Retail, Tech, Shipping: Amazon is all in
Reports that the CIA is paying Amazon $600 million to build a private cloud for its top-secret data aren’t confirmed. But if it is true, experts say it wouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.
“To be one of the top players right now you have to play in a lot of different categories at once, successfully,” says Todd Wasserman, business editor at Mashable.com. He says just as Amazon once was strictly an online retailer, Apple used to just sell computers.
“And now they have to compete, and they have to make watches and things like that,” says Wasserman.
Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester, says as Amazon grows, it’s becoming harder to define.
“So I think there are a lot of questions of you know what sector does it fall in? Is it competitive with retailers? Is it more competitive with a UPS or Fedex? Is it more competitive with an Apple?” Mulpuru says.
The answer? Yes, all of them. But Mulpuru says Amazon’s real strength is using things it already has, like extra servers and a huge shipping network, to make even more money.
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