????亞馬遜（Amazon）未能達(dá)到其盈利預(yù)期，引發(fā)媒體尖刻批評(píng)：這個(gè)電子商務(wù)巨頭“揮金如土”，如今終于自食其果。即便較為溫和的報(bào)道，也多多少少地將亞馬遜描述成一家大手大腳或大肆揮霍的公司。其股價(jià)在周三大幅下跌，開(kāi)盤(pán)后幾分鐘即下降近10%。

????亞馬遜真的是個(gè)敗家子嗎？

????亞馬遜財(cái)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人湯姆?史庫(kù)塔克認(rèn)真描述了公司支出增加的原因。他在同分析師的電話(huà)會(huì)議中稱(chēng)，“我們正投資，以便大幅擴(kuò)容。”。他說(shuō)的是亞馬遜的分銷(xiāo)設(shè)施以及面向視頻、音樂(lè)、電子書(shū)和其他數(shù)字產(chǎn)品的服務(wù)器空間，亞馬遜希望在不遠(yuǎn)的將來(lái)大幅提高上述產(chǎn)品的銷(xiāo)量。

????同時(shí)，亞馬遜近期還推出了Kindle Fire，積極準(zhǔn)備與蘋(píng)果（Apple）以及其影碟租賃及流媒體服務(wù)供應(yīng)商N(yùn)etflix 和在線音樂(lè)服務(wù)商Spotify等他競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者一決高下。Kindle Fire旨在挑戰(zhàn)iPad和其他平板電腦。Fire將于下個(gè)月發(fā)售，屆時(shí)售價(jià)將為199美元，接近其成本價(jià)格，比蘋(píng)果最便宜的iPad還要便宜200美元。Fire短期內(nèi)不會(huì)對(duì)亞馬遜的利潤(rùn)率提升有多大好處，但該公司的目的是向人們銷(xiāo)售盡可能多的Fire，這樣它就可以向人們銷(xiāo)售自己數(shù)字產(chǎn)品，以及實(shí)體產(chǎn)品，因?yàn)镕ire最終將被優(yōu)化為一個(gè)移動(dòng)的亞馬遜商店。

????這筆投資是否成功，可能很大程度上取決于有多少客戶(hù)會(huì)接受——或者甚至偏好——Fire的小屏幕：Fire的屏幕為7英寸，而iPad的顯示器為9.7英寸。

????這些投資對(duì)于亞馬遜的計(jì)劃而言是否數(shù)額過(guò)于龐大？還有，這些計(jì)劃是否根本就非明智之舉？對(duì)于這些問(wèn)題，觀察者們可能有不同看法。但如果將這些投資是為亞馬遜“消費(fèi)習(xí)慣”的證據(jù)，就等于相信亞馬遜2012年第三季度比其2012年或是2015年又或是2025年第三季度或是中間所有季度都更重要。亞馬遜投資者關(guān)系頁(yè)上寫(xiě)道：“我們致力于成為這個(gè)星球上最以客戶(hù)為中心的公司，我們面向三大客戶(hù)群體：消費(fèi)者客戶(hù)、銷(xiāo)售商客戶(hù)以及開(kāi)放商客戶(hù)。”上面并沒(méi)有說(shuō)：“我們致力于每個(gè)季度都超出分析師們的預(yù)期。”

????而且這次它確實(shí)沒(méi)有做到這一點(diǎn)。亞馬遜本季度的利潤(rùn)下滑了73%，降至6,300萬(wàn)美元，或每股14美分。分析師們對(duì)利潤(rùn)的預(yù)測(cè)平均約為每股24美分。該公司甚至警告稱(chēng)，其在第四季度可能出現(xiàn)虧損。資產(chǎn)管理公司Robert W. Baird & Co的.分析師科林?塞巴斯汀向彭博新聞（Bloomberg News）表示，如果亞馬遜的投資僅使收入增長(zhǎng)，但“其利潤(rùn)并未出現(xiàn)相應(yīng)增長(zhǎng)，投資者就會(huì)開(kāi)始撓頭了。”

????沒(méi)錯(cuò)。但是現(xiàn)在就已經(jīng)到了撓頭的時(shí)候了嗎？該公司上個(gè)月剛剛推出了Fire，三周后才將發(fā)布該產(chǎn)品。現(xiàn)在完全無(wú)從猜測(cè)這些平板電腦會(huì)對(duì)數(shù)字產(chǎn)品或?qū)嶓w產(chǎn)品的銷(xiāo)售產(chǎn)生多大的刺激作用。周二史庫(kù)塔克只肯透露說(shuō)Fire的預(yù)售“非常火爆”。亞馬遜稱(chēng)，9月28日，即該公司Fire及其它Kindle產(chǎn)品面世當(dāng)日，是Kindle系列所有產(chǎn)品有史以來(lái)定購(gòu)量最大的一天。

????同理，該公司仍在打造其云計(jì)算服務(wù)，在過(guò)去一年，它增加了17個(gè)新的數(shù)據(jù)中心。這些都會(huì)侵蝕利潤(rùn)，但長(zhǎng)期來(lái)看應(yīng)該會(huì)促進(jìn)利潤(rùn)增長(zhǎng)。與此同時(shí)，隨著電子書(shū)迅速取代紙質(zhì)書(shū)，消費(fèi)者們正在紛紛購(gòu)買(mǎi)各種型號(hào)的Kindle。

????亞馬遜的銷(xiāo)售額在本季度增長(zhǎng)44%，與預(yù)期相符。該公司最近一次出現(xiàn)虧損是整整10年前，當(dāng)時(shí)它也是在進(jìn)行擴(kuò)張并大舉投資于基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施以搶奪市場(chǎng)份額，而它也確實(shí)如愿以?xún)敗?/p>

????譯者：項(xiàng)航

????Amazon's earnings miss elicited a shrill response from the press: the e-commerce giant's "big-spending ways" finally caught up with it. Even some of the more muted coverage has, more or less, characterized Amazon as a shopaholic or spendthrift of sorts. The company's shares traded sharply lower on Wednesday, down nearly 10% a few minutes after the open.

????Is Amazon (AMZN) really a reckless spender?

????The company's finance chief, Tom Szkutak, soberly described the reasons for its increased outlays: "We're investing in a lot of capacity," he said during a conference call with analysts, referring to new distribution facilities and server space for the video, music, e-books and other digital products the company plans to sell a lot more of in the near future.

????Amazon is also gearing up for battle with Apple (AAPL) and other competitors -- like Netflix (NFLX) and Spotify -- with the new Kindle Fire, which is meant to take on the iPad and other tablets. When the Fire is released next month, it will sell for $199, which is at or near cost, by mos accounts, and which is $200 less than what Apple is charging for its cheapest iPad. That won't help margins much in the short-term either, but the idea is to get as many Fires into people's hands as possible so that Amazon can sell them all those digital products, as well as physical ones, since the Fire will be optimized as a mobile Amazon storefront.

????The test of whether the investment is successful might largely come down to how many customers will accept -- or even favor -- the Fire's smaller screen, which is 7 inches compared to the iPad's 9.7-inch display.

????Observers might differ over whether these investments are too large for what Amazon has planned. And they might differ over whether those plans are even wise to begin with. But characterizing the investments as evidence of a "spending habit" buys into the idea that Amazon's third quarter of 2012 is more important than its third quarter of 2012, or of 2015, or of 2025, or of all the quarters in between. "We seek to be Earth's most customer-centric company for three primary customer sets: consumer customers, seller customers and developer customers," says the message on Amazon's investor relations page. It doesn't say: "We seek to beat analysts' expectations every quarter."

????And in this case, it didn't. Amazon's profits fell 73%, to $63 million, or 14 cents a share. Analysts on average expected profits of about 24 cents. The company also warned that it might lose money in the fourth quarter. Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., told Bloomberg News that if Amazon's investments add to revenue but "don't show a corresponding increase in earnings, investors start to scratch their heads."

????Sure. But should they be scratching yet? The company just introduced the Fire last month, and it won't be released for another three weeks. There's no way of even making a reasonable guess as to how the tablets might spur sales of either digital products or physical goods. Pre-orders of the Fire have been "extremely strong" was all Szkutak would say on Tuesday. Amazon said September 28, which the Fire and other new Kindle models were introduced, was its biggest order day ever for all flavors of the Kindle.

????Similarly, the company is still building up its cloud computing services and over the past year it added 17 new fulfillment centers. All of this ate into profits, but presumably will add to them over time. Meanwhile customers are flocking to all flavors of the Kindle as e-books rapidly take the place of bound books.

????Amazon's sales grew by 44% in the quarter, in line with expectations. The last time the company posted a loss was exactly 10 years ago, during another period of expansion and heavy investment in infrastructure to nab market share -- which is exactly what it did.