Amazon At 25: How The Online Giant Transformed The World And Our Lives

He was told by his friends not to opt the word ‘Relentless’ as it sounded a bit sinister. Earlier, he was dissuaded by his lawyer not to call his company ‘Cadabra’ as it was misheard as ‘Cadaver’.

In October 1994, he told his employees that their company’s new name would be Amazon. Why Amazon? Because the name would come up first in alphabetical searches, thought Jeff Bezos. As simple as that.

Thus began the journey of Amazon which took only 25 years to transform itself into an online giant that controls the lives of people across the world. On July 5, 2019, Amazon celebrated its 25th anniversary.

To say that Amazon is inescapable will be the biggest understatement of this decade. It is the most uttered word. It is everywhere, and is very close to becoming the ‘Everything Store’.

• In May 1997, Amazon went public.
• Amazon started by selling books but quickly expanded to other categories.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) was launched in 2003. The company’s Simple Storage Service (S3) effectively made cloud-based infrastructure more cost-effective.
• Amazon Echo smart speaker was launched in 2014.
• In 2005, it launched its Prime membership program. Today, Amazon Prime has more than 100 million subscribers.
• In 2015, first Amazon Prime Day was launched which open only to Prime members.
• This year Amazon Prime Day will run for 48 hours.
• In May 2019, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the world’s largest retailer.
• Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is the richest person in the world, $16 billion richer than the world’s next-richest person, Bill Gates.
• Amazon originally started with online book sales and in 2007 launched Kindle, starting the process of becoming the global leader in an e-book.
• Over the years, Amazon has acquired Audible, Comixology, Ring, Zappos, Woot, Twitch and Whole Foods.

Anticipatory Shipping

It was the first company to launch a smart device (Alexa), equipped with artificial intelligence. The company got the patent for anticipatory shipping in 2013, which is designed to send out products or items to select customers without even getting orders but which the Amazon algorithm thinks they want. The anticipated location of packages might be determined by analyzing various “business variables”, according to the patent.

20 Inspiring Jeff Bezos Quotes On Business And Success

1. “One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

2. “If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table.”

3. “The common question that gets asked in business is, ‘why?’ That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‘why not?’”

4. “Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times.”

5. “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

6. “Your margin is my opportunity.”

7. “Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.”

8. “People who are right most of the time are people who change their minds often.”

9. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest in themselves. You don’t choose your passion; your passion chooses you.”

10. “Obsess about customers, not competitors.”

11. “It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.”

12. “Be stubborn on vision, but flexible on details.”

13. “My own view is that every company requires a long-term view.”

14. “What’s dangerous is not to evolve.”

15. “A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.”

16. “Work Hard, have fun, make history.”

17. “My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.”

18. “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

19. “If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.”

20. “There’ll always be serendipity involved in the discovery.”