Amazon to close AmazonSmile charity platform as cost-cutting effort
Christopher Hutton
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Amazon is closing its platform for making donations during the purchase process amid a larger wave of cuts within the company.
The retail giant announced on Thursday that it was closing AmazonSmile. The service allowed users to donate a small percentage of their purchases on the platform to several preselected charities. The product will cease operations on Feb. 20, 2023.
AmazonSmile “has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped,” the company wrote in a press release. “With so many eligible organizations — more than 1 million globally — our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.”
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Amazon promised to refocus its efforts on other philanthropic programs, including its Housing Equity Fund, its engineering education program, and its community giving.
Amazon stock has been on a downward trend. By late fall, it had suffered a loss of $1 trillion in market capitalization from its all-time highs in 2021. The company is reconsidering several of its investments, including by cutting more than 18,000 jobs over several months. The company also closed its Amazon Care telehealth service and ended its plans to build 42 additional facilities.
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Amazon is not the only company making cuts. Several tech companies are slimming down. Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it was cutting more than 10,000 jobs from its global force. The payment company Stripe announced that it was laying off 1,000 employees, or 14% of its labor force. The commerce company Salesforce also announced that it was cutting 10% of its workers.