Amazon Really Really Wants to Run Your Business

[mandy]

Interesting fact from one of these articles:  Amazon has 1.1 million active seller Merchant accounts (compare that to Wagglepoop's 7,000 or HiNoBidder's 2,400 )

On to the real story

Amazon.com is turning its expertise running the world's largest online store into a kind of utility business that supplies Web logistics services to companies.

In a series of projects, some announced and some in public trials this year, the company has assembled the pieces of a strategy that positions Amazon to supply underlying computing, data storage and other services to Web businesses.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, plans to detail his vision for this emerging business at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco next week.

The goal is to create new, revenue-generating businesses for Amazon by allowing both start-ups and established businesses to rent computing and other Web services on demand...

full article: http://news.com.com/Amazon+moves+deeper+...32283.html

Now, the outlines of Bezos' next big idea are starting to come to light. Essentially, he wants Amazon to run your business, at least the technical and logistical parts of it. Using the massive computer system and physical-distribution network that powers its retail business, Amazon is now starting to offer those services over the Internet to other businesses.

They include an on-demand computing service called the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a virtual disk drive called the Simple Storage Service (S3), and something called Amazon Mechanical Turk, a marketplace for online piecework where businesses can parcel out small jobs such as transcribing snippets of podcasts...

full article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con...009008.htm

It was one of the Web's typical flash frenzies, a gaggle of geeks seeking the new, new thing. At 2 a.m. on Aug. 24, a new venture called Elastic Compute Cloud quietly launched in test mode. Its service: cheap, raw computing power that could be tapped on demand over the Internet just like electricity. In less than five hours, hundreds of programmers, hoping to use the service to power their MySpace (NWS ) and Google (GOOG ) wannabes, snapped up all the test slots. One desperate latecomer instant-messaged a $10,000 offer for a slot to a lucky winner, who declined to give it up. "It's really cool," enthuses entrepreneur Luke Matkins, who will run his soon-to-launch music site on the service. The creator of this très cool service: Amazon.com Inc...

full article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con...009001.htm

[BellisimaJ.]

I will be interested to see what happens to this. Thanks for the article, Mandy.