Amazon Unbound
Sequel covering Alexa, AWS scale, Whole Foods and the antitrust era.
Summary
Stone's sequel to The Everything Store covers Amazon from roughly 2010 to 2020, the period in which it grew from a large retailer into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
The business material covers the development of Alexa and the Echo, which Stone documents as a Bezos-driven project pursued against internal scepticism; the growth of Amazon Web Services into the company's principal profit source; the advertising business, which became a third major profit centre without much public attention; the expansion of logistics into a delivery network that reduced dependence on carriers; the Whole Foods acquisition; the entry into film and television production; and the second headquarters competition.
The operational material covers the flywheel as Amazon uses it, the mechanics of the marketplace including the tension between third-party sellers and Amazon's own retail, and the use of seller data which became the subject of regulatory attention. Stone covers the labour conditions in fulfilment centres and the response to organising efforts more directly than the earlier book, and covers the Bezos divorce, the National Enquirer episode and the Saudi phone hacking allegation. The political material covers the antitrust attention, the conflict with Trump and the tax position.
Stone did not have Bezos' cooperation and the book relies on former employees and documents. It is longer and more diffuse than The Everything Store, since the company had become too large for a single narrative. The chapters on Alexa, on advertising and on the logistics build-out are the most substantive.
Key takeaways 8
- Amazon Web Services became the company's principal profit source, which funded the retail operations that made no money.
- The advertising business grew into a third major profit centre with far less public attention than the other two received.
- Alexa was pursued against internal scepticism as a founder-driven project and consumed enormous investment.
- Building a delivery network reduced dependence on carriers and converted a cost centre into a strategic asset.
- The tension between third-party sellers and Amazon's own retail operation is structural rather than incidental, since the same company competes and provides the platform.
- Use of third-party seller data by Amazon's retail operation became the focus of regulatory attention in multiple jurisdictions.
- Scale changed the company's political position, and the antitrust and tax attention became a management problem in its own right.
- Stone did not have Bezos' cooperation and relied on former employees and documents, which produces a less favourable account than the earlier book.
Who should read it
Investors and operators who want the second decade of Amazon, particularly the growth of the cloud, advertising and logistics businesses.
About Brad Stone
Senior executive editor for global technology at Bloomberg News who writes reported histories of Amazon, Uber and Airbnb.
The Everything Store reconstructs Amazon's first two decades from hundreds of interviews with insiders, covering the decisions on pricing, third-party sellers and infrastructure that made the model work. Amazon Unbound picks up the following decade, and The Upstarts documents the regulatory and operating fights Uber and Airbnb had to win to reach scale.
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