Apple was the first company ever to cross the $1 trillion mark. It was a great achievement and the explanation couldn’t be simpler. Apple makes devices that people are willing to pay a high price for. However, we knew at the time that the smartphone giant wouldn’t be the only trillion dollar firm for long. After all, other big tech firms were closing in on the objective including Amazon, the global online retail giant. Other companies like Google were in the running but the bet was always on Amazon. Well, the online retailer has finally crossed the trillion-dollar threshold, and it’s only the second company to do so.
Amazon shares surged on Tuesday hitting a high of $2,050.50 per share. The stock price dropped to $2039.51 at the end of the trading but still, this surge was enough to push the company’s valuation above $1 trillion. Although the online retailer did close the day below the trillion dollar mark, it made history for a moment. This surge was also very good news for Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO. Bezos is now worth more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined.
Amazon’s road towards the trillion dollar valuation has not been as simple as Apple’s. The company is an online retailer and is the biggest player in this space. It gets 49 cents for every dollar spent on e-commerce today. Last year Amazon generated over $177 billion in sales making it one of the most profitable businesses in the US. Although these figures are important, they are not really what make Amazon tick.
Many analysts believe that one key feature of Amazon is the buzz and excitement that it generates. When the online retailer first came to light, it was offering a digital way of shopping as opposed to the boring and time-consuming brick and mortar option. It was simply an exciting way to shop. But Amazon didn’t stop there and it later launched Amazon Kindle, an exciting way to read. All services that Amazon offers are designed to provide an exciting new way to do something. Whether we are talking about CreateSpace, an online publishing platform owned by the company, Amazon Web Services, or even Amazon’s new high tech assistant Alexa, all these things are there to give customers an exciting new way of doing things.
This has been the biggest selling point for Amazon and the reason why the company is only the second public US corporation to hit the trillion dollar mark. Even when Amazon said that it was going to search for a new headquarter to supplement its Seattle office, the move generated a massive frenzy. Lawmakers and local city officials were moving with speed to bring the company to their districts. The media joined in and everything became one beautiful and exciting drama. But behind the drama, there’s also the relentless and perhaps even scary ambition. Amazon has survived difficult moments since it launched in 1997 but Bezos and the team behind the company kept their eyes on the bigger picture, and this seems to have paid off big time.
