Many people became familiar with Prime after their houses of worship, clubs or other local organizations promoted AmazonSmile in bulletins and newsletters as a vehicle for donations. Bezos’ brief trip to space in 2021 in a spacecraft built by his rocket company, Blue Origin.Īmazon’s Prime membership service, which provides discounted and expedited delivery among other benefits for an annual fee, greatly expanded during the lifetime of AmazonSmile, and some analysts say that the service may have gotten a boost from the charity program’s popularity. “I appreciate that Amazon has done this for several years, but going on a rocket ride is expensive and companies need to prioritize,” he said, making a joke about Mr. Foster said his opinion of the company had soured a bit. While Amazon’s decision to shutter AmazonSmile was unlikely to curtail his use of the shopping service, Mr. “We are always looking at ways to increase our impact,” he said, adding that with so many beneficiaries, the company’s “ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” After discontinuing the program, Amazon will instead refocus on bigger investments in areas such as affordable housing, computer science education and disaster relief, the company said in the blog post announcing the decision. Amazon: The company paused plans to build a second headquarters in Virginia, the latest reminder of the tech industry’s slowdown and the pandemic’s toll on in-office work.īut the average annual AmazonSmile donation was far less: about $230 per charity, according to a company spokesman, Patrick Malone.Those working on such projects were hit hard in recent layoffs. Bad Bets: Big tech companies have long been willing to fund efforts with no obvious payoff.Silicon Valley Bank: The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has set off panic across the tech world, rattling a start-up industry already on edge.Meta: The company said that it planned to lay off about 10,000 employees, or roughly 13 percent of its work force - another round of job cuts after it laid off more than 11,000 people in November.

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