The History of Amazon in 10 Numbers

We’re not really businesspeople, but we’ve heard that this company is pretty big. You can buy stuff from it by clicking a couple buttons, and the items show up at your house. Apparently, the guy who started the company has a little bit of money. Given that this type of thing falls under our general knowledge umbrella, we figured we’d give it a mention. Here is the history of Amazon in 10 numbers.

 

1964

The year future Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was born (in Albuquerque, New Mexico). He was born with the last name Jorgensen to a 17-year-old high school student who later married a gentleman with the last name Bezos, prompting the name change. The younger Bezos went on to Princeton and some other pretty good accomplishments.

 

1994

The year in which Bezos, after leaving his job at a hedge fund in New York City, incorporated the company—initially called Cadabra—in Washington state. Starting out as an online bookseller and operating from a house in Bellevue—a suburb of Seattle—the company would later change its name and start branching out. As a side note, the company’s incorporation occurred exactly three months after the death of Kurt Cobain, completing the transition of Seattle from a grunge phase to a decidedly tech phase.

 

1996

The year Amazon was reincorporated in the state of Delaware, a decision made commonly by many companies. Why? Here’s a nice explanation from Mental Floss. The bottom line is the ease of incorporation, lower taxes, and an easy-to-use court system with judges specialized in corporate law.

 

18

The price per share in U.S. dollars of Amazon’s stock at its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq on May 15, 1997. It’s a little higher now (in the range of $3500 a share). Given that the stock went through a series of splits early on, if you had hypothetically bought one share at the time of the IPO, the $18 could be worth around $42,000. Don’t feel bad—the $1000 you spent at Disney World instead would only be worth $2.3 million.

 

0.01

The earnings per share in U.S. dollars reported by Amazon in the fourth quarter of 2001, the first quarter in which the company reported a profit.

 

2018

The year in which Amazon’s market capitalization (share price multiplied by number of shares outstanding) broke $1 trillion, occurring about two months after Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to ever achieve that milestone. (Some would argue that past companies have achieved the same benchmark if inflation is taken into account.)

 

59

The percent of the company’s operating income (gross income minus operating expenses) accounted for by Amazon Web Services (AWS), launched in 2006. This segment refers to the global cloud market, an area in which Amazon has become a dominant force. Clients have included the likes of Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, and a ton of others.

(As mentioned above, the history of Amazon includes some serious spreading of the wings. In addition to AWS, products and services include groceries (via Whole Foods), video and music streaming, live streaming (via Twitch), smart devices, and on and on.)

 

200 million

The estimated number of worldwide Amazon Prime subscribers as of April 2021. If you’re not one of them, Prime offers free two-day (and sometimes less) shipping, unlimited movie and TV streaming through Prime Video, music streaming, access to books, access to games, discounts, etc.

 

1.3 million

The approximate number of people employed worldwide by Amazon as of 2021. In the U.S., the number is 950,000. But don’t be too impressed—Walmart employs around 1.6 million Americans.

 

177 billion

The approximate net worth in U.S. dollars of Jeff Bezos as of September 2021, making him the richest person in the world.

 

Please be warned that, like all history, the history of Amazon is an ongoing work. As an example, Jeff Bezos stepped down as the company’s CEO in July 2021. But don’t worry, there will probably be a documentary about it—on Prime Video.