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Infographic: 5 Markets Amazon Is Charging Into

This article is more than 6 years old.

Image via PitchBook Data

Conglomerates went out of fashion in the 80's and 90's thanks to a spate of asset stripping. Now they're back in vogue thanks to the high-flying ambitions of tech companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, who all seem to be entering markets you’d never have predicted a decade ago. Amazon, which started off selling books when it was founded in 1994, is now doing business in groceries, fashion, gaming, movies, on-demand services and more.

The above infographic from Pitchbook, a SaaS company from Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, illustrates not only the e-commerce giant’s growing reach, but the private and public companies who are starting to consider Amazon a competitive threat.

Amazon got a mention in 10% of all earnings calls for S&P 1500 companies reporting on the second quarter of 2017, according to Reuters. It's not just Google or Apple, but McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson and 3M who’v been fielding questions about Amazon.

Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods this year and $970 million purchase of Twitch in 2014 grabbed the limelight, but the company seems to be making a play for everything. Amazon took the wind out of the sails of Blue Apron’s IPO earlier this summer after it filed a trademark for a meal-kit service, while AmazonFresh is challenging grocery chains like Safeway with its same-day and early-morning food delivery.

In entertainment, Amazon’s music streaming service gets a boost from strong sales of its Echo speaker and smart-home device, while Amazon Prime Video has four times a many movies as Netflix, according to a reported study by Barclays.

The potential meeting point for these disparate businesses is the Echo itself. While it faces competition from Google Home and Apple HomePod, its early encroachment and heavy marketing on Amazon.com has positioned it to be the hub through which customers can eventually ask Amazon for help with all manner of services.