He's a pro-customer, tightfisted risk-taker who is conditioning Wall Street to embrace his erratic earnings. If you're running a business with high margins -- watch out.

I am fascinated with Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Years ago I became obsessed with Steve Jobs and Apple and the differences between the two companies are drastic. People compare Jeff and Steve all the time, but there isn't much in common from their philosophies.

The first thing that fascinates me about Amazon is when are they going to start making money? Sure they bring in a large amount of revenue, but they really don't bring anything to the bottom line. Can they ever? If they make moves to make more bottom line will they lose their extremely price sensitive customers? It will be interesting to watch.

I also don't know if this low margin business model is actually good for the consumer in the long run. Sure, it's always nice to pay next to nothing for any items, but there are always consequences. Innovation will lessen if a competitor can come in later and make no money and steal all the marketshare. Also, for companies that sell to Amazon, if price is always driven down and margins are always squeezed, the products become worse over time. Companies need to make money and margins are a good thing as it allows for better innovation in the product and higher R&D budgets. If the margins are so low, the only innovation becomes cost-cutting and that is not good for anyone, especially the consumer.

Again, it will be interesting to watch.

I totally agree with this article. Companies like Amazon and Google are ruining innovation and stifling competition. If they are going to compete in many markets at a loss, it prevents many other companies from entering the space because they can't compete and make a profit.

I still don't understand the fascination with market share. Market share without profit is meaningless. The theory with Amazon is eventually they'll be able to bring some of that massive top-line to the bottom, but can they really? Are customers loyal to Amazon or the price? If they try to get more margin will they keep the business or have they just trained their customers to expect the service and goods at a discounted price and wait until they get it?

It's about time Wall Street and bloggers start rewarding companies that make money and are growing longterm sustainable business models, instead of focusing on market share and number of non-paying customers a company acquires.