Amazon started as a money-losing business, according to Jeff Bezos in a 2000 BBC interview. Now, almost 25 years later, the popular company is worth over $2 trillion.
On June 8, 2000, BBC host Jeremy Vine talked with 36-year-old Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO. They discussed the struggling online shopping market.
By mid-2000, Amazon was at a turning point. The internet business boom was about to crash. Many online companies, including Amazon, were in trouble.
In 1999, Amazon sold a lot but lost money. The company’s stock price was unstable. It fell from $113 in December 1999 to $52 in June 2000.
Despite the company’s early and drastic success, Amazon still felt a major shock from the dotcom crash of the early 2000s
Vine asked Bezos about Amazon losing money. Bezos replied calmly, saying it was part of their plan.
24 years later, Vine remembers the interview well. He says Bezos handled tough questions easily.
Vine thought Bezos seemed very happy. He thinks Bezos might have known he’d become very rich.
The ecommerce fairytale
Jeff Bezos started Amazon on July 5, 1994, in a garage. The website opened a year later. The internet was new then, and few businesses used it.
Amazon began by selling books online. It had many ebooks, like its big name suggests. It focused on books to grow in online shopping.
Amazon grew during the internet business boom of the late 1990s. Many new online companies started then because of big investments.
By 1998, Amazon was the biggest online store. It sold more than just books. It had 17 million customers and its value grew a lot. Time Magazine named Bezos Person of the Year in 1999.
Later, people criticized Amazon for how it handled taxes and workers. Even in 2000, some doubted the company. Bezos joked about nicknames like “Amazon-dot-bomb” that made fun of the company’s losses.
Vine said losing money with so many customers was hard to do. Bezos laughed and said they were investing for the future.
In 1999, Amazon grew a lot, building big warehouses worldwide. They sold many products cheaply, which cost them money. But Bezos wanted to keep customers happy.
Bezos used the company’s losses as part of his plan. When many internet companies failed, Amazon survived because it focused on customers.
Vine remembers watching Bezos leave and wondering about his future. Many companies failed then, and people lost money. But Amazon made it through.
In the 24 years after the interview, Amazon became very powerful in online shopping and cloud computing.
A few months after talking to BBC, Amazon started letting other businesses sell on its website.
In 2005, they created Amazon Prime for frequent customers. By 2024, Prime is expected to have over 180 million users.
In 2023, Amazon made $574.8 billion from sales.
The company now does more than just sell things online. It makes movies and TV shows, has a streaming service, owns grocery stores, and creates AI assistants.
Amazon also bought other big companies like Twitch, Whole Foods, and Audible.
Vine says he’s not like Bezos. He would have been happy with just the book business.
He’s amazed at how quickly Bezos grew Amazon. Now it does so many things, even selling groceries.
Vine thinks Bezos is a great businessman. He’s surprised by how much Amazon is part of our lives now.
In 2020, during Covid-19, Bezos became the richest person in the world. But Amazon still has problems. In 2022, it lost a lot of money in the stock market.
Workers in the UK have gone on strike over low pay and hard working conditions. In the US, Amazon is fighting against workers forming unions.
Bezos quit as CEO in 2021. Andy Jassy now runs Amazon. Bezos now works on other projects like his space company, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post, which he bought in 2013.
Bezos says he wants to give away his money to help with big problems like climate change and unfairness.
But some people don’t believe him. They say it’s odd because Amazon has been criticized for how it treats workers and pays taxes.
Bezos still has power through Amazon’s cloud service, AWS. He uses this to stay important in top levels of business and society.
No matter what people think of Bezos, it’s clear that Amazon is a big part of how we live and shop today.
