Great industries are never made from single companies. There is room in space for a lot of winners.

You want to look at what other companies are doing. It's very important not to be hermetically sealed. But you don't want to look at it as if, 'OK, we're going to copy that.' You want to look at it and say, 'That's very interesting. What can we be inspired to do as a result of that?' And then put your own unique twist on it.

If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right.

Most big technology companies are competitor focused. They see what others are doing, and then work to fast follow. In contrast, 90 to 95 percent of what we build in AWS is driven by what customers tell us they want.

If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.