Lon Harris Says You Have to Scroll Past Half the Page on Amazon to Get Past the Ads
Harris roughly guessed Amazon's whole ad business at $30 billion or $40 billion, with Instacart and Uber also selling ads.
This Week in Startups · Binance Hacked $6.3B Stolen, DoorDash Buys Instacart For $17B, Jake Newfield from Hermetiq, + More!Podcast commentator Lon Harris, speaking with investor Jason Calacanis, said you have to scroll down about half the page past sponsored results on Amazon to reach the regular top matches for a search.
By way of comparison, Harris likened those sponsored listings to candy bars by the supermarket checkout, paid extras pitched as you finish shopping.
The Instacart figure was given as a reported figure: $1.2 billion from advertising, about 30% of revenue. Harris guessed Amazon's whole advertising business at 30 or 40 billion, and added he thought Uber was up to a couple billion.
Questions people ask
What is Instacart?
Instacart is a grocery delivery business. Its $1.2 billion in advertising, about 30% of revenue, was cited as an example of how large retail ads have become.
What does sponsored mean in search?
It means the seller paid for prominent placement for that search. Those paid listings appear first, before the regular ordering of results for the same search.