 |
|
|
|||||
Beep, beep: Amazon is making a bigger move into the market for used vehicles. The retail giant and Ford Motor Company announced a partnership today which will mean car buyers in three major cities can shop for, finance, and purchase a certified pre-owned Ford vehicle on Amazon Autos. This new partnership is initially launching in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Dallas, with plans to expand, and will allow customers to complete all steps of the car-buying process online before scheduling a pickup time at a participating dealer and signing the paperwork. The addition of Ford certified pre-owned vehicles to Amazon Autos represents an exciting expansion of our store, giving customers access to thousands of quality vehicles backed by Ford’s comprehensive inspection and warranty programs, Fan Jin, global leader of Amazon Autos, said in a statement. This marks the third major partnership that Amazon Autos has struck in the nearly two years since it launched in late 2023. It first began selling new vehicles from South Korean automaker Hyundai and partnered with car rental company Hertz earlier this year to sell used vehicles through Amazon Autos. As is true with the Hyundai partnership, the Ford dealer is ultimately the seller and handles the pricing, vehicle pickup, and future servicing needs. Amazon Autos merely serves as the facilitator of the online transaction. USED VEHICLE MARKET So far, more than 160 Ford franchised dealers have expressed interest in the new Amazon Autos program and about 20 dealers in those three cities are in the process of getting fully onboarded and launched, according to Ford. Expanding the number of places where consumers can buy a vehicle is also a savvy move for Ford at a time when used car sales have become a bit more sluggish. An uptick in prices for used vehicles has meant its taken longer for these vehicles to move off a dealers lot. For three-year-old vehicles, selling at more than $31,000 during the third quarter, it took an average of 41 days for these cars to sell, which was the slowest pace for this quarter since 2017, according to data from Edmunds.com. CARVANA, CARMAX COMPETITION Now that Amazon Autos will be offering vehicles that are new, certified pre-owned, and from the Hertz rental market fleet, it clearly is making a pretty aggressive move into territory once dominated by Carvana and CarMax. In the first three quarters of the year, Carvana sold more than 433,000 vehicles, compared to a 2024 total of 416,000-plus, according to figures from its quarterly earnings. Shares of Carvana fell nearly 3% in midday trading on Monday, while CarMax shares were down more than 2%. Meanwhile, Ford shares are trading about 0.7% lower. This weekend, Ford hosted the grand opening of its new, 2.1 million-square-foot headquarters. The Detroit-based automaker has sought to embrace a new era of innovation after some struggles in recent years. Rather than opt for the direct-to-consumer sales path that Tesla has favored, partnering with Amazon Autos may offer advantages. Everyone has an Amazon account, Wendy Lane, senior manager of Fords Blue Advantage unit, told Yahoo! Finance. Knowing that it is a trusted source for consumers and having our vehicles listed there, were really excited to see how it works and how well consumers adopt it.
Category:
E-Commerce
In its early days, the odds seemed good that YouTube was destined for failure. After a false start as a dating website, it wasnt clear whether the company could cover the cost of streaming video content, or avoid the fate of Napster, which was sued out of business for copyright infringement. But after getting acquired by Google in 2006, and deciding to share ad revenue with creators a year later, YouTube went on not only to survive, but also to revolutionize the entire media ecosystemfrom “double rainbows” to the “Ice Bucket Challenge.” In 2024, YouTube took in $36.3 billion in ad revenue, and today it is the most-watched video provider in the U.S.not just among streamers, but cable and broadcast TV as well. Fast Company spoke to CEO Neal Mohan and creators like Rebecca Black and Smosh about how YouTube continues to redefine what TV can be.
Category:
E-Commerce
Jeff Bezos will serve as co-chief executive officer of a new artificial intelligence startup that focuses on AI for engineering and manufacturing of computers, automobiles, and spacecraft, the New York Times reported on Monday. The company, called Project Prometheus, has garnered $6.2 billion in funding, partly from the Amazon founder, making it one of the most well-financed early-stage startups in the world, the report said, citing three people familiar with the company. This is the first time Bezos has taken a formal operational role in a company since he stepped down as the CEO of Amazon in July 2021. Though he is involved in Blue Origin, his official title at the space firm is founder. With the new startup, Bezos is entering a crowded AI market with several smaller firms attempting to break through with new software and products while in a race with industry mainstays such as the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Meta, and Google. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Bezos and a representative did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Bezos’ co-chief executive is Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who worked closely with Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin at Google’s X, a research effort often called The Moonshot Factory, the report said. Project Prometheus has already hired nearly 100 employees, including researchers from top AI firms such as OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta, according to the Times. Zaheer Kachwala, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||