Jeff Bezos is an American billionaire, raking in an incredible net worth as a result of his role in creating the online retail platform Amazon. His online business alone is worth an estimated $1.7 trillion (approximately £1,298,655,500,000) as of January 2022, according to Business Insider.
As web usage began to explode around the world, harbouring new, untapped potential, the entrepreneur was sparked with inspiration.
In 1994 he quit D.E. Shaw and relocated to Seattle, Washington, to open a virtual bookstore.
Though he began working out of his garage, his new business Amazon sold its first book in July 1995, beginning what was to become his journey to success.
The website didn’t take long to become a leader in e-commerce, open 24 hours a day for consumers to buy and review books.
In June 1998, the website expanded to selling CDs and then videos.
In 1999, the website added the option to host auctions, and he invested in other virtual stores.
By 2005, Amazon had diversified its offering to include electronics, hardware and apparel.
In 2007, the website launched its handheld reading device, Kindle, which saw customers able to purchase, download and read books on the go without ever having to hold a physical book in their hand.
Amazon announced that Kindle sales surpassed book sales in 2010.
The website’s yearly net sales increased from $510,000 (£389,611) in 1995 to some $600 million (approximately £458,325,000) in 1998 and from more than $19.1 billion (approximately £14,590,012,500) in 2008 to almost $233 billion (approximately £177,982,875,000) in 2018.
By 2020, Amazon was able to register record profits, with its revenue in the fourth quarter alone surpassing $100 billion (approximately £76,387,500,000).
Partly, this was thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw people unable to visit physical retailers or leave their homes other than for essential reasons.
Last year, Bezos stepped down from his role as CEO, however, he remains an executive chairman.
Bezos also has a number of links with outer space travel.
He founded a spaceflight company named Blue Origin in 2000, which owns a launch site in Texas.
Bezos also owns The Washington Post and its affiliate publications, which he scooped up for $250 million (approximately £190,963,750) in 2013.
He was named the richest person in the world in 2018, though has since lost out on this title to Tesla co-founder Elon Musk.
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