Will Quora Funding Pay Amazon Invoice?
May 25, 2012
Hmm, does this mean AWS is not free? Popular Q&A site Quora just raised a hefty chunk of change, but Business Insider reveals that “A Lot of Quora’s $50 Million Is Going Straight to Amazon.” The write up explains:
“Amazon.com, besides its vast online store, also rents out computing power to startups like Quora, so they don’t have to buy servers and lease space in data centers themselves. The division is called Amazon Web Services, and one of its key offerings is the Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2.
“‘We project a large portion of this money to go to EC2 and other AWS bills,'” wrote D’Angelo. “‘It might be replaced by whatever the most appropriate place for us to run our infrastructure is in the future but as of today it’s looking like EC2.'”
I know I’m unfamiliar with the details, but on the surface it doesn’t sound like that deal lives up to AWS’ “low cost” promise. Perhaps Quora should shop around a bit more? Just a thought.
Amazon won’t be getting all of Quora’s cash, though. The company will soon be hiring, and will also save some for a rainy day. This team seems quite thrifty—they still have about half of their first financing round socked away. Very prudent.
Quora began work on their product in 2009, and launched their beta in early 2010. Their innovative system curates content on personal home pages so that users can easily find what is relevant to them—information from those who share their interests, or those with experience in the subject at hand. Last year, the company received the TechCrunch Award for Best New Startup or Product of 2010.
Cynthia Murrell, May 25, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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