Amazon has recently achieved a market value of over $2 trillion, joining a select group of companies including Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Over its 30-year history, Amazon has evolved from an online bookseller to a global powerhouse, delivering more packages annually than FedEx or UPS and generating $100 billion in revenue from its cloud-computing business. The company's success is attributed to its customer focus, continuous experimentation, and substantial investments in research and development. Despite criticism for impacting brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon consistently ranks high in customer satisfaction surveys. The company's vast operations include numerous fulfillment centers worldwide, a range of products and services such as Amazon Prime Video, Ring, Alexa, Kindle, and Amazon Web Services. Amazon's growth and diversification have led to its characterization as "The Everything Company." The company's history traces back to its founding in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, initially as an online bookseller, and its subsequent expansion into various product categories. Bezos' vision for Amazon was to "get big fast," and the company's evolution has been marked by its ability to provide customers with a seamless and almost magical shopping experience. However, Amazon has also faced criticism for its impact on independent merchants, cloned startups, and its treatment of workers. Jeff Bezos, who led Amazon for 27 of its 30 years, has been known for his forward-looking approach, but in his last annual letter to shareholders in 2021, he seemed to acknowledge some of the complexities and challenges associated with Amazon's growth and impact.
