted attendees “badges,” one with a burning chicken that appeared in Amazon’s internal directory.

In the past few years, AWS has introduced its own software services that can run on its computers, which is often doomed to failure for startups with competing products.

Corey Quinn of the Duckbill Group, who writes a newsletter titled “Last Week On AWS,” said the cloud computing unit has shown the same intransigence as Amazon’s premier retail website in tracking new products and markets.

“They seem to share a common belief that impossible is only a matter of time,” he said.

Last year, AWS revenue rose to $ 45.4 billion, or 12 percent of revenue and 63 percent of profit for the company.

After becoming CEO, Mr Jassy’s opinions will be examined more closely. Earlier last year he spoke enthusiastically about the sale of Rekognition Police Department, Amazon’s facial recognition technology that has been criticized for bias against dark-skinned people.

“Let’s see” whether police authorities “abuse” the technology somehow, he told the PBS program “Frontline” in February. “They didn’t do that. Suspecting that they will, and therefore you shouldn’t allow them to have access to the most advanced technology out there, doesn’t seem like the right balance to me. “

“I cannot let the death of Breonna Taylor go without accountability,” Jassy wrote in a six-part thread on Twitter about the police in September. “We still don’t get it in the US. If you don’t hold the police accountable for killing black people, we will never have justice and change, or be the country we seek (and claim). “

At an AWS conference in December, Mr. Jassy gave an insight into how he might approach the acquisition of one of the world’s richest tech companies. Echoing Mr. Bezos, who has long been a champion of how businesses need to evolve, Mr. Jassy said the key to long-term survival is for companies to reinvent themselves while business is doing well.

Mr Jassy then put forward an eight-step plan for reinventing businesses, stressing the importance of being “manic, relentless and persistent”.

“You have to have the courage to pull the company up and force it to change and move,” he said.

David Streitfeld contributed to the coverage.

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Henry Blodget says Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gave him key management recommendation

Henry Blodget says Amazon's Jeff Bezos gave him key leadership advice

Henry Blodget, CEO of Insider Inc., told CNBC on Wednesday that Jeff Bezos provided invaluable advice when the Amazon founder invested in his burgeoning media company.

Bezos, who will step down as CEO of Amazon later that year, led a $ 5 million investment round in Blodget’s company in 2013. It was about six years old then and known as Business Insider. In an interview on Squawk Box, Blodget recalled a discussion with Bezos about how to divide his time between management and editing.

“I had been writing all along. I was an editor and one of the things I asked him right after his investment was, ‘Look, should I keep writing and doing TV and stuff or should I stay CEO? Because that Company has grown big enough that I really have to do one thing or another, “said Blodget.

Bezos replied that he really only had one inquiry as an investor, Blodget said. “He said, ‘I will ask you to remain CEO.’” On Wednesday, Blodget, a former Wall Street analyst, also described how he was pushing Bezos to the bottom. “”[Bezos] said, “Because you don’t even notice it, but every day you make dozens of small course corrections. They are all inventing a new model for journalism. You have an instinct as to where this is going. ‘”

According to Blodget, Bezos added, “When you bring in someone who has experience, you want to give them plenty of space to make their own decisions. These will take place over a long time and will change things. ‘He said, “I’m investing because I want you to make these course corrections.”

Insider Inc. was sold to German publisher Axel Springer in 2015 for a value of almost 450 million US dollars. Bezos sold his stake in the company in late 2016, Insider Inc. spokesman Mario Ruiz told CNBC. Blodget remains CEO, but left the role of editor-in-chief in 2017.

Blodget recalled the conversation the day after Amazon announced that Bezos would move from CEO to Executive Chairman later that year. Andy Jassy will take the reins from Bezos, who founded the e-commerce titan more than 25 years ago, turning him into a nearly $ 2 trillion global giant. Jassy, ​​a longtime lieutenant from Bezos, currently heads Amazon’s highly profitable cloud computing business.

The insider chief said he has confidence in Jassy and thinks Amazon will “be in good shape for a while”. It will likely be three to five years before outsiders can decide whether the CEO change will be “a big deal.” “

“With companies this size, they’re super tankers. They have tremendous momentum,” said Blodget. “You can change several of the people at the top and you won’t see the outside impact for a long time as the company will continue to do what it was raised to do.”

Prior to his tenure as head of media, Blodget reported on Amazon as a closely watched Wall Street internet analyst during the dot-com boom. In December 1998, while working for brokerage firm CIBC Oppenheimer, he announced a remarkable price hike on Amazon, and stocks rose 19% in the following session.

Blodget continued to work for Merrill Lynch, but his research was under scrutiny. He was finally banned from the securities industry in 2003 after an investigation into what the Securities and Exchange Commission called “the undue influence of investment banking interests on brokerage research analysts”. In a multi-million dollar settlement at the time, Blodget was denied or failed to admit the allegations made by the SEC.

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Amazon’s ‘Tandav’ Present Angers India’s Hindu Nationalists

Amazon's 'Tandav' Show Angers India's Hindu Nationalists

NEW DELHI – Bollywood has once again fallen into the crosshairs of India’s nationalist Hindu ruling party – and major western streaming services like Amazon and Netflix are increasingly in the middle.

At the weekend, two separate criminal charges were filed with the police against the makers of “Tandav”, a new web series with a large budget on Amazon. The fast-paced political drama, which seems to borrow heavily from India’s political scene, could get awkwardly close to current events and the country’s major controversies.

The complainants, which include a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, have insisted that the government pull the series off the air or remove key scenes. Among other things, they accused the series of not respecting Hindu gods, disparaging members of individual castes and defiling the office of prime minister.

If the police believe the complaints are well founded, Amazon and the show’s organizers could be brought to a criminal court.

Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of “Tandav”, published a statement on his Instagram account on Monday that the show “is a fiction and any resemblance to actions, people and events is purely coincidental.” However, the statement states that the cast and crew “take note of the concerns expressed by the people and apologize unconditionally if it has inadvertently hurt the feelings of others.”

Officials at Amazon have refused to comment.

Show defenders say these complaints are excuses. The pressure on Amazon to drop the series is part of an increasingly intolerant atmosphere in India that even affects Bollywood, India’s film and entertainment industry. Actors, comedians, producers, artists, and anyone who dares even indirectly question the government can put their careers at risk, they say.

“If you take a stand, you have to pay a price,” said Sushant Singh, a Bollywood actor who has openly fought against several government policies. “You don’t even get surprised these days. And you don’t know how to react anymore. “

These attitudes complicate the ambitions of both Bollywood studios and large corporations to reach a large Indian audience with their laptops and smartphones. Like the Hollywood film industry, Bollywood has increasingly turned to streaming as pandemic restrictions hit the theater business.

Global companies are helping to provide the platforms for Indian viewers. Big streaming services like Amazon, Netflix and Hotstar, which are owned by Disney, have invested heavily in a country where they see great potential for growth.

But at times they got caught in the increasingly restrictive political environment in India.

Two months ago, an on-screen kiss put Netflix in a similar situation. Hindu nationalists were outraged that a series on Netflix showed a Hindu woman kissing a Muslim man in front of a Hindu temple – a scene in which Hindu nationalists felt several taboos were violated. The Hindu nationalists have urged authorities to investigate Netflix and called for a boycott. No charges were filed.

The real objection to “Tandav” may simply be that it is too real. The opening episode looks almost like a newsreel. It ranges from peasant protests to student protests to police killings – all events that have taken place in recent months under the government of Narendra Modi, India’s nationalist Hindu prime minister.

It does not shy away from sensitive topics. In one scene, a fictionalized Indian prime minister belittles a lower-caste politician and touches on the sensitive issue of the ancient Hindu social system.

Even the title of the episode is provocative. It’s called “dictator”.

“They are using abusive language and trying to defame the post of prime minister, which clearly points to our current prime minister,” said Ram Kadam, a BJP lawmaker who filed one of the criminal charges.

The authorities in Uttar Pradesh state, where many police officers were recently killed and led by one of the closest allies of Mr. Modi, a Hindu monk who has become prime minister, appear particularly offended. You said in a file with the local police that the Amazon series portrayed the post of prime minister “in a very indecent way.” On Monday, state officials warned that the filmmakers should “prepare for the arrest”.

In recent months, Mr. Modi’s party officials have stepped up pressure on some of the country’s most successful artists. Critics see this pressure as an attempt to suppress views that challenge the nationalist ideology of Hindus, who seek to turn India into an open Hindu state and marginalize non-Hindu minorities.

Drug authorities have persecuted leading actors on marijuana possession charges. A popular comedian was recently jailed for allegedly joking about Mr Modi’s right-wing husband, Amit Shah, despite the fact that authorities have failed to provide evidence that the comedian said what they claimed.

The pressure extends to other areas of life. An Indian airline pilot and distinguished military veteran was fired this month after tweeted that the prime minister was “an idiot”.

Indian cinema tends to be culturally conservative, with sex scenes and profanity being discouraged by Indian censorship. Until recently, however, online content in India fell into a gray area.

In November, the Indian government ruled that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, currently headed by Prakash Javadekar, a close ally of Mr. Modi, has the power to regulate online content.

Hindu nationalists are now calling on the government to intervene.

Online broadcasts are “full of sex, violence, drugs, abuse, hatred and vulgarity,” wrote Manoj Kotak, a BJP lawmaker, recently in a letter to Mr. Javadekar. He concluded his letter by asking the minister to set up a regulator for online content and “in the meantime to ban the controversial web series ‘Tandav'”.

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Connecticut is investigating Amazon’s practices within the e-books market.

Connecticut is investigating Amazon’s practices in the e-books market.

Connecticut’s top law enforcement officer said Wednesday that he was conducting an antitrust investigation into how Amazon runs its e-book business.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement that the state has “an active and ongoing antitrust investigation into Amazon regarding potentially anti-competitive terms” in the company’s electronic book distribution agreements with some publishers.

The investigation is the latest antitrust investigation against Amazon that has been made public. Officials in California and Washington have examined how the company handles the independent vendors that use its marketplace. The Federal Trade Commission also has its own investigation into the company, which critics say has become a dominant online retailer by defeating smaller competitors.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. The investigation was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon started selling books in the 1990s. The company introduced its Kindle e-books reader in 2007. The company quickly caught the attention of regulators. In 2012, the Justice Department sued Apple, saying it had partnered with major publishers to increase the price of e-books above the $ 9.99 Amazon charged.

Connecticut was among the states that filed their own lawsuit against Apple. Mr Tong, a Democrat, said in his statement that his office “continues to aggressively monitor this market to protect fair competition for consumers, authors and other e-book retailers”.