Amazon Alexa Lets You Make Donations to Presidential Candidates
Amazon will make donating to a U.S. presidential candidate easy via its Alexa digital assistant.
Alexa Political Contributions, powered by Amazon Pay, the company’s payment system, will allow customers to contribute up to $200 to a campaign simply by saying “Alexa, donate to [candidate name],” Amazon said.
The service will begin next month and will work only for candidates who have chosen to participate.
Amazon has invited candidates to sign up on Wednesday but does not plan to report how many contributions flow through the service.
Donors may send dollars only to principal campaign committees, not political action or independent expenditure groups.
With the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election just over a year away, Alexa is ramping up her elections knowledge and experiences, as Amazon is trying to become a center of election information.
"We aim to provide the most relevant, accurate, and timely information about elections and candidates. We federate across hundreds of information sources, and we collaborate with nonpartisan organizations to provide customers with information on polls, ballots, results and more. Alexa herself does not have opinions on politics or candidates," Amazon said.
Amazon’s Echo device, which is how most users interact with the digital assistant, will command nearly two-thirds of the smart speaker market this year, according to research firm eMarketer.