Amazon's Kill List: 37 Projects That Are No More (bloomberg.com) 35
Amid slowing sales growth, CEO Andy Jassy is culling projects concocted during the Jeff Bezos era. From a report: When Jeff Bezos ran the show, Amazon.com encouraged employees to pitch product ideas -- then take them from concept to reality with minimal bureaucratic second-guessing. The spaghetti-against-the-wall approach didn't always generate strong sellers -- the Fire Phone is one famous misfire -- but the company was growing sufficiently quickly to risk some failures and move on with few regrets.
Then in 2021 Andy Jassy became chief executive officer, and over the past couple of years Amazon has made more waves for killing products than launching them. The breadth of the cuts -- which range from a kids videoconferencing device to a telehealth service and handful of e-commerce subsidiaries -- speaks to both the boundless ambitions of the company during the late Bezos years and the depth of the current retrenchment as Amazon adjusts to a steep slowdown in growth that has precipitated the axing of 27,000 corporate jobs.
Then in 2021 Andy Jassy became chief executive officer, and over the past couple of years Amazon has made more waves for killing products than launching them. The breadth of the cuts -- which range from a kids videoconferencing device to a telehealth service and handful of e-commerce subsidiaries -- speaks to both the boundless ambitions of the company during the late Bezos years and the depth of the current retrenchment as Amazon adjusts to a steep slowdown in growth that has precipitated the axing of 27,000 corporate jobs.
Cut the Site alexa.com (Score:3)
I'd guess they acquired alexa.com because they wanted to name their voice assistant the same name, but it's a shame to see that site go as it's historically been pretty useful for seeing internet stats.
Most of the other cuts look like localized experimental services that never took off.
The health care one is interesting since they released the "Amazon Clinic" to the public. Maybe it wasn't worth having that and the b2b version
Re:Cut the Site alexa.com (Score:4, Insightful)
AWS started off as a side project, and now makes Amazon a huge amount of money. Some projects work out, some don't. The ones that don't work out get culled.
Just doing the exact same business and not adapting or trying new things is not the ideal.
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you just failed reading comprehension
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No, it's the other way around. They bought the alexa.com domain decades ago for their shopping search engine. It happened to be a good name/wake word for the Amazon Echo devices years later.
One sad kill, DPReview (Score:3, Informative)
The 37 items are beyond a paywall so not sure what is listed, but one thing sadly killed possibly to small to even make that list, is DPReview.
DPReview was (well still exists but closing soon) a really great camera review site, that also had a very healthy user community discussing cameras and photography/videography.
I guess Amazon didn't see enough sales from it to justify paying to keep it up, but I really think it's a mistake as it generated a lot of goodwill for Amazon.
The really sad thing is, some people are trying to buy the website and keep it running, but Amazon is stonewalling them. To them it's not even worth the effort to listen to anyone that wants to keep it running.
Hopefully though Amazon listens to reason and actually sells the site to people who want to kept going.
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I liked DP Review...but it's also a relic. Digital cameras sell way less, advertising pays private sites a lot less, and it's probably losing quite a bit of money.
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Unfortunately, I think you're right. I liked DP Review too -- but to be honest? I was a hobbyist into digital cameras for many years, and I've realized I just don't ever use my SLR anymore. It can still take amazing photos ... but the whole camera bag with multiple lenses and a spare battery pack, a lens cap, a flash, etc. just doesn't make sense to lug around. I think the last time I brought it all with me was during a solar eclipse, when I had a telescope with camera adapter and planned on getting some s
Still seems like it could make money (Score:1)
I liked DP Review...but it's also a relic. Digital cameras sell way less, advertising pays private sites a lot less, and it's probably losing quite a bit of money.
I agree with you it's a bit of a relic, serious camera sales are way down...
However I am not so sure it was really losing that much money. Or rather, I don't think it has to lose much. It had not changed in a long time, I would think just keeping it up you could probably still manage the costs just from the advertising as after all where else ar
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Yup! In some ways phone cameras are better, in some ways DSLRs are better. That's why the AC said "better in some respects," not "better in all respects."
Re:One sad kill, DPReview (Score:5, Informative)
The 37 items are beyond a paywall so not sure what is listed, but one thing sadly killed possibly to small to even make that list, is DPReview.
Bloomberg's paywall can be circumvented just by throwing your web browser into reader view. I haven't heard of most of these... but I'm surprised to see "Amazon Go" on the list. And of course we already knew about the demise of Amazon Smile...
Alexa Built-In
Alexa for Business
Alexa HIPAA-compliant health skills
Alexa.com
Amazon 4-star
Amazon Academy (India)
Amazon Assistant
Amazon Books
Amazon Care
Amazon Distribution (India)
Amazon Drive
Amazon Explore
Amazon Flex (Germany)
Amazon Food (India)
Amazon Glow
Amazon Go
Amazon Halo devices
Amazon Ignite
Amazon Kids+ games
Amazon Personal Shopper
Amazon Pop Up
Amazon Scout
Amazon Smile
Amazon Sumerian
Book Depository
DPReview
Fire TV Recast
Fabric.com
Free US grocery delivery
GameOn
Kindle Newsstand
Kindle store (China)
Online Learning Program
Prime grocery delivery hub
Textbook rental
Treasure Truck
Wickr Me
Thanks for that... (Score:1)
Thanks for the list, I'm glad to see DPReview did in fact make it on. I have to say I'll be missing it a lot more than "Wickr Me".
Amazon's Kill List... (Score:4, Funny)
Well that's not as bad as it sounded initially
paywalled (Score:4, Insightful)
there may or may not actually be a list.
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there may or may not actually be a list.
No fair! You changed the list by observing it!
Ugh Bloomberg paywall! (Score:1)
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Click link... close site (Score:1)
The second I click a slashdot link and it goes to a paywall, I close the site. What kind of doofus editor posts a link to paywalled site on a discussion site that 99% of the users can't read???
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msmash.
Please, do try to contain your shock.
Kindle Newsstand (Score:2)
The one that makes the least sense to me is the elimination of Kindle Newsstand. Newspapers and magazines are a natural fit for the Kindle.
Barnes & Noble's Nook still offers newspapers and magazines. Glad I still own one.
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I guess they aren't making enough money from it.
The problem is that not all the magazines I subscribe to on Kindle, seem to have a way of continuing the subscription.
Amazon Glow (Score:3)
We loved this one. It was a video system with a projector facing downwards so that you could interact with things via "touch".
For some reason, they only allowed kid games on it. My 9 year old daughter and my mom used it often to read with each other, play checkers, and other games. We were really sad when they ended support for the device.
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Multitouch overlays with glass screen protectors have come down a lot. They have actually come down a little bit in price over the last handful of years despite inflation. A 40" 10-point is about $180, and 20-point for $250 or so. These are IR, so I'm skeptical that they can track that many points well, but they might reasonably register that many touches at once. I got a 40" Sony Bravia LED-backlit 1080p display for $50, so you could have the combo pretty reasonably. I suspect you'd need to add a fan or tw
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I'll look into that. Just bought some smart speakers that are openfirmware and open source and hope to start replacing the non-display echos in the house - and if that goes well, the display ones soon after.
Going the route you suggested might be a good replacement without tying me into another proprietary ecosystem.
Sad to see some of these go. (Score:2)
Alexa and DPReview are sad casualties that would likely have survived had they been bought by anyone but Amazon.
Also very sad to see the abrupt end of Amazon Smile. I was involved with an organization that happened to benefit reliably from the program, and this simply turns off the spigot on a quite reliable donation stream.
This is good (Score:2)
Now that I have some Amazon stock I want all the cruft cut away. Up 12 percent in less than 2 months, yahoo. Company motto needs to be "make money" not any kind of charity or feel good agenda.
Anyone got a list? (Score:2)
Hysteria (Score:1)
This is just a bunch of hysteria.
Amazon cuts a surprisingly small amount of their unprofitable projects. They still encourage "side projects", it didn't go away when Bezos left.
There are many, many other garbage products/projects that Amazon keeps around simply to have something in the market for that demographic - the Fire tablets are a fantastic example of this, but so are the Echos. These aren't good products, and they do not make the company money directly. They're effectively subsidized as loss leaders
yay (Score:2)
Paywall !! (Score:2)
For fucks sake stop posting articles where the main link is behind a paywall.
It's absolutely fucking pointless.
Slashdot Editors need taken out and shot.