Another thing I find interesting is that Amazon's main business is so common that there's a single word for it: retail. They're just yet another middleman between distributors and consumers. Not long ago, a lot of the business world thought Walmart was the indisputable retail king. Amazon proved there's still room for growth in retail.
Will this simple thing called retail produce yet more trillion dollar companies, or is it running out of gas? Will there be an Amazon killer? History suggests yes.
Sure, you can pump money into building fighter jets and aircraft carriers, but those don't last long, nor are they helpful for economy in the long term.
In the long term, the only backbone of the economy is making and selling things to people that they want, a.k.a retail.
Some companies are moving towards selling directly to consumers, especially if they have a brand to protect. Nike is pulling back from retail a bit and focusing on their own website and app to promote and sell their products.
The flip side is Amazon has empowered a lot of smaller manufacturers to get nearly direct access to consumers. Especially Chinese firms but even some small American companies have benefitted from the huge base of customers Amazon gives them access too.
Will this simple thing called retail produce yet more trillion dollar companies, or is it running out of gas? Will there be an Amazon killer? History suggests yes.