We can define it as the digital version of a traditional large surface. Large surfaces are characterized by housing all kinds of shops, restaurant spaces and in many cases leisure areas such as cinemas, bowling alleys or others. Amazon is a digital version of the vitamin and steroid superstores. His business has diversified over the years, making it the most valuable retail company in the world.
Its founder is Jeff Bezos, considered the richest man on Earth. The company's headquarters are currently in Seattle, a city that is within the state of Washington, in the United States. It has a digital store in a large number of countries and offers all kinds of products, whether physical or digital.
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Who is Jeff Bezos?
Origin
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in the city of Albuquerque, located in the state of New Mexico, United States. His mother Jacklyn Gise gave birth to Bezos at the age of 17 and named him Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. The second surname corresponds to his biological father Ted Jorgensen, of whom hardly anything is known.
Gise, Bezos's mother, married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, shortly after he was born. When Miguel got married, he adopted Jeffrey as his son and received his last name. A few years later they moved to Houston, in the state of Texas, United States, where he studied from 4th to 6th grade. The family then moved to Miami, in the state of Florida, United States, where they would finish their basic training. His alma mater is Princeton University.
In 1992, he married MacKenzie Bezos, they divorced from Cal last January 2019. The couple has four children, one of whom is an adopted daughter in China.
Career
He graduated in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, graduating in 1986. During his training he worked in a fiber optic company and later in a Wall Street hedge fund. After finishing his career, he joined the DE Shaw & Co company, of which he became Vice President.
It was in 1994 when he decided to quit his job and start his own project. He initially founded an online bookstore called Cadabra.com. The store opened on June 16, 1995 with an investment of 1.3 million dollars. An important part of the compounding was done by their parents.
The basics of Amazon
Bezos knew how to see that the internet would become a mass network in a very short time and that it would be present in all markets. Then he devised an online book catalog where the books of the different publishers would be. Inside the user could search the books available in stock and buy them through the internet.
It got its first sale on July 16, 1995, selling its first volume. In 1997 it already had a worldwide name and offered services in many countries.
As in many of the American stories of great entrepreneurs, his first office was in his home, specifically in the garage of the rented house with his wife MacKenzie. There he installed three servers where the information for the new site began to be stored.
There are three theories of the name change from Cadabra to Amazon:
- The first that is due to the Amazon River.
- There is another theory that indicates that it is by positioning and that is that at that time the listings of web pages were ordered alphabetically, thus ensuring that they appear at the beginning of the searches in the search engines of the time.
- Other information indicates that the change occurred because a lawyer confused Cadabra with Corpse.
It managed to have a catalog with more than 200.000 titles, offering a new service to purchase books and had more than 2.000 daily visitors. The following year he managed to double the figure by x25 times.
Bezos considered expanding, offering other products such as CDs, DVDs, toys, electronics, and more.
Amazon history
First steps
Bezos stumbled upon a report that talked about the future of the internet, projecting an annual growth of web commerce at 2.300%. Initially, Bezos created a list of 20 different products that could be easily marketed on the internet. From that list I select only five products:
- Books
- Videos
- CD
- Computers
- Computer software
He even ended up narrowing down this list even further, deciding to start an online book store, due to its high worldwide demand. Low prices and a large number of titles were the two pillars of the store's success.
Amazon gained access to the wholesale book catalog of Ingram, a large distributor. After two months he was already selling books to the United States and more than 45 countries and was already generating more than $ 20.000 a week.
Officially, the store started in 1995, selling its first book in July of that same year and in that same year it was already known worldwide. The company was relocated to Delaware, a recognized American tax haven. On May 15, 1997, the company made a public sale of shares traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol AMZN with a price per share of $ 18.
Unusual situation
Amazon's business plan indicated that the company would have no profit for the first four or five years. This slow forecast caused shareholders to complain a lot about not achieving profitability quickly. They argued that this slow growth was not good to justify an investment and its long-term viability was questioned.
Amazon was found at the beginning of the XNUMXst century, the phenomenon of the so-called 'Dotcom Bubble' occurred. This bubble ended up causing the destruction of many electronic companies. Bezos' company managed to survive the situation and even grew during that bubble period, ranking as one of the most important online stores.
The first profits were obtained in the fourth quarter of 2001, obtaining a profit of 5 million dollars that was equivalent to 1 cent per share. The company posted $ 1.000 billion in revenue. Something that showed the most skeptical about the viability of the success of the unusual business model of Bezos.
Legal issues
Barnes & Noble sued the company on May 12, 1997, stating that Amazon's claim to be "the largest bookstore in the world" was a lie. The company indicated that "it is not a bookstore at all, it is a book agent." A lawsuit settled a little later out of court.
Walmart also sued Amazon on October 16, 1998, stating that the bezos company had stolen trade secrets. This is because Bezos hired former Walmart executives. This case was also settled out of court. After this, Amazon decided to increase internal security measures and fire former Walmart executives.
