As part of our blog series, we will occasionally spotlight an exciting, fast-growing, or game-changing company. These businesses are working to disrupt their industries—in the best way possible.
If you’ve purchased something online in the past week, there’s a big chance it came from Amazon. This company now represents nearly half of all U.S. e-commerce sales, and more than 75% of U.S. online consumers shop on Amazon. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, but it originally operated as an online bookstore. The website later diversified to sell video downloads and streaming, MP3 downloads and streaming, audiobook downloads, software, video games, and electronics. In its current iteration, customers can purchase and sell nearly everything and anything on Amazon—and its changing the way Americans shop.
Amazon did not expect to make a profit for four to five years after its rebranding in 2000. They experienced slow growth, causing stockholders to complain that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. However, when the dot-com bubble burst, Amazon survived. The company eventually turns its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million on more than $1 billion. In 2011, Amazon had 30,000 full-time employees in the United States. By the end of 2016, it had 180,000 employees in the country.
In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailed in the United States by market capitalization, and it is the fourth most valuable public company in the world. It is the largest Internet company by revenue and the second largest employer in the United States. Amazon currently has thirteen subsidiaries, including Audible.com, Whole Foods Market, Goodreads, and Junglee.
So, why have we listed Amazon as an Upcoming Company? Because its innovations continue to change American life. Through services like AmazonFresh, customers can have groceries delivered to their doorstep. Through Amazon Video, customers can watch and stream thousands of movies and television shows. Users can utilize Amazon Drive, the company’s cloud storage application, or read any book on their e-Reader, the Kindle. This company developed Amazon Alexa, a game-changing virtual assistant and a step forward in smart home technology. Amazon continues to innovate, and we can’t wait to see their next service, product, or invention.
