Michael Shustek on Amazon Rivals

For many years, Amazon has established itself as a monolith in the online retail and distribution industries. While its influence on the Internet markets is substantial and significant, Amazon will soon have to face up-and-coming competitors when it comes to the technology and tactics they utilize for marketing and general operations. Companies looking to challenge or capture Amazon’s status may be working to copy or incorporate these new developments in order to have a fighting chance. For Amazon, staying vigilant will help prevent any unexpected upheavals or shifts in their competitors’ favor.

Alphabet
As the parent company of Google, Alphabet is a leader in the technological revolution. While Google Cloud has been dwarfed by the prominence of other cloud computing technology like Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud and Amazon’s Web Services, Google Cloud has significantly contributed to the growing success of Alphabet’s “other” business, which is believed to be composed of Google Cloud as well as Google Hardware and Google Play.
With double the deals made with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that exceed $1 million and an increasing number of deals that surpass $100 million, Alphabet has been experiencing a growing wave of success that rivals their rising costs of development and operation. Moving toward faster growth and long-term revenue is the current plan of action for Alphabet’s cloud platform. Google Cloud is becoming a real threat to Amazon’s monopoly as it targets businesses and acquires investors, engineers, and salespeople this year.

Walmart
With about 300 million shoppers visiting its stores and website – more than any other conglomerate each month – Walmart is a fearsome competitor when it comes to brick-and-mortar stores as well as vendors dealing in e-commerce. What Walmart currently lacks is a strong advertising network. However, they plan to remedy this shortfall in the near future. Taking note of Amazon’s success with hosting external ads on their own site, Walmart and other retailers plan to do the same.
In the past, Walmart was ahead of the curve by promoting unique ads on their displayed televisions. Now, it seems the expectation for retailers is to make a profit beyond simply selling their products. In order to succeed, businesses must work toward achieving additional revenue streams, and advertisements have been a profitable option in Amazon’s case.
Because of Walmart’s existing influence, adding advertisements to a highly-trafficked website will undoubtedly result in profit. Whether Walmart will be more successful than Amazon in this venture remains to be seen, but the issued challenge alone is worthy of attention.

Amazon will likely not be overthrown by any one company in the foreseeable future, but with more businesses stepping up to the challenge, Amazon may have to defend its position against competitors with more effort than before.

Originally posted on MichaelShustek.org