In his most recent annual report, Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, reprints his letter to shareholders of 1997. "It's all about the long term," he wrote then. The point he is making today is that nothing has changed: the pioneer of online retailing is still having to place big bets on the future, cutting into profit margins and unnerving some investors. Having established the internet as somewhere to buy things, Amazon is again spending heavily on development in anticipation of consumers wanting to download music, video and books instead of having them delivered in the post.
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