When Amazon gets something right, they really get it right (Prime, AWS, Kindle). But no company bats 1,000.
This week, Amazon announced a new online storefront for customers 50 and older. It's not a terrible idea, but already the retail industry is debating whether baby boomers really want Amazon to remind them of their age.
If the 50+ Active and Healthy Living Store succeeds, expect to see Amazon.com sliced and diced with more custom storefronts targeted at specific demographics. If it fails, expect to hear nothing. The history of a company that's grown as fast as Amazon is littered with the skeletons of ideas that sounded good at the time. Unlike, say, Google Wave, however, you hardly ever hear about them.
But combing back through Amazon's failures isn't just about schadenfreude. These missteps also serve as an entertaining time capsule that remind just how much, and how quickly, life online has changed over the past decade-and-a-half.
Here are a few of Amazon's lesser accomplishments ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings results later this week:
Kozmo.com—Back in March 2000, when dotcom investors weren't worried about anything as crass as money, Amazon poured $60 million into get-shampoo-delivered-in-an-hour-for-free-by-a-bike-messenger company Kozmo.com. That was little more than 20 percent of the quarter-billion invested by a plethora of backers. But that big chunk of change still made Amazon one of the leading gamblers on what turned out to be a very short-lived startup. many l $1 million , Pets. Borders partnership. In-store pickup at Circuit City. See also: $50 million investment round led by Amazon in Pets.com.
Askville.com—Far from discouraged by its Kozmo.com experience, Amazon also backed askville.com, a crowdsourced question-and-answer site co-founded by Joseph Park, also a Kozmo co-founder. According to a 2007 press release, people who answered questions could earn "Quest Gold," which they could redeem for Amazon gift cards. Though the site is still up, even people who use it aren't sure why. One of the most recent questions posted: "Why does Amazon bother supporting askville dot com?"
Kindle and Instant Video apps for iOS—After Apple laid down the law on app developers by demanding a 30 percent cut of all in-app sales, Amazon tried to skirt the toll by linking out of its Kindle iOS app to its browser-based Kindle web store. Then Apple forced Amazon to strip out those links, leaving iPad and iPhone users with the awkward workaround of buying the e-book in their browser, then opening their Kindle app to read it. The same two-step process is required for buying then watching Amazon Instant Video in iOS.
Amazon Giver/Amazon Grapevine—Back in 2008, Amazon issued a press release announcing the launch of Amazon Giver ("let your Facebook friends know and buy what you wish for") and Amazon Grapevine ("show your friends what you've been up to on Amazon.com"). What happened to them? The only people who care seem to be on Askville.
LivingSocial—Amazon famously invested $175 million in Groupon competitor LivingSocial just as the daily deal fad peaked. Based on that stake, Amazon lost nearly that much money on LivingSocial in 2012, sending the e-commerce giant into the red for the year.
Bonus bad calls—Exclusive Segway sale. Paris Hilton's jewelry line. Melrose Place series finale memorabilia auction.
