Amazon just reached the trillion-dollar mark—making it the second US-based company to do so in history. Apple hit that very same mark about a month ago.
In case you don’t know what a trillion looks like, it’s 1,000,000,000,000. Not quite a gazillion, but it feels that way when you write all those zeroes.
Just How Big Is Amazon Really?
To give you an idea of just how much of a juggernaut Amazon is, understand this: the company sells everything from toothpaste to guitars to tiny house kits and more to people all over the world; employs over 550,000 workers; and generates over $178 billion dollars in annual revenue.
Now, those stats may not seem so amazing to you. After all, you probably already knew that Amazon is a large company that sells lots of stuff. And those numbers mentioned above may not really mean that much if you’re not a numbers-type of person. But here’s the kicker—the thing that should really blow you away: forty-nine cents of every e-commerce dollar spent in America is earned by Amazon. 49 cents. Out of 100. That’s half of every U.S. dollar spent on the internet—minus a penny—made by one company.
The Amazonian Man And Me
I first learned about Amazon back in the early to mid-nineties when my boss handed me her printed catalogue and said, “Hey, Jimmy, check out this indie bookstore I like.” I never would have, in a million years, envisioned that it would grow to become my preferred mode of shopping—for everything—but it did.
Back then, very few of us even had the internet. And if we did, we didn’t much care for it because it was incredibly slow and didn’t offer anything of real substance (or shallowness for that matter). Most websites were ugly, boring, and very Spartan with their content.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon—who started by selling books out of his garage—saw a future in the internet. And he started his endeavor in that new frontier with his little book shop. Now, he’s worth almost as much as both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates combined. Thanks to his foresight and business-savviness, he continues to provide consumers like me with countless items and services they want/need.
My Favorite Amazon Products/Services:
- Amazon Prime for its many benefits, including free 2-day shipping and Prime movies and music
- Amazon shopping (I hate physical shopping, but I love doing it online)
- Echo devices (I absolutely adore my lovely assistant Alexa)
- Kindle Fire HD Tablet
- Fire Stick and Fire TV
- CreateSpace (which has allowed me to self-publish several books for free and sell them in ebook and physical formats)
- Kindle eBooks and Audible books
While I love Amazon, not everything that Bezos touches turns to gold. Back in 2014, the company launched its Fire Phone. It was supposed to compete with other popular smartphones on the market while targeting Amazon customers with its Fire Tablet-like format and focus. It flopped for two reasons: no one wanted to tout Amazon as its cell phone brand of choice, and it didn’t work very well. Fortunately for me, I waited for all the reviews and didn’t buy one.
The company has had a few other missteps, but nothing that’s been a detriment to its existence. It continues to create and offer so many goods and services that bring so much pleasure to people all over the globe. I’ve no doubt that it will keep doing so for years to come.
What do you think about Amazon? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments section below. And check back here regularly for more on what’s new in the digital world—whether it be it online shopping, drones, video games, spyware for cell phones, or something else.
