Who would have guessed that when Amazon.com launched nearly 20 years ago as a means to sell books via the nascent Internet, it would become the largest online retailer in the world in our current hyper-digital society.
Amazon today sells more than simply books, furniture, DVDs, and just about anything else under the sun you could ever want, need, produce, imagine or invent. It also sells the very Cloud-based web computing services and other elements of its own impressively durable infrastructure it needed to develop in order to become the titan of industry it's fashioned itself into.
Not to mention the fact that Amazon has also in recent years delved into pioneering new territory by engineering and selling its own e-Reader devices in the Kindle line that have become just as popular and successful as its other services and products.
As it seems Amazon has the mythical "Golden Touch" that is so chimerical these days in the exponentially nebulous tech industry, we were delighted to sit down with an unnamed software developer at the company, who "bounces around doing different things" at the company -- from front-end work to Android development -- and discuss what he feels makes the organization such a vibrant one.
Our source also spoke with us about his thoughts on how Amazon, e-Readers in general and the massive proliferation (if not eventual omnipresence) of the Net has or has not affected our culture in general and what future generations have to look forward if, indeed, bookstores become a thing of the past.
*The following opinions and statements do not reflect or represent those of Amazon or its subsidiaries, et al in any way.
iTech Post: You've mentioned that you work a great deal with Android development over at Amazon. Why do you believe the company has gone that route as opposed to larger investments in iOS or Microsoft?
Source: I've actually never even used iPhone before, to be honest, so it's hard for me to make that judgment call. Overall, I wasn't surprised at the whole Google Maps controversy that erupted a few months ago with iPhone where they decided to not allow Google Maps because they wanted their own map application. That sort of behavior is a part of the Apple thing, which kind of works for them a lot of the time because you get a nice ecosystem where things work well together. But then I don't want them to suddenly tell me I can't use something I like. That's the general feel for Android for me: the open nature of it.
iTech Post: Are there any downsides to working so much with Android-based products?
S: Being that "open" has its own set of problems because there's so much reputation within Android. To try to release an application, you have to test it on a like hundred different devices and deal with all these variations and hardware; it adds a lot of complexity developing for Android.
iTech Post: What were your thoughts about Apple suing you guys for allegedly stealing the name of the "App Store"?
S: I actually don't know anything about that, but also I probably wouldn't be allowed to comment on it if I did know anything about it. It's messed up: there are certain things where there would be an obvious name, but then the legal department says, like, "We're not using this name. You're not allowed to use any name for the next four months until we decide what name we're allowed to use." There are a few of those moments.
iTech Post: Now that Amazon is expanding its Android App Store more internationally to Asia and other markets, how do you feel this may change what you guys are doing?
S: It was weird for me to realize that we weren't already there. Even for retail web and other Amazon things. I don't even know what's available internationally right now, but it's pretty incredible to think large parts of the world don't have these services yet. When they do, I think it will be pretty huge for us and for them.
iTech Post: What kinds of challenges are you facing with these new rollouts?
S: There are different parts of Amazon: the web site, the devices themselves - Kindle devices rolled out to U.S. first and started rolling out elsewhere - and within the services available on the devices: they're getting rolled out piecemeal to new territories.
It actually made it real hard at work for a while because everyone was really stressed about hitting all these release dates for all these new territories. Because it's actually a lot of work to localize applications, to internationalize them. It's kind of a pain in the ass, but it was necessary.
iTech Post: What was a pain in the ass about it, specifically?
S: You kind of have to design things accordingly. Even just getting different text in the boxes for that particular language is kind of hard because of the way you have to format it so that it can work with any language. Obviously Japanese is very different from English. Then there are certain things about Japanese design where they actually want the layout to look different because of their different sensibilities. It did end up being a huge project that took a ton of time. You initially approach it and say, "Oh, we'll just externalize some strings and have different resource files for each country." But it just ended up taking a lot of engineering effort to move on.
iTech Post: Amazon has clearly seen much of its success in its diversifying, but do you feel there might be some value in sticking to one main focus instead?
S: Yeah, I think the intuition you've just described is 100% true -- focusing in on what you do best, because you can't be all things to all people, particularly for web/technology companies. But the interesting thing about Amazon is we started selling books and just the infrastructure we built up in doing that really well allowed us to sell everything really well. Like better than anybody else.
iTech Post: What do you mean by that?
S: Once we became the biggest retailer in the world, our website scaled more than any other website. We can handle more traffic on Christmas day than any other website. So our back-end web services were more scalable than anyone.
So once we were the best at scaling web services to handle massive amounts of traffic, it was like, "Let's just turn that itself into a service and sell that." That's sort of where Amazon Web Services came in. In the process of building one thing, we became so good at something else, we could then make a product out of it. Then from there, it's moving into producing our own devices like the Kindle. And that isnew territory. It's a different approach.
iTech Post: You're definitely kicking Barns & Noble's ass.
S: Yeah. I mean, Barnes & Noble kicked the little guys' ass, so ... But I mean, a part of that is -- I don't know anything about the Nook, so I might be completely wrong -- but Barnes & Noble is not an engineering company, and Amazon is, so we have the resources and experience to build really good devices.
iTech Post: What is the secret to the successes Amazon has had with the Kindle and these web services? Is it in who you're hiring?
S: Not everything we do is a complete success. Certain projects never catch on. Others get cancelled. The main goal of the company from the very top is to be the world's most customer-focused company. That's not just what I have to say, being an employee. It's like, that's kinda what we ask ourselves with everything we work on. Is the thing we're going to work on now going to benefit the customer the most?
iTech Post: That does seem a bit like rhetoric.
S: I don't know how that directly translates to success, but it is our core tenet. Along with that is the "trust factor" like that thing that just came out that said Amazon is the World's Most Trusted Company. That's why people keep coming back to shop at Amazon, put down their credit cards ...
iTech Post: So is it just the "Positive Spiral" factor Bill Gates has talked about in the past? You guys were pretty much there first, people trusted you then, they grew to trust you more and now you're the Most Trusted from having been for so long?
S: Trust wasn't just about being "the big one." Customer data is just bigger. Within the company, if there was even the smallest breach of customer trust, it would be like the apocalypse within the organization.
iTech Post: And now you guys are moving on to not only creating your own "television" programming but also creating a system of crowd-sourcing what will be shown and what won't. What are your thoughts on this radical development?
S: I heard about it a while ago and it seemed like a pretty interesting idea. I'm not involved in it at all, but it's the sort of thing where everyone who's in the production industry says it's a terrible idea that will never work. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you're disrupting an industry. But, yeah, it's a pretty interesting idea.
iTech Post: Why do you think it's a good idea?
S: I don't necessarily think it's a good or bad idea. I just think it's an interesting idea because -- I'm no expert in how movies and television shows are made currently -- but the whole current system seems kind of designed to produce garbage that appeals to the lowest common denominator. There's some great television out there right now, but there's already some competing models out there, too.
There are some crappy sitcoms that get released and then there's some great things released by HBO and things like that. Having more models out there to compete against each other? That can only be good, I think. If the end goal is to have better entertainment out there for people and better variety out there, which is now possible because of crowd-sourcing and Internet, whatever comes of it will be lessons learned and better entertainment.
iTech Post: How much of all this success is based on how Amazon has pioneered Cloud-based technology, even before Google and others who have taken such services to new heights as well?
S: As far as Cloud goes - I mean, the word means a lot of stuff [laughs]. But for us, we're talking about, like, Amazon Web Services, and that's sort of like business-to-business type Cloud. All of your abstract process power, we'll just take all that over and it will happen in a black box somewhere and will be replicated and backed-up so you don't have to worry about it or maintain your own data center.
But there's other ideas too like Google's Chromebooks which is like the customer-based Cloud where the whole computer is on the Cloud. The living factor on that is just connectivity at all times. I think the really interesting thing is where that sort of thing will go. Always connected, always having access to the Internet-processing power of the Cloud; you can kick off any amount of intense computation from your phone and it just gets handled "somewhere out there" and the results come back to you.
iTech Post: And then of course there's Amazon's e-Readers themselves. Are you a fan, personally?
S: I am, actually. I was an early adopter of the original Kindle v. 1 before I worked for Amazon because I traveled a lot for my previous career and I needed to not be carrying around pounds of books. That was invaluable to me to have that. And I still use it.
iTech Post: Do you have any sense of missing the feel or smell of an actual book?
S: I actually don't miss the feel or smell [laughs]. But I miss having a bunch of books on the shelf. That's the main thing. The collector aspect of human nature is to have things on display after you've consumed them. But I already adjusted to that because all my books are still at my parents' house. I don't know. I think everyone has sentimentality for different aspects of different things that played a big part in their life. There's no intrinsic worth to it other than their own memories to it, I think.
iTech Post: I was recently walking around with and taking the subway with a book that people were pointing out to me and coming up to me asking about just because they saw it and hadn't known about it previously. I probably sold three copies of it that way in a week.
With an e-reader or even phones, tablets or other mobile devices, you miss that sense of word-of-mouth sales. What are your thoughts on this "intrinsic worth" part of the industry people seem to be forgetting about?
S: That's pretty interesting, actually. I don't know if it's going to play out this way, but that can be overcome by technology too. You could click a button that could be "Broadcast My Kindle" so people could see what you're reading within ten feet of where you are. I don't know if people would actually do that.
iTech Post: I doubt people would actually do that.
S: As soon as I got my Kindle, any time I would be using it, people would be asking me about it and asking me what I was reading, so I probably had more interactions about what I was reading then.
iTech Post: Well, that was back when Kindle was still a novelty, so people would be more likely to talk with you about it and whatever you were reading. It's not quite like that anymore.
S: That's true, but on the other hand, if someone posts on Facebook, "I just bought this book. This book is awesome" or posts on Amazon, "This book is great", that gets seen by way more people than the number of those who would see you on your subway.
iTech Post: Is that actually true? Are people really finding out more about books through the Internet and sources like Amazon than via traditional means?
S: Obviously the customer reviews and recommendation engine within Amazon are really powerful. I know we do have great success with follow-through on recommended books. "If you're looking at this, you might like this." "If you bought this, you might want to buy this." Those are extremely successful methods to get people to buy books.
iTech Post: I happen to know you spent a great deal of your younger days wandering around bookstores and rifling through physical stacks of books. Do you ever lament the potential end of the bookstore we might be seeing in sight here?
S: Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing with record stores, too. I spent a huge portion of my youth looking at stacks and stacks of tapes on the wall and reading track listings and looking at album covers. I'm definitely sentimental about all that stuff. But it's easy to forget the benefits as we remember what we've lost. If the goal is to discover music or discover books, and just have access to information about them, there's no comparison between then and now. But you do miss out on that actual place, which is sad. But there's other things now the kids do, which they'll have fond memories of, as well.
Do you know someone in the tech community who would want to speak with us about his or her feelings about, well, the tech community? Feel free to connect with us, or email m.klickstein [@] itechpost.com.
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