[TGR]

Brilliant!

Amazon offers discount to A9 users
Fri 17 September, 2004 21:18

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com is offering a 1.57 percent shopping discount to registered users of its new A9 web search service as a way to increase A9 use and promote buying on Amazon, the company's website shows.

In a note on its website on Friday, Amazon said that revenue from web search advertising on A9 will help offset the cost of the discount, which equates to pi divided by two -- Amazon's way of "sharing the pi".

A9 debuted earlier this week and is the project of Amazon's Palo Alto, California-based Internet search unit of the same name. After the roll-out of A9, many analysts and industry watchers had wondered how Amazon would use the service to spur sales on its site.

The discount program began Thursday afternoon.