Archive: Amazon.com
Company Spotlight: Amazon
With its undeniable popularity, there’s a strong chance that you’ve heard of little company called Amazon.com (unless you live under a rock & this rock has no internet connectivity for some reason). In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that Amazon has become a household name synonymous with online shopping. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, with initial start-up capital coming from his parents, Amazon originally started out as an online bookstore. Modest ambition? Hardly. Bezos envisioned a diverse world of e-commerce the likes of which no one had seen; 19 years later his dream has come to fruition as Amazon.com has grown drastically in both size & breadth. In fact, it has grown so much that it has become the world’s largest online retailer. While they still sell books, Amazon now sells a huge variety of products — games, electronics, clothing, music, toys, groceries, and just about everything in-between.
Physical goods are not the end of it, however — Amazon boasts a significant presence in digital goods & next-ggn cloud services: its own online music & app store, video streaming, S3 online storage, EC2 cloud computing & much more. Amazon also offers a huge selection of ebooks for quick & easy downloading. It even produces its own consumer electronics, including the increasingly popular Kindle Fire.
Not a buyer? If you’re more interested in selling products, Amazon will let you set up your own storefront at minimal cost. If you’re not a professional seller (for example, if you sell only 40 items per month or less), Amazon takes a very reasonable $0.99 per sale. Professional sellers, on the other hand, can expect a hefty $39.99 per month fee. Amazon even has content creation covered, allowing people a platform to distribute their own publishing material. If you’re an aspiring author and can’t afford to produce your own books, Amazon could provide you with a great avenue to start making money by selling your material in e-book format.
Amazon’s versatility in product & distribution means that they hire only the best & brightest talent, in a variety of different job positions. With its ever-growing popularity and large range of services, it’s safe to say that Amazon will remain a household name & powerhouse employer for the foreseeable future.