This is my personal opinion only, not a stated fact.
There is a saying about apps that I believe holds true value.
If you aren't paying for the product, YOU are the product.
Does anyone have to pay for Twitter? How about Facebook? How about all the gaming apps on your mobile device? Does anyone have to pay for the Alexa service?
If your answer is likely NO for any of these questions, then YOU are the product.
Recall the last time you installed an app on your phone or tablet. What permissions does the app ask for? Microphone, camera, storage, location, mobile data, wifi data, search history, etc.
When you click yes, you give these apps everything about you. Most people take their phones everywhere they go. Most use mobile or wifi data in order to use their phones productively. Many use GPS for search and maps. Basically, everything is on all the time.
Use a VPN? Don't kid yourself. Your unique IMEI and sim card track you anyways. Your MAC address also discloses who you are. If you are logged into anything, they know too.
Basically, if we use technology, we are tracked and all of our data is in multiple databases worldwide at all times.
So now that you know what type of product you are, ask yourself who cares?
Do governments care? Do people currently in power care? Does the cabal care?
My assumption is yes. They care, because they want to retain their power over you. Nothing threatens their power more than billions of free people with minds of their own. They MUST retain this control or they will lose their power forever.
So if free apps and services don't make money, besides some negligible advertising here and there, who funds these businesses? An honest business must make more revenue than its expenses or its out of business. No profits, no business. Its really that simple.
So here's my TLDR:
When Amazon hints that it may shut down Alexa, because its never made any money, what I hear is, "Our funding is drying up. We have to shut it down."
Contrast Amazon's Alexa situation with the FTX collapse. I'm not saying Amazon will collapse, because they sell actual products, but Alexa? Alexa sells US as their product.
How many dollars in Big Tech companies are government dollars? How deep is the influence of government money in private businesses for the purpose of Controlling the People?
I think those are good questions to ask.
Source: Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year
For free game apps, the bulk of the industries money comes from whales (large spenders of 10k/mo or more). The small purchases from average Joe's are just bonus money. The data I ran with a company I was contacted with years ago showed that around Mar-Apr (tax season), early Spring/Fall (student loan approvals), & Christmas (Christmas bonuses) were the times we would see large increases in sales from average users.
Also these generally came from single individuals (single older women, college ages students, unmarried young professionals, etc...)
It was the emotional purchases that made us money to grow & search for more whales in the early part of my contract with the game.
edit: That said, I don't see how Alexa could use a model like this & gaming apps certainly could sell various types of data used via tracking for added money. We never felt comfortable exploring that stream.
That's great feedback. Thank you.
Not sure how Alexa can ever monetize unless they force ads into people's homes after asking basic questions. People would destroy or throw out the devices rather quickly I think if they did that.
That leads me to believe the main purpose of smart devices is to listen in on people and track data. There is no privacy at all anymore. People just pissed it away for nothing.
All just my personal opinion of course.
With alexa always listening, the keywords/phrases/tones used should be used to suggest relevant products & services to Amazon shoppers. That is if Alexa is being used for good marketing practices.
Parents yelling at their kids because they aren't doing chores or following rules, suggest books/prime videos & podcasts that discuss ways to help encourage teens to work with you/how to lead by example/how to develop respect vs compliance/other parenting materials
People talking about Harry Potter in a home environment are more likely to purchase Harry Potter & Hogwarts type products. Makers would find that data incredibly useful, especially during holiday sales seasons with low content stuff (diary/planner/calendars/etc...) targeted to those who talk about it frequently.
Google already does this, it would be crazy for Alexa to ignore the potential for increased sales via their small business partners (ie small online business owners who want to get products into the hands of those who don't know the products they want already exist). Small businesses pay hundreds to thousands of dollars, each, every month already for good leads & in marketing. This just makes sense from a win/win/win standpoint.
If Alexa isn't making money in this area, then it only makes sense to me that the funding for it is coming from a source that has no interest in profitable analysis (ie ability to use the customer's verbal desires for monetary gain).
Granted I have no idea how much the AI or the server costs are for a project this big, though with Amazon cloud services that host more computing power than most indivials can fathom, I have a hard time believing that Alexa can't be easily monotized to pay for itself within the Amazon ecosphere.