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Online shopping has become a part of the daily life for most us today. As per Statista, over 2.1 billion people worldwide will go for online shopping of goods and services by 2021.
While the number of e-commerce companies worldwide is growing fast, there are a few pioneer companies that has established itself as the market leader in the sector, and one of them is Amazon.
Started in the year 1994 from the founder Jeff Bezos' garage, Amazon is one of the few companies that joined the 1 trillion valuation club.
Let's have a look into startup story of e-commerce giant, Amazon along with it, discover about Amazon Latest News, Revenue, Funding, History, Growth, Competitors and more.
Amazon – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Amazon |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington (USA) |
| Sector | E-Commerce |
| Founder | Jeff Bezos |
| CEO | Andy Jassy |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Amazon India Founded | June 2013 |
| Revenue | 386.1 Billion (2020) |
| Funding | $108 Million (went public in 1997) |
| Valuation | $1 Trillion+ |
| Parent Organization | Amazon.com, Inc. |
| Website | www.amazon.in |
Discover more about Amazon's Startup Story:
Amazon - Latest News
Amazon - About
Amazon - Founder & Team
Amazon - History
Amazon - Name & Logo
Amazon - Revenue
Amazon - Funding & Investors
Amazon - Revenue Model
Other Services Offered by Amazon
Amazon - Competitors
Amazon - Future Plans
Amazon - FAQs
Amazon - Latest News
July 5, 2021 - Jeff Bezos steps down as CEO after exactly 27 years. Bezos founded Amazon on July 5, 1994. Andy Jassy will be taking over as the new CEO of Amazon.
March 18, 2021 - Amazon Prime Video Makes History as the First Streaming Service to Secure an Exclusive National Broadcast Package From the NFL.
March 2, 2021 - PGA TOUR Selects AWS as Its Official Cloud Provider.
February 27, 2021 - Amazon might get affected by tighter FDI Rules by Indian government.
February 3, 2021 - Jeff Bezos to step down as CEO of Amazon and will be the executive chairman of Amazon. Andy Jassy (The current Cloud Computing Chief) will be the next CEO of Amazon. In the 3rd quarter of 2021, this change will take place i.e., July - September 2021.
February 2, 2021 - Amazon's quarterly revenue (October 2020-December 2020) surpasses $100 Billion. Its full-year 2020 net sales were up 38%, to $386.1 billion.
Amazon - About
Amazon.com, Inc was launched in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in the United States. Later, it stepped into other countries to increase its market. Amazon India was started in June 2013, and sooner it became the one of the biggest e-commerce platform in India. Initially, the company started with selling books and it expanded to sell electronics, households, software, food, jewellery, and a lot more.
Currently, other than being an e-commerce company, Amazon has diversified into a number of domains including cloud computing, Publishing, on-demand music and video streaming, AI, consumer electronics etc and the company is constantly on a lookout to enter new segments.
Amazon Studios, Amazon Publishing, Amazon Music, and Amazon Web Services are some of its other subsidiaries. In its bid to grow, Amazon has acquired over 100 companies till date.
Amazon - Founder & Team
Jeff Bezos (Founder & CEO, Amazon)
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos (Jeffrey Preston Bezos) in 1994. He is an American entrepreneur and industrialist. After graduating from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1986, Bezos worked for 'Fitel' ( a fintech telecommunication startup), where he was working on building a network for international trade. Later Bezos was promoted to head of development and director of customer service at 'Fitel'.
1998 to 1990
From 1988 to 1990, Jeff Bezos worked with 'Bankers Trust' (an American Banking Organization )as a product manager. In 1990, Bezos joined D.E Shaw and Co. a hedge fund, and worked there till 1994.
1994
In 1994, Jeff Bezos began his entrepreneurial journey, and started an online book selling company form the garage of his house, which today has turned out to be the world's largest online marketplace Amazon. Interestingly Jeff Bezos also founded Blue Origin, a company for aerospace manufacturing in 2000.
Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon and will be the executive chairman of Amazon. Andy Jassy -The Cloud Computing Chief has been appointed as the new CEO of Amazon.
Andy Jassy (Cloud Computing Chief & CEO of Amazon)
Jassy joined Amazon in 1997. He has a MBA from Harvard Business School. It was Andy Jassy who founded Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud platform with million users. Andy Jassy's promotion from being a Cloud Computing Chief to othe CEO (Cheif Executive Officer) of Amazon is remarkable and highlights the importance of web services to Amazon's future. Andy Jassy has taken over the position of Amazon CEO.
Amazon India Directors
Amazon India currently operates with three directors. They are Perinchery Vasudevanraman Elayath, Atul Jain, and Ashish Jain. Perinchery Vasudevanraman Elayath has been on board for more than six years. Atul Jain and Ashish Jain have been appointed in November 2015.
Amazon India has more than 50,000 employees in India, in which around 30,000 comprises of warehouse employees and delivery boys. The company has around 8,40,000 employees worldwide.
Amazon - History
Jeff Bezos jokingly describes founding Amazon as a 'Regret Minimization Framework'. Jeff did not want to regret for not taking advantage of the internet boom that had then started to slowly take the world by storm. Hence in 1994, Jeff left his job as vice president of D.E Shaw & Co. to start his own venture.
Jeff Bezos wrote his company's first business plan on a cross country drive from New York to Seattle. Initially Amazon was registered as Cadabra, Inc. However, when Jeff found out that people misheard the name Cadabra as 'cadaver' (cadaver means corpse), he decided to change the name and bought the domain name relentless.com. But that too was changed as his friends did not quite liked the name and finally named his company as 'Amazon'.
Jeff listed 20 products that can be sold online, out of which he decided to start with selling books. The first to invest on Amazon were Jeff Bezos' parents, who invested $250,000 on the venture. By 1997, Amazon had 2.5 million titles.
In 1998, Amazon acquired Junglee corporation ( provider of database technology to help consumers find products on the Internet) and 'Planet All' a social networking, calendaring and address book site, and with it the company also started expanding its offerings beyond books.
In 2005 Amazon also entered the crowd-sourcing business with 'Amazon Mechanical Turk'.
In 2006, Amazon entered the cloud computing sector with 'Amazon Web Services' (AWS) realizing the great scope that the sector holds. In 2006, Amazon entered into the video on demand sector with 'Amazon Unbox'.
In November 2007, Amazon released Kindle, its first e-reader, which became quite popular among the users. In 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Music.
Another Amazon product that has gained popularity is 'Alexa', which is a virtual assistant AI technology developed by Amazon.
Yash Raj Srivastava
Amazon - Name & Logo
Amazon being the largest river in the world, the company was named 'Amazon' as Jeff Bezos envisioned his company to be the largest.
Amazon's current logo which the company has been using since the year 2000, has and arrow leading from A to Z, which reflects the company's goal to provide every product a customer needs. The arrow forms a smile, which represents customer satisfaction.
Amazon - Revenue
Lets dive into startup story of amazon. What started as a small online book store, today is the world's largest online marketplace. In 2018, Amazon's annual revenue was $232.887 Billion, while in 2019, the company's revenue increased by 20.45% to reach $280.522 Billion. The company's net profit in 2019 was over $ 11.5 billion. In the first quarter of 2020, ending March 31st 2020, Amazon reported $75.452 Billion revenue and a total of $386.1 Billion in 2020.
Amazon - Funding & Investors
Lets take a detail look at the Amazon funding history. The company has received a total funding amount of $108 million over two rounds. Amazon went public in 1997. Amazon is funded by 2 investors, AOL and Kleiner Perkins.
Investors
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 1996 | Series A | $8M | Kleiner Perkins |
| July 2001 | Funding Round | $100M | - |
Amazon - Revenue Model
A major portion of Amazon's revenue comes from its e-commerce business. Besides, Amazon also has 526 brick and mortar retail outlets, which forms a good source of revenue.
It also makes a huge revenue through Kindle, an electronic device to read books, subscription fee of ‘Amazon Prime’, third-party seller services, advertising revenues and revenue from Amazon Web Services.
Other Services Offered by Amazon
Apart from being the biggest E-Commerce platform, Amazon also offers some pretty exciting and good services and they are:
Amazon Go
Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores that is run under Amazon which was started in the year 2018. The stores are mainly present in the United States and the United Kingdom, the main concept of these stores is that there are no cashiers in the store with whom customers have to deal. Everything is automated in there and they have self-checkout stations where customers can pay for their supplies after picking them up from the store. As of now, there are 42 Amazon Go stores.
Amazon Prime
This is the OTT video streaming platform offered by Amazon, it is a subscription-based platform where movies, television series, web series and other video content are provided for the audience to watch. Amazon Prime was launched worldwide in 2016, some of the countries are excluded like North Korea, Mainland China, Russia, Syria, Cuba and Iran.
Amazon Pay
This is the online payment processing service provided by Amazon. It was launched in the year 2007. Through this payment service, one can pay from their Amazon account, for goods and services. The payment service is supported by fraud protection technology through which you can complete any transaction securely.
Amazon - Competitors
Amazon has a lot of competitors in segments such as merchandise, web services, electronics, and media. some of the main competitors of Amazon in its different fields.
Amazon - Future Plans
Amazon plans to expand in the areas of Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics, and Space Exploration (termed 'MARS').
Till date Amazon has over 26 staff free and check out free Amazon Go stores across US. The company has tied up with Hyundai to make world's first cashier free department store in South Korea.
Amazon is also planning to venture into health- tech and food delivery business soon. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed plans to introduce 'Amazon Prime Air Drone Delivery Service' , whereby lighter packages will be delivered to customers trough drones. The company is also making efforts to make its delivery system more eco-friendly, by including electric vehicles for its delivery services.
Regarding Amazon's plan in India, the company is planning to create 1 million new jobs in India by 2025. On January 2020, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon will invest $1 billion in India to help 10 million traders and MSMEs in India to go online. The company is envisioning to enable exports worth $10 billion via Amazon by 2025.
Amazon - FAQs
What is Amazon's Funding History?
Amazon received total funding of $108 million over two rounds. Amazon went public in 1997.
When was Amazon Founded in India?
Amazon launched its operations in India in June 2013. Amazon was founded in July 1994.
Who is Amazon CEO?
Andy Jassy is the CEO of Amazon. Jeff Bezos was the former CEO of Amazon.
How much is Amazon Revenue?
Amazon reported revenue of $386.1 Billion (2020). Amazon's quarterly revenue (October 2020-December 2020) surpasses $100 Billion.
What are Amazon's keys to success?
Huge Number of SKU's. Table of Contents, Free Shipping and Returns, Overnight Delivery, Incredible Customer Service, Talented Management is the Amazon's keys to success.
How long did it take Amazon to make a profit?
It took Amazon more than 14 years—58 quarters after its initial public offering to make, as much profit as it produced in the latest quarter.
Source :- https://startuptalky.com/ Author :- Himaya Presthitha Date :-March 22, 2022 at 06:50PM