[EDIT] - "profits" -> revenue. Wrote the same comment twice and only made the mistake here. Amazon consistently makes over 90B in revenues quarterly.
Fining more than revenue in Italy is one thing and may look bad on paper if you take an italy-centric view but 1B is ~1% of Amazon's quarterly revenue. Amazon is a massive company and Italy could be a loss-leader for years maybe even decades and not make a dent. All the while Italian businesses suffer and wealth compounds somewhere else.
There's also no absolute way to measure the market share/billions (and in which related markets) they've captured by the abuse they've perpetrated. Generally governments fine too little and too late, not too much and too early.
[EDIT] - Apologies, you are right -- I mistakenly wrote "profit" -- I meant to only discuss revenue. The comment has been corrected now.
Please note that I'm talking about revenue not profit ("income"). In 2020 (and 2021, which to be fair are maybe a little bit skewed) Amazon was consistently making >$90B in revenue for the quarter. Key word being revenue.
> The company also delivered its largest quarter by revenue of all time at $125.56 billion, pushing it past the symbolic $100 billion mark for the first time.[0]
Wow it's frustratingly hard to find such a simple thing as revenue for a company graphed by quarter -- ycharts is at least straight forward[1].
I think it's interesting for figuring out whether this was a profitable long-term move for Amazon requires thinking about revenue rather than profit. Compared to the temporary loss due to the fine (who knows what will actually end up getting paid, how it gets paid, etc) the revenue share (that will recur) that matters more long term.
If you paid 1.3B one-time to secure yourself a revenue stream that pays out 200MM than you would have otherwise gained a quarter, you're going to make your money back in ~6 quarters. It's absolutely worth it to take the temporary hit to income (obviously better if you didn't, which they were counting on) -- in fact knowing up front it'd be worth it.
Considering only the hit to short term income makes sense only in the short term, I think -- the Italian industry that was muscled out because they didn't want to use FBA, or the italian logistics providers that weren't chosen because of the incentive to use FBA face more difficulty. Amazon is amplifying solidifying it's own revenue streams, and that effect is likely to persist past a quarter or two.
I may be mistaken but I think of it like the other non-profit making tech companies that are floating around -- unexpected losses in the service of market domination are worth the gained and/or even-more-stabilized revenue streams.
Fining more than revenue in Italy is one thing and may look bad on paper if you take an italy-centric view but 1B is ~1% of Amazon's quarterly revenue. Amazon is a massive company and Italy could be a loss-leader for years maybe even decades and not make a dent. All the while Italian businesses suffer and wealth compounds somewhere else.
There's also no absolute way to measure the market share/billions (and in which related markets) they've captured by the abuse they've perpetrated. Generally governments fine too little and too late, not too much and too early.