GeekWire Radio: Amazon vs. Facebook, lessons from Pokémon Go, and a real-world ‘Clue Quest’

This week on the GeekWire radio show and podcast: We start with a roundup of second quarter earnings, where Amazon again blew away expectations, reporting revenue of $30.4 billion. The 31% increase from last quarter was largely fueled by Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing platform. Amazon’s employment soared to a new high.

Facebook, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft also fared well, while Twitter continued to struggle.

Meanwhile, Walgreens announced it will shut down drugstore.com, the online retail site that it acquired just four years ago for $429 million. It’s another sign of Amazon’s dominance as “the everything store.”

At the conclusion of the opening news segment, GeekWire’s John Cook asks an interesting question: Which company do you think will have a bigger market value in three years? They’re just about equal right now, at $360 billion for Facebook and $365 billion for Amazon. Listen to hear where John and GeekWire’s Todd Bishop and Taylor Soper would place their bets.

Plus we go deep into the world of puzzle games with Tim Ellis, GeekWire contributor and organizer of Clue Quest NW, a scavenger hunt on Saturday, Aug. 27, in downtown Seattle. We talk about the new surge in interactive gaming, the future of Geocaching, and Nintendo after Pokémon Go.

Tim tests our puzzle-solving skills with this week’s GeekWire Trivia Challenge — listen and send in your answer to [email protected] for a chance to win a ticket to the upcoming GeekWire Summit.

Also check out our App of the Week, Globespinning.

Listen to the show above, or download the MP3 here.