Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

  • Jeff Bezos has informed Amazon staff he is stepping down as CEO, after 27 years running the company he founded
  • In an email to staff he said he plans “to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives” - ie, use his enormous wealth to hang out with hollywood celebs
  • Taking over is the current head of AWS, Andy Jassy. This makes a lot of sense, as AWS went from a loss leader to one of the biggest services in the world, powering a lot of the sites you use every day.
  • Who is Andy Jassy, Amazon's next CEO?
  • CNBC has a nice rundown of Andy, “In September, a column in the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, called Jassy the “clear heir apparent” to Bezos.”

Microsoft's Bing ready to step in if Google pulls search from Australia, minister says

  • Microsoft has jumped into the Media code story.
  • On Monday, ScoMo joked he’d been on the blower to Satya Nadella, to discuss Bing filling the search engine void if Google left the market
  • At present Microsoft’s search engine Bing enjoys only 3.7 per cent market share in Australia, compared with Google’s 94 per cent.
  • At best, Australians are lukewarm on Bing
  • As those numbers show, most people don’t use Bing - and according to the Fin, the average punter is not happy to move.
  • Salon owners optimistic about future without Google, as tech giant threatens to leave Australia
  • Although the Australian has a story about small business owners who think Google leaving may be a “blessing in disguise”, as so much time is devoted to SEO
  • Microsoft willing to accept new media bargaining code, unlike Google, Facebook
  • And just to be even cheekier, Microsoft says it is happy to pay the media code. Clever move.

Google Rides Global Ad Recovery to Record Revenue

  • Google has reported its Quarterly earnings, and the company is doing alright
  • Google parent Alphabet Inc posted a record $56.9 billion revenue, up from $43.2 billion a year ago.
  • YouTube revenue soared 46% in the quarter, as advertisers flocked to the video-sharing platform amid the pandemic
  • Alphabet’s “Other Bets'' division, which is a combination of Google’s moonshot ideas, continues to burn money, but at a slower rate. The division lost $1.14 billion compared to $2.03 billion in Q4 2019. Alphabet reports Q4 2020 revenue of $56.9 billion

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