[rcach001]

Great contrast – and you're not really saying that Uber is not building infrastructure but that one is happening faster than the other one:

1) Uber: a) subsidize sales b) build infrastructure 2) Amazon: a) build infrastructure, b) grow sales at a sustainable rate even if it takes 20 years.

I think Zappos had the same business model. But we'll see.

[ghaff]

Zappos is an Amazon subsidiary even if it does operate quasi-independently (and quirkily from a management perspective). It looks a lot more like Amazon though with generally far less emphasis on building out infrastructure. Ultimately it's sort of a niche because of the nature of selling shoes online.

[andrewprock]

Zappos is now an Amazon subsidiary. It grew sustainably for a decade before Amazon acquired it.

[ghaff]

Yes. In many ways they grew more in the vein of many traditional mail order catalogs than Amazon.