Amazon is 30 years old this year – on the 5th July to be exact ! Who would believe from its humble beginnings as an online bookshop founded in a garage in Seatle that it would become the fifth most valuable company in the world. Jeff Bezos, its founder, is now one of the top three richest people in the world – even ahead of Warren Buffet!!
Today, Amazon is known as The Everything Company – with online and physical stores, web services, ambient intelligence using AI weaving devices and services together, as well as creating and distributing movies, music and more.
In the 1990s, Amazon had a significant amount of losses but it continued to raise money from investors. It would likely have been unable to navigate through the Dotcom Bubble, which exploded in 2000 without these funds.
Jeff Bezos never saw Amazon solely as a bookshop but more as a technology company. Keen to push boundaries he was looking for ways to expand his online business. In 1997 he emailed 1,000 randomly selected customers and asked them “besides the things we sell today, what would you like to see us sell?” He got lots of lengthy answers with one customer writing back saying “windshield wiper blades, because I really need windshield wiper blades”. It was at that point that Jeff Bezos realised that Amazon could sell anything!
Its success is the result of the company’s tireless focus on customers and its enthusiasm for experimenting. Today Amazon employs 1.5 million people globally with annual revenues of $575 Billion from multiple streams making it the world’s largest e-commerce company. Walmart is the only other company in the world with larger annual sales.
Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021 to become Executive Chairman and now owns 9% of the company. He sold his shares diversifying his interests into other industries and is the founder of space company Blue Origin, which launched a six-person crew to the edge of space in May 2024. He is a testament to thinking outside the box and embracing boundaries.
