Jeff Bezos famously doesn’t talk about competitors, but when I was at Amzn in the early 2000’s there were 2 companies that started after Amzn yet had eclipsed us in mkt cap: eBay and Google. Here’s how Jeff explained to his team why Amzn was better positioned long-term:
eBay: Building distribution centers, carrying inventory and shipping packages is hard. And that’s a good thing, because it will be hard for competitors to replicate. Investors don’t like how hard our business is, but that’s exactly what I do like about our business.
Google: This is the first time in history that the map maker has been worth more than the value of the land they are mapping. This doesn’t make sense, and it will eventually correct itself.
