Amazon.com: Realizing Opportunities

In the mid 1990’s, the internet and the World Wide Web were just starting to become some of the greatest advancements in human history. In 1994, a man named Jeff Bezos read a report that the annual growth of the web would reach around 2,300 percent. Realizing vast opportunities in this report, Bezos left a lucrative job post in Wall Street to start a possibly more lucrative business venture that was based on the growth of the internet.

After leaving his firm on Wall Street, Jeff immediately began formulating plans for a business venture selling products on the internet. Jeff made a list of several products that would likely sell on the web and narrowed down that list to books. Working out of his garage, Jeff started an internet based company called Amazon.com.

The speed of Amazon.com’s growth was one of the fastest in history. After just four months of launching the website in 2005, Amazon was already making waves on the internet. Yahoo and Netscape included the company on their lists of popular web-based companies.  At that time, Amazon was already shipping products to all 50 states in the US and internationally as well.

It was clear that Jeff’s garage would no longer be able to accommodate Amazon’s success, so he opened an office in Seattle to service the company’s online customers.

The continued success of Amazon.com was unprecedented. After only four years of operation, Jeff Bezos was selected by Time Magazine for its “Man of the Year” award in 1999.

From selling books, Amazon.com now sells almost every product on the internet. From household items to business products, Amazon had it all in stock.

Jeff Bezos realized early that the internet would become the world’s biggest marketplace. Acting on the opportunity, Jeff turned a garage-based business into a multi-billion dollar corporation in less than a decade.