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Feature
Story - Jeffrey
Preston Bezos (Continued)
-----
Bezos worked on
science and engineering projects that
eventually piled up in his parents'
garage. His passion for building things
was proved when he built his own Infinity
Cube, a cube made up of motorized mirrors
which allow the user to stare into in an
infinite world.
-----When
his mother said its $20 cost was too
expensive, he bought the pieces cheaply
and built it himself. This story is
documented in "Turning On Bright Minds: A
Parent Looks at Gifted Education in
Texas." Incidentally, the book, published
locally in the Houston area in 1977, is
not available on Amazon.com. Bezos spent
many summers on his grandfather's ranch in
Cotulla, Texas, where he exercised his
hands-on engineering abilities by fixing
windmills and doing other such chores
-----
By age 16, he could
fix windmills, use an arc welder and
castrate cattle. In his late grade school
years, Bezos became fascinated with the
Infinity Cube, which uses a set of
motorized mirrors to let the user stare
into "infinity."
The
Bezos Principles -
Internet
commerce.
-----"Obsess
about customers, not the competitors", is
the motto of Bezos' present obsession --
Amazon.com . The company known today as
the most visible symbol of consumer
electronic commerce started when he
discovered the exponential growth of the
Internet. He and his wife Mackenzie (a
novelist) moved to Seattle and started
Amazon.com from their rented suburban
house.
-----Before
"opening" its doors for business on the
Internet, Bezos and his team spent a year
developing database programs and creating
the Web site, which sells books, music and
videos on the Internet. Although the
profitability of the company is next to
nil - all the extra cash is used for
marketing and for buying other companies -
the accomplishments of Amazon.com are
tremendous:
-----* It beat
Sears in market capitalization value (the
number of outstanding stock shares
multiplied by stock price), with $17
billion in
1998.
-----* It went
public in May 1997, and is traded on the
NASDAQ as AMZN. Its many employees have
stock options and are now
millionaires.
-----* It is to
date, Amazon is the leading online
shopping site, with sales expected to
exceed $6.7 billion in revenue in 2004.
About 25% will come from
third-party sales
of $1.92
billion.
-----* More than
800,000 third party affiliate Web sites
are linked to Amazon.com, to sell goods
listed.
Why did Jeff Bezos
decide to name his company
Amazon.com?
----- Bezos
and his team spent a year creating their
Web site and developing the database
programs that they knew they would need.
They hired a marketing firm to test
several names for the new online company
with consumers. Amazon was picked because
words starting with "A" show up on
search-engine lists first.
What can you do when
you visit
Amazon.com?
-----Amazon.com
tries to offer the broadest possible
selections while being customer-friendly
and easy to navigate. Search engines make
it possible to find books by author,
title, subject or keyword and music by
artist, CD title or song title. Reviews
are provided and readers and listeners are
allowed to comment on books and music as
well.
-----Every time a
customer buys a book, Amazon.com's
computer uses the information to recommend
similar books. Bezos says, "The goal here
is not rampant consumerism. The idea is to
use technology to capture information
about consumers and their interests and
match individuals with other products they
might like, including items they don't
even know exist." (USA Today)
-----Bezos
is known as a fan of science fiction (his
Labrador is named after an obscure Star
Trek character); witty; gregarious; keenly
interested in anything that can be
revolutionized by computers; and known to
have an explosively loud laugh. He
definitely has a lot to laugh and smile
about.
02
/ TimeLine
----In
1986 -- graduated from Miami's Palmetto
High School. He was elected class
president and valedictorian,
-----In
1988, after graduating from Princeton,
majoring in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, Bezos joined FITEL, a
high-tech start-up company in New
York.
-----
In 1988, Bezos
joined Bankers Trust Company, New York,
leading the development of computer
systems that helped manage $250+ billion
in assets and becoming their youngest vice
president in February,
1990.
-----From 1990 to
1994, Bezos helped build one of the most
technically sophisticated and successful
quantitative hedge funds on Wall Street
for D.E. Shaw & Co., New York.
-----1992
Highlights: he helped build one of the
most technically sophisticated
quantitative hedge funds on Wall Street,
moving from self-proclaimed "in-house
geek" to money manager, Bezos became their
youngest senior vice
president.
----- In 1994,
realizing the Internet was growing at
2,300 percent annually, he and wife
MacKenzie moved to Seattle and began an
online business out of their rented
suburban house. He founded Amazon.com, an
Internet retailer of books, music, videos
and more.
----- July 1995 --
Amazon.com is headquartered in Seattle,
Washington. His team spent a year
developing database programs and creating
the Web site. Amazon.com opened its
virtual doors for business in July 1995.
------Since May
1997 each of Amazon.com's 1,600 employees
gets stock options that vest over a
five-year period; some are now
millionaires. Scaling internal systems to
meet rapid growth and low overhead by
using centralized distribution.
----- By the end of
1998, more than 4.5 million people from
160 countries had shopped at Amazon.com,
making it the leading online shopping
site. In 1998, sales topped $500 million.
Amazon.com has become a model for Internet
companies by putting market share ahead of
profits and making acquisitions funded by
meteoric market capitalization. Founder
Jeff Bezos and his family own about 34% of
the firm.
-----1999
- He was chosen as Person of the Year by
TIMES Magazine.
-----2000
to 2003 - The first steps in Amazon's new
strategy for their third-party Associate
seller program, is installed and readied
for 2004. Inspired by EBay
Inc.'s sprawling marketplace,
Amazon lets more than 800,000 sellers sell
Amazon goods on third party websites in
exchange for a cut of all sales. Most are
individuals looking to unload used books
or CDs. Others are established
bricks-and-mortar retailers like
Office Depot Inc. and
Foot Locker Inc. eager to
tap into Amazon's base of 44 million
active customers.
-----2004
- Amazon won't say what portion of its
expected $6.7 billion to $6.9 billion in
revenue this year will come from
third-party sales. But the program is
growing: 28% of Amazon's third-quarter
unit sales were from such sellers, up from
22% the same period last year. Amazon's
gross margin of 23.5%, is just a little
below Wal-Mart Stores
Inc.'s 23.8% and less than a
third of EBay's whopping 80.8%. Amazon
still guarantees orders placed through its
merchant partners and lets users post
reviews of each seller to maintain
customers' trust.
4.
Related Stories
"Images"
-
102
Jeff Bezos and Amazon Celebrates 10th year
- 29the Week 2005 /
SEATTLE -- Soon after Amazon.com Inc.
debuted 10 years ago, Jeff Bezos and his
handful of employees spent late summer
nights packing books in a tiny warehouse,
scrambling to ship a growing gush of
orders. - More
Story
•
102BezosAmazon10thyear.htm
Jeff
Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com,
previewed its new service to sell just a
few pages or chapters of a book --
allowing one of the world's oldest media
to be chopped up and customized like an
album on iTunes. More Story
More
Articles • Converging
News 462005 / TeleCom BuyOuts, Spinoffs
and Asset Seizure Boom
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Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI
Magazine
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