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The Global Leader in E-Commerce

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Being a Fortune 500 company, Amazon, started by Jeff Bezos in 1995, is the global leader in e-commerce. Amazon offers a wide variety of products, ranging from hardcover books to jewelry to electronics, as conveniently as possible to its customers (About Amazon, 2009). Although Amazon has begun to revolutionize retailing, the company’s competitive advantage and evolution has been put into question. The competitive advantage and evolution of Amazon can be analyzed by determining if the company if moving away from its core competency as a leading online retailer, presenting areas where Amazon is competing with Google and Microsoft, addressing the company’s databases and its uses, and describing how Amazon uses e-Business and e-Commerce for …show more content…

Based on the recent news in 2009 regarding Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, web platforms competition is a must. It appears it would be unwise not to compete in such a growing industry where everyday some new form of technology is created. Every company is trying to top the other by incorporating the newest technology, which others may have created, into their next new application or product. As Amazon struggles to maintain market share and increase profitability for the company in general, one has to wonder whether they are spreading themselves to thin. The key question is can Amazon be everything to everybody. This certainly seems to be the direction Amazon is pursuing. Amazon’s IT infrastructure is not running at full capacity and as a result of this, has led to innovative ideas to generate more revenue by allowing customers to pay for and utilize Amazon’s infrastructure on a pay as you go concept. CEO Jeff Bezos (2007) stated, “What we 're doing is levelling the playing field so that small companies can have access to the same low-cost structure as big companies for very reliable backend infrastructure, and to do that in a pay-by-the-drink way -- so that you don 't have these big fixed-cost steps that you have to subject yourself to" (Information Week,

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