> Amazon might be a good analogy here. I'm old enough to remember when Amazon absorbed billions of VC money, making losses year over year. Every day there was some new article about how insane it was.
When was this true? Amazon was founded Jul 1994, and a publicly listed company by May 1997. I highly doubt Amazon absorbed billions of dollars of VC money in less than 3 years of the mid 1990s.
I don't know about vc money but Amazon was well known for spending all revenue into growth and, to my understanding, noone understood why. Why buy stocks of companies that don't make profit?
Nowadays, it's not unusual. Jeff Bezoz was laughed about for it. I think even on TV (some late night show in the 90s).
The talk shows segments are pre-planned to have “funny” quips and serve as marketing for the guests.
I was only a teenager, but I assume there had been lots of businesses throughout the course of history that took more than 5 years to be profitable.
The evidence is that investors were buying shares in it valuing it in the billions. Obviously, this is 1999 and approach peak bubble, but investing into a business for multiple years and waiting to earn a profit was not an alien idea.
I especially doubt it was alien to a mega successful celebrity and therefore I would bet Jay Leno is 100% lying about “not understanding” in this quote, and it is purely a setup for Bezos to respond so he can promote his business.
> “Here’s the thing I don’t understand, the company is worth billions and every time I pick up the paper each year it loses more money than it lost the year before,” says the seasoned talk show presenter, with the audience erupting into laughter off screen.
When was this true? Amazon was founded Jul 1994, and a publicly listed company by May 1997. I highly doubt Amazon absorbed billions of dollars of VC money in less than 3 years of the mid 1990s.
https://dazeinfo.com/2019/11/06/amazon-net-income-by-year-gr...
As far as I can tell, they were very break even until Amazon Web Services started raking it in.