Bezos Jeffrey Preston

More than seventy years of the magazine "Time" Person of the Year annually selects. He becomes a person, had the biggest impact on the events of the past 12 months. Most of this honorary title awarded policy. In 1932, 1934 and 1941, he received the Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1945 and 1948 - Harry Truman, in 1961 - John F. Kennedy. In 1980 - Ronald Reagan and again in 1983 - together with Yuri Andropov. In 1990 - George W. Bush, and in 1992 - Bill Clinton.
Not always the title of it to one person. In 1968, on the cover of "Time" appeared spacecraft "Apollo-8" New Year for a walk on the moon in 1956 - the Hungarian freedom fighters, and in 1960 - American scientists. In 1966 "Time" chose a whole generation - those under 25 years. In 1969 was marked by "average American", and in 1975 - an American woman.
. In 1982, the "man of the year" was the computer, and in 1999 - founder and leader of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezoc.
. Anticipation of change
. 1999 became the year of birth of many new Internet companies
. Most managed to survive, and then they started to grow up like mushrooms after the rain. During this year the inhabitants of Earth to buy 15 billion. U.S.. goods online, but in the sector "business to business", this figure reached 109 billion. U.S.. And although it is only a small proportion of total trade (2.7 trillion. dollars), e-business swiftly took the traditional in all spheres. 5 billion. U.S.. Americans spend on Christmas gifts this year - is twice more than in the previous year.
Every time when the economy is maturing "earthquake", there are people who feel his presence even before the shocks. Jeffrey Preston Bezos (incidentally, the name is pronounced rather like "Beyzoos") has just so much talent: for the first time confronted with a global computer network, he saw something that almost nobody saw - its commercial future. Were other, . who had a premonition something like this (eg, . Pierre Omidyar of eBay), . but the vision was so clear Bezos, . and his site Amazon.corn so elegant and attractive, . that almost from the first day it became the symbol of e-commerce - "King kiberkommertsii",
. So Bezos and was chosen as man is the year when e-business began its rapid growth.
The name "Amazon" comes from the name of the famous Amazon. Her endless full-flowing tributaries - a beautiful symbol of the company, now sells everything - from the power supply to the CD-ROM drive - and is constantly expanding its sphere of influence. The main advantage of an electronic method of trading - the minimum costs in the process of attracting new customers.
. Nevertheless Amazon.corn always loses - the main thing that confuses most of the townsfolk: the company - the leader of the new economy - led by man of the year lost for the year 1999 350 million
. U.S.! New Economy, . new trade, . new world - it is clear, . but gains in trade - the main condition of its suschestvovaniyaN! Bezos promises, . that the oldest lines Amazon - bookselling, . CD-ROMs and video tapes - will be profitable before the end of 2000.,
. How it all began
. In May 1994, Jeffrey Bezos worked as a business consultant in New York
. Once he read that the Internet is growing at 2300% per year, and decided that this is a unique opportunity that should not be missed. Having studied 20 varieties of products that can be ordered by mail, he referred to the books, because it catalogs the many shops have already been converted into electronic form. In July of that year, Jeff and his wife traveled to Seattle, rented a small two-room apartment there, and the office is placed in the garage. Money is not enough even for furniture: he had to knock together the bookshelves of conventional boards.
Nevertheless, on July 16 Amazon.com has opened its web-site for the world. Marketing program Bezos was to prepare a list of three hundred of their friends and relatives, whom he asked to go to his page and then talk about it to anyone who can only. For the first month without a penny on advertising Amazon began selling books in 50 cities and 45 countries. "From the earliest days of the business grew exponentially, and I realized that it would be very large," - says Bezos. About how they worked, said such a fact
From many hours of packing books knees Bezos has been erased in the blood. He placed a pillow under his feet and continued to bind bundles. Well, he already was an assistant to timidly proposed to buy a normal table for packing.
. By Christmas 1995, it became clear that for the first year, Amazon sold books at a million dollars.
. After the publication of the company's history in "Wall Street Journal" in May 1996, the flow of customers has grown even more
. At the same time, "woke up" traditional booksellers, for example, in May 1997, launched an Internet site of the company Barnes & Noble and Borders Books, but on the sale of Amazon it did not affect. By the end of 1999, the company's value reached 7.3 billion. U.S.
By the end of 1998, more than 4.5 million buyers from 160 countries around the world to buy goods from Amazon, and sales for the year reached a half billion.
Something that "personal"
Father, the man, Miguel Bezos, emigrated from Cuba in the early sixties. A member of the oil company Exxon. Mother Dzhekslin Giza, worked in a bank. There is a younger brother Mark and younger sister, Cristina.
Love for science in Jeff woke grandfather, a former manager of the Atomic Energy Commission. At age 14, Jeff wanted to be a physicist or an astronaut, the whole garage was full of its scientific and engineering projects. Summer 16-year-old Jeff spent on grandfather's ranch in Texas and successfully repaired the windmill, is controlled by arc welding and castrated bulls.
Wife - MacKenzie Bezos, writer. When she collected her husband on a business trip, then every pair of socks puts the Daily Value for vitamin
. Jeff holds a master's degree at Princeton, specializing in electronic engineer, but always interested in, what would accommodate a computer with its enormous capacity.
. How Amazon
. The company opened its virtual doors in July 1995 to make the Internet-based commerce in the fastest and most convenient way to shop
. Today Amazon.corn - a place where you can find and buy everything your heart desires. 17 million customers in 160 countries around the world have already seen in this. Only Amazon has the largest selection of products - books, CDs, video, games, toys, greeting cards, electronics and other things.
. When you come to the site of Amazon, you can:
. look for books, music, videos and everything else on any word associated with the desired product;
. wander through the many directories - jazz and other tunes, stamps and coins, and so on and so forth ...
. obtain expert advice about the product you are looking for;
. subscribe to the newsletter, which will bring you the latest news about a product;
. access the Amazon catalog sales offices throughout the world;
. become a partner Amazon.corn and sell anything from their web-site.
. Once you have selected something on the site Amazon.corn and click "order", it is automatically transferred to one of distribution centers in seven cities in three countries
. This lamp lights on the storage unit that stores the item ordered. An employee who oversees the warehouse (it is usually called "garbage"), takes the goods and puts it on an endless conveyor belt in a special green bin. Particularly striking looks a warehouse in the pre-holiday, when it is scurry about collecting hundreds of thousands of green buckets endless procession going down the pipeline.
. At the end of its workers pack the order in a special protective plastic bag and sent to the destination.
. Amazon as it is
. In preparation for the pre-invasion buyers, . Amazon.corn literally flunked the shelves of their warehouses potential gifts: gift wrapping paper was so much, . that could cover 164 football fields, it, . a beautiful ribbons would be enough, . to tie round the whole of America from ocean to ocean,
. Company founder Jeff Bezos refers to investments in four huge new store as "the most vigorous expansion of trade capacity in post-war history". The purpose of this extension is quite simple: no visitor should not leave this page the largest online store without buying.
The problem of deficit and surplus - one of the toughest trade. It is difficult to determine the optimal amount of goods and surplus stock is always talking about hindsight owner. However, Amazon has never sought to comply with generally accepted rules. The question arises: whether a trader is kompaniyaN In recent years, Amazon has grown to become a gigantic trading corporation that makes everything - from sales of electronics to the organization of auctions. Bezos likes to say that his company can buy everything. In addition, he is proud that the existence of his company, journalists and analysts can not describe, using the traditional terms and concepts.
Of course, the trade business - is the core of what makes Amazon. As to Christmas shopping shopping customers to leave at Amazon.corn up to 16 million. U.S.. day. But the Amazon - a new type of trader, and not only because trade is conducted via the Internet. It expands our customer base, developing new forms of electronic commerce and increasing marketing "muscle" not only in order to strengthen their business, but also for the creation of new types.
. For example, over the past year and a half Amazon acquired from 15% to 50% of the shares of six online merchants: it invested more than 150 million
. dollars, and bought shares worth over 1 billion today. U.S.. It turns out that, thanks to wise investment Amazon has received almost twice as much profit as lost for all five years of its existence (500 million. dollars).
. Of course, all these investments do not make Amazon Investment Fund, as the company's plans Amazon.corn not include extraction of profits from investments.
. Then, perhaps, destiny Amazon - not torgovlyaN Increasingly, we hear voices that the company does not behave as traditional retailers
. KBKAOL use its authority leading Internet service provider, a Yahoo! - The main search engine and Amazon based on their success in e-commerce, to grow more and more, departing from its roots
. Of course, much of what makes the Amazon, has been done before
. Large corporations have always played an active investment, and the majority of Internet companies can turn traffic through their web-sites in the U.S.. However, Amazon is using all means in order to become a company of a new type of. Amazon "shapes" the partners in his own image and likeness to work in the new economy, thereby creating this economy and increasing opportunities for self-expansion
. Family Companies
. Amazon started its investment in e-commerce in the mid-1998, supporting the company Drugstore.corn
. It was then hatched strategy framework Amazon.corn: invest money to make a profit.
Amazon also got a quick access to that type of trade, which was significantly different from the business itself Amazon. Thus was mastered pharmaceutical market, where sales are typically controlled by the state, and Pharmindustry depends on health insurance (which distinguishes it from any other trade).
. Amazon also invested in the company HomeGrocer (groceries), Delia (gifts), Ashford (luxuries) - on the one hand, they were investments, and on the other - to break into specialized markets
. Amazon seeks to provide a link to the main shopping process.
. But we can not consider all transactions Amazon as a means of making one-sided benefits: Amazon has expanded its scope of work, and partners in her face received strong support
. Transactions provides young novice Internet companies access to the vast possibilities of technology and marketing Amazon.
. If you ask partners Amazon, what, in their opinion, the main benefit of such alliances, then the first place they put the traffic: access to 16 million
. Buyers Amazon - a unique opportunity. Moreover, promotion of "smaller brothers" is a sumptuous email Amazon, as well as its products and catalogs.
Furthermore, should take into account such factors as belonging to a "family" Amazon. Its influence is difficult to quantify, but experts note that the significance of it is not inferior to the previous. The market initially believed partners Amazon leaders in their sectors. For example, sales Drugstore.com and its position in the market similar to the company PlanetRx.com, but the value of shares in the first half times solely because her partner - Amazon.com.
. Experts note that this surplus value arises not just because, but because of the unique ties that are given to those companies in which Amazon invested.
. For many investors, investing money in a company means the end of communication, the Amazon is - this is just the beginning: its representatives to actively participate in designing the company's strategy, and colleagues present in her life no less than his own.
. Mutually beneficial cooperation
. Company Amazon brings its partners a considerable advantage, but a lot of calls and instead
. For example, in the early partnership with Ashford Amazon was the sixth part of its shares, which cost over a short time reached 120 million. U.S.. - Not a bad card just one year of marketing help!
Some believe that from such alliances always wins only Amazon and alignment of rows of alliances-subordination means the ability of its managers to conduct business. Others believe that only through such alliances - the giants and dwarfs - can help dwarfs grow faster and more efficiently. The main argument - access to millions of customers, the major asset of the modern Internet commerce.
The most cautious experts emphasize that it is too early to judge what is right and wrong in a young community of e-commerce. On the ambiguity of the situation indicates at least that the Union company Pets.com (pet trade) with the Amazon brought it only to third place after two other firms - PetsMart.com and Petopia.com, which rely on traditional retail chains.
. Patent or lose!
. There are at Amazon and detractors
. Their hostility escalated in the past six months in connection with the activity in the Amazon patent. February 22, 2000 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent Amazon.corn, . protects the exclusive rights of the largest online store for "network system redirecting customers", . on the basis of which to build an affiliate program Amazon.corn.,
. The scheme is simple
. Each Party shall provide the visitors to your site to order anything that is sold in Amazon.corn. After the first step in ordering the buyer is redirected to the site Amazon.corn, where he makes a purchase. This party affiliate program receives a certain percentage from Amazon.
. Six months ago, . September 28, 1999, . Amazon company received another patent on the technology OneClick, . suggest using some of the blanks (cookies) when you make online purchases, . so that the procedure for ordering is reduced to one click of the mouse instead of the tedious filling in multiple forms,
. Receiving the patent, Amazon.corn immediately use them, sued its competitor, Barnesandnoble.com, and requiring it to abandon its use of similar technology. Trial postponed, but the judge the defendant to waive the use of this technology in his shop.
. Opponents of the company written, . that "Amazon.com proyavlyaetshokiruyuschee observers chutzpah, . proclaiming himself the inventor of the grass, . Flowers, . trees, . and moon, . sun and stars, . not to mention the wheels, . bicycles and interiors of the primitive caves,
. Who is right, will vrmya. In any case, Bezos behaves as aggressively as before.
Future profits
Amazon continues to expand: "Our strategy gives us unprecedented flexibility, - said one of the top managers Amazon.corn. - We are growing almost as fast as the market of electronic commerce, we are forming and define.
The main directions of the company's investments can provide right now. In December 1999, Amazon entered into an alliance with the company NextCard to create their own credit card. Experts believe this is further proof that Amazon is committed to participating in all aspects of e-commerce.
In September 1999, was born "initiative z-shop". Its essence is that small merchants available space on the site Amazon.corn with the full range of services - from web-hosting to credit card processing. It is quite possible that Amazon will offer a similar service outsourcing, and for larger merchants. The company already has a developed infrastructure for trade, which it can successfully offer to other companies.
. Company Amazon.com has undoubted authority in e-commerce, it allows her to actively introduce electronic services and electronic distribution
. All its power is working today on its own expansion and development, so that the trade rules will be so tomorrow, what determines their Amazon.