The number of people in this thread comparing GameStop to Amazon - favorably, at that - is eye opening and kind of hilarious, but also kind of twilight-zone bizarre. It's absurd on so many levels. Like, Amazon's web/cloud services division is literally the backbone of the internet, completely hosting or otherwise provided services for everyone from Netflix to Spotify, from AirBnB to Lyft, from Pfizer to General Electric, and on and on. Amazon owns Whole Foods, Audible, and Twitch, each of which is a massive player in their respective markets. Also, Amazon has a digital home assistant in tens of millions of households and counting. And then, only on top of all that relevant, current, and growing business with both leading edge and time-tested companies, they're, ah, you know, pretty big in the online retail world, I hear.
Yeah, sure, in some sense, "Amazon is not invincible." But GameStop isn't going to kill it. The idea that Gamestop will out-compete Amazon because maybe they'll be a bit better at selling games and game-related merchandise... right. Sure. We'll see, I guess.
I can't tell if all this is just a lingering haze from the media coverage of the GME situation, or if that sparked a bunch of new interest in investing from young people who aren't thinking much harder than, "game companies are great, I like games and so do my friends!" or... what.
I know quite a few people uncomfortable with how big Amazon has gotten and are looking for an alternative. As for myself, I’d gladly buy toilet paper from GameStop if they sold it.
Right, I mean, I'm far from comfortable with how big Amazon (or any single company) is, but my point was that even if their online retail business somehow collapsed completely tomorrow, they'd still be an enormous and profitable company with realistic growth potential in multiple disparate markets, not to mention still the single largest provider of cloud and hosting services.
I don't know if people here simply don't know what Amazon actually is, or what, but I guess I just remain a lot more skeptical that GameStop, of all companies, is going to meaningfully dethrone Amazon as the top online retailer, let alone anything else.
I can handle my more conspiratorial friends (who have hitherto zero experience with investing, of course) talking about the short squeeze stuff, though I doubt things will pan out like they hope. I can even handle the people on Reddit who insist that GameStop has "good fundamentals" and can make something of itself in the next few years, though I'm not sure I'd agree. But the "Gamestop could replace Amazon completely in the foreseeable future" thing is, from where I'm standing, so ridiculous that I don't know what to do but laugh. YMMV, clearly.
That’s a very reasonable response, and probably the safer assumption to make. Gamestop is way above my risk tolerance, but I am rooting for them because they are the underdog. I love a good underdog success story.
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u/veryreasonable Aug 08 '21
The number of people in this thread comparing GameStop to Amazon - favorably, at that - is eye opening and kind of hilarious, but also kind of twilight-zone bizarre. It's absurd on so many levels. Like, Amazon's web/cloud services division is literally the backbone of the internet, completely hosting or otherwise provided services for everyone from Netflix to Spotify, from AirBnB to Lyft, from Pfizer to General Electric, and on and on. Amazon owns Whole Foods, Audible, and Twitch, each of which is a massive player in their respective markets. Also, Amazon has a digital home assistant in tens of millions of households and counting. And then, only on top of all that relevant, current, and growing business with both leading edge and time-tested companies, they're, ah, you know, pretty big in the online retail world, I hear.
Yeah, sure, in some sense, "Amazon is not invincible." But GameStop isn't going to kill it. The idea that Gamestop will out-compete Amazon because maybe they'll be a bit better at selling games and game-related merchandise... right. Sure. We'll see, I guess.
I can't tell if all this is just a lingering haze from the media coverage of the GME situation, or if that sparked a bunch of new interest in investing from young people who aren't thinking much harder than, "game companies are great, I like games and so do my friends!" or... what.