Amazon Uses Search, Purchase Data To Send Free Stuff

Amazon recently sent me two free offers for various products, and after reading a recent report from a media outlet it got me thinking about this new way to use search and location data. It's not really new for companies to use their own email and search history to attract new business from consumers by giving them free stuff, but I've received two of these offers in the past 30 days. For the music service, it is 90 days of a free music trial, which they hope will turn into a subscription. For ordering a product that couldn't be delivered, I earned a $10 gift credit to my next order from Amazon Restaurants. eMarketer estimates that Amazon will generate $7.23 billion in digital ad revenue in the U.S. in 2019, behind only Google at $47.89 billion and Facebook at $27.57 billion. The company will control a small slice of the overall U.S. digital ad-spending pie at 5.5.% in 2019, but that share will grow to 7% in 2020.