In the US, the company has a monopoly-like position with almost half of the e-commerce market, and is still growing.

With the pandemic's increase in e-commerce, its second-quarter profit nearly doubled to $ 5.8 billion - despite Corona-related costs of $ 4 billion.

In particular, the cashier Amazon Web Services, AWS, which sells data services to other companies, is pulling in the jackpot.

AWS accounts for almost 60 percent of Amazon's profits.  

New investments

 It is thus an incredibly strong profit machine Bezos drives forward when he conquers new markets in the world.

Which is needed, as the international e-commerce investments have so far been at a loss.

But Bezos has never prioritized quick profits, he has always plowed down the income of new investments to reap all the more fruit later.

He is an empire builder whose ambitions extend into space.

On earth, he is content to keep track of our lives.

Amazon is not just a big online store.

Amazon is a tech company, with a cutting edge in artificial intelligence, with ambitions to learn so much about us that they become our life partner - from cradle to grave.

Locks in customers

With the "smart speaker" Alexa in our homes, Amazon can now also follow us offline.

When we talk to it, we reveal what food we cook, what news interests us, what health condition we are in, and everything that involves invaluable customer data for a company that sees no limit to what they can sell us in the future.

Maybe health care next?

In the short term, Amazon.se does not mean an earthquake for Swedish trade.

But for every year, they will eat an increasing part of the cake, and the company can afford to go back and "buy" customers through price pressure.

And when Swedish Amazon is ready to also introduce Prime, with extra fast deliveries and free shipping for those who pay an annual fee, then they can start locking customers in their own world and shaking off competitors.

Should avoid badwill

Will Amazon shake up the Swedish labor market?

Reports from the USA and the UK testify to tough working conditions in the warehouses with the exclusion of those who do not agree.

We will see what the Swedish management chooses for fights.

But if they follow Bezo's mantra "customer in focus", and Swedish customers care about what happens behind the scenes at the warehouse in Eskilstuna, then they should be careful not to take on that kind of badwill when they want to win new land.

For Bezos, the long-term value of more customers, and thus more customer data, is more important than quick profits and savings.