Amazon to launch food and drink sales in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Amazon.com Inc will begin selling food and drinks online in Mexico, including snacks, sweets and wines, it said on Thursday, a move that could intensify its competition with Wal Mart de Mexico to claim shoppers in a nascent e-commerce market.

Online shopping represents a fraction of total retail sales in Mexico but has grown swiftly, putting Amazon and its rivals in a race to ramp up investments in logistics, technology and product offerings.

Amazon views food and drink sales as key to growth, eyeing routine purchases to stock pantries as a way to generate other types of sales, but has yet to dominate the category.

The new items on its Mexico site, which it launched in 2015, span coffees, teas, liquors, wines and beers, as well as cooking ingredients, non-perishable snacks and sweets.

"We're committed to offering our clients as many products as we can," Fernando Ramirez, Amazon Mexico's senior product manager, said in a statement.

The launch shows Amazon's intent to claim more of Mexicans' wallets, said Gene Munster, research head at Loup Ventures.

"Non-perishables are the first step to capturing food spending, and likely indicate Amazon's ambitions to increase its offering related to fresh food," he said.

In the United States, Amazon moved into online grocery sales through a $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market last year. It offers two-hour delivery and lets shoppers pick up Amazon products from Whole Foods stores.

Walmart, meanwhile, aims to deliver groceries to over 40 percent of US households by year's end.

The company plans to accelerate its online grocery business in Mexico as well, Walmart International's Chief Executive Judith McKenna said earlier this year.

Soriana, La Comer and Chedraui are among Mexican grocers that also offer delivery services, along with online marketplace MercadoLibre.

Walmart's Mexico unit, Walmex, is counting on its 2,390 stores to help execute speedy deliveries.

Amazon may struggle to match the selection of traditional stores, said Jose Acosta, a former Walmex executive who is now CEO of digital payments application Pagamobil.

"Brick-and-mortar players have done a very good job of defining a very wide catalog, and that's not something you develop so fast," he said.

Small warehouses stocked with snacks and drinks will be crucial for Amazon to deliver fast, said Alfredo Garcia, business development head at Mexican e-commerce delivery service Skydrop.

Convenience is also important.

"If you have a party ... what a drag if you go to Amazon to buy beer and potato chips, but you have to use another application to buy meat and tomatoes," Garcia said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon's Bezos passes Buffett, becomes 3rd-richest person: Forbes

NEW YORK - Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc., has become the world's third-richest person as of the market close for the first time, Forbes magazine said, passing Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Bezos' fortune was $65.3 billion as of 4:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, compared with Buffett's $64.9 billion.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates remained the world's richest person, at $77.7 billion, while Spain's Amancio Ortega, who founded the Zara clothing chain's owner Inditex SA, was second at $72.7 billion. Facebook Inc. co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was fifth, at $54 billion.

Bezos, 52, owns close to 18 percent of Amazon. Its stock has risen by roughly 50 percent since early February, as the world's largest online retailer continued to upend retailing as more people took to the Web rather than the mall to shop.

Amazon's share price rose further in after-hours trading, after the Seattle-based company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Buffett, 85, owns close to 18 percent of Berkshire, but his donation this month of $2.86 billion of Berkshire stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities led to his drop to fourth place. He has donated more than $24.3 billion to the Gates Foundation and family charities since 2006.

Berkshire is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has roughly 90 business units including Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad and Dairy Queen ice cream.

In June, Buffett called Bezos a "classic example" of how a business owner could thrive, by having focused at Amazon on how to "delight" customers, and keep them coming back, rather than simply process their orders.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Amazon acquires Italy-based software firm

Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com Inc., said it has acquired NICE, a software developer for technical computing.

The company said it has signed an agreement with NICE, which is also a cloud computing firm, and expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2016.

No financial terms were disclosed.

Italy-based NICE has customers in industries ranging from aerospace to industrial, energy and utilities.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Amazon signs deal with filmmaker Besson

LOS ANGELES, United States - Amazon said Friday it signed a multi-year content licensing agreement with the production company of renowned French filmmaker Luc Besson, marking something of a change of tack for the online giant.

The deal makes Amazon the exclusive premium subscription streaming platform for EuropaCorp's theatrical box office releases, a spokeswoman for Amazon told AFP in an email.

The films will come to Prime Video several months after their release in theaters, the spokeswoman said, with action thriller "The Transporter Refueled" to be the first one.

It is expected to be followed by the psychological thriller "Shut In" starring Naomi Watts and "Nine Lives," a comedy featuring Kevin Spacey.

Variety magazine said Amazon has previously signed distribution deals with A24, Open Road and other studios that "tend to release films that have an indie edge, whereas EuropaCorp's films are more mainstream and action-oriented in tone."

Besson started out in the 1980s with action flicks influenced by US movies. International success came with "The Big Blue," starring Jean Reno; "Nikita," about a female assassin; "The Professional," also with Reno and a very young Natalie Portman; and "The Fifth Element" starring Bruce Willis.

Since then, Besson has been raking it in with high-octane series -- "Taxi," "The Transporter" and "Taken" -- that have proven very lucrative in US releases.

Amazon, meanwhile, continues to gain ground in the entertainment business, grabbing five Golden Globe nominations Thursday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Amazon launches a speaker you can talk to

Do you want to talk to your speaker? Amazon.com Inc has launched "Amazon Echo", a speaker you leave on all day and give it voice directions, like Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone.

As well as taking commands such as "play music by Bruno Mars" or "add gelato to my shopping list", Amazon said the device accesses the internet to answer questions such as "when is Thanksgiving?" and "what is the weather forecast?"

Amazon said the speaker, which runs on Amazon Web Services, continually learns a user's speech patterns and preferences.

Users start the speaker up saying the wake up word, "Alexa".

They can then feed Amazon Echo commands or questions or, if they want, wirelessly stream music web services such as Spotify, iTunes and Pandora via their mobiles.

Amazon Echo is priced at $199, or $99 for members for the online retail giant's Amazon Prime loyalty scheme. It is available on an invitation-only basis in coming weeks. (http://amzn.to/1x7ijFO)

Amazon has had an unusually busy year, developing a mobile phone, video productions and grocery deliveries.

Last month, the company forecast sales for the crucial holiday quarter that disappointed Wall Street and investors who are eager to see Amazon curtail its ambitions and start delivering sustainable profits.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How Amazon's Fire compares with other phones

SEATTLE --- Amazon.com Inc.'s new cellphone seeks to offer shoppers instant gratification by recognizing thousands of products, television shows and songs and allowing users to immediately buy them - on the e-commerce giant's own site, of course.

The smartphone, which joins Amazon's "Fire" lineup of tablets and streaming devices, aims to stand out in a crowded field dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics . It represents an attempt to extend the company's dominance of online commerce into mobile phones, which are increasingly being used to buy items and view video.

But it's unclear how the phone's "Firefly" image- and audio-recognition feature or its much-touted 3D-perspectives will work in the real world, or how fickle consumers may respond to Amazon's latest bid to eliminate barriers to its core online retail business.

Users can press a button and point the phone at an object such as a can of soup or work of art, or direct it to listen to a song. If the device recognizes it, the user can buy it on Amazon, if it's sold there.

The technology, which works by matching images of items or songs to Amazon's database of over 100 million items, will be opened to app-developers for use, an approach that rivals Apple and Google have taken with their own mobile software.

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, in a rare media appearance in Seattle, demonstrated three-dimensional display features on the 4.7-inch phone, such as greater depth perception in maps and pictures.

Four front-facing cameras track head movements and shift perspectives depending on a user's activity. Users can scroll through screens by tilting or swiveling the phone.

"One of the things that Amazon tried to do with this phone is reduce the amount of activity and input that users have to do to get results," said Dave Cotter, chief executive of SquareHub, an app that helps families share photos and other information.

"Instead of clicking a whole bunch of stuff, you hold the phone and it does things for you," said the former Amazon executive, who got his first peek at the phone more than two months ago.

Shares of Amazon climbed 2.7 percent to $334.38 on Wednesday.

Still, the smartphone represents unfamiliar territory for Amazon. Apple and Samsung now dominate the market, having pushed names like Motorola and Nokia to the sidelines.

Some may balk at the price. Industry insiders had expected the Fire phone to be far cheaper than iPhones or Galaxy devices, given Amazon sold its Fire tablets at cost.

Amazon is selling the Fire phone for $649 contract-free. From July 25, a 32-GB version will go for $199.99 with a contract on AT&T Inc. Those prices are comparable to the iPhone 5C's, though it has superior displays and other features.

To sweeten the deal, Amazon offered 12 months of membership to Prime, its two-day delivery and streaming service.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Amazon introduces 3D, shopping-ready Fire phone

SEATTLE - Amazon.com Inc's new cellphone seeks to offer shoppers instant gratification by recognizing thousands of products, television shows and songs and allowing users to immediately buy them - on the e-commerce giant's own site, of course.

The smartphone, which joins Amazon's "Fire" lineup of tablets and streaming devices, aims to stand out in a crowded field dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics . It represents an attempt to extend the company's dominance of online commerce into mobile phones, which are increasingly being used to buy items and view video.

But it's unclear how the phone's "Firefly" image- and audio-recognition feature or its much-touted 3D-perspectives will work in the real world, or how fickle consumers may respond to Amazon's latest bid to eliminate barriers to its core online retail business.

Users can press a button and point the phone at an object such as a can of soup or work of art, or direct it to listen to a song. If the device recognizes it, the user can buy it on Amazon, if it's sold there.

The technology, which works by matching images of items or songs to Amazon's database of over 100 million items, will be opened to app-developers for use, an approach that rivals Apple and Google have taken with their own mobile software.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, in a rare media appearance in Seattle, demonstrated three-dimensional display features on the 4.7-inch phone, such as greater depth perception in maps and pictures.

Four front-facing cameras track head movements and shift perspectives depending on a user's activity. Users can scroll through screens by tilting or swiveling the phone.

"One of the things that Amazon tried to do with this phone is reduce the amount of activity and input that users have to do to get results," said Dave Cotter, chief executive of SquareHub, an app that helps families share photos and other information.

"Instead of clicking a whole bunch of stuff, you hold the phone and it does things for you," said the former Amazon executive, who got his first peek at the phone more than two months ago.

Shares of Amazon climbed 2.7 percent to $334.38 on Wednesday.

Still, the smartphone represents unfamiliar territory for Amazon. Apple and Samsung now dominate the market, having pushed names like Motorola and Nokia to the sidelines.

Some may balk at the price. Industry insiders had expected the Fire phone to be far cheaper than iPhones or Galaxy devices, given Amazon sold its Fire tablets at cost.

Amazon is selling the Fire phone for $649 contract-free. From July 25, a 32-GB version will go for $199.99 with a contract on AT&T Inc. Those prices are comparable to the iPhone 5C's, though it has superior displays and other features.

To sweeten the deal, Amazon offered 12 months of membership to Prime, its two-day delivery and streaming service.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com