Amazon Alexa estimated to lose $10 billion this year.

[09philj]

A loss leader that only leads to more loss

Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser.

arstechnica.com

Who could have foreseen that selling a smart speaker for well below cost would not in fact make a profit?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

With their assumption that having no barriers to buying something would get people to just impulse-order everything through Alexa, Amazon somehow managed to overestimate the spendthrift ways of the American public. I mean, that takes talent.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Wait, people *don't* want to pay for electronic snitches in their house that record everything for Amazon and allows them to maybe buy something sight unseen if the voice recognition doesn't screw up again?

I'm shocked

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[09philj]

Wait, people *don't* want to pay for electronic snitches in their house that record everything for Amazon and allows them to maybe buy something sight unseen if the voice recognition doesn't screw up again?

I'm shocked

Well they do want that, it's just that they were sold at a loss and Amazon expected the increased business from people buying things through the speaker to be where the profit was. However, it wasn't.

 

[Gergar12]

Raise the price, or cut down on costs, not everything is social media good/service that everyone must use to increase its economic value.

 

[Hawki]

"Alexa. Please explain where my money went."

 

[Gordon_4]

A loss leader that only leads to more loss

Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser.

arstechnica.com

Who could have foreseen that selling a smart speaker for well below cost would not in fact make a profit?

Good. I hope next year it’s cost them even more.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Of course no one uses Alexa to actually BUY things.

When 17 different vendors all sell the same thing on the Amazon marketplace for sometimes VASTLY different amounts of course no one is going to tell Alexa to buy a thing and let the AI decide who it actually gets bought from and how much money they're going to spend on it.

It's almost like someone with half a brain would have realized that if they actually used Amazon for 10 minutes.

 

[Florime]

Alexa from Amazon is a really useful gadget, but not enough to trust it to constantly buy goods using voice commands. It is too unprofitable and irrational. For example, I need an Air Fryer for my large family: I will watch several videos on YouTube, analyze the models and prices, and even after that it will be difficult for me to make a choice. It is unlikely that Alexa will conduct such an analysis to order an Air Fryer for me. I've barely figured out the problem of random beeps at 3am. It's good that other people have shared their experiences with the problems of random sounds on the Echo Dot. A few years ago I ordered socks through Alexa - I got the pink color and it was not my size. That concludes my Alexa shopping experience.

​

 

[gorfias]

I didn't even know that was an important feature. They aren't giving the full blown speaker away. Thing costs as much as $200. I have gotten the dots for as little as $15 during sales. That does seem like a loss leader.

As for privacy? I cover computer/laptop cameras but when I can mention to my wife we need a new x, and she starts getting ads in email offering x, or uses facebook and x is in the ad columns? They probably already know the color of my underwear.

 

[Absent]

They probably already know the color of my underwear.

Yes.