My original point was that it's not just about brand perception, but that was largely on based on my incorrect belief that AWS is a much larger portion of Amazon's revenue than it is in reality. I thought it was like 40-50%, but it's actually only 14.5%. Interestingly, I found this quote from the source[0]:
> AWS’ revenue makes up 14.5% of Amazon’s total revenue of $110.8 billion. And for the first time ever, revenue from AWS, advertising, third-party seller services and Prime subscriptions ($55.9 million) surpassed revenue from Amazon’s retail and product sales ($54.9 billion).
This certainly reinforces your point! It sure sounds like Amazon retail is a sort of loss leader.
[0]: https://www.fiercetelecom.com/platforms/aws-to-rescue-3q-rev...
