
Amazon Analytics Service - alariccole
http://developer.amazon.com/sdk/analytics.html
======
nostromo
I wonder if these big brands (Amazon, Google) can be stretched infinitely with
more and more offerings without confusing users.

Amazon is a retailer and cloud computing provider and a video streaming
service and a TV producer and a device manufacturer and a grocery store and a
bank for small business loans and a hundred other things... At what point does
the umbrella brand start to confuse people?

Bezos must have a brain the size of Texas to keep all these moving parts in
mind.

~~~
ig1
It's not anything new, conglomerates have existed for a long time before the
internet age.

For example consider Sony: Sony Computer Entertainment (gaming), Sony Mobile
(phones), Sony Pictures (movies), Sony Music (music), Sony Life (insurance),
Sony Bank (banking), Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Visual (imaging),
Sony Medical (medtech)

~~~
Segmentation
Then there's Samsung, I think they're the largest conglomerate in the world.

My mom would affiliate Samsung with TVs. I'd probably put them with computer
monitors and phones.

They also build skyscrapers and power plants (Samsung C&T Corporation), and
ships (Samsung Heavy Industries). They also sell Life Insurance in South
Korea.

~~~
yapcguy
In Hong Kong, Asia's richest billionaire, Mr Li Ka-Shing of Cheung Kong
Holdings, owns nearly everything. Anything you do or touch in a day makes Mr
Li even richer. His wealth is opaque so he is probably right up there with
Bill Gates and Carlos Slim for the #1 spot.

~~~
bpicolo
Bloomberg puts him at $28.8B. Not necessarily opaque.

~~~
ksec
And he recently admitted that only half of his wealth are in stocks. Which
actually puts him near the top spot.

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AaronFriel
This was my first time going to the Amazon SDK site and I am _blown away_ by
the difference in site design between it and Amazon's AWS site.

The SDK site is cleanly designed, has less clutter, and so on. The services
link to other services and I feel like I'm being sold a value proposition -
sign up and reap rewards.

The AWS site is amazon.com turned into place a storefront for cloud services.
And that storefront is cluttered and seems eager to have me buy things without
selling me on the value.

------
sjtgraham
Analytics: What everyone is doing now to get first class data on which new
apps are exploding to acquire at a knock down price before anyone else catches
on. Facebook with Parse ([http://swaggadocio.com/post/60416244109/why-
facebook-really-...](http://swaggadocio.com/post/60416244109/why-facebook-
really-bought-parse-yc-s11)), and now Amazon.

~~~
rebel
Yeah, it really is some extremely valuable data. I've always imagined what a
goldmine the data Alexa/Compete gather is on up-and-coming websites.

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josephlord
Can anyone see any terms and conditions that apply to Amazon's use of the data
returned? The "Program Materials License Agreement" doesn't seem to cover the
service as such but the software you a licensing to include in your app to
talk to it.

Most of the existing services (Mixpanel, Flurry etc.) give them the right to
use aggregate data for their purposes which has put me off using them so I
initially sort of rolled my own but never got round to doing the analysis
side. I would love to use this if the TOS are OK.

~~~
josephlord
They do (unsurprisingly but annoyingly) have the right to use, access, retain
and disclose your data "... and to collect, use, and share aggregated
information about Amazon Insights."

I emailed Amazon and they said this:

"The Amazon Insights Schedule in the Distribution and Services Agreement
addresses what you are looking for, and can be found here:

[https://developer.amazon.com/help/da.html"](https://developer.amazon.com/help/da.html")

Amazon Insights Schedule

The terms of this Schedule apply if you use any of the Program Materials we
make available to perform A/B testing and collect and analyze data from your
Content (such materials, collectively, the "Amazon Insights API").

1) Amazon Insights. “Amazon Insights” is a collection of services that we make
available for you to enable you to perform A/B testing and collect and analyze
data from your Apps. You may only use Amazon Insights through the documented
interfaces and other features we make available, and you will comply with any
velocity, capacity, or other limits we establish for the use of Amazon
Insights.

2) Your Data. You are solely responsible for all information and data
collected or stored from your Apps using Amazon Insights (“Your Data”). We may
use, access, retain, and disclose Your Data in order to provide the Amazon
Insights service to you, to enforce the terms of the Agreement, to comply with
any request of a governmental or regulatory body (including subpoenas or court
orders), and to collect, use, and share aggregated information about Amazon
Insights. You give us all permissions we need to exercise these rights.

3) Privacy and Compliance with Laws. Without limiting your obligations under
Section 4 of the Agreement, you must (a) ensure Your Data does not include any
name, password, other login information, or personally identifiable
information or personal data of any end user, (b) provide any necessary notice
to, and obtain any necessary consent from, end users for the collection, use,
transfer, and storage of Your Data (including by us under this Agreement), and
(c) collect, use, transfer, and store Your Data in accordance with any privacy
notice you provide and all applicable Laws.

4) Survival. Sections 1 through 3 of this Schedule will survive any
termination of the Agreement.

------
jyap
I started looking into it for iOS and making a test app to see what it looked
like.

Then I read in the integration instructions: You will also need to add the
SystemConfiguration and CoreTelephony frameworks, and libz.dylib library...

From:
[https://developer.amazon.com/sdk/analytics/documentation/ios...](https://developer.amazon.com/sdk/analytics/documentation/ios-
setup.html)

Why would they need the CoreTelephony framework? No other analytics providers
I've used (Flurry, Localytics) require this framework.

More information about the CoreTelephony framework:
[https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Networ...](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Reference/CoreTelephonyFrameworkReference/_index.html)

~~~
e28eta
I'd guess it's to report Carriers, I've seen analytics products do that in the
past.

------
tannerc
While I'm sure many of us didn't see this coming, it makes perfect sense for
someone like Amazon -- with their massive server farms and data structures --
to do something like this.

I wonder if they'll push for more developers to move to Android and their
Kindle system somehow.

~~~
AsymetricCom
[http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/08/new-amazon-appstore-
incenti...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/08/new-amazon-appstore-incentive-
program-encourages-developers-to-build-for-amazon-will-give-consumers-cash-
back-on-apps/)

------
rebel
This had my hopes up for a web analytics competitor to Google. Has anyone
found a free service (or relatively cheap) that outperforms Google's offering
for web?

~~~
alexatkeplar
[https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow](https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow)
<disclaimer: co-founder>

~~~
generj
I second SnowPlow; the difference between them and other offerings (like
Piwik) is that they don't attempt to be a Google Analytics knockoff, but have
a distinct philosophy about how analytics should function.

And there is a library for Arduino!

~~~
jsiegz
SnowPlow is the best.

SnowPlow + Looker is a really powerful and flexible combination. [Disclaimer:
I work at Looker.]

------
tpowell
I'm sure this has been said a million times elsewhere, but boy do I feel like
Amazon would benefit from better designers like Google has.

------
alariccole
Just tried it out on iOS, and happy with it so far. I'd done extensive
research on tools, and one thing that bothered me was lack of updates. For
instance, it was tough finding a package that was updated for 64 bit (iphone
5s). Open source is great of course, but not all the tools I needed were
available. Will continue with this and see how it goes.

------
weixiyen
Just checked it out. It's missing funnel tracking, which is a glaring hole for
any analytics service.

------
degenerate
I'm confused where this can be used. Reading the website it looks like your
app needs to be in the amazon marketplate? Or can their analytics engine be
used on apps distributed through google play?

~~~
k-mcgrady
The analytics also work on iOS so I presume you can use the Android one on
Google Play. It wouldn't make sense to restrict it to Amazon if they also
offer an iOS version.

------
EGreg
What someone really needs to launch is an ad network which can target by
desktop os, like MacOS, Windows etc. People would use it to sell desktop apps!
Sadly I have never found one.

~~~
melindajb
this can already be done.

[https://support.google.com/adwords/editor/answer/1211190?hl=...](https://support.google.com/adwords/editor/answer/1211190?hl=en)

Note also that most A/B testing networks can be used as defacto Ad
Serving/Dynamic content serving because you can target operating systems as
well.

~~~
EGreg
Um are you sure we can target MACS specifically and not simply "desktops"? How
can we do it exactly?

~~~
melindajb
I'm glad you asked, this was a nuance of the enhanced tracking rollout I
hadn't explored yet and thought they had finally changed. :( (I haven't bought
ads since the enhanced tracking rollout) I had read about the mobile side but
didn't realize they hadn't expanded the desktop side. My bad.

To atone for my error, I did some poking around and found a good summary hack
of the display ads network (AdSense) that gives you some options.

[http://www.makeitbloom.com/blog/advanced-mobile-targeting-
in...](http://www.makeitbloom.com/blog/advanced-mobile-targeting-in-display-
campaigns/)

You can also use the retargeting feature in GA to help convert people once
they find you. [http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/07/30/adwords-
remarketi...](http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/07/30/adwords-remarketing-
google-analytics/#sr=g&m=o&cp=or&ct=-tmc&st=\(opu%20qspwjefe\)&ts=1384117145)

You can use "device" as a proxy for OS though quite substandard.

A slightly more elegant way to do this is to do a device specific landing
page. [http://searchengineland.com/new-valuetrack-features-for-
enha...](http://searchengineland.com/new-valuetrack-features-for-enhanced-
campaigns-improve-device-specific-tracking-and-increase-conversions-152106)

Given Apple's poking at Android, my sense is that Google doesn't have a real
interest in helping Mac People find each other. Sorry for leading anyone
astray.

It's also really got me wondering why they persist. I'm assuming it's because
they'd make more money this way. You pay for "BS" windows clicks, given
Apple's 7% OS market share (non mobile). The same way they closed the tablet
arbitrage (you now have to pay desktop PPC prices for tablet.I bet if Mac
users gained share over windows desktops that would change, like they had to
in mobile.

One way to thwart them would seem to be to focus on paying per conversion, and
using retargeting. But I'll let others with deeper mac marketing experience
than me, add value here.

Hope this helped.

------
VladRussian2
i wonder is it normal practice on mobile to include private key (from the
Analytics SDK docs for Android):

InsightsCredentials credentials = AmazonInsights.newCredentials(YOUR_APP_KEY,
YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY);

Looks strange. I'd expect that either each app installation to have its own
permanent key (most probably some derivative of your key generated at
install/download) or, by analogy with the well known system, something like
the app/device coming to you for temporary ticket and using it to initialize
SDK.

------
slowdown
Hey guys, can someone tell me what exactly is an SDK, or rather how do you
design one?

Case in point:

Does the Amazon SDK include their source code?

So, let's say if Amazon offers me an SDK that I can install on my servers to
capture analytics on my site. So does that mean, that the SDK they provide me
with actually contains their whole source code of their analytics platform?

The way I understand SDK's are a local piece of software that runs on your
machine to provide you with an API that you can use. Can someone please
straighten this poor soul?

Thanks :)

~~~
matkam
I haven't looked at their SDK yet but it would either come in the form of a
compiled library, or uncompiled source code, that (like you said) would give
you access to their API within your own project. You do not get the entire
source code for their analytics platform, just the part that would let you use
it.

------
keltex
It's too bad Amazon doesn't have any analytics for publishers of books on
Kindle. The only information you get is the # of copies sold and how much
people paid for them on a monthly basis. (You can get daily sales, but those
are only available for "month-to-date" so you have to go in every single day
to record those value).

It would be nice to know how people found the book, demographics of who's
reading them, etc.

~~~
hornbaker
Have you looked at AppAnnie? They launched an e-book tracking service
recently...

[https://www.appannie.com/dashboard/?demo=1&vertical=books](https://www.appannie.com/dashboard/?demo=1&vertical=books)

~~~
jrpt
I have a product on Amazon currently. What sellers really want IMO is
conversion tracking on Amazon's platform. Even the ability to add your own
Google Analytics tracking code would be amazing. This way you can know how
many visitors your pages are getting, where they are coming from, and if you
buy paid traffic, how that is converting and whether it is worth it. Without
this, you're shooting in the dark with marketing spend.

App Annie is great, and I've used it for general analysis, but I think what
most sellers want is deeper analytics so that they can track marketing spend
with conversions. This is something no third party can do. It'd need to come
from Amazon.

------
Nux
Another one to make my /etc/hosts along with: www.google-analytics.com google-
analytics.com ssl.google-analytics.com statcounter.com www.statcounter.com

Let me know if I missed anything important. :)

------
asselinpaul
Does anyone know how this compares with other offerings?

------
melindajb
Are they using anything different from cookies? If so, the results won't be
any different from what you get in Google Analytics.

~~~
melindajb
really, I was voted down for this?

~~~
DenisM
For not reading the article before commenting.

~~~
melindajb
Please elaborate. nothing on the article mentions cookies or the technology
used to collect this information. Or I am expected to have read the entire set
of documentation?

~~~
cdcarter
Google Analytics is for websites viewed in browsers. This is distinctly for
apps. The tracking is by means of an SDK compiled into your mobile app. They
serve entirely different audiences.

~~~
deveshparekh
Google Analytics is also for mobile apps and has been for a few years.
[https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection...](https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/)

I came to the comments looking for a comparison. No such luck.

~~~
cdcarter
Well my bad there! Didn't know they had even launched that future. That being
said, the Amazon offering seems to be exclusively designed for mobile, instead
of an add on to a web property.

------
EGreg
How is it better than Google Analytics?

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azio_m
I thought this is something that competes with Google Analytics. Apparently
it's for mobile apps and games only.

~~~
bowlofpetunias
Feels like an artificial beta restriction to me. Also, it's branded "Amazon
Analytics Service", not "Mobile Analytics".

I suspect it's only a matter of time before they branch out and take on GA.

------
hydralist
how does this compare to mixpanel or kissmetrics?

~~~
tszming
This service is free at any usage level according to their faq.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
What are the chances of this being primarily spyware? I am seriously
concerned. Is there a Chinese wall mentioned anywhere.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
I'm surprised I got downvoted so heavily and that nobody else is concerned
about this. Facebook was known for using fb platform data in its app
development. Amazon could easily too. I'd rather trust a specialized analytics
company rather than a company that's been known to aggressively move into
adjacent industries.

Why would it be free? No AWS service started out totally free as this is.

~~~
generj
I think this is mostly targeting people already using Amazon apps and
services. I doubt we will see widespread adoption - there are so many
analytics apps already, and practically all of them enable mobile tracking.
Enterprises like to use the same analytics platform across everything so they
don't need to maintain staff and contracts with multiple vendors.

With that said, a reason Google Analytics is free is because it let's Google
track users once they leave Google and enter web-sites. Or at least Google
could, by using co-relating users to search clicks. They aren't involved in
the space out of the pure kindness of their hearts, and Google Analytics
doubtlessly loses lots of money every quarter for Google.

"I'd rather trust a specialized analytics company" \- don't. If you can, own
your own data on your own server. Otherwise you will need to rent your data
from your vendor constantly, or pay for a data migration process later, or pay
for a data warehouse and a means to explore it.

------
sanbornesteve
I saw a presentation by a company that seems to have a similar focus at recent
meetup in new york: [http://www.indicative.com](http://www.indicative.com)

Their website claims (cutting out the marketing) ... to empower all web and
mobile businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions. ... tools that help
startups and small businesses learn from their data and improve their
performance.

~~~
ceejayoz
That's your idea of "cutting out the marketing"?

