Hi Rob, thank you for a question that compelled me to look too.
I booked a Google Garage AI training course online last month, the guy explained there were 'shifts' to describe the various stages of the internet.
The history of ecommerce started over 40 years ago, when the introduction of early technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and teleshopping in the 1970s paved the way for the modern-day ecommerce store as we know it today.
The first shift was in the 90's with eCommerce, and Amazon was an early trailblazer.
The history of ecommerce is closely intertwined with the history of the internet. Online shopping became possible when the internet was opened to the public in 1991. Amazon was one of the first ecommerce sites in the US to start selling products online and thousands of businesses have followed since.
Then there was a gap until 2007 when the second shift[1] of mobile happened. The internet came to me.
Bezos earned an undergraduate degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1986 then worked in the financial services industry in New York City.
- So, he studied computer science and had exposure to the wealth of the financial arena at the bottom level as an employee. I would guess that he witnessed millions of dollars go back and forth with trading and he wanted a slice
In 1994, after realizing the commercial potential of the Internet and determining that books might sell well online, he moved to Washington state and founded Amazon.
You asked "..but i find the rapid scale of his business even at an early stage without funding impressive."
- Basically, he created a business idea for books. Let's pause for a moment, why books? It was an evergreen product. The foundation of every successful eCommerce website; sell something a majority of the population desire and will happily pay money for.
Bezos realised that books have been a part of human civilization for millennia. From stories painted on rocks and in caves by our ancestors, to the Egyptian scrolls, to modern times. Books are cherished by billions,
He didn't need money.In the spring of 1995, Bezos invited a small group of friends and former colleagues to check out a beta version of Amazon’s website, and the first-ever order was placed on April 3 of that year, for a science book titled Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. When Amazon.com went live to the general public in July 1995, the company boldly billed itself as “Earth’s biggest bookstore”
Although sales initially were drummed up solely by word of mouth and Bezos assisted with assembling orders and driving the packages to the post office.
In 1997 Bezos took the company public with an initial public offering that raised $54 million.
[1] To break this down, Bezos used his computer knowledge and was born in the era of the second shift and engineered this to his advantage. He chose an evergreen product which basically sold itself, as eCommercde websites started to emerge only 3 years earlier.
Then, on October 23rd, 2000, Google opened it's doors to paid traffic and Google Adwords (now Ads). Benzos invested heavily in PPC and built a growing client base. He hired a talented Digital Marketing team and implemented a strategy that matched the second shift, and started to plan new concepts.
YouTube was bought in 2006 by Google, Social media boomed and YouTube got wildly popular. Suddenly, we were all international and connected in seconds. Ai was just starting to bubble.
AI is a nebulous term; contested amongst interested parties globally on a daily basis. The third shift is now.
2006 was 17 years ago. Mobile, video, social media, and in 2007, the Kindle e-reader was launched. Bezos is an innovator. He's always thinking ahead, which probably explains his interest in aerospace.
Sidenote: In 2004, I quit work and started an eCommerce account with eBay, which is a search engine.
Any platform with a search function is a search engine, unknowingly I was deliberately writing my titles using SEO. I included helpful content, as I was selling 12" dance vinyls, I learned how to CTRL+C CTRL+V code into eBay to embed videos and music clips.
All of images were named on my hard drive [Artist] [Title][Format][Size][Genre][Producer] so it's no stretch to connect the dots between what I was selling then, to what services I provide today.
gggggggg
Hi Rob, thank you for a question that compelled me write an essay as it turns out.
I booked a Google Garage AI training course online last month, the guy explained there were 'shifts' to describe the various stages of the internet.
The history of ecommerce started over 40 years ago, when the introduction of early technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and teleshopping in the 1970s paved the way for the modern-day ecommerce store as we know it today.
The first shift was in the 90's with eCommerce, and Amazon was an early trailblazer.
The history of ecommerce is closely intertwined with the history of the internet. Online shopping became possible when the internet was opened to the public in 1991. Amazon was one of the first ecommerce sites in the US to start selling products online and thousands of businesses have followed since.
Then there was a gap until 2007 when the second shift[1] of mobile happened. The internet came to me. It was in my pocket in a mobile phone.
Bezos earned an undergraduate degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1986 then worked in the financial services industry in New York City.
- So, he studied computer science and had exposure to the wealth of the financial arena at the bottom level as an employee. I would guess that he witnessed millions of dollars go back and forth with trading and he wanted a slice
In 1994, after realizing the commercial potential of the Internet and determining that books might sell well online, he moved to Washington state and founded Amazon.
You asked "..but i find the rapid scale of his business even at an early stage without funding impressive."
- Basically, he created a business idea for books. Let's pause for a moment, why books? It was an evergreen product. The foundation of every successful eCommerce website; sell something a majority of the population desire and will happily pay money for.
Bezos realised that books have been a part of human civilization for millennia. From stories painted on rocks and in caves by our ancestors, to the Egyptian scrolls, to modern times. Books are cherished by billions,
He didn't need money.In the spring of 1995, Bezos invited a small group of friends and former colleagues to check out a beta version of Amazon’s website, and the first-ever order was placed on April 3 of that year, for a science book titled Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. When Amazon.com went live to the general public in July 1995, the company boldly billed itself as “Earth’s biggest bookstore”
Although sales initially were drummed up solely by word of mouth and Bezos assisted with assembling orders and driving the packages to the post office.
In 1997 Bezos took the company public with an initial public offering that raised $54 million.
[1] To break this down, Bezos used his computer knowledge and was born in the era of the second shift and engineered this to his advantage. He chose an evergreen product which basically sold itself, as eCommercde websites started to emerge only 3 years earlier.
Then, on October 23rd, 2000, Google opened it's doors to paid traffic and Google Adwords (now Ads). Benzos invested heavily in PPC and built a growing client base. He hired a talented Digital Marketing team and implemented a strategy that matched the second shift, and started to plan new concepts.
YouTube was bought in 2006 by Google, Social media boomed and YouTube got wildly popular. Suddenly, we were all international and connected in seconds. Ai was just starting to bubble. Then in 2001, Apple released the iPod MP3 player, we had music and internet in our pockets.
2006 was 17 years ago. Mobile, video, social media evolved, and in 2007, the Kindle e-reader was launched, the same year that Apple released it's first iPhone.
Bezos is an innovator. He's always thinking ahead, which probably explains his interest in aerospace today. He stepped down in 2021 to focus on his new company; Blue Origin. The meta description served by Google for the website declares "Blue Origin was founded by Jeff Bezos with the vision of enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space for the benefit of mankind"
Sidenote: In 2004, I quit work and started an eCommerce account with eBay, which is a search engine.
Any platform with a search function is a search engine, unknowingly I was deliberately writing my titles using SEO. I included helpful content, as I was selling 12" dance vinyls, I learned how to CTRL+C CTRL+V code into eBay to embed videos and music clips.
All of images were named on my hard drive [Artist] [Title][Format][Size][Genre][Producer] so it's no stretch to connect the dots between what I was selling then, to what services I provide today.
AI is a nebulous term; contested amongst interested parties globally on a daily basis. The third shift is now.
We are now in the third shift, and if you want to emulate Bezos, you need an evergreen product which may not be replaced with AI. You can replicate the hidden scrolls in AI, but the originals found by the Dead Sea are priceless.
May I ask why you are researching Amazon's success? Do you have an eCommerce website?
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