Last Thursday Amazon announced that it is creating 300 new jobs in Dublin, increasing its total Irish workforce to 1,700. Despite the announcement, Amazon recently announced losses in excess of €350 million in the third quarter.
The market is now wondering where the company is going.
Fire Phone
The company's stock took a hit in October after it indicated just how poor its Amazon Fire smartphone had performed.
The phone is a standard smartphone running on the Kindle Fire's operating system, with a few add-ons like a 3D feature.
The phone proved to be a misstep; it tanked and took the stock price with it. After the Fire figures came out, Amazon's stock fell 8.3 percent, wiping out more than $12 billion in value. That slump meant that the stock had fallen by more than a third since January.
Amazon got burnt on this occasion, but the retailing giant says that they will learn from this failure. Its first Kindle eReaders received negative reviews and performed badly, but they eventually got that product right and became the dominant reader in the market.
War on all fronts
In retail they are battling a host of rivals who are looking to eat in to their market share. By moving into more smart device sector, they are competing with Apple, Samsung, and a host of other smaller phone manufacturers who are all beefing up their hardware offerings.
In cloud storage they are battling with Google and IBM, in video streaming they are looking to steal users from Hulu and Netflix. By moving into making original content they are taking on the whole of the TV industry.
This does not just run the risk of the company seeming to lack a focus, but they are also taking on competitors with deep pockets and track-records of success in each of these areas.
The Bezos factor
After years of beating market expectations, many on Wall St want Amazon to reign in its operation and to refocus on staying ahead in online retail. CEO Jeff Bezos has made his intentions clear: he wants Amazon to keep diversifying and taking on new ventures.
Investing in Amazon is investing in Jeff Bezos and his vision of what Amazon will some day be.
The market is looking for solid returns from the company and losing patience with Bezos' experiments- after all, ultimately he is gambling with their money.
