Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, the world's largest online bookstore, was elected as Time Magazine's Person of the Year with 1999. Let's take a look at the inspirational story of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. I hope it will help everyone!

There is such a bookstore, covering several square miles, with 3,654,380+books and more than 5 million customers. You have to drive to browse the bibliography it provides. Maybe this number will surprise you. Is there such a bookstore in reality? Of course, it can't exist in reality because the cost is too high. But on the internet, this has become a reality. This is Amazon online bookstore. According to the data released by American Internet and Digital Media Research Corporation, in the five weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas last year, Amazon has become the most popular e-commerce website, with 5.693 million visitors.

And the miracle it created is far more than that. As the pioneer of internet e-commerce, as a little guy who was founded only nine years ago, its growth rate surprised everyone! All this is because of a man named Jeff Bezos!

Give up everything and start over.

1965, Bezos was born in New Mexico, USA. He is an illegitimate child. 1968, his mother married Cuban immigrant Mike Bezos at the age of 3. Bezos followed his mother into the family and took his stepfather's surname. Bezos is lucky. Although he is not Mike's biological son, their feelings are better than many biological fathers and sons. Jeff is the eldest son of the family. He also has a younger brother and sister. The family is very happy.

From 65438 to 0986, this outstanding young man obtained a double bachelor's degree in electronic engineering and computer science from Princeton University, a famous American university, and soon joined a newly established high-tech company in new york. Two years later, Bezos moved to a banker's trust company in new york to manage a computer system with assets worth $250 billion. Two years later, he became the youngest vice president in the history of this banker trust company, at the age of 25.

But Bezos is not satisfied with his achievements, he is still moving forward. 1990, he saw the future of hedge funds, devoted himself to the craze of wall street, served a well-known securities company, and successfully established a large-scale and skilled hedge fund for the company, becoming the youngest senior vice president of 1992 company. He has worked here for four years, a little longer than before.

The early 1990s was the hottest time for hedge funds. At that time, it was a financial speculation industry with high risks and high returns, and the income of staff was astronomical. But when everyone envied Bezos' foresight and high salary, 1994, to everyone's surprise, Bezos resigned again.

Because he aimed at a newer and more potential industry, that is, information technology, the Internet! At that time, Microsoft in Seattle had gradually grown up, and Bezos, who had long been tired of Wall Street's financial career, hoped that he could succeed in the IT industry like Microsoft and be the trend leader of the Internet! He said: "In the future, when I look back on my eighties, I won't regret leaving Wall Street today;" But I will regret that I didn't seize the great opportunity of the rapid development of the Internet. "

After leaving Wall Street, Bezos drove around the street. He is thinking about what he should do and how to start a business. One day, while driving, he was browsing the dazzling storefront outside the window, when a bookstore came into view and an idea came to his mind: why not set up an online bookstore to sell books and CDs in a brand-new way? In the era of the rise of the Internet, there may be thousands of people who think like Bezos. But there are fewer and fewer people who may practice.

Bezos wants to run an online bookstore, but where is the initial start-up capital? Although we have some savings in recent years, we are still far from venture capital. He thought of his parents. His parents had a pension of $300,000. When Bezos explained his intention to his parents, the parents only discussed it for a while, then gave the money to his son, and said, "We know nothing about the Internet, let alone e-commerce, but we know and believe you-our son!"

Change traditions and create myths.

1994, Bezos set up AMAZON.COM, the first online retail company in the United States, in the garage of his rented house in the suburb of Seattle with a start-up capital of 300,000 dollars. Bezos named his company after the world's largest river, hoping that it would become a veritable "Amazon" in the publishing industry, even though there were only three "Amazon" in the company's initial stage.

Bezos, who has worked in Wall Street investment companies for many years since he started his business, has shown extraordinary ability in financing and financial management. In the initial stage of the company, in order to make Amazon stand firm under the competitive pressure of traditional bookstores, Bezos made full use of his knowledge of the network and online technical advantages, and spent 1 year building a website and database.

The user-friendly interface is the transformation of computer software by Bezos and others, comfortable visual effects, convenient service selection, and of course, the optional bibliography of 165438+ million. He was even more careful in establishing the database, and it took three months to test the software alone. Time has proved that Bezos's approach is extremely correct. With these advantages,1July, 995, Amazon officially opened its "virtual business door".

From the beginning, Amazon faced many challenges, the most powerful of which was the competition from the traditional giant Barnes & Noble Bookstore. Even if you don't want to compete for the market, you have to face it, because Barnes & Noble will never allow an imaginary opponent to seize its own market. On the other hand, it is a struggle between tradition and modernity.

First of all, Amazon is one of the cheapest bookstores. It is discounted every day, and it is almost the largest discount store in the world. There are more than 300 thousand titles that can be discounted. Indeed, unlike the traditional bookstore operation, it is exploited without middlemen, which makes books or other commodities sold by Amazon have relatively flat prices. Of course, there are a few other bookstores that are cheaper, but the price difference is very small. Because the cheapest is not the most important thing, what is important is that there are many cheap books here and they are convenient, so customers are not even willing to look elsewhere for a little difference, but only choose Amazon.

Besides, it has faster service and more comprehensive bibliography than traditional bookstores. Buy books on Amazon. Com, because of its strong technical support, can usually get a response within three seconds. It greatly saves customers' time. Compared with Barnes & Noble Bookstore, there are only 250,000 different books at most, but on the Internet, Amazon can produce 2.5 million books. Bezos said: If there is a chance to print out the catalogue provided by Amazon in writing, it will probably be equivalent to the weight of seven new york city phone books.

Speed is also reflected in the update of inventory goods. Amazon has almost no inventory except 200 bestsellers. But even with such inventory, the frequency of Amazon updates is still surprising. According to statistics, Amazon changes its inventory as many as 150 times a year, while Barnes & Noble only changes it 3-4 times. This data not only shows the speed of Amazon, but also shows its sales.

Bezos is a real innovator on the Internet. At present, Amazon has 30,000 "entrusting organizations" that recommend books launched by Amazon on their respective websites. When online visitors click on their websites to buy recommended books, these "affiliates" can draw a commission of 15% from Amazon. This idea is now widely imitated.

At the same time, Bezos also helped to define an Internet community centered on shopping websites. The editorial content of this community is updated every day, and at the same time, it also provides services of "readers' book review" and "continuing to write novels". He is the first person to adopt this method on the Internet. These two small innovations alone have added at least nearly 400,000 customers to Amazon.

But Bezos will continue to expand rapidly. In short, it is "big, bigger". His business is not limited to books, he wants to build the largest online shopping center.

In this process, Amazon completed the transformation from a pure online bookstore to an online retailer. Behind this set of data, what people see is continuous expansion and expansion. At this stage, Amazon's share price has risen more than 50 times, and the company's market value has reached 20 billion US dollars at its peak.

When people still don't know what e-commerce is and are still discussing it, Bezos has proved what e-commerce is with his own actions. Amazon is the first e-commerce brand on the Internet. 1July, 1995, Amazon was just a small website, but by 20001October, the total market value of Amazon had reached 2 10 billion US dollars, eight times that of its old rival Barnes & Noble. In less than five years, Amazon has created an online myth with amazing growth rate.

1999, when Jeff Bezos Stearns took the throne of Time magazine, he was also one of the fourth young people in history to win the honor, but he was 36 years old.

Secret of success

No money, but it has a very high market value. This Amazon phenomenon brings people thinking.

Extended reading

The Life of the Characters Written by Jeff Bezos

teenagers

Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, a big city in central New Mexico. He is an illegitimate child. From 65438 to 0968, his mother took him to marry Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant in the early 1960s who worked for Exxon. Mom works in a bank. Bezos followed his mother into the family and took his stepfather's surname. Bezos is lucky. Although he is not Miguel's own son, their feelings are better than their own father and son. Jeff is the eldest son of the family. He also has a younger brother and sister. The family is very happy.

When Bezos was 3 years old, he was very angry about sleeping in a crib. At first, his mother didn't think he wanted a real big bed. But a few days later, his mother saw him holding a screwdriver and wanted to take down the crib to make it look more like a bed. This character paved the way for his future success.

Bezos' grandfather was a manager of the former Atomic Energy Commission. Grandfather cultivated his love of science. /kloc-at the age of 0/4, he decided to be an astronaut or a physicist. His garage is full of his engineering experiments or scientific experiments, which are full of his engineering projects: hydrofoil made of vacuum cleaner and solar cooker made of umbrella. Bezos often spends his summer holidays on his grandfather's farm in Texas. At the age of 16, he was able to install windmills, use arc welding machines and castrate cattle.

Middle school days

I spent my middle school days in Miami Pukui Middle School. I was the monitor and graduate representative. In high school, Bezos showed his talent as an enterprise. He set up a "dream" association, held summer activities, developed students' innovative thinking, and even encouraged his sister and brother to participate. In the late middle school, Bezos became interested in shooting binoculars. But its price is as high as 20 dollars, which my mother thinks is too high. So he bought cheap parts and installed them himself. This story was recorded in writing and officially published in Houston on 1977 (this book has never been listed in Amazon online bookstore). When he graduated from high school, Bezos won the highest honor of American high school graduates, "American Scholarship for Outstanding Students" because of his outstanding performance in all aspects.

college days

Entering Princeton University, where Einstein taught in his later years, his interest turned to computers, which coincided with the period of earth-shaking changes in the computer industry. He said: "I have been fascinated by computers and look forward to some revolutionary breakthroughs." 1986 obtained a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, graduated with honors, and became a member of the American Association of Excellent Students.

Occupational history

From 65438 to 0986, Bezos graduated from Princeton University, a famous American university, and soon entered a newly established high-tech company in new york. Two years later, Bezos moved to a new york banker's trust company to manage a computer system worth $250 billion. At the age of 25, he became the youngest vice president in the history of this bank trust company.

From 1990 to 1995, Bezos co-founded the most advanced and successful hedge fund transaction management company in the world, and became the youngest senior vice president of the company from 1992.

Entrepreneurial experience

1994, while surfing the internet, Bezos accidentally entered a website and saw a number-2300%. The number of Internet users is increasing at this rate every year. At that time, Microsoft in Seattle had gradually grown up. When Bezos saw this number, his eyes lit up and he hoped that he could be like Microsoft. Be successful in IT industry and become the leader of Internet wave.

Bezos listed more than 20 kinds of goods, then eliminated them one by one and reduced them to books and music products. Finally, he decided to sell books first. Books are especially suitable for online display. As a big publishing country, the United States has 6.5438+0.3 million kinds of books, but only 200,000 to 300,000 kinds of music products. The book distribution industry has a huge market space, with annual sales of $260 billion, but the annual sales of the largest chain bookstore in the United States and the largest bookstore with more than 1000 branches in the world only account for 12%.

A few weeks later, he refused the generous treatment and embarked on the road of entrepreneurship. Bezos informed the moving company that he would inform them as soon as he chose three places in Colorado, Oregon or Washington, and then he hurried west. He put his wife in charge of driving, and he couldn't wait to draft a business plan with his laptop, and couldn't wait to contact with his mobile phone to raise start-up funds.

From 65438 to 0995, Bezos moved from new york to Seattle. He chose Seattle because there are ready-made technical talents here and it is close to the Oregon warehouse of Ingram Book Department, a large channel distributor. Bezos founded Amazon.com(Amazon), the first online retail company in the United States, with a start-up capital of $300,000 in a rented garage in the suburbs of Seattle. Bezos named his company after the world's largest river, hoping that it would become a veritable "Amazon" among book companies.

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