Amazon Puts $60 Million In 1-Hour E-Delivery System
Online retail giant Amazon.com today announced that it has pumped $60 million into online delivery service Kozmo.com and forged a three-year deal to deliver Amazon orders in one hour via bicycle courier.
"They will be one of a number of one-hour delivery service companies that we intend to work with," Amazon spokesman Bill Curry told Newsbytes. Kozmo is the first, he said. The service, which will be launched at a later date, is limited to certain Amazon orders for books, music, and toys.
Kozmo's one-hour service is available in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles markets, Amazon said.
Amazon President and Chief Operating Officer Joe Galli said, "In a short time, Kozmo.com has developed a strong track record for meeting a unique customer need, and this agreement provides us a one-hour delivery option for the types of products that customers may want immediately."
A Wall Street Journal report in January said Kozmo planned to raise $100 million, $60 million from Amazon, nearly $30 million from an affiliate of Japan's Softbank Corp. and additional money from unidentified investors. The story also said Kozmo, after expanding its service outside of New York last summer, planned to enter 21 other markets by the end of 2000.
For the first time since last summer, Amazon was not number one in the number of online buyers last month, giving way to CDNow, according to a survey by PC Data Online. The same survey found that Amazon leads in visits with 13.3 million for the month compared to CDNow's 8.3 million.
Amazon.com can be found on the Web at http://www.amazon.com.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.