Who Founded Amazon?

Amazon, or by its official name amazon.com, has evolved far beyond being the world’s largest online retail platform today; it is a global technology and service ecosystem. Founded in a garage in 1994 with the idea of selling books only over the internet, this formation has transformed into an internet-based trade giant dominating the sectors of e-commerce, cloud computing, digital publishing, artificial intelligence, and logistics. The areas in which the company operates are so vast that it carries not only consumer shopping but also a large part of the modern internet infrastructure.

It reinforces its power in the field of e-commerce with massive sub-categories such as the Prime membership system, the Marketplace where third-party sellers are located, FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) which ensures the storage and shipping of products, the digital advertising unit Advertising, and the secure payment system Pay. In addition, it has a disruptive power in the world of media and content. Along with Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music offered to Prime subscribers, it touches the digital lives of millions of people every day with Audible, the world’s largest audiobook platform, the live streaming platform Twitch, and Amazon Books, the pioneer of the digital reading world.

Who Founded Amazon?

The founder of Amazon is Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world. Although many famous people establish brands with strong financial support from a wealthy family, the founder of Amazon, Bezos, was born into poverty. Bezos’s entrepreneurial spirit at a young age greatly impressed his father. For this reason, they emigrated from Cuba to the United States when he was still a child. As the child of an immigrant, the importance of his migration in Bezos’s transformation into a great entrepreneur cannot be denied.

How Was Amazon Founded?

Jeff Bezos was an executive who successfully led companies in his 30s. In those years, he was a Princeton University graduate with a six-figure income. He was making constant progress in the companies he managed. Bezos’s success even carried him to become the youngest vice president ever at the Wall Street investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co. However, Bezos had other ideas and thoughts.

Encouraged by a secret passion for the nascent electronic shopping industry, Bezos dreamed of starting his own business in the then largely unexplored vast lands of the World Wide Web. Although this was a huge risk, it paid off in a short time. Four years after Bezos launched Amazon.com, the online retail giant quickly became the standard for how e-commerce companies should operate, with sales exceeding $610 million worldwide and more than 13 million customers.

Amazon’s Culture: The “Day 1” Philosophy

The real secret behind Bezos turning Amazon into such a massive power is the work culture he instilled in the company. Bezos adopted the “Day 1” philosophy to ensure that Amazon always acts with a startup spirit. According to him, if a company moves to “Day 2,” it is destined to stagnate, slow down, and eventually perish. Therefore, no matter how much Amazon grows, it continues to focus on the customer and innovate with the same excitement as the first day.

How Did Amazon Grow?

In 1994, Bezos already had the idea of starting an online business. While D.E. Shaw was looking for new businesses to invest in on the internet, he encountered a figure stating that the monthly increase in World Wide Web usage was 2,300%. As soon as Bezos saw the great potential of online sales, he began researching the commercial opportunities of starting an internet business.

He compiled a list of 20 potential products that he believed would be successful on the internet, including software, CDs, and books. After reviewing the list, books emerged as the best option, mostly due to the vast number of existing titles. Bezos realized that a “virtual” bookstore could provide millions of books, whereas even the largest stores could only make a small number of books accessible at retail.

Bezos and a group of five employees spent more than a year working in the garage, learning to build the computer system that would make it easy to find books and discover Amazon.com. A true marketing genius, Bezos aimed not only to develop a user-friendly interface but also to create a “virtual community” where users could “hang out.” To this end, he developed state-of-the-art tools that allowed users to post their own reviews and receive recommendations based on previous purchases.

Giant Companies Acquired by Amazon

Amazon did not just grow organically; it also outpaced its competitors and expanded into different sectors through strategic acquisitions:

• Whole Foods (2017): With this chain acquired for $13.7 billion, Amazon made a giant entry into the food and physical retail sector.
• MGM Studios (2022): By incorporating one of the most established studios in cinema history, it combined Prime Video content with Hollywood power.
• Zappos: It incorporated the customer satisfaction focus in the footwear and clothing sector.
• Twitch: It became unrivaled in the digital streaming world by purchasing this platform, which is the heart of the gaming world.

Amazon’s Challenges and Historical Mistakes: Why Did the Fire Phone Fail?

Like every great success story, Amazon has grown by learning from its mistakes. The biggest fiasco in the company’s history was the Fire Phone smartphone project introduced in 2014. So, why did a giant like Amazon fail in this project?

• Incorrect Pricing: Contrary to the “affordable hardware” strategy in the Kindle series, the Fire Phone was released at a very high price to compete with iPhone and Samsung.
• Lack of App Store: The use of the Amazon Appstore instead of the Google Play Store prevented users from accessing critical applications such as YouTube and Google Maps.
• Dysfunctional Innovations: The 3D screen effect (Dynamic Perspective) and the “Firefly” feature, used for scanning and buying items, were not found practical by consumers.

Although Amazon lost $170 million from this project, the voice technology used here led to the birth of Alexa and Echo devices used in millions of homes today. As Bezos said: “If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating enough.”

Amazon Today and Future Vision

Growing relentlessly, Amazon reached a revenue of 600 billion dollars and more than 1.5 million employees as of 2022. Its future vision continues to push boundaries. The company aims to deliver packages within minutes via drones with the Amazon Prime Air project and to provide global internet by launching thousands of satellites into space with Project Kuiper.

Who Owns Amazon? (Shareholders)

Today, the company’s shareholders include both individual and institutional investors.

Individual Shareholders:

• Jeff Bezos: Founder and Executive Chairman. He is the largest shareholder with a 12.3% stake (1.26 billion shares).
• Andrew Jassy: The company’s current CEO and former leader of AWS.
• Douglas Herrington: CEO of all Amazon Stores worldwide.

Institutional Partners:

• Vanguard: Its largest institutional partner with approximately 6.9% share.
• BlackRock: Holds approximately 5.8% share.
• State Street: The third-largest institutional partner with approximately 3.3% share.