If you google search “amazon profit”, these are the first results that will come up:
- Why Amazon Won’t Deliver The Profits – Forbes
- Why Amazon Has No Profits
- Amazon Never Makes Money But No One Cares
- Will Amazon ever be profitable?
How on earth has Amazon functioned the for past 2 decades without turning a profit?
According to Investopedia, Amazon is focusing on the long-term. The very long-term.
Although they have been turning more profit than not in previous years (earning profit some years, and losing other years), they were in the red until 2009. That’s 15 years after it was founded.
And yet it continues to grow and is a staple of the online retail world.
Amazon has never paid a dividend, has enormous equity, and continues to compete on price — crucial to its success. But if it’s not very profitable, what’s the point?
Nonetheless, the trend has been growing towards being profitable, and with the enormous equity (think brand equity) the company owns, it doesn’t look like it’s leaving the picture any time soon.