However, Barnes & Noble has made some powerful alliances in its bid to catch up. In December 1998, it teamed up with Microsoft to become the exclusive bookseller for users who click the book-shopping category on the MSN network. (By previous arrangements, Amazon.com's paid ad/links will still appear on some Microsoft pages, and Amazon.com has a similar deal with Microsoft to remain its exclusive music seller.) More significant, though less visible to the consumer, is barnesandnoble.com's October, 1998, sale of a 50 percent stake to the German publishing giant Bertelsmann AG—right after Amazon.com's Bezos had spurned Bertelsmann's offer of a similar partnership with him. "This venture has one purpose—to compete with Amazon.com in the U.S.," said Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middelhof. Bertelsmann owns Random House and other publishers, which may enable barnesandnoble.com to offer price war discounts on titles from those houses. Barnes & Noble expects its partnership with Bertelsmann to help it expand into European markets and is also hoping that as Amazon.com expands into more areas of retailing, it will leave key sections of the book market open to a more specialized company. Retailing is a business with very thin profit margins, leading some analysts to question whether Amazon.com will ever be profitable. If Amazon.com keeps moving into new markets, costs will continue to escalate. Analysts estimate that Amazon.com spent nearly $200 million in marketing in 1999, 50 percent more than a year earlier. While Amazon.com has never made a profit, Barnes & Noble has been solidly profitable. On average on-line retailers have spent $26 per sale in advertising and marketing, whereas their physical counterparts spent only $2.50. Until Amazon.com and other retailers figure out a way to attract and retain customers without such enormous outlays, they will have a hard time making any money. As Merrill Lynch analyst Jonathan Cohen put it, Amazon.com has shown that "it can sell lots of books for less without making money and now it has shown that it can sell lots of music for less without making money." Moreover, as Amazon.com moves into new markets, it will face traditional retailers that are starting to sell on the Web, many quite successfully. In other areas besides books and entertainment products, Amazon.com may have trouble creating meaningful brand recognition. However, if Amazon.com and other Internet retailers have enough customers and sales to pay off their marketing and technology investments, any additional revenue will register as profits, and those could be enormous. It is this hope that Amazon.com's business model will eventually win big that has fuelled its highly valued stock price. If, as Bezos claims, his upstart Amazon.com has "levelled the playing field" against the mighty Barnes & Noble, the battle is likely to boil down to Amazon.com's superior grasp of Internet commerce versus Barnes & Noble's superior purchasing power. However, a key characteristic of electronic commerce is the ephemeral nature of any advantage. Unless the balance shifts decisively because of some unforeseen
innovation or a change in alliances, razor-thin margins will make it difficult for both sides to sustain the pitched battle indefinitely