After two decades of success, Amazon is officially the world’s biggest e-commerce site. The Amazon net worth is far superior to all of their online rivals.
The Digital Age has forced many industries to change, with many services now available at the click of a button. Video stores made way for streaming services like Netflix. Physical music CDs joined cassettes and records in the history books, as the likes of Spotify and Apple Music emerged.
The retail industry isn’t exempt from the changes, with online store Amazon catching up to brick-and-mortar leaders Walmart, who currently rank as the world’s largest retailer.
Where did Amazon’s journey begin?
As internet access boomed, Jeff Bezos founded ‘Cadabra’ in 1994. The site eventually launched as ‘Amazon’ a year later. He named the site after the biggest river in the world, predicting that his company would become an online powerhouse.
Bezos initially launched Amazon as an online bookstore, but he had bigger plans. His plan outlined 20 items that he felt could be sold over the internet. Soon enough, Amazon sold everything from gadgets to clothing.
Bezos ran the site out of his garage and a bell would ring each time a product sold. Although, the bell was quickly retired, as Amazon took $20,000 worth of sales within two months of launching.
It took eight years for the website to turn a profit, but Amazon is now the world’s largest and most successful online retailer.
Amazon net worth: The numbers behind Amazon’s success
Amazon hasn’t quite reached the top yet, but they are certainly working on it. It ranks as the 8th biggest retailer in the world (Walmart take first with net sales of $478 billion), although it is the top shopping site on the web.
The e-commerce giants made $79.3 billion worth of sales in 2016. In comparison, Walmart made just $13.5 billion from online sales in the same period. Likewise, Amazon saw their revenue grow by about 27%, while Walmart’s earnings grew by just 3.2%.
Amazon can expect those figures to go up. 2016 was the first year in which shoppers made most of their purchases over the internet, while 95% of Brits now shop online.
As a result, Amazon are now the fourth biggest company in the world by market cap, with the Amazon net worth standing at $459 billion.
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