Bezos "Retirement", will fly to space after ten days
Bezos "retirement", will fly to space after ten days, July 5, is the day of Amazon CEO Bezos officially stepped down, whether Bezos announced that he stepped down or to go up to the sky, the stock price or market value of Amazon has almost no impact. But for Jassy, retaining Amazon's position in the future will not be an easy task.
Bezos "retirement", ten days later will fly into space1July 5, is Amazon CEO Bezos officially stepped down the day, a global Internet online retail legend of the era may be about to pass.
Back in Bezos's last departure, or 1994, which is also the period of the emergence of the first Internet bubble in the United States. 2300%! A set of data showed that the use of the Internet was growing at such a rapid rate every year.
Bezos was so impressed by this data that he made a snap decision to quit his job as a vice president at hedge fund company DESCO, drilled into a garage in Seattle, and took out all his savings to start Amazon.com.
At the time, Amazon was just a niche platform for sellers of used books, and no one expected that it would reshape the global retail market in the near future. Malls were no longer popular, and people could receive a wide range of goods at home with the click of a mouse.
Within a month of Amazon's launch, the company was able to deliver goods to all 50 U.S. states and another 45 countries. And in the five years since Amazon's inception, they have seen their customer registered accounts surge from 180,000 to 17 million, and sales grow from $510,000 to over $1.6 billion.
As the company's strength grew, so did the luck of the draw: when Amazon went public in 1997, it met the first wave of big-name investors who invested in the site, raising $54 million.
But even with the capital, Amazon was still only involved in low-margin retailing. Wall Street argued for this reason that the company would never become a super-moneymaking mega-corporation.
Now, no one holds that view, because the cloud business has become Amazon's money-printing machine. Bezos predicted the potential of cloud computing before everyone else, and back in 2006, Amazon launched the cloud side of its web service (AWS). That was four years before Microsoft's Azure and seven years before Google Cloud.
In the many years since then, AWS has become Amazon's profit engine. in 2020, AWS contributed 60% of the company's annual operating profit, even though it accounted for only 12% of the company's total revenue.
In fact, Amazon didn't start out as Amazon, but rather as Cadabra, and Bezos chose "Amazon" in order to keep the company's name front and center. Bezos reasoned that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world, harboring the most species, and that it represented his desire to have a platform that encompassed everything.
As the name suggests, after 27 years of development, Amazon has become the "big river" of the Internet. From cloud computing to advertising to streaming media, the company has done just about everything, and in September 2018, Amazon's market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion, and now it's at $1.77 trillion.
Bezos: The world's richest man on all sides
Bezos has made something of himself by pouring his heart and soul into Amazon, and in 1999 TIME magazine named him "Person of the Year," making him one of the youngest people to ever receive the honor and calling him the "The King of E-Commerce".
Today, Bezos is the longest-serving founder as CEO of FAAG, one of the four US Internet giants with a market capitalization of more than a trillion dollars.
The company's soaring market capitalization has naturally driven Bezos' value up, putting him in the position of the world's richest man. Real-time data from the latest Forbes list of the world's richest people shows that Bezos is worth $191.4 billion, ranking first.
"Bezos is a combination of pragmatism and idealism." Wang Peng, an associate professor at Renmin University of China, said. Wang Peng believes that after Bezos steps down from his current position, he is brewing up a new round of endeavors that can be realized in the foreseeable future. It may include the integration of artificial intelligence and physical industry, as well as the exploration of the field of biomedicine.
But looking back at Bezos all the way, but more or less "high up". If in the eyes of investors, Bezos is a visionary, bold CEO, then in the eyes of Amazon employees, Bezos's image may not be so tall.
At the third International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Berlin, Germany, in 2014, Bezos was "honored" as the world's worst boss, the choice of more than 1,500 union representatives from 161 countries. One Amazon employee once said: "If you're bad, Bezos will tear you to shreds. If you're doing well, he'll work you until you're down."
In addition to the complaints of his own employees, Bezos is not popular in society. In the eyes of the public, it's only right to pay more taxes on what you earn, but according to the US news site ProPublica, Bezos didn't pay any federal personal income tax in 2007 or 2011.
Perhaps the real world is a little too big for Bezos's dreams of the future, but after leaving office, he decided to take the plunge into space, which he has always been fascinated by, and on July 20 he plans to fly into space on the first manned plane built by his company, Blue Origin.
Sadly, however, a petition not to allow him to return to Earth has already collected nearly 150,000 signatures.
Antitrust: how the new helmsman navigates
Indeed, with Amazon's business on a mature growth trajectory, over the past two years Bezos has stopped investing as much energy as he did before in the day-to-day running of the company.
Whether Bezos announced he was stepping down or going up, it had little effect on Amazon's stock price or market capitalization. The market's disinterest is perhaps a testament to investors' faith in Amazon and their confidence in the massive corporate machine that Bezos has created over the past 27 years.
Today, it is widely believed that Amazon has created a fluid process for developing new products, managing the way opinions are discussed, and making big decisions. Fintech expert Chao Ma analyzed that from giants such as Google and Apple, the turnover at the helm has not had much impact on the company's operations.
However, Amazon's new head, Andy Jassy, remains crucial. The handover between Bezos and Jassy marks Amazon.com's first leadership transition on its 27th anniversary.
A follower of Bezos for more than 20 years, Jassy is best known for building Amazon's massive AWS cloud business. "Jassi's prestige in AWS is by no means weaker than Bezos', and it can be said that Jassi is the soul of Amazon." So said Ma Chao.
But for Jassi, retaining Amazon's position in the future is not an easy task. For the new CEO and how to develop in the future, Beijing Business News reporter contacted Amazon, but as of press time has not received a reply.
In the opinion of Zhang Xiaorong, president of the Depth Technology Research Institute, Amazon is now a giant, and there are many development directions to choose from. As the world's top Internet integrated service provider, the future direction of development has renewable energy, zero-carbon economy, which is also an area that Bezos has repeatedly emphasized.
Zhang Xiaorong further pointed out that cloud computing is certainly an important direction for Amazon now, but in contrast, the antitrust investigation is more of a problem that needs to be solved by Amazon's efforts.
To wear the crown, must bear its weight. After Jassy took office, the first and most important problem he faced was the increasing scrutiny from regulators. So he needs to replace Bezos on Capitol Hill to address the company's . "antitrust" challenges.
Last October, after a 16-month investigation into the competitive behavior of tech giants, including Amazon, the U.S. House Judiciary's Antitrust Subcommittee concluded that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google formed a monopoly.
Meanwhile, the US Congress is considering antitrust legislation, and one of the targets of that legislation is the vast business empire of Amazon.
Bezos "retires" and will fly into space in ten days2
Bezos founded Amazon exactly 27 years ago. The online bookstore he initially founded in his garage has evolved into a provider that sells virtually every kind of merchandise. Amazon's reach has also long since expanded beyond book sales, such as the lucrative, market-leading cloud-computing service AWS that Jassy helped build, which operates data centers serving a wide range of enterprise computing needs. Amazon is also expanding into Hollywood and healthcare.
Amazon's stock, which started at just $1.50 per share, is now over $3,500 and has a market capitalization of more than $1.7 trillion, making it one of the world's most highly capitalized companies. Amazon's annual profits have almost doubled to $21.3 billion in 2020. This needs to be attributed in part to the new Crown pneumonia outbreak prompting more consumers to shop online, which helped the company's revenue grow 38 percent to $386.1 billion.
Regulatory resistance
With that comes greater scrutiny. Amazon has long been under the scrutiny of global regulators on issues like taxes and data collection, and now the company is fending off antitrust lawsuits that could lead to hefty fines.
President Joe Biden recently appointed prominent tech critic Lina Khan to run the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is investigating Amazon. While the details of the investigation have not yet been made public, it is expected to involve conflicts of interest resulting from Amazon competing with third-party merchants on the platforms it operates as a retailer of its own products. Amazon has been accused of using proprietary data from third-party vendors to create cheaper private label goods. But Amazon refuted those claims.
Meanwhile, the US Congress is working on new antitrust laws that could change Amazon's business. European regulators have also been consistently investigating some of the company's practices.
Many current and former Amazon employees say that Jassy's mild-mannered nature, combined with the fact that he is not widely known outside of Silicon Valley circles, could end up working in Amazon's favor, which has always been targeted by its critics.
John Rossman, a former Amazon executive and author of The Amazon Way, once said, "When Congress or other stakeholders call and demand or ask pointed questions, Jassy steps in on Amazon's behalf. Perhaps, in some ways, not being a founder will help him be more productive in those conversations."
Fierce competition
Amazon also faces challenges from many of the biggest companies in the US. For example, retail Walmart is competing with Amazon in its home market with its own parcel delivery service, while Microsoft has signed deals with top companies, including Walmart, for cloud computing services in an effort to narrow the lead of Jassy-led AWS.
Meanwhile, Jassi faces potential threats from within. Amazon is grappling with efforts by warehouse employees, as well as employees in other departments, to unionize. While the company's distribution center in Bessemer, Alabama, easily beat back plans by some workers to call for unionization, labor groups, including the Teamsters, vow that the fight is just beginning.
Amazon is similarly hoping to maintain its appeal to office workers, with many startups now offering employees work mechanisms with more flexible hours. The company initially said it planned to create an "office-centric culture," but quickly updated its guidelines to require employees to return to the office just three days a week, in line with industry peers.
Cultural legacy
The transition from Bezos to Jassy won't affect Amazon much. Jassy himself represents part of Amazon's corporate culture, having helped design the core leadership principles that guide employees.
Jassy was also seen as Bezos's "shadow" at the turn of the century. Former employees said that for Bezos, the "shadows" were like "brain doubles" who helped provide an alternative set of eyes and ears in meetings. Formally known as technical assistants, the "shadows" help Bezos review each day's events and prepare for the next one. The "shadows" usually take on respected roles within the company. For Jassy, that's an important factor in his ability to lead Amazon's nascent cloud computing business.
Jassy advised Bezos's next "shadow," Colin Bryar, on how to take on the job. Bryar and other former colleagues say Jassy has the same drive as Bezos. But he is known to take a slightly different approach to his leadership style. People close to Bezos say that Bezos can be stubborn, energetic and sometimes aggressive. Jassy, on the other hand, usually has a softer demeanor, but can be just as forceful at times, recalling specific details from speeches and pinpointing shortcomings, for example.
Jassy also shares Bezos's penchant for pushing employees to act in more visionary ways. Bezos sometimes focuses on a particular project, and to the surprise of many employees, he'll regularly check in with the team to make sure they're on track. David Anderson, a former manager of Amazon's AWS and devices division, said Jassy was "more like Bezos than any other Amazon executive," thanks to his intelligence and deep knowledge of Amazon's business from top to bottom.
Anderson recalled an AWS operations meeting with senior leaders where Jassy delved into highly specific and technical aspects. Anderson said, "It blew my mind because here was the guy who was in charge of the whole AWS, and yet he was very familiar with the underlying technical details. It suddenly struck me that it was really compelling for him to lead this business. He doesn't just have big ideas, he understands the details."