What Did Amazon Do This Week? - 12-11-2023 [+110 LINKS]
AMAZON GETS MORE META-CAL
A hectic week for our favourite cardboard abuser. A shopping deal with Meta and Amazon decided to drop the annual One Medical price for Prime users. What do these moves mean for you and Amazon as it goes into a busy 2024?
A busy news week meant news of Meta and Amazon working together, when leaked, fell somewhat on deaf ears. The deal allows Amazon customers to link their Facebook and Instagram accounts to their Amazon accounts, allowing them to shop through Meta’s social apps. Customers can use their saved payment choices and multiple mailing addresses. This is what the Meta deal looks like in the wild. Meta gets more ad data, and Amazon gets money, but the scale of the revenue opportunity here is unknown. A response to TikTok’s shop for sure, but really, this is another Pinterest-style deal that closes a loop for the shopping experience.
The big money is on healthcare. Amazon slashed the price of its annual One Medical price for Prime users from $199 to $99. Expected, but one that significantly expands Amazon’s healthcare footprint if successful. Amazon finalised the deal on One Medical earlier in 2023 (its third largest acquisition) for the business's footprint, thanks to its hybrid approach of telemedicine and in-office primary care offering. The deal doesn’t mean you don’t need insurance, but there is no additional charge beyond the membership fee for virtual care. Public numbers show that by the end of 2022, One Medical had 836,000 members and 221 medical offices in the U.S., which made the company +$1.04 billion in revenue last year, up 68% from the year prior, with a net loss of $144.1 million, up from $34.8 million.
SO WHAT?
The move makes Prime even stickier during an economic period of uncertainty. Not only does this derisk Prime attrition, but it also brings Amazon closer to an integral part of human existence - health - on more regular business. The move will likely mean more Amazon Prime subscribers as there’s a ‘why pay more?’ element to the 836,000 One Medical members and perhaps from corporations who now have a reason to pay for employees Prime membership more than ever before. Overall, the move is significant and will ruffle more than a couple of feathers, likely impacting and creating new opportunities across its ecosystem. Businesses selling healthcare products or services on Amazon should stay current on Amazon's healthcare strategy and consider how to best position themselves as Amazon continues expanding its presence.
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Prime Video now has a 4-year deal with National Women’s Soccer League. /CNBC
Amazon released a season four first look for ‘The Boys’. /Variety
Amazon cut jobs in music streaming unit. /Reuters
Amazon Prime Video greenlit a series on the German soccer player Thomas Mueller. /Deadline
Wondary’s Content Team Head in U.K., Director of Audio (Richard Knight) quit to go to BBC Studios. /THR
Amazon is telling advertisers that ‘Black Friday’ football is sold out. /Variety
And did the same for season two of ‘Reacher’. /Variety
AWS announced 72 updates this week. /Amazon
Amazon is no longer exclusive with Rivian. /TechCrunch
Amazon is working on Vega, a new OS to replace Android on Fire TVs, smart displays, and other devices and could ship Fire TV devices with Vega in 2024. /LowPass
Amazon's custom thrusters are performing well on its prototype Project Kuiper satellites. /The Register
Amazon has dedicated team to train ambitious AI model codenamed 'Olympus'. /Reuters
Amazon released a paper about neural networks optimized for special-purpose hardware achieving up to 55% latency reduction in real-world applications. /Amazon
Amazon exec says Fresh store reopenings are part of broader grocery revamp. /CNBC
Amazon gave Apple preferential treatment in 2018. /9to5Mac
Amazon rolled out early Black Friday deals. /RetailDive
Amazon shoppers can now buy products on Facebook and Instagram without leaving the apps. /CNBC
Amazon released their Top 10 toy list. /ChannelX
Amazon is extending grocery delivery and pickup to non-Prime users nationwide. /RetailDive
Amazon beefed up the Prime loyalty program with One Medical discount. /CNBC /Reuters
Since becoming Twitch's CEO in March 2023, Dan Clancy has been traveling the US in a van, meeting prominent streamers and listening to their ideas and concerns. /Bloomberg
Amazon’s Fashion Chief quit. /RetailDive
Amazon stages third sustainability summit for the transportation industry. /Amazon
Amazon released their holiday ad. /RetailDive
Amazon was hit with another class action lawsuit over refunds on returned products. /GeekWire
Amazon has an office in a former prison in the Netherlands. /BI
Amazon previewed FTC defense at companywide meeting. /Reuters
Amazon became part of The Tech Coalition, which includes Discord, Google, Meta, Roblox, Snap, and Amazon, unveilling Lantern to share “signals” about child sexual exploitation and abuse. /TechCrunch
Amazon let cameras behind-the-scenes to show its fast new shipping strategy. /WSJ
Amazon lost a US court case and has pay $46.7m in voice-assistant patent case. /Reuters
Chinese fast fashion retailer Temu overtakes Shein to dominate Japan and South Korea apps. /CNBC
Why Amazon’s super fashion stores flopped. /The Information
Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet increased combined cloud capital spending 10% QoQ to $42B in Q3 2023, up almost 20% from Q3 2021, to serve generative AI growth. /FT
India proposes broadcast and streaming rules that would set up content evaluation committees and let the government regulate any online creator or news platform. /Reuters
Rivian raises production target amid broader EV demand fears. /Reuters
Spotify expanded it’s audiobook officering to US premium subscribers. /Deadline
Microsoft CEO Nadella uses surprise appearance at OpenAI event to lure developers to Azure cloud. /CNBC