Since you're not reading it's hard to have a meaningful discussion. I never in any way claimed Amazon wasn't a tech firm, I claimed non-tech people seem to think tech firms like Amazon can wave a magic wand and replicate their success in any sector doing anything. Amazon is indisputably a tech company, their core competence initially was the tech that is AWS. BTW, I didn't go to HBS. They happen to write the case studies that are used in most business schools and by those in the strategy consulting industry. We're talking business strategy. It would be natural to bring up one of the more famous case studies about Amazon and AWS when discussing Amazon and AWS during a discussion on Amazon business strategy, one would think. Sorry if that offends.
How exactly is AWS exposed to privacy and data protection laws? I host on AWS. My company is subject to privacy laws, such that there are and "data protection laws", of which there really aren't any for my business. Not Amazon. If you're in Europe, perhaps a different story, but in the U.S. the only privacy laws are in very specific areas like HIPAA for health information and there really aren't any solid data protection laws. In any case, AWS' customers bear the majority of the burden of compliance with those, not AWS. And compared to the regulatory burden of managing broker accounts for millions of individuals? Not even in the same universe!
Yes, as stupid as moving from books to cloud storage. Guess where Amazon generates most of its current profit .
That's why I asked you initially who you claimed is not technical. With a fair bit of confidence I venture to say I am working in an extremely technical field and am exposed to and apply technology to a degree to claim to see through a lot of the media and laymen hype. You are entitled to your opinion but there are equally or more technically prone people out there who hold opposing, yet still valid, opinions. So far you have not appeared to have provided constructive backup for your opinion, yet you shot Bezos left and right who has multiple times proven that he can succeed entering entirely new market segments that do not correlate with his existing portfolio. Imo your point that Amazon already perused cloud computing on its own and just opened it up to the public falls way short of explaining how Bezos could move into an existing space, become leader and maintain market leadership. Perhaps you give him too little credit? Entering a multi trillion, inefficient, highly uncomplicit (no other industry than finance hosts so many black sheep and excuses wrongdoing on such grand scale) industry segment makes perfect sense. He has done it before and may very well do it again. Will I rather entrust my money with a Goldman PM/fund or Amazon once it comes out with a solid product. I will always choose the latter. Reason? Relatively more trust and confidence in a business partner who has his interests aligned with me,, not against me. And finally, Amazon's core technology initially had nothing to do with computing or data storage at all. Amazon re-invented logistics, smart warehousing, struck very good shipping deals, and is one of the early movers of online reviews that bestow confidence in consumers of what they are receiving is actually what they want.
Hence my alluding to the possibility that you may live in the country where kids can buy guns at an earlier age than they can buy a beer. The US is a big market however just another market in aggregate global comparison. Cloud data storage is fairly regulated in most other regions of the world. If Americans do not enjoy the same privileges then that does not defeat the point that cloud storage is generally fairly regulated. China also highly regulates its domestic cloud storage space. So does Japan, Korea, Australia, all of Europe.
Tired...Didn't read everyone's input. I was thinking Amazon could go after a Vanguard style. Do it right, from the ground up. Maybe just do very low loaded/fee mutual funds...Online. Without the Vanguard wait for phone responses...
Bezos studied comp science at Princeton and then spent a long time working in new york city at fintech startups and hedge funds. One of his first jobs was at a startup building a network to help brokerage firms to clear trades. He also worked at a quant hedge fund programming trading algos! I think this was in the late 80s and early 90s. I've set this 2001 video to start at the bit where he mentions this: Fascinating interview worth taking the time to listen to it all!