Amazon is working on a search engine on laptops, computers and tablets. The new browser would be a mainstream offering and would compete with Bing, Google and Yahoo. The company recently sent a survey to select users, asking them what they want to see in a search engine. According to the questions, Amazon seems to put a priority on shopping, security and syncing passwords across devices.
It would make sense for a search engine to synergize with Amazon services. The company does have a robust advertising network that it can leverage to make even more money, according to an article by Axios, which cited statistics from Insider Intelligence, Google and Meta combined in 2022 for a less than 50% market share for the first time in eight years. These statistics show that both companies are losing market share, and the prime cause is Amazon, which ended 2022 with a 7.3% digital ad market share. Amazon generated 38 billion dollars in 2022, more than it made on Prime and its other subscription services combined.
What makes Amazon so attractive to marketers is that the company sits on a treasure trove of data about what consumers are buying and what their shopping habits are like. If Amazon could match that information with the data collection from a web browser, it could tip the scales of internet advertising in favour of the retail giant.
Amazon has much different advertising systems for brands. Their most prominent are sponsored ads that show up when your browse on Amazon, these include ads that show at the top of the screen. There are audio ads on Amazon Music across Alexa-enabled devices, including Echo and Fire TV, and on mobile and desktop. There are ads inside of apps on the Amazon App Store and also ones that show on Kindle e-Readers who are enrolled in Special Offers. Leveraging these existing ads into a search engine would drive revenue and likely get even more brands that want to register.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
