Jeff Bezos predicted to Amazon employees last week that "one day Amazon will fail," according to a recording of an internal meeting heard by CNBC. Bezos added that Amazon's job was to delay failure for as long as possible by focusing on its customers. READ MORE...

Baird Equity Research recently surveyed 670 online shoppers, and the results revealed that Amazon was solidly the preferred online shopping destination -- with nearly 60% preferring Amazon over Walmart. Context is important here, however, as Amazon is newly facing big challenges as both Walmart and Target started investing aggressively to enhance their e-commerce presence and services.It also indicated that Amazon saw a 20% decline in its share of e-commerce growth, thus standing at just above 50%, down from the 70% range in the recent quarters.

Amazon.com said that it shared some of its customers’ information with third parties by mistake. On Wednesday, the e-commerce behemoth emailed an undisclosed number of its users to notify them that their names and email addresses had been inadvertently leaked due to a "technical error".A privacy breach seems a potential threat to any digital platform’s reputation.

Amazon has reportedly placed its first round of bid for Disney’s 22 regional sports networks. Disney had acquired those networks from 21st Century Fox earlier this year as part of a $71.3 billion deal.And now, it might be preparing to divest some of the assets - as Amazon alongwith several private equity firms like Apollo Global Management, KKR, Blackstone and  broadcast-TV companies Tegna and Sinclair participated in the first round of bidding for the regional networks that include the YES Network (which broadcasts New York Yankees games) and other networks showing live regional games  of the Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as reported by CNBC, citing sources familiar with the bidding process. What’s more, Fox itself might be willing to buy back those 22 regional sports networks from Disney, as indicated by  Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch  earlier this month.

Alibaba on Sunday tore through last year's Singles Day sales record, racking up more than $30.8 billion in the 24-hour shopping event. Gross merchandise value (GMV), a figure that shows sales across the Chinese e-commerce giant's various shopping platforms, surpassed last year's $25.3 billion record at around 5:34 p.m. SIN/HK (4:34 a.m.ET) on Sunday, and kept marching higher through the rest of the day. READ MORE...

Black Friday is not too far off, and some analysts & economist are predicting solid consumer demand – something that should add to retailers' 'celebrations'. The National Retail Federation is expecting holiday sales to increase in the range of  +4.3% to +4.8% compared to 2017, which are higher growth rates than the past five years.Amazon ‘s special Christmas shopping offer includes free shipping on all orders, waiving the minimum purchase limit of $25 that otherwise applies to non-Prime users.

On Tuesday, the the e-commerce giant announced that it will split its HQ2 between New York's Long Island City and Northern Virginia’s Arlington County. Last year, Amazon had expressed plans to look for its HQ2, preferably where it can attract skilled people for its jobs and one that has access to mass transit. Hundreds of proposals started to pour in from across 54 states, provinces and districts of North America. Finally on Tuesday, Amazon revealed its choice to divide the second headquarter between two places.

Alibaba’s Singles Day bonanza clocked in a record $30.8 billion in sales over a 24 hour-period. November 11 (11/11) is celebrated in China as Singles Day for people who are single in terms of their relationship status.The growth rate was even faster in 2017 (at 40%). Interestingly, the country which ranked the second highest in terms of goods sold on Alibaba on Singles Day was the U.S. – notwithstanding the ongoing trade tensions and tariff-slapping rounds between China and the U.S.

If you've been paying attention in the past years, it seems that all anyone can talk about is the coming artificial intelligence boom on the horizon.Whether it's the Amazon, Google, or Facebook, everyone seems to be getting in on the AI game as fast as they can. READ MORE...

In recent times, Walmart has reportedly been upping the ante on baby products, including the addition of a new version of its diaper brand. However, the overall prices on Amazon were an average of 13 % lower than those on several other major online retailers,  according to Profitero’s research.But for certain specific categories, Amazon could not offer the cheapest prices: Chewy.com’s pet supplies was 2.3% cheaper, while Jet.com had 0.4% lower prices than Amazon in Beauty and 2.6% cheaper offers in Music & CDs.

This holiday season, Amazon gifts shoppers free shipping on all orders . The Christmas offer, starting Monday, waives the minimum purchase limit of $25 that otherwise applies to non-Prime users.The e-commerce giant’s Prime members get free delivery at other times as well, on eligible orders without a minimum purchase requirement. Amazon’s holiday incentive to shoppers comes at a time when its competitors like Target are also strategizing to milk the season’s consumer demand potential.

eBay has alleged that Amazon poached sellers by misusing an internal messaging system called M2M. In a lawsuit filed against Amazon in Santa Clara County on Wednesday, eBay mentions,  "Amazon's misuse of eBay's M2M system has been coordinated, targeted, and designed to inflict harm on eBay," while adding, "Indeed, one of the Amazon sales representatives who participated in this scheme described the team he worked on as a 'hunter/recruiter team which actively searches for sellers we believe can do well on the [Amazon] platform.On Amazon’s website, third-party sellers (who set prices for their own products, versus wholesaling to Amazon) now account for more than half the units sold on the e-platform. According to eBay's accusation, Amazon is "unwilling to fairly compete for third party seller business."

Amazon is hiking its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all U.S. employees - full-time, part-time and temporary workers.The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. Amazon's wage raise policy, which will take effect from November 1, is expected to benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees, plus 100,000 seasonal workers.  Given Amazon's  size, its expansive internal supply chains and technology, alongwith the rapid growth in its businesses and networking, Amazon’s move on wages could potentially impact the overall U.S. labor market to a substantial degree.The e-commerce giant has added the most number of jobs in the U.S. the past decade. Amazon will also increase minimum wages for its U.K. employees to £10.50 ($13.60) for the London area and £9.50 ($12.30) for the rest of the country.

Amazon-owned live-streaming video game platform Twitch is no longer available to  Chinese consumers. Chinese regulators of late have been increasingly stringent with the video gaming industry, and Twitch’s getting blocked in their nation (including on the iOS store in China) seems to be the latest proof of that.Last month, the Chinese government even imposed restrictions on the amount of time kids/teenagers should spend on new online games. Before losing access to Chinese consumers, Twitch was the third most popular free app in the Chinese iOS store, according to analytics firm App Annie.

The stock ended the day up +5%. The company - whose app offers consumer services including lunch reservations, buying movie tickets, booking vacations and hailing car rides -  raised $4.2 billion from its IPO, pricing its shares near the top of its target range.Thursday’s trade valued the company at about $50 billion. Formed in 2015 by the merger of two smaller companies Meituan and Dianping, the company is seen as a potential competitor to Chinese tech giant Alibaba and ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma might have turned skeptical about his promise to create 1 million US jobs, as U.S.-China trade tensions keep escalating. Last year, Jack Ma was eager to help American small businesses to sell their products to Chinese customers via Alibaba’s platform – a move he expected would boost jobs in the U.S.But given the intensifying US.-China trade wars in recent times,  Ma seems unsure about following up on his earlier promise. "This promise was on the basis of friendly China-US cooperation and reasonable bilateral trade relations, but the current situation has already destroyed that basis," Ma said in an interview published late Wednesday by China's official news agency, Xinhua.

European Union antitrust regulators are looking into whether or not Amazon has milked smaller retailers’ data to boost its own sales. Such data might include information on consumer preferences, the kind of offers people are liking and other factors that incentivize people to buy things." The EU has, in recent times, been keeping tech companies on a tight leash over their use of data and their compliance with industry competition rules.

Amazon is reportedly investigating charges that some of its employees are peddling confirdential data. A Wall Street Journal article alleged that the e-commerce giant's staff members are disclosing customer data (such as reviewer email addresses) to merchants/independent sellers and deleting negative reviews on products in exchange for money - something that  can potentially allow merchants to increase their product rankings or sales.Brokers for Amazon employees in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen leaked internal data to independent sellers for payments of between $80 and $2,000, according to the Journal report. An Amazon spokesperson told CNN it has "sophisticated systems to restrict and audit access to information," while adding that the company is investigating into the matter and would take action if anyone has violated the rules.  

Amazon said that its business-to-business operation has generated an annualized $10 billion in revenues globally. Launched in the U.S. in 2015, Amazon Business has schools, hospitals, factories, local governments and more than half of Fortune 100 companies as its users/customers.Outside the U.S., Amazon Business spans over several countries including Germany, Japan and India. Merchants pay a commission to Amazon on each sale.

Alibaba has inked a deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Mail.ru to form a joint venture worth $2 billion. Alibaba will fold its domestic operation of Tmall and AliExpress into the venture  called AliExpress Russia, while MegaFon PJSC will sell its 10 percent stake in Mail.ru to Alibaba in exchange for 24% of the venture.The Russian Direct Investment Fund will contribute an unspecified amount in return for a 13 percent stake. The joint venture seems to be a critical consumer business strategy, as it potentially connects  Mail.ru’s consumer services - spanning online food delivery, e-retail in Chinese goods and ride-hailing services - with Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplace platform AliExpress.