Die steigende Beta-Quote der letzten Wochen ist ein untrügliches Zeichen: Amazon führt Großes im Schilde. "Amazon Rolls Out Its Visionary WebOS Strategy", schreibt das Read/Write Web über Amazons Transformation "vom E-Commerce-Giganten zum Software-Haus".
Jeff Bezos befindet sich zwar schon seit einiger Zeit auf dieser Mission. Auf dem Web 2.0 Summit (formerly known as Web 2.0 Conference) in dieser Woche in San Francisco soll es dann allerdings zu einer Art Höhepunkt kommen.
Deshalb auch die lesenswerte Titelgeschichte ("Amazon's Risky Bet") in der aktuellen BusinessWeek als Vorgeschmack. Darin heißt es unter anderem:
"What's more, at the same time Bezos is thinking big thoughts, Amazon's retail business faces new threats. Its 25% sales growth tracks a little above the pace of overall e-commerce expansion and nearly double its own pace way back in 2001.
But other sites are fast becoming preferred first stops on the Web. Google, for one, has replaced retail sites such as Amazon as the place where many people start their shopping. And more personalized and social upstarts such as News Corp.'s MySpace and YouTube, which Google is buying, have become the prime places for many people to gather online--and eventually shop.
It's a trend Amazon could have trouble catching up to. Says consultant Andreas Weigend, Amazon's chief scientist until 2004: "The world has shifted from e-business to me-business."
A Dark Horse in a High-Stakes Race:
"Google and Microsoft, in particular, are each angling to be the Net's kingpins: Just as Microsoft ruled the PC world (and its profits) with Windows software, so Google and Microsoft want to build what techies call the "platform" for the Web--the powerful layer of basic services on top of which everyone else builds their Web sites.
"Amazon's a pretty serious dark horse" in that race, says Internet visionary Tim O'Reilly, CEO of tech publisher O'Reilly Media Inc. "Jeff really understands that if he doesn't become a platform player, he's at the mercy of those who do."
Bezos believes he has identified a unique Amazonian edge: Like no other Internet or computer company today, the e-retailer is in a position to apply the efficiencies of the Net to tangible and corporeal assets like products and people.
Bezos envisions embedding the tasks of product distribution and knowledge work right into the flow of more automated business processes such as order taking and payment processing."
Dem (Versand-)Handel steht eine gigantische Konsolidierungswelle bevor. Da einstmals wesentliche Kernkompetenzen des Handels (Logistik, Versand, etc.) zunehmend von (unabhängigen) Dienstleistern übernommen werden, müssen Händler auf andere Wertschöpfungspotenziale setzen.
Entweder sie übernehmen als Plattformbetreiber (technische) Dienstleistungen für andere, oder sie entdecken den Verkauf als ihre neue Kernkompetenz. Amazon versucht, genau diese beiden Zukunftsfelder zu besetzen, indem es geeignete Tools und Lösungen bereitstellt.
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