Judge whether Prime Video still earns its place in Amazon's business

Amazon runs a video streaming service, Prime Video, which most customers get as part of their Prime membership. Would you recommend that Amazon keep it or shut it down? Make the call and defend it. ```hint Decide what video is for Before you weigh the costs, work out which parts of Amazon's business the service feeds, and how you would measure value that never shows up as video revenue. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should I judge the service as a standalone business, or by what it adds to Prime membership, advertising and shopping? - Is shutting it down the only alternative to keeping it, or can I recommend a middle path such as cutting content spend, unbundling it from Prime or selling parts of it? - Should the recommendation hold for the next year's results, or for the next three to five years? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The role video plays in Amazon's wider business and the goal the decision serves - How the service's value is measured beyond its own revenue: member sign-ups and renewals, advertising and shopping engagement - The costs and risks of both keeping and exiting, including existing content and sports commitments and the reaction of members - Options beyond keep-or-kill, compared on explicit criteria such as reversibility - A firm recommendation, the metrics that track it and the evidence that would reverse it ### Follow-up Questions - If a well-run study showed that watching video barely changes whether members renew Prime, what would you recommend then? - If content spending had to fall, how would you decide which categories to cut first: live sports, licensed films or original series? - How would you explain the change to members if Amazon did remove video from Prime?