Wall Street Journal (July 1)
“The automation of Amazon facilities is approaching a new milestone: There will soon be as many robots as humans.” After years dedicated to “automating tasks previously done by humans in its facilities,” Amazon now has over “one million robots in those workplaces…. The most it has ever had and near the count of human workers at the facilities.” The shift “has helped Amazon improve productivity, while easing pressure on the company to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover at its fulfillment centers.” Currently, “some 75% of Amazon’s global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics.”
Tags: Amazon, Automation, Deliveries, Facilities, Fulfillment centers, Humans, Milestone, Problems, Productivity, Robots, Staff turnover, Workplaces
WARC (June 13)
“Alphabet, Amazon and Meta dominate the advertising market outside China: they’re set to account for 54.7% of that total in 2025 – equivalent to $524.4bn – rising to 56.2% in 2026. The introduction of AI stands to disrupt some ad revenue models, particularly in search, but Google’s dominance of that market will likely persist in the near term,” according to WARC’s Global Ad Forecast Q2 2025.
Tags: $524.4bn, 2025, 2026, Ad revenue, Advertising market, AI, Alphabet, Amazon, China, Disrupt, Dominance, Dominate, Global Ad Forecast, Google, Market, Meta, Persist
Wall Street Journal (April 28)
“The Magnificent Seven drove the stock market’s bull run. Now, their bruising losses pose a new test for markets.” Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla “helped fuel a gangbusters rally that lifted stocks out of the 2022 bear market and toward dozens of all-time highs,” with their shares reaching “eye-popping levels.” Now, however, “the Magnificent Seven are off to their worst start to a year since the 2022 slide,” with each stock falling over 6.5%, collectively destroying “$2.5 trillion in market value.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2022, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bear market, Bruising, Bull run, Eye-popping, Gangbusters, Losses, Magnificent Seven, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Rally, Stock market, Tesla, Value
The Week (June 28)
“There may be no bigger scramble in business right now than the race to dominate retail media,” which is expected to “account for more than a fifth of all digital ad spending in 2024.” The stakes are high. Amazon, for example, “earned $46.9 billion from retail ads,” which was more than all of Coca-Cola’s global revenue “and makes Amazon the third-largest advertising platform in the United States, behind only Google and Facebook.”
Tags: $46.9 billion, 2024, Advertising platform, Amazon, Business, Coca Cola, Digital, Dominate, Facebook, Google, Race, Retail media, Scramble, Spending, U.S.
Investments and Pensions Europe (May 18)
“We’re now about half way through peak voting season in Europe and North America, which tends to take place between April and June.” Companies are fielding both a high volume and range of proposals. “At Amazon alone, there are 18 shareholder proposals going to vote in 2023, ranging from requests for human rights audits on its technology, through to disclosure around animal welfare issues.”
Tags: Amazon, Animal welfare, Disclosure, Europe, Human rights audits, North America, Peak, Range, Shareholder proposals, Technology, Volume, Voting season
IR Magazine (November 11)
“It was a bad few weeks for tech companies with the Twitter and Meta layoffs, and then Amazon lost $1 tn in market value….For perspective, that’s almost like losing what Google’s parent Alphabet is worth, which is now around $1.13 tn. The loss makes Amazon the first public company ever to lose $1 tn.”
Tags: $1 tn, Alphabet, Amazon, Bad, Google, Layoffs, Loss, Market value, Meta, Tech companies, Twitter
Market Watch (October 27)
“Amazon and Microsoft prove that cloud growth has hit a plateau and investors are ripping away more than $300 billion in valuation because of it, but the technology will still be at the core of computing for generations ahead.”
Tags: $300 billion, Amazon, Cloud growth, Computing, Core, Generations, Investors, Microsoft, Plateau, Technology, Valuation
New York Times (October 27)
“Because of soaring deforestation rates under President Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon ecosystem is on the brink of catastrophe.” For Brazilians, “this will be a painful election between two deeply flawed candidates. But for the future of human life on this planet, there is only one right choice.” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “promises to stop the destruction.”
Tags: Amazon, Bolsonaro, Brazil, Candidates, Catastrophe, Deforestation, Destruction, Ecosystem, Election, Flawed, Future, Human life, Lula da Silva, Planet, President, Soaring
WARC (November 19)
“The seismic events of 2020 will echo long into the coming year: marketing strategies are being reshaped to suit the new e-commerce reality, media budgets have been slashed, brand-building activity is on hold…. Performance marketing is accelerating the trend toward digital channels, with Amazon and TikTok among the growth stories…. Brands must find new creative solutions to achieve distinctiveness in the post-pandemic marketplace.”
Tags: 2020, Amazon, Brand building, Creative solutions, Digital channels, E-commerce, Echo, Marketing, Media budgets, Pandemic, Reshaped, Seismic, Strategies, TikTok
Barron’s (August 19)
“Apple is the first U.S. company to achieve a valuation of $2 trillion,” a valuation that Saudi Aramco has also achieved. There are three other “stocks with a valuation above $1 trillion.” Amazon.com and Microsoft are each about $1.6 trillion with Alphabet trailing at $1.0 trillion. “Facebook (FB) is the next-closest U.S. stock to the 13-digit level, with a valuation of $748.1 billion.”
