2012年Amazon致股東信：總能把握先機，憑藉的是聚焦客戶帶來的主動性｜見識之旅

導讀

這封信是2012年Amazon的第16封致股東信。

堅持顧客至上，將重心聚焦於客戶，也就意味著不聚焦於競爭對手。

聚焦客戶可以為Amazon帶來什麼好處？主動性。

不是因為競爭對手的壓力才降價，而是因為客戶需要更便宜的產品；不是因為競爭對手推出新服務才跟著發布同樣的新服務，而是因為客戶需要的新服務。

主動性使得Amazon不會在「必須做某一件事」時才去做那件事，因此總能把握先機。

市場會給先行者豐厚的回報，這點在Amazon三大業務支柱AWS、Prime會員服務和第三方賣家服務都得到證明。

好了，導讀結束，以下致股東信正文開始。

正文

To our shareowners:

致我們的股東：

As regular readers of this letter will know, our energy at Amazon comes from the desire to impress customers rather than the zeal to best competitors. We don’t take a view on which of these approaches is more likely to maximize business success. There are pros and cons to both and many examples of highly successful competitor-focused companies. We do work to pay attention to competitors and be inspired by them, but it is a fact that the customer-centric way is at this point a defining element of our culture.

若你常看我們的致股東信，你會知道Amazon的動力來源是－想要打動用戶的渴望，而非擊敗競爭者的心態。我們不會花時間去研究如何能夠最大化商業上的成功。那些成功的競爭導向企業，本身存在著不少利弊。我們不會花心思在如何擊敗競爭者，我們只會從競爭者身上汲取靈感。以客戶為中心的價值觀，已經深植於我們的文化之中。

One advantage — perhaps a somewhat subtle one — of a customer-driven focus is that it aids a certain type of proactivity. When we’re at our best, we don’t wait for external pressures. We are internally driven to improve our services, adding benefits and features, before we have to. We lower prices and increase value for customers before we have to. We invent before we have to. These investments are motivated by customer focus rather than by reaction to competition. We think this approach earns more trust with customers and drives rapid improvements in customer experience — importantly — even in those areas where we are already the leader.

以客戶為中心的其中一項優勢（或許是最微妙的優勢）是「主動性」。在還沒有外部壓力、還沒有確切的截止期限的情況下，我們也能持續改進服務、增加服務和功能。雖然非必要，但我們會降低價格，為客戶增加價值。我們會先於一件事成為必要之前，就進行發明創造。這些動力不來自競爭關係，而是來自於客戶導向。我們認為，這種方法能夠贏得客戶的信任，並且快速改善客戶體驗。最重要的是，即使我們已經是所在領域的領先者，我們依然能夠不斷進步。

“Thank you. Every time I see that white paper on the front page of Amazon, I know that I’m about to get more for my money than I thought I would. I signed up for Prime for the shipping, yet now I get movies, and TV and books. You keep adding more, but not charging more. So thanks again for the additions.” We now have more than 15 million items in Prime, up 15x since we launched in 2005. Prime Instant Video selection tripled in just over a year to more than 38,000 movies and TV episodes. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has also more than tripled to over 300,000 books, including an investment of millions of dollars to make the entire Harry Potter series available as part of that selection. We didn’t “have to” make these improvements in Prime. We did so proactively. A related investment — a major, multi-year one — is Fulfillment by Amazon. FBA gives third-party sellers the option of warehousing their inventory alongside ours in our fulfillment center network. It has been a game changer for our seller customers because their items become eligible for Prime benefits, which drives their sales, while at the same time benefitting consumers with additional Prime selection.

「謝謝你們！當我在Amazon首頁看到白皮書時，我就知道我的錢將更有價值。出於運費考量，我註冊成為Prime會員，而現在我可以用它來看電影、看電視和看書。你們持續增加更多價值，但沒有收取更高昂的費用。感謝你們的持續進步，為客戶帶來許多價值。」現在，我們的Prime服務涵蓋超過1500萬種商品，比2005年推出服務時增加了15倍。在一年多的時間裡，亞馬遜Prime影音（Amazon Prime Video）的選擇增加為3倍，一共有3萬8千部電影和電視影集。Kindle Owners’ Lending Library的書籍量增加超過2倍，超過30萬冊書籍，其中包括我們投入上百萬美元購買的《哈利波特》系列。這些改進並非「必要」，但我們很積極地在做這些事情。另一項「非必要」的重要投資是Amazon配送服務。Amazon配送服務為第三方賣家提供我們的倉儲空間和配送網絡。對我們的第三方賣家來說，這大大改變了遊戲規則，因為他們的商品可以搭配Prime服務，消費者因此可享受運費優惠，從而提升商品的銷售量。同時，Prime服務也因此擴大了商品類別。

We build automated systems that look for occasions when we’ve provided a customer experience that isn’t up to our standards, and those systems then proactively refund customers. One industry observer recently received an automated email from us that said, “We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental on Amazon Video On Demand: Casablanca. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount: $2.99. We hope to see you again soon.” Surprised by the proactive refund, he ended up writing about the experience: “Amazon ‘noticed that I experienced poor video playback…’ And they decided to give me a refund because of that? Wow…Talk about putting customers first.”

我們建立了自動化系統，以找出不符合客戶體驗標準的情況，這樣的自動化系統會主動退款給客戶。有一名行業觀察家近期收到一封系統信件，內容如下：「最近，我們注意到你在Amazon Video On Demand上觀看《Casablanca》時遇到影片播放不良的問題。我們為此感到很抱歉，已將2.99美元退款至你的帳戶。我們希望能在短期內再見到你。」主動退款讓他很驚訝，他對這樣的體驗寫了以下評論：「Amazon注意到我遇到影片播放問題，因此他們就這樣決定退款給我？哇…… 把客戶放在第一位。」

When you pre-order something from Amazon, we guarantee you the lowest price offered by us between your order time and the end of the day of the release date. “I just received notice of a $5 refund to my credit card for pre-order price protection. . . What a great way to do business! Thank you very much for your fair and honest dealings.” Most customers are too busy themselves to monitor the price of an item after they pre-order it, and our policy could be to require the customer to contact us and ask for the refund. Doing it proactively is more expensive for us, but it also surprises, delights, and earns trust.

當你從Amazon訂購商品後，你就會享有我們的最低價格保證機制，我們保證你購買到的價格是訂購時間到發貨時間期間的最低價格。「我剛收到退款5美元的通知，退款原因是返還價差，實現最低價格保證。非常好的客戶體驗！感謝你們的公正誠實的交易機制。」多數客戶的生活都很忙碌，他們沒有時間隨時查看價格變化，因此我們可以要求客戶自行買貴退差價，但我們沒有這麼做。我們採取主動退款的方式，對我們來說需要花費更高的成本，但這可以讓客戶驚豔，並贏得客戶的信任。

We also have authors as customers. Amazon Publishing has just announced it will start paying authors their royalties monthly, sixty days in arrears. The industry standard is twice a year, and that has been the standard for a long time. Yet when we interview authors as customers, infrequent payment is a major dissatisfier. Imagine how you’d like it if you were paid twice a year. There isn’t competitive pressure to pay authors more than once every six months, but we’re proactively doing so. By the way — though the research was taxing, I struggled through and am happy to report that I recently saw many Kindles in use at a Florida beach. There are five generations of Kindle, and I believe I saw every generation in use except for the first. Our business approach is to sell premium hardware at roughly breakeven prices. We want to make money when people use our devices — not when people buy our devices. We think this aligns us better with customers. For example, we don’t need our customers to be on the upgrade treadmill. We can be very happy to see people still using four-year-old Kindles!

我們的客戶也包括作家。Amazon自助出版剛宣布新政策：每個月都向作家支付版稅，版稅拖欠不超過60天。出版業施行已久的行業標準是每年支付版稅兩次。當我們訪問這些作家時，經常被詬病的問題就是版稅支付頻率低。想像一下，如果你每年只會收到兩次薪水會造成什麼問題。我們的確沒有必要提升支付頻率，我們可以仿效行業標準，每年支付版稅兩次，但我們沒有。順帶一提，我最近在佛羅里達海灘上看到不少人在使用Kindle。Kindle目前有五代，而我看到人們在使用第二代到第五代。我們的業務方針是「以打平支出的方式賣出硬體」。我們不在售出設備時就賺錢，而是在用戶使用設備時才賺錢。我們認為這樣的方式，可以使我們和客戶的利益保持一致。打個比方，靠用戶使用設備才賺錢的我們，不需要仰賴用戶不斷購買新裝置，不斷升級硬體。對於用戶仍在使用一台高齡四歲的Kindle，我們感到很高興。

I can keep going — Kindle Fire’s FreeTime, our customer service Andon Cord, Amazon MP3’s AutoRip — but will finish up with a very clear example of internally driven motivation: Amazon Web Services. In 2012, AWS announced 159 new features and services. We’ve reduced AWS prices 27 times since launching 7 years ago, added enterprise service support enhancements, and created innovative tools to help customers be more efficient. AWS Trusted Advisor monitors customer configurations, compares them to known best practices, and then notifies customers where opportunities exist to improve performance, enhance security, or save money. Yes, we are actively telling customers they’re paying us more than they need to. In the last 90 days, customers have saved millions of dollars through Trusted Advisor, and the service is only getting started. All of this progress comes in the context of AWS being the widely recognized leader in its area — a situation where you might worry that external motivation could fail. On the other hand, internal motivation — the drive to get the customer to say “Wow” — keeps the pace of innovation fast.

我還可以繼續一個一個介紹Kindle Fire閱讀器的內容服務FreeTime、客服工具Andon Cord和音樂服務AutoRip，但我想專注於內部驅動的最顯著的例子－AWS。2012年，AWS宣布了159種新功能與服務。自7年前推出以來，我們已經將AWS的費用降低了27倍，增加了企業服務支援，開發了創新工具為客戶提升效率。AWS Trusted Advisor監控客戶的設定，將設定與已知的最佳作法比對後，提醒客戶哪裡調整之後可以改善性能、增加安全性及節省成本。你想的沒錯，我們正積極告訴客戶「他們支付給我們的錢太多了，比他們需要付的錢還多。」雖然AWS Trusted Advisor才剛上線，但僅僅在過去90天內，客戶就透過AWS Trusted Advisor節省了數百萬美元。以上所有改進，其動力都來自於內部，而非外部。這些改進都是在AWS成為該領域的領導者之後才進行的。另一方面，內部動機能促使客戶不斷對我們的服務感到驚嘆，讓我們保持快節奏的創新步調。

Our heavy investments in Prime, AWS, Kindle, digital media, and customer experience in general strike some as too generous, shareholder indifferent, or even at odds with being a for-profit company. “Amazon, as far as I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers,” writes one outside observer. But I don’t think so. To me, trying to dole out improvements in a justin-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align.

我們在Prime、AWS、Kindle、數位媒體和客戶體驗上的巨額投資，甚至到了過於慷慨的程度。股東對此漠不關心，甚至認為這不是營利性公司應該有的作為。一名外部觀察家寫到：「據我所知，Amazon是一個由投資界人士運營的慈善組織，旨在為消費者帶來益處。」但我不這樣認為。我認為，在這個瞬息萬變的世界中，試圖以「看到什麼就即時調整什麼」的方式做事，只是一件耍小聰明的事，甚至會有風險。從根本上來說，我認為長期思考可以解決這個問題。主動積極滿足客戶，可以贏得客戶的信任，並帶來更多的業務。在新的業務領域，這樣的作法依然可行。從長遠來看，客戶和股東的利益是一致的。

As I write this, our recent stock performance has been positive, but we constantly remind ourselves of an important point — as I frequently quote famed investor Benjamin Graham in our employee all-hands meetings — “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” We don’t celebrate a 10% increase in the stock price like we celebrate excellent customer experience. We aren’t 10% smarter when that happens and conversely aren’t 10% dumber when the stock goes the other way. We want to be weighed, and we’re always working to build a heavier company.

在我撰寫本文時，Amazon最近的股價表現良好，但我們還是不斷提醒自己，要以著名投資者Benjamin Graham的觀點來看待股價：「短期而言，市場是一台投票機器；長期而言，市場是一台秤重機。」我經常在員工全體會議中提到這句話。我們不會像慶祝改進客戶體驗那樣慶祝股價上升10%。當股價上升10%時，我們並不會變聰明10%；當股價下降10%時，我們也不會因此變笨10%。我們希望Amazon是一間被秤重的公司，我們一直在努力打造一間更有份量的公司。

As proud as I am of our progress and our inventions, I know that we will make mistakes along the way — some will be self-inflicted, some will be served up by smart and hard-working competitors. Our passion for pioneering will drive us to explore narrow passages, and, unavoidably, many will turn out to be blind alleys. But — with a bit of good fortune — there will also be a few that open up into broad avenues.

我為我們的進步與發明感到自豪，我明白我們一路走來一定會犯錯－有些源自於我們自身，有些則來自於優秀的競爭對手。我們對開拓未來的熱誠，將驅使我們踏上困難的路，而且其中有些路是死胡同。幸運的是，其中有些路被證明是康莊大道。

I am incredibly lucky to be a part of this large team of outstanding missionaries who value our customers as much as I do and who demonstrate that every day with their hard work. As always, I attach a copy of our original 1997 letter. Our approach remains the same, and it’s still Day 1.

這是一個珍視客戶的傑出團隊，日復一日，我們對客戶至上的熱情依舊。身為這個優秀團隊的一份子，我感到十分幸運。如同往常，我把我們在1997年寫的致股東信附在文末。我們的價值觀依然不變，今天依舊是Day 1。

Jeffrey P. Bezos

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Amazon.com, Inc.

April 2013

傑夫·貝佐斯

Amazon創始人暨CEO

2013年4月

以上就是2012年Amazon致股東信。

想看隔年的Amazon致股東信，請至《2013年Amazon致股東信：原則，讓我們在這21個領域走得更遠》。

想看全系列導讀目錄，請至《Amazon 1997–2019年致股東信導讀目錄》。