When I was 16 about, I read a biography of Howard Hughes. The only thing that really stuck with me was a line regarding the Hughes empire in the 70s when he was at his craziest but the money still kept pouring in, the idea was that basically once you got to a certain size there is a long time before your mismanagement can hope to decrease the money flow.

Also, how much of that 1.5T is because of AWS?

How do you know it's related to their advertising team? I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon (mainly because their delivery is - usually = reliable, their selection is good and their return policy is generous) but I can't remember the last time I bought anything by clicking on an ad. That didn't happen for many years at least. In fact, I'm not sure I ever bought anything on Amazon by clicking on an ad, if you exclude affiliate links and people just reviewing stuff and then giving Amazon link.

It's probably because people just shop from them, not because I bought the gay pride shirt, hat, wallet, car seat cover, pencils, earrings, and bracelet that Amazon thought I wanted. I still cannot figure out why Amazon almost exclusively goes on these advertising tangents of junk I have a rather explicit disinterest in. If targeted advertising showed me things I would find interesting I would be all for it to some extent, but when it shows me automotive stuff for vehicles I don't own after I buy a digital micrometer I can't begin to think it's a good system at all. (Examples mentioned are real experiences of Amazon's suggestions of things I may like)

Maybe the Dutch website is different but I think it is one of the worst webshops I've been on. When you search for a product you end up in a flood of pages with half related products. No filters, nothing. So I never find what I am looking for and just leave.

Now I don't think Amazon is stupid so there must be a reason for this experience.

I also think they know something we don't.

Yeah, they know exactly how stupid the average company’s marketing team is that they’re willing to pay for this kind of stuff.

As a reader, I must say that at least in the books section the recommendations work. If I buy a book I like, I look for automated recommendations, because the chance I might like those books is rather high.