'Europe is the best place for ecommerce' - Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of online bookseller Amazon.com, believes the US will prove to be the most difficult place to do business on the internet - and Europe the best.

Speaking to this weekend's UK press, Bezos also described his company's historic profitable quarter - announced last month - as less of a "milestone" and more of a "reminder".

"It will turn out in the end that the US was the hardest place to ecommerce and the reason is that delivery is faster in Europe because population density is higher," Bezos told Saturday's Guardian.

"In the UK, the Royal Mail does a fantastic job of overnight delivery to something like 85 per cent of UK addresses and that's just standard shipping. [In the US] you have to pay very expensive UPS or Fedex shipping to get overnight service."

He added that the high cost of rent in Europe meant an etailer with a warehouse away from the high-street had an instant advantage."A high-street shop is very expensive in London and the cost of that has to be built into the cost of the product," said Bezos.

On his company's Q4 profits of $5m, Bezos said: "It is a milestone of a kind. But maybe a reminder is a better word - a reminder that this is still the beginning of ecommerce. In 1999 people got irrationally exuberant then in 2000 they got irrationally depressed.

"What I'm hopeful of is that this is a reminder that we are on a very solid footing and this whole industry is on a solid footing because it creates real value for customers."

For more on Amazon.com, see:
The prophecies of Jeff Bezos
http://www.silicon.com/a51135
Bunch of Fives: The rise and fall and rise of Amazon.com
http://www.silicon.com/a60663
Amazon makes money - dot coms sigh with relief
http://www.silicon.com/a50635
The importance of Amazon's profit
http://www.silicon.com/a50626