<story><title>Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works</title><url>https://a16z.com/2014/09/05/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-why-it-works/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AndrewKemendo</author><text>&lt;i&gt;With Amazon, Bezos is deferring that profit-producing, investor-rewarding day almost indefinitely into the future. This prompts the suggestion that Amazon is the world’s biggest ‘lifestyle business’ – Bezos is running it for fun, not to deliver economic returns to shareholders, at least not any time soon.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sorry but that is ridiculous. Look at the stock price for Amazon. Anyone who has invested in Amazon has seen an amazing unprecedented ride upward, institutional benefiting the most.&lt;p&gt;I also take umbrage with the idea that Bezos is running Amazon for &amp;quot;fun&amp;quot; as though it is frivolous. Bezos seems to have a grand vision and that is not something that matches with the ridiculously short term and arguably irresponsible thinking of the vast majority of investors.&lt;p&gt;We collectively need to get away from the idea that the only valid fiduciary duty for a for-profit organization is to make profit for their shareholders instead of &lt;i&gt;creating value&lt;/i&gt; for humanity.[1]&lt;p&gt;[1] This is refuting the broader point that Benedict Evans is making, and does not necessarily apply to Amazon perfectly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>prostoalex</author><text>&amp;gt; We collectively need to get away from the idea that the only valid fiduciary duty for a for-profit organization is to make profit for their shareholders instead of creating value for humanity.&lt;p&gt;The idea is not new, and conglomerates have been around for quite a bit now, with most prominent example being Berkshire Hathaway. Take the profits of a textile company, reinvest them in a new line of business, take the profits from that line of business, reinvest it into a new one.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Amazon Has No Profits and Why It Works</title><url>https://a16z.com/2014/09/05/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-why-it-works/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AndrewKemendo</author><text>&lt;i&gt;With Amazon, Bezos is deferring that profit-producing, investor-rewarding day almost indefinitely into the future. This prompts the suggestion that Amazon is the world’s biggest ‘lifestyle business’ – Bezos is running it for fun, not to deliver economic returns to shareholders, at least not any time soon.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sorry but that is ridiculous. Look at the stock price for Amazon. Anyone who has invested in Amazon has seen an amazing unprecedented ride upward, institutional benefiting the most.&lt;p&gt;I also take umbrage with the idea that Bezos is running Amazon for &amp;quot;fun&amp;quot; as though it is frivolous. Bezos seems to have a grand vision and that is not something that matches with the ridiculously short term and arguably irresponsible thinking of the vast majority of investors.&lt;p&gt;We collectively need to get away from the idea that the only valid fiduciary duty for a for-profit organization is to make profit for their shareholders instead of &lt;i&gt;creating value&lt;/i&gt; for humanity.[1]&lt;p&gt;[1] This is refuting the broader point that Benedict Evans is making, and does not necessarily apply to Amazon perfectly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>redthrowaway</author><text>At no point was anyone suggesting that the purpose of Amazon is to tickle Bezos&amp;#x27; fancy, and it would require a painfully literal reading of the article in order to think that&amp;#x27;s what the author was doing.</text></comment>