Thefour 前四章介绍了四家巨头公司（AMAZON, FACEBOOK, APPLE & GOOGLE)
总得来说，并不是很喜欢thefour这本书。书中很多观点过于主观，甚至有些ridiculous
举个例子， 书中在facebook那一章提到：
“People are drawn to the brand of Apple in order to appeal to the opposite sex and to feel closer to god, or to become more godlike themselves."
其中还有些章节的一些语气和用词，充满了对中国的讽刺与不屑。
我打算从第二章（AMAZON 亚马逊）开始，记录读书笔记以及自己的想法。第一次写读书笔记，有诸多不足，再加上自己文笔不好。
AMAZON
52 percent of U.S. households have Amazon prime. Half of the online growth and 21% of retail growth in the US could be attributed to Amazon in 2016. Amazon's rise rests on its appeal to our instincts.
1. Hunters and Gatherers
书中先提到了人类的instinct，从远古时期人们狩猎的例子开始，描述了人类gatherer & hunter instinct. 作者认为，亚马逊的崛起是因为它迎合了人类的本能。Amazon's rise rests on its appeal to our instincts.
书中提到; Over-collecting was a smart strategy: the downside of too much stuff was wasted effort. The downside of under-collecting was death from starvation.
(However, in my opinion, as social development, the life quality was improved largely, people sedomly store up excess stuff. Currently, it is was easier to get whatever you want at any time.Excess inventory will incur monetary loss sometimes)
2. Our consuming capitalist selves
第二小节，主要写了美国以及欧洲的零售业发展历程。作者认为，consumption是人类的本能，社会也需要国民去更多地消费。
Instinct is a powerful chaperone, always watching and whispering in your ear, telling you what you must do to survive. Millions end up on anticholesterol drugs like Lipitor and with high-interest credit cards, because they cannot maintain command over their powerful instinct to collect.
In a capitalist society the consumer reigns supreme, and consumption is the most noble of activities. A country's place in the world is correlated with its level of consumer demand and production. The nation needs you to buy more stuff.
There have been 6 major stages of retail evolution：
1） The corner store
Retailing in the first half of the 20th century was defined by the corner store. Retail establishments were typically family run and played a key social role in the community, disseminating local news before radio and TV became dominant.
2） Department Stores
Department stores also reshape the relationship between business and consumers.
Harry Selfridge coin the phrase"the customer is always right".
4） Call of the Mall
The car and fridge meant we could drive farther to get more stuff we could store safely longer. Advances in distribution led to fewer visits, bigger stores, more selection, and lower prices. Department store evolved into the mall.
In 2016, business media was bemoaning the end of an American institution. 44% of the value of US malls is in just 100 places, and sales per square foot dropped 24% in the past decade.
5）The big box.
Big-box retail caused a dramatic shift in social norms and transformed the retail format.
--- buying stuff in bulk and passing savings into consumers
--- shift the consumer to the front of the line in every way.
The invisible hand began bitch-slapping small or inefficient retailers all over the U.S.and Europe.
6）Specialty Retail
Most consumers dont want to be equal. They want to be special. A sizable fraction of consumers will pay a premium for that attention.
The retailer that truly defined the specialty retail era was the GAP. The GAP invested in store experience, becoming the frist lifestyle brand.
7）The e-commerce opportunity
Bezos saw a technological shift, then used it to reconstruct root and branch the entire world of retailing.
There is a finite amount of capital invested in each sector, and Amazon's vision and execution has soaked up the preponderance of that investment. The result if a once-populous sector that is being ravaged and depopulated by a single player.
Because we live in a culture of consumption, the natural trajectory of retail is up. When a new concept works, it can scale rapidly and create tremendous value for consumers and shareholders.
In 2016, retail could largely be described as the crazy success of Amazon and the disaster that is the rest of the sector. E-commerce firms die with a whimper, because brick-and-mortar retail has a face, e-commerce deaths are faceless.
3. The soon-to-be wealthiest man on the planet
本章主要写了亚马逊的发展历程。下面是我摘录的一些，对于亚马逊来说，比较有代表型的值得其他互联网公司借鉴的strategy
Bezos decided to start with books, which are easy to recognize, kill and digest. Then, an industry - book reviewing - emerged to identify what books were worth reading.
Amazon also let the third parties fill in the long tail, and was able to increase its offerings without increasing inventory.
Amazon appeals to our hunter-gatherer instinct to collect more stuff with minimum effort.
The need for stuff is real: stuff keeps us warm and safe. It allows us to store and prepare food. It helps us attract mates and care for our offspring. And easy stuff is the best stuff, because it consumes less energy and gives you time to do other important things.
Scale is power. Amazon was able to offer prices no brick-and-mortar retailer could offer.
OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, and act.
In 2016, Amazon was considered America's most reputable firm.
4. Zero-sum
作者认为这是一场零和博弈，亚马逊是其中最大赢家。With the rise of Amazon, everyone is losing, because Amzon's rise must come from somewhere.
The equity markets now believe that what is good for Amazon is bad for retail, and vice versa.
There is no check-out in Amazon Go. Other retailers are now scrambling to eliminate their own checkout processes.
Amazon customers give amazon deeper penetration into the private lives and desires of consumers than any other company.
Leveraging big data and unrivaled knowledge of consumer purchasing patterns, Amazon will soon meet your need for stuff, without the friction of deciding or ordering.
5. Storytelling - cheap capital
亚马逊之所以有能力以更低的成本融资，是因为CEO擅长于storytelling, 有更更感人的企业故事。他建立的mission & vision 吸引了大量的投资者。这些人在亚马逊CEO的游说下，和利润比起来，他们更看重企业的vision.
Through storytelling, outlining a huge vision, Amazon has reshaped the relationship between company and shareholder. Amazon replaces profits with vision and growth, via storytelling.
Amazon's vision: Huge investments in consumer benefits that stand the test of time - lower cost, greater selection, and faster delivery.
Thanks to a rate of growth that reflects a steady march toward this vision, the market bids Amazon stock higher and provides the firm with exceptionally cheap capital.
In addition, Amazon has trained the Street to hold them to a different standard ---- to expect higher growth but lower profits .
Amazon's business thinking: if we can borrow money at historically low rates, why dont we invest that money in extraordinary expensive control delivery systems?
Amazon preached and reminded its shareholders that it does not ever pay dividens. The ointment is a vision of world domination, complete with cool new technologies, content, and Star Trek that have more adoption and buzz than any consumer hardware product since the ipad.
8. Sell the picks
Amazon not only owns a lucrative retail busiess, the firm also holds ad sales from Amazon Media Group, and the cloud services.
Amazon's core business is difficult to turn a profit, however, Amazon has delivered immense value to consumers, creating the most trusted, reputable and consumer brand on the planet. Amazon's business model is not easy to replicate.
Except e-commerce and cloud service, Amazon media group alone will likely soon surpass Twitter' revenue, making it one of the largest online media properties. Besides, Amazon Prime is also doint pretty well.
Amazon perfoms like a sovereign country, persuing a triad strategy, air, land and sea. Amazon has gotten license from Federal Maritime Commission.
The major costs for shipping stuff by sea is labor costs. Amazon can deploy hardware and software to reduce these costs.
In one word, Amazon is building the most robust logistics infrastructure.
STOERS
The most successful player is the one who understands how to integrate e-commerce and brick. Amazon aims to be this one. The next retail age will be the multi-channel era --- a time when integration across web, social and brick. Amazon is dominating this era now. It makes sense for Amazon to acquire Macy or a company with a large footprint.
Amazon's greatest expense is shipping. Their objective is to reach more and more consumers using less and less time, that is why it makes sense for Amazon to acquire Wholefoods. This acquisition gives Amazon brick shops in the urban centre, making it easier and faster to reach consumers.
Buying grocery in person is a kind of instinct of human, gatherer instinct.
Beside, Amazon also opens brick bookstores except the successful online one. The CFO said consumer feel like touching and feeling stuff.
(Amazon 与 diapers.com的故事）
Ultimately, why should Amazon get into multi-channel retail? Because there is no pure e-commerce can survive forever.
On the front end of the e-commerce channel, the cost of customer acquisition continues to rise as consumers' loyalty to brands erodes. In 2004, 47% of the consumers can name their favouriate retail brands; 6 years later, the percentage drops to 28%
So Amazon decided to increase consumer loyalty by Amazon prime, representing recurring purchase, revenue, loyalty, and annul more purchases than non-members.
9. Alex, how can we kill brands ?
Alexa is Amazon's voice technology.
When shopping online, shopping habits migrate, the design and fell of a product matter much less.
In addition, voice further circumvents attributes that brands have spent generations and billions to build. Fewer and fewer seach contains a brand name with voice.
(I am actually pretty confused with this paragraph. I could not image why voice can reduce the number of seaches with brands. What kind of voice does the Alex offer ? the description of the products ?)
9. Amazon the Destroyer
The Amazon Jeff Bezos suggested the U.S. government offering only the miminum wage, only making sure citizens can stay above the poverty line. In future, everything can be done by robots.
Put people out of work. In future, there is no way for economy to create enough jobs
10. World Domination
Except expanding into other parts of retail value chain and further acquisition, Amazon recently announced that it started lease 20 Boeing.
Bezos has the ambition to dominate global retail and then to own the infrastructure that most consumer business will pay a toll to access.
In Europe, Amazon is also the top online retailer, the second and 3rd ones are Otto and Tesco.
Amazon now also plan to open stores in India. People love the convenience, selection and prices of buying online, but the primary influencer on consumer buying decision is still the store. People love to go stores to feel and touch things, which is our traditional gatherer inctinct. This is especially true and apprent in grocery sector.
Amazon bought Wholefoods, but the prices is a bit high, so its stock price had fallen. The cure that Amazon gave is : make wholdfoods stores as Amazon delivery hub and transit hub; and also put wholefoods stores as returing online orders.. This helps Amazon reacher consumers faster and wider with lower costs.
Other consumer firms can get access to the infrastructure by paying a toll to Amazon, which is still cheaper than building them themselves.
11. Race to Trillion
Compared with Uber, their strategy to success is quite mundane. They just make the payment frictionless.
Amazon is about to own the entire retail ecosystem