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Jun 23, 2019, 10:01am EDT |
Amazon Primed: Surveillance Drone Patent Granted, Planes And Platform Shopping Spree
PARIS, FRANCE - SEP 28, 2018: Directly above view of New Amazon Cardboard box against yellow... [+] background. Amazon Prime is the online paid subscription service offered by Amazon.com web-commerce site
'Amazon Primed' is a short recap of the larger stories that dominated the headlines this week surrounding everyone's favourite cardboard abuser, Amazon. If you want the full, deep look at what Amazon is doing every week, subscribe to 'What Did Amazon Do This Week ' newsletter (called 'Obsessive...in the very best way.").
The biggest news this week was a drone patent thanks to the sensational headlines and the potential a move like this could have considering where we are with facial recognition and social movement issues (China). The Patent and Trademark Office awarded Amazon a patent to use drones for monitoring home safety and security. UAV's (Unmanned aerial vehicles) will be used to monitor for fire, open doors and more. Using geo-fencing, Amazon plans to monitor the property of customers who will likely pay a subscription fee versus purchase their own drone.
The delivery drones can be used to record video of consented user's property to gather data that can be analyzed to look out, say for example, a broken window, or a fire or if a garage door was left open during the day, the patent described.
According to the patent, the surveillance function of the drone can be limited through geo-fencing, a technology used to draw a virtual boundary around the property under surveillance. Any image or data that the drone captures outside the geo-fence would be obscured or removed.
Reuters has more on the story.
Amazon is also expanding its fleet of aircraft after FedEx broke up with them. Amazon will buy 15 more planes by 2021 to bring the number it has to 70. The move means Amazon will control its own destiny more and shows, again, that Amazon is willing to invest in order to do so. While 70 may not seem like a lot, for context, British Airways has around 280 aircraft.
These investments around delivery logistics come at a time when Amazon says it's trying to speed up Prime from two days to just one. The news prompted Walmart to announce a next-day shipping service of its own. Target, meanwhile, recently launched an integrated same-day shipping service on its website, powered by its same-day service, Shipt.
Amazon responded by noting it already has more than 10 million items available for one-day shipping today — reminding rivals that it's still leading the market on this front.
Techcrunch has more on the story.
Old social networks seem to be on a tear recently, first Myspace and now Bebo have been bought. Amazon snagged itself the platform to bolster its esports division after sacking a ton of people last week from Amazon Games. Cutthroat? Maybe, but there's $138m in 2018 (Newzoo) in eSports so it's no wonder Amazon is looking to cash in and feed that puppy.
A spokesperson for Twitch confirmed the acquisition, which includes both people (around 10 employees) and IP, but declined to provide further comment.
From what we understand from our sources, Twitch paid up to $25 million for the company earlier this month, after beating out at least two other bidders, Discord (which itself has been building out its own esports business), and… wait for it… Facebook. (Our source says the latter offered $20 million.) Indeed, LinkedIn profiles for ex-Bebo employees — see here, here, and here — now at Twitch note June as the changeover date.
Techcrunch has the story.
Subscribe to 'What Did Amazon Do This Week ' if you want the full, deep look at what Amazon is doing every week, called 'Obsessive...in the very best way.'
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