Page 34 - Forbes - Asia (September 2018)

FORBES ASIA
JEFF BEZOS

APRIL 3, 1995
Books. First sale: APRIL
Fluid Concepts NOVEMBER 2000 22, 2004
and Creative Amazon Market- Jewelry:
$10,000 en-
Analogies: Com- place: Third-
puter Models of party sellers start gagement
rings to
the Fundamental selling everything
Mechanisms of from cameras to $10 charm
bracelets.
Thought. dollhouse furni-
ture on the site.

JUNE 11, 1998 Compact NOVEMBER 2,
discs: more than 125,000 2005 Mechanical
albums in 60 genres. SEPTEMBER 22, 2003 Sporting Turk: micropay-
goods: tennis rackets, electric ments to humans
scooters, team jerseys. performing tasks
computers can’t.

FEBRUARY 2, 2005 Amazon
Prime: initially just free two-
day shipping for $79 a year.

JULY 16, 2002 Amazon Web
Services: renting computing
power, database storage SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 Amazon
and content delivery to Video: thousands of TV
(mostly) small businesses. shows and movies, from
Star Trek to Bu y the Vam-
pire Slayer, to download.
NOVEMBER 10, 1999 Home
improvement (cement
mixers, smoke detectors), NOVEMBER 7, 2002 Apparel: clothing from
software (Microsoft Of-
fice 2000, Photoshop), more than 400 brands, including Gap,
Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren and Eddie Bauer.
video games (Game Boys,
Where in the World Is
Carmen Sandiego).

‘97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07

azonian thing at Amazon. Bezos has al- and who did the taking; and from Am- lar vein to warehouse clubs like Costco and
ways stressed frugality, and here are his azon Pay, which seamlessly handles the BJ’s Wholesale. But as it grows, it’s surged
employees (and a few Seattle residents and transaction once the company’s app regis- into a way to shower its 100 million-plus
tourists) shopping for their lunches, buy- ters the inputs. Grabbing a chocolate milk subscribers with perks and privileges. And
ing them from Amazon and in doing so here on the way out feels like shopliting— those perks create endless new adjacen-
also providing the company with reams of no checkout lines, no scanning, no swip- cies and business lines. Prime explains why
data to hone its skills. More important, Go ing. If healthcare and advertising represent Amazon has started to encroach on Net ix
demonstrates what’s possible when difer- huge expansion verticals on Amazon’s de and is expected to spend $5 billion on pro-
ent aspects of Amazon’s myriad operations facto vertical campus, Go brings together gramming this year, including the highly
come together. Go en com passes knowl- what’s possible horizontally when Amazon touted Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In just three
edge gained from purchases at Whole puts all the pieces together. years, “Prime Day”—an annual 36 hours of
Foods; from Amazon’s increasingly sophis- he most important aspect of it all is special deals just for members, with partic-
ticated algorithmic and hardware capabil- Prime. At its core, it’s a marketing tool, ipants spending billions on more than 100
ities, in the form of AI, camera and sensor a way to encourage buying—and gener- million products this July—has become a
technologies, which combine to igure out ate recurring subscription revenue (an es- shopping holiday with a mania surpassed
what’s taken of the shelf (and put back) timated $10 billion in 2017)—in a simi- in the U.S. only by Black Friday and Cyber

32 | FORBES ASIA SEPTEMBER 2018