Amazon

 

Company description

Amazon (Amazon) Inc. [Internet site]

Amazon is the world's largest internet retailer and marketplace, with annual revenue of $2.9 trillion in 2021. It operates online stores under several brand names, including Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon Fresh, and others. As of February 2022, Amazon is home to over 350 million active customers.[1][2]

Amazon also owns other related businesses such as Whole Foods Market and California Coffee Roasters. The company has received numerous accolades for its corporate social responsibilities, including being named one of Fortune magazine's "World's Most Admired Companies" for the sixth year in a row; most recently in 2018, it was ranked second on the list.[3] In 2018, Amazon executives were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald J. Trump during his trip to Washington D.C.

Amazon holds leadership positions in several industries, including e-commerce, cloud computing, software development, financial services, healthcare, consumer electronics, retailing, transportation, media & entertainment, and manufacturing.[4]

The first public use of the word "Amazon" was recorded in 1958 on January 5, by William H. Hewlett and David Packard, who used that term at their publishing firm CompuServe Computer Programs.[5] On July 10, 1961, the New York Times included an article about computer networks using a reference to "Amazon".

The first online store was launched by Sam Walton in 1962 at the age of 15.[6] After being founded by Jack Black in 1963, Jeff Bezos purchased the majority stake for just $1,500, leaving behind all of its profits.[7] By 1998, Jeff Bezos had taken up management roles at companies like Sun Microsystems.[8] Since then, he has bought shares in every publicly traded Internet company in North America.[9] In November 2020, Forbes listed him as among its 50 Greatest People of 2022, alongside Mark Zuckerberg[10] and Elon Musk[11], and stated that Bezos would likely rule for many years to come.

History [ edit ]

Amazon Web Services

First store [ edit ]

In December 1969, Jack Bezos opened what he thought would be a warehouse selling books to students. However, this became known as the book club. Soon after this, Bezos began marketing the product directly to parents with flyers in town-council meetings. Because the bookstore wasn't open on Sunday morning, they met again on Monday morning to order new stock. This store grew in size to almost 500 square feet in 1979, and eventually became known as Amazon's initial physical headquarters.[12] He kept doing deliveries himself but soon hired two employees to do so. Then he decided to open an actual brick-and-mortar store. This building was originally called Blue Marble Books, before changing to Amazon Bookstore when Bezos was 28. When Jeffrey Pfeffer bought the rights to Blue Marble Books in 1989, Bezos began hiring people to handle distribution and sold all his own to him as part of the deal.[13]

Amazon's first employee was Larry Page, who later wrote the code that facilitated the website and led to its growth.[14] The business first operated out of Seattle, a suburb of Seattle. It quickly expanded into more markets, and by 1983 was operating in 25 states and three Canadian provinces. Before long, these locations were getting enough traffic to hire full-time staff and pay the bills.[15] Many employees remained at the Seattle location until Bezos relocated to Los Angeles in 1985, where another branch was built in 1986, and then finally made the move to Canada in 1988. Although Bezos did not have much control as president during those early days, he did decide whom he wanted a board member to represent him.[16]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bezos worked harder than ever to keep workers content and set ambitious goals to develop the company. For instance, a major goal was the launch of Prime, something that Jeff Bezos said would help the company compete against competitors that already offered free shipping.[17] Throughout 1987, there were many problems at Amazon, especially regarding employee relations. At least one warehouse worker quit because he thought Amazon was going too far with safety measures like cleaning stations.[18] Amazon took steps to solve these issues, including introducing flexible work schedules,[19] implementing training programs, and firing some employees to hire better candidates.[20] Although some workers complained about working conditions, Bezos ensured that his workforce loved the job, so they didn't quit.[21] Between 1993 and 1994, a program was developed to increase workplace performance, including by removing bureaucratic barriers; thus, Amazon became more productive.[22]

In 1996, Bezos started having trouble attracting top talent as the founder and CEO faced pressure from investors and regulators to cut expenses and increase profitability.[23] To address this issue, Bezos created a culture inside the company.[24] The organization became a place where people could talk openly without fear of reprisal because Jeff Bezos believed that if everyone was afraid of making mistakes, creativity would lose its purpose.[25] Employees were encouraged to report difficult situations to him whenever possible, even if it meant being fired, or resigning from the team. They also knew that if they had a problem with their boss they could take it right to HR and get it resolved right away.[26] Amazon employees shared information freely with each other, with some employees sharing even more confidential information than typical organizations might allow them to share.[27] Due to these changes, Amazon's customer base grew from 100,000 in 1997 to 1.25 million by 2006.[28] During this time, Bezos also launched the Kindle ebook reader as well as launching the streaming service HBO Max in 2004, which both enabled Amazon to become a billion-dollar company for the very first time.[29] By 2005, Prime members were spending four hours per week on Amazon's websites, with roughly 24% of Amazon purchases by the end of that year.[30]

After Bezos left the company in 2011, he began considering moving back to the US, mainly to seek out greater executive autonomy. Despite concerns about how competitive the tech industry could be in a country where the government was lax in regulating commerce, Bezos chose to stay in the United States.[31] Some critics said Bezos needed to focus on increasing sales and less on running Amazon, while others noted that it might be possible to create similar businesses elsewhere. Bezos refused to bow down to any criticism, saying he was prepared to run for two more elections, and predicted, in 2014, that his own memoir will be published sometime later in 2026.[32] Shortly after the election, Jeff Bezos announced that he had plans to take Amazon private.[33]

Amazon's IPO [ edit ]

Amazon was once the world's leading provider of online shopping before it went public in 2001. But the growth it generated, coupled with rising inflation rates worldwide and the recession that followed, caused Amazon to experience a series of crises over the next several years.[34] Among them was the 2002 shareholder revolt that forced shareholders to vote overwhelmingly in favor of the company's merger with Intercom, an existing competitor, in 2003.[35] That same year, the company raised more money through capital raises in exchange for debt.[36] From May 2007 to April 2009, Amazon experienced further market fluctuations with the introduction of economic downturns and increased competition.[37] Its stock plummeted between September 2008 and January 2010.[38] This prompted the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission to announce that it would investigate whether Amazon violated federal securities laws relating to misleading statements.[39][40] The commission fined Amazon more than $1 billion in total. Even though the company managed to retain a significant portion of its loyal customers, the low point came when an internal test of Alexa helped sell 12% fewer units of furniture compared to previous launches.[41][42] A month after this failure, Reuters published an article showing that Amazon lost $3 billion from consumers' wallets.[43]

Amazon's fortunes were beginning to fall until July 9, 2013, when the U.S Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points to try and curb inflation.[44] Amazon's share price plunged 70 percent on July 13, marking the lowest closing value of Amazon since April 2012.[45] Amazon responded by raising its dividend by 60 percent and announcing that its quarterly earnings release would be delayed until September, due to uncertainty over the results and continued volatility of the economy.[46] Later in the day, Amazon announced that it was shutting down a previously planned fourth quarter release on October 3 and that it would release its latest update on its Q3 earnings on October 21. The decision to delay the release had been anticipated by analysts.[47] On the evening of October 1, Amazon announced that it planned to discontinue testing for the Echo device.[48][49] Also, this afternoon, Amazon confirmed it had reached an agreement with Walmart – the third biggest seller of clothing and electronics online – for a partnership that includes delivery products from Amazon.[50] According to reports, Amazon would reportedly have to buy millions of dollars worth of items just to complete this deal, although Walmart and Amazon are still negotiating the details. By Tuesday night, Amazon's shares had fallen 44 percent at the close of trading, wiping nearly $200 million off the company's market valuation for the first time.[51]

2014–2020 [ edit ]

Between 1999 and 2015, Amazon focused heavily on growth initiatives, opening multiple large warehouses in different cities throughout America and establishing itself as the global leader in providing logistics services.[52] As a result of its rapid expansion, Amazon started experiencing some supply chain woes.[53] Specifically, Amazon experienced shipping difficulties in December 2014 when truckers had trouble accessing ports of entry, causing delays at key ports and affecting shipments being shipped to customers.[54] Amazon reported it had shipped over 1 billion pounds of goods and had more than 6,000 warehouses in operation by March