Is Amazon The Next Google?

Google (GOOG) has grown to be one of the most innovative and multifaceted companies on the planet. Every time you turn around, they are investing in something new, dipping their toes into healthcare, or pondering the next greatest technology. There’s no doubt that Google has incredible name recognition. After all, most of us utilize their search services every single day (and multiple times a day.)

However, what’s important for investors to know is Google isn’t the only company who has their sights set on a big future. Lately, Amazon (AMZN) has been expanding in a variety of unique ways. It seems like every time I log onto my computer to read the business news, Amazon is front and center. Over the last few months, journalists have written about both positive and negative developments over at Amazon. Remember when they had the author dispute? They were able to recover very quickly from that without so much as blinking an eye.

Then, I recently wrote about Amazon developing their own range of home products including trying their hand at the very competitive market of infant diapers. However, just two months after releasing the diapers, they’ve now discontinued them due to negative feedback. They likely won’t go away forever though. Amazon is just taking some time to re-engineer them.

You would think that even more negative news would cause investors to be worried about Amazon but not so. Just today, news broke that Amazon will be launching their own business e-mail service called WorkMail that will rival Microsoft (MSFT) and even Google. Although Amazon’s overall profits have suffered because they have been investing heavily in warehouses and data centers, each one of these purchases will help Amazon to expand rapidly and capture a prime piece of the tech company market share.

In the midst of all the news, there are also rumors that Amazon is working on another project entirely. Apparently they are about to buy an Israeli chip company worth $375 million dollars. The company, Annapurna Labs, is a start up and very tight lipped about their products. This could be one of the most significant investments Amazon has made in its history and investors should be watching closely to see if they make the acquisition soon.

Today, Amazon stock currently hovers around $300/share. I have no doubt that in the future, with all of these expansions and changes, Amazon will become a more and more valuable company.

As evidenced, Amazon is able to easily weather negative news, they have a loyal customer base, and they have a significant workforce that allows them to explore expansions into multiple different markets. As for whether or not they will become the next Google, that remains to be seen. They certainly had a very different start with selling books, but now that they are a major player in the technology space and developing web mail solutions, they just might be a major Google competitor especially in years to come.