Sunday, February 16

Last week, when Amazon SVP for global corporate affairs Jay Carney told everyone who’d listen that Amazon was a great company, he sparked a singular reaction: “Who asked you?”

His praise of Amazon’s $15 minimum wage left CNBC host Carl Quintanilla befuddled: “Why not just pay the wage and go about your business?” he asked. His New York Times op-ed with a similar message left readers feeling the same. “I like that the most common response to this idiotic piece by @JayCarney is ‘that's interesting now pay your taxes,’” said Matt Stoller, the author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. And that was before Carney lost his mind on Twitter.

It was odd watching the former White House press secretary put a “Kick Me” sign on his company’s back, but his media blitz makes a bit more sense in context. Allow me to take a swing at explaining what’s happening at Amazon.

When CEO Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, he spoke and spoke, and then spoke some more. He gave interviews. He did Taco Bell commercials. And in a conversation you can still watch on YouTube, he even explained Amazon’s strategy to someone filming with a low-end handheld camera.

As time went on, Bezos became more shut in. Publications doubted Amazon’s business — “Amazon.bomb" declared Barrons in 1999. Then, journalist Brad Stone published The Everything Store in 2013, which many at Amazon revered for its accuracy, but the company’s leadership hated. MacKenzie Bezos, Jeff’s then–wife, gave the book a one-star review, calling it a “lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon.” Bezos declined to be interviewed for the book.

Eventually, Bezos disengaged almost completely. He essentially stopped giving interviews to the press, and Amazon’s public relations department became a source of frustration among reporters. Amazon’s home in Seattle, far away from the majority of the tech press in San Francisco, made it easier for the company to let its products do the talking.

Amid this quiet period, Amazon took off. It introduced the world’s most popular voice computing system. It grew its cloud services business. It developed a third party fulfillment operation. It built an Academy Award-winning movie studio. It became a grocer. It invented the convenience store of the future in Amazon Go. It grew its Prime subscriptions to 150 million. I mean, take a look at this chart:

With bigness, came more scrutiny. After living relatively unbothered for years, Amazon became the center the “techlash” — a distinction it earned. Politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders criticized the company for its low wages. Reporters unearthed disturbing labor practices. Some of the company’s own employees engaged in an open revolt, protesting its climate practices and stewardship of Ring, its doorbell that doubles as an apparatus of the surveillance state.

Under fire, Amazon no longer wants to keep silent. Carney is giving interviews. And Bezos even showed up at a media event last September. But getting good at this requires practice. And when you’re out of it, it is very hard to start back up.

So Carney flopped last week. But as long as Amazon’s new engagement with the public leads to more transparency, and not to less investigative reporting, this sounds good to me. Amazon is the fourth largest company in the world — behind Microsoft, Apple, and Saudi Aramco — we’d all be better served knowing more about it.

Take A Look Inside Amazon

My forthcoming book, Always Day One, which comes out on April 7, features a number of constructive conversations with people inside Amazon. When I got inside, I learned secrets about the company's inner workings that should be of interest to its competitors, and anyone interested in technology. Per tradition, here are the preorder links. I’d be thrilled if you picked up a copy:

Amazon
Apple
Barnes and Noble
Indie Bound

The Final Word

Well, I know we went long this week. If you scrolled all the way down here, I really do appreciate it. How are you liking the newsletter? What would you like more of? Less of? Email me back or chat with me on Twitter.

Have a great week, everyone.