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What Did Amazon Do This Week? - 06-08-2023 [+94 LINKS]

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Aug 6, 2023

AMAZON HAS GOOD EARNINGS AFTER SLICING FAT (AKA WORKERS) FROM BOTTOM LINE

Q2 earnings hit hard this week. Amazon’s ad revenue up 22% (!) YoY to $10.68B, vs. $10.4B est., subscription revenue up 14% YoY to $9.89B, and North America segment sales up 11% YoY to $82.5B all made the investors very happy. Not hard to see when they were looking at graphs like these:

Revenue was also up 11% YoY to $134.4B, a $6.7B net income, vs. a $2B net loss in Q2 2022, AWS segment sales up 12% YoY to $22.1B also led the stock to jump almost double percentage digits. Stabilisation was the word on everyone’s lips, including CEO, Andy Jassy. Full results here. For some context, Amazon just posted their highest quarterly profit since 2021. No mean feat considering the new competitor set that seems to be climbing the rankings, brand awareness and app charts (Temu and co).

SO WHAT?

Amazon, like Meta, had bumper earnings because they were saving money on staff and other cost-cutting measures. Expect more to come after years of doing the opposite. Management was bullish on the call for future success: "I do believe that we'll get back to margins like what we had pre-COVID. And I don't think that's the end of what's possible for us there." An interesting note was regarding generative AI, Amazon’s ‘late to the game-ness’ really shines through in the press release with almost every mention of AWS cloud also mentioning generative AI and yet most were released in Q3. Unsurprisingly, Amazon forecasts a good Q3 too.

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Audible is launching a Jeff Daniels musical memoir podcast. /Variety
The 'Hunger Games' and 'Lord of the Rings' franchises will stream on Prime Video in France thanks to a landmark deal. /Variety
Amazon is in a bidding war with Google for Indian cricket rights. /Bloomberg
Amazon Prime gave the green light to Emmerich's Gladiator Series 'Those About to Die'. /THR
Amazon promoted Head of Italian Originals, Nicole Morganti, to a new role across Southern Europe. /Variety
Doja Cat will debut new music when she headlines the 'The Victoria's Secret World Tour,' a Prime Video Doc and Fashion Show. /Variety
Amazon announced the renewal of ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty' (season three). /Variety

AWS announced 64 news items this week. /AWS
Amazon announced it will invest $7.2 billion in Israel and launched an AWS cloud region. /Reuters
Amazon's Project Kuiper opened a satellite facility at Kennedy Space Center. /Space
AWS will drive the digital transformation of the Sumitomo Corporation. /Amazon
Amazon expanded Twitch's ban on livestreams of gambling content to include online casinos Blaze and Gamdom. /AP
Amazon Scholar Yizhou Sun spoke about modelling long-range dependencies, improving efficiency, and new causal models. /Amazon
Amazon execs talked a lot about generative AI initiatives. /Variety

Amazon exclusively launched Adidas’s new range of sneakers (‘Comfort+’). /THR
A detailed look at Brand Tailored Promotions. /ChannelX
Amazon Music announced a merch tie-up with Bandsintown. /CMU
Amazon made Fresh available to non-Prime members in the US. /Grocery Gazette
Amazon added more required product attributes for new listings. /ECB
Amazon announced that the regionalisation of fulfilment centres is working. /ECB
Amazon announced it was refreshing its grocery offering. /Bloomberg

Amazon announced it will launch a credit card offering in Brazil. /Reuters
Starting on September 1, Amazon plans to take control of 30% of streaming services' ad impressions on Fire TV, or in some countries take 30% of their ad revenue. /StreamTV
Amazon announced it would be demanding suppliers report on emissions data. /CIPS
Amazon announced its massive new London distribution centre will open in October. /LF Press
Amazon expanded its Amazon Clinic virtual health service to 50 US states and DC, available via video or texting; regulations limit the SMS feature to 34 states. /CNBC
Amazon was again cited by US regulators over worker safety. /Reuters

A former Amazon executive, Chandok, has been placed to lead Microsoft's India, South Asia operations. /Reuters
Tech giants are hurting ad agency budgets. /Bloomberg
The UPS contract might spell trouble for Amazon. /Bloomberg
Walmart bought even more ($1.4 billion Tiger Global stake) of Flipkart in India. /Reuters

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What Did Amazon Do This Week?