NEW FACE OF E-COMMERCE

摘要

Amazon.com inc. Remains as protective as ever of the technology that powers its web site. "We/don't go into detail about what our underlying infrastructure looks like," says chief technology officer Al Vermeulen. At the same time, though, Amazon is throwing open its site to outside programmers, providing access to databases and features that have taken years and something approaching $1 billion to develop over nearly a decade. "We're going to go full bore in exposing all of our platform," Vermeulen says enthusiastically. Why secretive one minute but open the next? Amazon has figured out that all that bottled-up intellectual property becomes even more valuable once outsiders get their hands on it. TWO years ago this month, Amazon took its first step to create a "programmable Web site" when it launched Amazon Web Services 1.0, a set of APIs that provide third-party programmers and fellow retailers with access to some of its data and basic Web-site functionality. The idea proved such a hit that more than 50,000 programmers have signed up. Within the next few weeks, Amazon will introduce Amazon Web Services 4.0, which opens its data fields even more. Amazon and eBay Inc. have cemented themselves as hubs of commerce when it comes to consumer online shopping. Now they're emerging as hubs of software-development activity, where openness breeds innovation and innovation generates sales. "We think Web services feeds directly into making that flywheel spin faster," vermeulen says.