Many will write wisely about Amazon’s strategy with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a film studio that Amazon bought for $ 8.45 billion. But I want to ask a more basic question: why?

Why Amazon MGM is buying rights-owned James Bond and “Robocop”. Maybe Amazon will use it to dig up new series and film ideas. Prime Video Streaming Entertainment Service. No, I ask, why does Amazon have a streaming video service?

Is video a valuable perk for Prime members or a billion dollar vanity project for Amazon?

(Read again: Amazon acquired James Bond, the studio behind legal blondes (MGM, worth $ 8.5 billion).

On the rare occasion that Amazon executives discussed their goals, they have focused on the power of loyalty. The inclusion of video services in Prime is another reason why users are sticking to Amazon’s membership program and feel that they are getting good value from both the parcel delivery at no additional cost and the on-demand offerings from “Bosch”. They say there is. According to Morgan Stanley, my colleague Karen Wise reported that Prime-member households typically spend $ 3,000 a year on Amazon, more than twice as much as no-member households.

Amazon Is The Best Video If you renew your membership every year or have a free trial program, the more likely you are to pay and buy more products on Amazon. However, in his new book on Amazon, journalist and writer Brad Stone suggests that this may not be entirely the case.

Is video a valuable perk for Prime members or a billion dollar vanity project for Amazon? Image: AP

He wrote that some Amazon employees who worked in the entertainment department analyzed the number of primary members who saw the show and renewed primary membership or signed up. “There was little evidence of a relationship between viewing and buying behavior,” wrote Stone. “The truth was. Bezos wanted Amazon to do TV shows and movies. “

Differences between Prime Video’s stated goals and perhaps more pedestrian reality underscores the dichotomy between Amazon and other tech superpowers. They are so rich and successful in some areas that they can afford to fail in others.

Amazon’s success in online shopping and cloud computing, and most importantly, its fans and critics’ belief that the company is a powerful and destructive genius, have published a paper on Amazon’s suspicious strategy in grocery and streaming writing . And we’ve reduced the urgency to fix awkward online shopping experiences that we don’t always trust and that we haven’t updated since the 1990s.

The highly profitable advertising business of Facebook and Google supports not understanding what to do. Well, Facebook failed to turn WhatsApp into a store, and Google did many years of online shopping. Almost everything else these companies are involved in, including trouble. I don’t know if going crazy and sometimes stumbling in the dark is comforting or scary for these companies.

On Prime Video, I haven’t heard Amazon executives justify the cost or market their value to Prime members. The appeal of fast and free shipping can be sufficient. Or do Prime members get more loyal when the company offers a variety of perks? For example, free internet services, online fitness classes, access to personal buyers, or more Kindle books. The Wal-Mart version of Prime offers discounts at some gas stations.

I’m not sure if any of these alternatives are attractive, but I’m also not sure if Video is Prime’s attractive add-on. Only Amazon really knows, I don’t know.

Amazon may be playing a very long game on Prime Video. You can imagine the future where Amazon will use Prime Video and other online video site ads to get you interested in a new product and sell it. Amazon covers everything from “looks interesting” to clicking “Buy”. (Stone suggested this possibility in a recent newsletter.)

Or maybe you are convinced that there must be spectacular design behind what Amazon and other superstar companies are doing. Maybe it’s a little cool to make a movie.

Shira Ovid [c.2021 The New York Times Company]

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