Amazon Changing a Few Services

According to Amazon’s latest financial reports the company’s current revenue is $554.02 Billion per year. Amazon’s gross profit for the twelve months ending September 30, 2023 was $256.202 Billion, a 18.52% increase over 2022.

The first change at Amazon is that they are going to start showing commercials when streaming Amazon content. As of January 29th it will cost an additional $2.99 per month on top of our Amazon Prime membership.

The next potential change being batted around internally is charging a subscription fee for Amazon Alexa. All voice assistants have struggled to drive revenue since people tend to use voice assistants for basic queries, like checking the weather, rather than transactions. Amazon announced plans to drive usage and interest in Alexa by releasing a generative AI version that it said would one day require a subscription. Projected roll-out is June 2024 unless their “internal conflict” slows things down. Will this mean we would all have to replace our older Amazon devices as well?

Amazon has to do something to turn Alexa into a viable revenue source. In late 2022, Business Insider reported that Alexa was on track to lose $10 billion that year. The following months were filled with numerous layoffs at Amazon, including, most recently, a November 2023 round said to largely target Amazon’s devices and services division and some of Amazon’s AI team.

Since the new year began, Amazon has laid off employees in its Prime Video, MGM Studios, Twitch and Audible divisions. Amazon’s staff reductions now total over 27,000 people.

How do you feel about this? Don’t you think Amazon, Disney and Netflix make enough money already?

Thanks to Business Insider and ars Technica for these updates.