Claims

2,653 claims by 33 public figures and organisations, checked against the public record. Each has its quote, source, verdict and evidence. Read them without a key; browse by person.

6,750 claims · page 68 of 68

6,750 claims, sorted by newest said. Choose a claim to read it in full.
VerdictPersonKindSaidClaimTopic
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1999 Amazon.com's employee base grew from approximately 600 to over 2,100 during 1998. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1999 Economics and markets
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 When customers ask Bill Gates what first step improves value from their information systems and collaboration, he always answers "E-mail." Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 1999 Amazon.com became the leading online video retailer within 6 weeks of adding video in November 1998. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1999 Economics and markets
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Bill Gates reads all the e-mail that Microsoft employees send him. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Microsoft reduced its number of paper forms from more than 1,000 to a company-wide total of 60. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Own records only Bill Gates Factual 1999 Bill Gates passes items from employee e-mail on to people for action. Bill Gates · Factual · 1999 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Bill Gates Prediction 1999 Merchants who treat e-commerce as more than a digital cash register will do the best. Bill Gates · Prediction · 1999 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 21 Mar 1998 In 1997 Amazon.com established long-term relationships with strategic partners including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home and Prodigy. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Prediction 21 Mar 1998 Through personalization, online commerce will in future accelerate the process of discovery for customers. Jeff Bezos · Prediction · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 21 Mar 1998 The share of Amazon.com orders from repeat customers grew from over 46% in Q4 1996 to over 58% in Q4 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 21 Mar 1998 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Prediction 1998 Online bookselling and online commerce in general should prove to be a very large market, and it is likely that a number of companies will benefit significantly. Jeff Bezos · Prediction · 1998 Economics and markets
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 In 1997 Amazon.com substantially enhanced its online store, adding gift certificates, 1-Click shopping, and more reviews, content, browsing options and recommendation features. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Technology
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com was the market leader in online bookselling at the end of 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com dramatically lowered prices in 1997. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 Amazon.com's cash and investment balances at end of 1997 were $125 million, following its May 1997 IPO and a $75 million loan. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Promise 1998 Amazon.com plans to add music to its product offering. Jeff Bezos · Promise · 1998 Economics and markets
Mostly true Jeff Bezos Factual 1998 By the end of 1997 Amazon.com had served more than 1.5 million customers, with revenue up 838% to $147.8 million. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1998 Economics and markets
Resolved true Jeff Bezos Factual 1997 Amazon.com's sales grew from $15.7 million in 1996 to $147.8 million in 1997, an 838% increase. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1997 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Jeff Bezos Factual 1997 Word of mouth is Amazon.com's most powerful customer acquisition tool. Jeff Bezos · Factual · 1997 Economics and markets
Mostly false Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 George Gilder predicts that within five to ten years the Internet will essentially be free. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape builds cryptography into most of its products. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Andreessen said he thought a lot of companies were going to start taking advantage of "that"; the material does not say what "that" refers to. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Mosaic was basically written without bandwidth considerations in mind, designed for a really fast network at a time when its developers had the NSF T3 backbone (45 Mbps). Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The idle supercomputers sit unused because scientists prefer a DEC Alpha workstation, which is as fast or faster than a supercomputer at a fraction of the cost. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI compute, hardware and data
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Supercomputing centers cannot afford to remove their idle supercomputers from buildings; removal from the third floor costs $500,000. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI compute, hardware and data
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape did not have a major sales force in Europe as of June 1995. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The government set the OSI networking standard, which nobody uses. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI policy and governance
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Research funding in general, and for efforts like Mosaic in particular, dropped off in the early 1990s. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape has archived and sorted all incoming user feedback messages. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Among other things, commercialization will guarantee that the Net will be there. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen said the project he and Eric worked on never really had a manager. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen said that "we" basically declined to take a license fee because, at that point, they did not see any potential property issues. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Cryptography is export-controlled by the US government as a munition, and Netscape makes exportable versions of its software, which are the ones predominantly used on the Internet. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 AI policy and governance
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The Internet already existed when Andreessen began working at the university lab, and everybody there used it. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 In the 3 to 4 years before 1995, PCs went from a hobbyist toy to use by roughly 40 to 50 million people. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The networks in question all use TCP/IP, which was not a government standard. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Catalogs of Internet resources will be supported by advertising in the future. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Netscape's global sales force consisted of six people in June 1995. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 In June 1995, Andreessen said he thought Netscape had about six million Navigator users on the public network, not counting users behind firewalls. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 One of the things Netscape tried to do was keep the concepts of client and server very separate. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mixed Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Early in his time at the University of Illinois, Andreessen started working in a research lab at the university's physics research facility. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Some day it should be possible for everyone to publish on the Net as easily as using word processing. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Technology
Own records only Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Andreessen spends half an hour every morning reading news online, in addition to newspapers. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Other
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 The Mosaic team designed Mosaic with end users as its target. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Internet access was never free; it always cost money. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Marc Andreessen Prediction Jun 1995 Five or ten years is about the right timeframe to think about consumers shifting their commerce online, because that is about how long it takes for consumer habits to change on a broad scale. Marc Andreessen · Prediction · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Resolved true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 After the company shipped product in December, its revenues went from zero to a level where it was pretty much able to fund the bulk of its work and development. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Resolved true Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Yahoo was started by Ph.D. students at Stanford. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Technology
Mostly false Marc Andreessen Factual Jun 1995 Leaving aside access into the home, general bandwidth is improving in price-performance, or dropping in price, faster than microprocessors, by a factor of about four each year. Marc Andreessen · Factual · Jun 1995 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Bill Gates Prediction 1995 People always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Bill Gates · Prediction · 1995 Technology
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Jeff Bezos

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Factual Economics and markets

“Repeat purchases and word of mouth have combined to make Amazon.com the market leader in online bookselling.”

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, 1997 letter 1998 2020 Letter to Shareholders (About Amazon)

Amazon.com was the market leader in online bookselling at the end of 1997.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

The second judge said mostly true; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

True: market data or analysis from 1997–1998 (industry analysts, press coverage, competitors' reported figures) shows that Amazon.com had the largest online book sales of any retailer at the end of 1997, for example by revenue or customers ahead of barnesandnoble.com and others. Mostly true: Amazon was clearly the leader through most of 1997 or into early 1998, but the timing does not line up exactly with year-end 1997, or the leadership is shown on a closely related measure. Mixed: sources disagree or show Amazon tied or roughly level with a competitor. Mostly false: Amazon was a leading online bookseller but contemporaneous data show another retailer ahead on the main measures. False: the evidence shows Amazon was clearly not the leader in online bookselling at that time.

Evidence

  1. eCompany Now - Magazine Article - Printable Version (Why Barnes & Noble May Crush Amazon) eCompany (Randall Stross, article reproduced by Middlebury College course site) · September 1997
    “After just two years, this Web pioneer (www.amazon.com) is selling $110-million-a-year worth of books.”
  2. [PDF] Leadership Online: Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon.com (A) Harvard Business School (Ghemawat and Baird case 9-798-063) · 28 April 2000
    “BarnesandNoble.com expected to achieve about $15 million in sales in 1997 and more than $100 million in 1998.”
  3. Amazon.com Issues Statement Regarding Barnes & Noble-AOL Commerce Agreement Amazon.com (press release) · 18 December 1997 Own record
    “Amazon.com is providing the best possible online experience for book buyers and is the clear leader in online bookselling with a PC Meter (Media Metrix) reach of 5.9% compared to its nearest competitor's 1.5%.”
  4. 1997 LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS (Reprinted from the 1997 Annual Report) Amazon.com, Inc. (shareholder letter, reprinted in 2000 annual letter) · 1998 Own record
    “customers, yielding 838% revenue growth to $147.8 million, and extended our market leadership despite aggressive competitive entry.”

Reasoning

An independent 1997 eCompany article (E1) says Amazon.com was selling about $110 million a year in books. A Harvard Business School case (E2) says its main rival, BarnesandNoble.com, expected only about $15 million in 1997 sales. Amazon's 1997 annual report letter (E4) gives 1997 revenue of $147.8 million. Amazon's December 1997 statement (E3) cites a Media Metrix reach of 5.9% against its nearest competitor's 1.5%. Taken together, the evidence indicates Amazon's 1997 online book sales were far larger than those expected for BarnesandNoble.com [E1][E2].

Cite this claim

Jeff Bezos, “Amazon.com was the market leader in online bookselling at the end of 1997.” (said 1998). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_4d91d3159bed, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_4d91d3159bed

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts and scores are made. The same data is on Hugging Face under CC BY 4.0.