Facts About Amazon
Welcome to the Schmoozeletter Blog. Your source for weekly water cooler wisecracks from the world of finance. If you have an opinion different than mine or a topic you want to hear about, let me know!
This week, the results are in, and we are now one quarter away from a recession! A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, and we’re halfway there.
Make no mistake about it, this is all about the new regime. Consumer spending and confidence have cooled, government expenditures fell, and the tariff policy most similar to the one that deepened the Great Depression has now caused the U.S. economy to go backwards. Who would have thunk it?
The good news is this number could be swayed a bit by businesses stockpiling foreign goods before the tariffs went into effect. Unemployment is still low, inflation stayed flat, big tech crushed earnings, and relations with China seemed to improve, so Mr. Market rallied on the week.
The bad news is these guys are running the country:
You get it?!
69!
And then…
And then…
If you can still breath…
If you haven’t passed out from laughter…
420!
Omg!
That Elon!
How does he do it?!
So smart, such a caring father, and so funny. Guy’s got it all.
Will the U.S. slip into a recession of its own? Find out this time next quarter as the circus rages on.
One company who reported earnings this week was Amazon. Cue it:
Facts About Amazon
The Amazon jungle is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
The majority of the forest, 60%, is in Brazil.
More than 30 million people of 350 different ethnic groups live in the Amazon, which are subdivided into 9 different national political systems and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories.
The name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with the Tapuyas and other tribes. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men, as was their custom. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the Amazons of Greek mythology, described by Herodotus and Diodorus.
Amazon breaks its revenue into seven categories: Online stores, Physical stores, Third-party seller services, Advertising services, Subscription services, AWS (Amazon Web Services), & Other. Fan of pie charts? Say no more.
The Giant Amazon Water Lily, also known as Victoria Amazonica, is a remarkable plant that can grow up to 10 feet in diameter. The leaves of this plant are so strong that they can support the weight of a small child, 4 feet in height.
Visa is the 15th largest company in the world. They just reported first-quarter earnings and brought in revenue of almost $10 billion for the quarter.
You may remember from that pie chart you were a huge fan of that AMZN’s subscription services revenue is its fifth-highest revenue category. The subscription revenue was almost $12 billion this quarter. This is growing at a double-digit annual rate.
So just that relatively tiny sliver of the pie of Amazon’s total revenue is more than the entire company total of Schmoozeletter favorite and world number 15, Visa.
Amazon’s advertising services revenue was almost $14 billion this quarter. This is growing at a 19% rate. Things that grow at a 19% rate double about every four years.
The bamboo plant, which is found in the Amazon Rainforest, is the fastest-growing plant in the world. It can grow up to 35 inches in a single day.
Amazon’s AWS revenue was over $29 billion this quarter and is growing at 17% per year. The AWS segment now has $112 billion over the past twelve months. That is pretty tall.
Speaking of tall, the Dipterocarpus tree is the tallest tree in the Amazon Rainforest and the tropics. This tree species has reached heights of over 265 feet, taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Amazon continued “to grow Amazon Nova rapidly.” The company wrote the following in the earnings press release:
“Continued to grow Amazon Nova rapidly with customers such as Slack, Siemens, Coinbase, Sumo Logic, FanDuel, Blue Origin, Glean, Domo, Stats Perform, Bynder, PDI Technologies, Gradial, ASAPP, ezCater, NinjaTech AI, Jobcase, Rubbrband, Data Kinetic, Avahi, GuardianGamer, and Lennar, all starting to use Nova. Also introduced new Nova capabilities, including:
Amazon Nova Sonic: Speech-to-speech foundation model for developers to build human-like voice-based AI applications, such as customer service call automation, AI agents, and more (available in Amazon Bedrock).
Amazon Nova Act SDK: New AI model trained to perform actions within a web browser, enabling developers to build action-oriented agents by breaking down complex workflows into reliable atomic commands (like “search,” or “checkout”).
Amazon Nova Premier: Most capable of Amazon’s multimodal models for complex tasks like coding, building multi-step agents, and long-form document and video understanding.”
A lot of big words in there. I am too much of a pea-brained simpleton to know what all that means. But I do know we got some AI fans out there, so that should make you happy.
The Amazon is home to the Corpse Flower, also known as Amorphophallus titanum, which can grow up to 10 feet tall and emit a putrid smell that is similar to that of a rotting corpse. Nothing stinks as bad as the fact that TSLA has a more expensive P/E multiple than AMZN, however. Wocka Wocka Wocka.
Amazon’s third-party seller services revenue was almost $37 billion this quarter and is growing at 7% per year.
The Pitcher Plant, also known as Nepenthes, is a carnivorous plant that grows in the Amazon Rainforest. Its leaves form a deep cavity that is filled with a sweet-smelling liquid that attracts insects. Once the insects enter the cavity, they are trapped and digested by the plant.
The Amazon Rainforest contains several species that can pose a hazard. Among the largest predatory creatures are the black caiman, jaguar, cougar, and anaconda.
Special thanks to the recent SEC filing, Wikipedia, and the following blog for the facts:
Final Thought
“Your victory is right around the corner. Never give up.” – Nicki Minaj
