Amazon.com, Inc. , doing business like Amazon ( ), is a Seattle, Washington, Washington-based electronics and cloud computing company founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994. The technology giant is the world's largest Internet retailer measured by revenue and market capitalization, and the second largest after Alibaba Group in terms of total sales. The amazon.com site begins as an online bookstore and is then diversified to sell video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streams, audio/audiobooks downloads, software, video games, electronics, clothing, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company also manufactures consumer electronics - Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo - and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS). Amazon also sells certain low-end products under its own homemade AmazonBasics brand.
Amazon has separate retail websites for USA, UK and Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. In 2016, the Dutch, Polish and Turkish versions of the German Amazon website were also launched. Amazon also offers international shipments of some of its products to certain other countries.
In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization. Amazon is the fourth most valuable public company in the world (behind only Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft), the largest Internet company based on revenue in the world, and after Walmart, the second largest company in the United States. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $ 13.4 billion, which greatly enhanced Amazon's presence as a brick-and-mortar retailer. The acquisition was interpreted by some as a direct attempt to challenge traditional Walmart retail stores. In 2018, for the first time, Jeff Bezos was released in Amazon's shareholder letter of Amazon Prime customer numbers, which at 100 million, is about 64% of the US population.
Video Amazon (company)
Histori
The company was founded as a result of what Jeff Bezos called a "regret remorse framework," which illustrates his efforts to fend off regret for not participating faster in an Internet business boom during that time. In 1994, Bezos left his job as vice president D. E. Shaw & Co., a Wall Street company, and moved to Seattle, Washington. He started working on a business plan for what ended up being Amazon.com.
On July 5, 1994, Bezos originally joined the company in the State of Washington under the name Cadabra, Inc. Bezos changed its name to Amazon.com, Inc. several months later, after a lawyer misheard his real name as "carcass". In September 1994, Bezos bought the URL Relentless.com and briefly considered naming its online store, Relentless, but his friends said that his name sounds a bit creepy. Domains are still owned by Bezos and still redirect to retailers. The company is online as Amazon.com in 1995.
Bezos chose the name Amazon by looking through the dictionary; he settled on "Amazon" because it was an "exotic and different" place, as he imagined for his Internet company. The Amazon River, he says, is the largest river in the world, and he plans to make his shop the world's largest bookstore. Bezos gave a premium price to start building a brand and told a reporter, "There is nothing about our model that can not be copied over time, but you know, McDonald's is copied, and it's still building a lot, worth billions of dollars. to a brand name Brand name is more important online than in the physical world. "In addition, the name beginning with" A "is preferential because it is likely to happen at the top of an alphabetically sorted listing.
After reading a report on the future of the Internet that projects an annual web growth growth of 2,300%, Bezos makes a list of 20 products that can be marketed online. He narrows down the list for what he perceives as the five most promising products, which include: compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books. Bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books online, due to the huge worldwide demand for literature, low prices for books, along with the many titles available in print. Amazon was founded in Bezos's garage in Bellevue, Washington.
In July 1995, the company began serving as an online bookstore. The first book on Amazon.com is The Concept of Fluid and Creative Analogy Douglas Hofstadter: The Computer Model of the Rationale Mechanism . In the first two months of business, Amazon is sold to 50 states and more than 45 countries. Within two months, Amazon's sales reached $ 20,000/week. Though the largest brick and mortar bookstore may offer 150,000 titles, online bookstores can offer several more times, because online it can have a universal selection of every printed book.
In October 1995, the company announced itself to the public. In 1996, it was linked back in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering on May 15, 1997, trading under the symbol of the NASDAQ AMZN stock market, at a price of US $ 18.00 per share ($ 1.50 after three stock split in the late 1990s) an).
Barnes & amp; Noble sued the Amazon on May 12, 1997, stating that Amazon's claim as "the world's largest bookstore" is wrong because "... not a bookstore at all." This is a book broker. The lawsuit was then settled out of court and Amazon continued to make the same claim. Walmart sued Amazon on October 16, 1998, accusing Amazon of stealing Walmart's trade secrets by hiring former Walmart executives. Although this lawsuit was also settled out of court, it caused Amazon to impose internal restrictions and reassignment of former Walmart executives.
In 1999, Amazon first tried to enter the publishing business by purchasing dead traces, "Weathervane", and published several books "chosen without clear thinking", according to The New Yorker. The trail quickly disappears again, and by 2014 the Amazon representatives say they've never heard of it.
Since June 19, 2000, Amazon's logotype has featured a curved arrow that leads from A to Z, representing that the company carries every product from A to Z, with a smile-shaped arrow.
Amazon's initial business plan was unusual; they do not expect to make a fortune for four to five years. This "slow" growth causes shareholders to complain that companies do not achieve profitability fast enough to justify their investment or even survive in the long term. The dot-com bubble burst in the early 21st century and destroyed many electronics companies in the process, but Amazon survived and moved ahead of the technological crash to become a major player in online sales. The company eventually changed its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $ 5 million (that is, 1 ¢ per share), with revenues of more than $ 1 billion. This profit margin, though very simple, proves skeptical that the unconventional Bezos business model can work. In 1999, Bezos the Person of the Year recognized the company's success in popularizing online shopping.
In 2011, Amazon has 30,000 permanent employees in the US, and by the end of 2016, it has 180,000 employees. The company employs 306,800 people worldwide in full-time and part-time jobs.
On October 11, 2016, Amazon announced plans to build a department store and develop a roadside pick-up location for food. In December 2016, the Amazon Go store opened for Amazon employees in Seattle. The store uses a variety of cameras and sensors with the help of computer vision to detect items a shoppers buy from the shelf, automatically filling out Amazon shopper's accounts as they walk out of the store, eliminating the need to get off track. The store is planned to be open to the public in early 2017, but postponed. On January 22, 2018, Amazon opened the Go Amazon store in Seattle to the general public. Customers scan their Amazon Go app when they log in, and must install the Amazon Go app on their smartphones and linked Amazon account to log in.
In June 2017, Amazon announced it would acquire Whole Foods, an upscale supermarket chain with more than 400 stores, for $ 13.4 billion. The acquisition was seen by media experts as a move to strengthen physical ownership and challenge Walmart's supremacy as a brick and mortar retailer. This sentiment is reinforced by the fact that the announcement coincides with the purchase of Walmart from the Bonobos menswear company. On August 23, 2017, Whole Foods shareholders, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, approved the agreement.
In September 2017, Amazon announced plans to place its second headquarters in a metropolitan area with at least one million people. Cities should submit their presentations on October 19, 2017 to a project called HQ2. The $ 5 billion headquarters, starting with 500,000 square feet and eventually extending up to 8 million square feet, may have 50,000 employees.
By 2020, Amazon will build a new building in downtown Seattle with space for Mary's Place, a local charity. In May 2018, Amazon announced that it has halted development planning in downtown New Seattle on a proposal to burden big businessmen.
Mergers and acquisitions
Investment
- 2008: Engine Yard, the Ruby-on-Rails platform as a service company (PaaS).
- 2010: LivingSocial, local deals site.
- 2014: Acquired '.buy' domain in auction for $ 4,588,888
- 2014: Amazon announces $ 2 billion investment in India
- 2016: Amazon announces an additional US $ 3 billion investment in India
- 2017: Between May and July 2017, Amazon has invested INR 2,000 crore (US $ 300 million) in India with INR 130 crore (US $ 19 million) invested into Amazon Pay India's payment arm. In November 2017, Amazon invested INR 2900 crore (US $ 430 million) in the Indian arm.
- 2018: In January, the additional amount of INR 2,000 crore (US $ 300 million) was invested by Amazon in its Indian arm.
Subsidiaries
- 2003: A9.com, a company focused on research and development of innovative technologies.
- 2004: Lab126, an integrated consumer electronics developer like Kindle.
- 2007: Endless.com, a shoe-focused e-commerce brand. (discontinued 2012)
- 2007: Brilliance Audio, the largest independent audiobook producer in the US.
- 2009: CreateSpace, its own publishing service for independent creators, publishers, movie studios, and music labels; created by CustomFlix's internal merger (DVD on demand for independent filmmakers) and BookSurge (self publishing, on-demand printing, online distribution), both obtained in 2005.
Amazon has more than 40 subsidiaries, including Zappos, Shopbop, Diapers.com, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Audible, Goodreads, Teachstreet, and IMDb.
Maps Amazon (company)
Board of directors
As of May 2018, the board of directors is:
- Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and Chairman
- Tom Alberg, Managing partner, Madrona Venture Group
- John Seely Brown, Visiting Scholar and Counsel for Provost at University of Southern California
- Jamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and Dorr
- Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean and Deputy Provost, Cornell University
- Judy McGrath, former CEO, MTV Networks
- Jon Rubinstein, former Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.
- Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest Association
- Patty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's Table
- Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President and CEO, Corning Inc.
Merchant partnerships
Until June 30th, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into the browser will bring up Amazon.com's "Toys & Games" tab; However, this relationship was terminated due to a lawsuit. Amazon also hosts and manages websites for Borders bookshops but this stops in 2008. From 2001 to August 2011, Amazon hosted a retail website for Target.
Amazon.com operates a retail website for Sears Canada, Bebe Stores, Marks & amp; Spencer, Mothercare, and Lacoste. For more and more corporate clients, including UK merchants, Mark & ​​â € < Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' The UK entity, edeals.com and Mothercare, Amazon provide an integrated multi-channel platform where customers can interact with retail websites, stand-alone store terminals or phone-based customer service agents. Amazon Web Services also empowers AOL's Shop @ AOL.
On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for exclusive digital rights for many popular comics, including Superman , Batman , Green Lantern , The Sandman, and Watchmen . The partnership has led to renowned book stores such as Barnes & amp; Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.
In November 2013, Amazon.com announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sunday. The services, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, begin in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas due to the high volume and inability to deliver on time, with plans to expand to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix in 2014.
In July 2016, Amazon.com announced a partnership with the British Civil Aviation Authority to test multiple technologies and be able to use delivery services through major air drones in the future.
In June 2017, Nike confirmed a partnership with Amazon, stating that it was at an early stage where they would sell items on Amazon.
On October 11, 2017, AmazonFresh sells a range of Booth branded products for home delivery in certain areas.
Products and services
The Amazon.com product line is available on its website including several media (books, DVDs, music CDs, videocassettes and software), clothing, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health goods and care personal, industry & amp; ; scientific supplies, kitchenware, jewelry, watches, lawns and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, appliances, automotive goods and toys & amp; competition.
Amazon is now preparing in India to play a role in the grocery retail sector that aims to meet customer needs.
Amazon.com has a number of products and services available, including:
Subsidiaries
Amazon Maritime
Amazon Maritime, Inc. holds the license of the Federal Maritime Commission to operate as a non-ship operator (NVOCC), which allows the company to manage its own shipments from China to the United States.
Audible.com
Audible.com is a spoken audio entertainment vendor and producer, educational information and programs on the Internet. Audible sells digital audio books, radio and TV programs and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm Audible Studios Audible is also the world's largest producer of downloadable audio books. On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced it would purchase Audible for approximately $ 300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible became a subsidiary of Amazon.
Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service
Beijing Century Joyo Courier Services is a subsidiary of Amazon and applied for freight licenses with the US Maritime Commission. Amazon also builds its logistics in truck and air freight that potentially competes with UPS and FedEx.
Brilliance Audio
Brilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan. The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985. The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance produces 12-15 new titles each month. It operates as an independent company in Amazon.
In 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique to record twice as much on the same tape. The involved technique records on each of the two channels of each stereo path. It has been credited with revolutionizing the emerging audiobook market in the mid-1980s because it makes the unexplained books affordable.
ComiXology
ComiXology is a cloud-based digital comic platform with over 200 million comic downloads in September 2013. It offers a selection of over 40,000 comic books and graphic novels on Android, iOS, Fire OS, and Windows 8 devices and through a web browser. Amazon bought the company in April 2014.
Goodreads
Goodreads is a "social catalog" website that was founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Chandler. Websites allow individuals to freely search the database, annotations, and book reviews that many Goodreads users collect. Users can register and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their own group of suggestions and book discussions. In December 2007, the site has more than 650,000 members and more than 10 million books have been added. Amazon bought the company in March 2013.
Shelfari
Shelfari is a social cataloging site for books. Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves from titles they have or read and they can rate, review, mark and discuss their books. Users can also create groups that other members can follow, create discussions and talk about books, or other topics. Recommendations can be sent to friends on the site to find out what books to read. Amazon purchased the company in August 2008. Shelfari continues to function as an independent social book network in the Amazon until January 2016, when Amazon announced that it would merge Shelfari with Goodreads and close Shelfari.
Twitch
Twitch is a live streaming platform for videos, especially those that are oriented towards video game content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a common streaming service known as Justin.tv. His advantage was defeated by Twitch, and Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 to focus exclusively on Twitch. Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $ 970 million. Through Twitch, Amazon also has Curse, Inc., the operator of the video game community and VoIP service providers to play games. Since the acquisition, Twitch began selling games directly through the platform, and began offering special features for Amazon Prime customers.
The rapid growth of this site has been driven primarily by a major esports competition advantage on service, leading senior GameSpot esports editor Rod Breslau has described the service as "ESPN esports". By 2015, this service has more than 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million viewers every month.
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is an American supermarket chain that exclusively features food without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.
On August 23, 2017, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger between Amazon.com and the Whole Foods Market. The next day it was announced that the deal would close on August 28, 2017.
Junglee
Junglee is a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that allows customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started as a virtual database that was used to extract information from the internet and send it to a company application. As it progresses, Junglee starts to use database technology to create a single window market on the internet by making every item of each supplier available for purchase. Web buyers can find, compare, and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping center through a single window.
Amazon acquired Junglee in 1998, and the Junglee.com website was launched in India in February 2012 as a shopping comparison website. It's curated and activated looking for a diverse array of products like clothing, electronics, toys, jewelry, and video games, among other things, in thousands of online and offline sellers. Millions of products can be crawled, where clients choose the price, and then they are directed to the seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed Junglee.com and its previous domains are currently shifting to Amazon India.
Website
Amazon.com domains attracted at least 615 million visitors annually in 2008. Amazon attracted more than 130 million subscribers to the US website per month by early 2016. The company has also invested heavily in large amounts of capacity server for its website, especially to handle excessive traffic during the December Christmas holiday season.
The results generated by the Amazon search engine are partly determined by the promotional costs.
Amazon local storefronts, different in selection and pricing, are distinguished by top-level domains and country codes:
Reviews
Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web pages of each product. The reviewer should rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers showing the original name of the reviewer (based on credit card account confirmation) or indicating that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers based on popularity. Customers can comment or vote on reviews, indicate whether they find reviews that benefit them. If a review is given enough "help", it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as the largest source of consumer reviews of the Internet.
When the publisher asked Bezos why Amazon would publish a negative review, he defended the practice by claiming that Amazon.com "took a different approach... we wanted to make every book available - the good, the bad and the ugly... to let the truth loose ".
There are a few positive review cases written and posted by public relations firms on behalf of their clients and examples of authors using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rival's work.
Content search
"Search within Books" is a feature that allows customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. This feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003. There are about 300,000 books in the program. Amazon has worked with about 130 publishers to allow users to do this search.
To avoid copyright infringement, Amazon does not restore computer-readable textbooks. Instead, it returns a suitable page image, instructs the web browser to disable printing and places restrictions on the number of pages in a book accessible to a single user. In addition, customers can purchase online access to some of the same books through the "Amazon Upgrade" program.
Third party seller
Amazon gained much of its sales (about 40% in 2008) from third-party vendors selling products on Amazon. Partners receive a commission to refer customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their website if leads generate sales. Worldwide, Amazon has "more than 900,000 members" in its affiliate program. In mid 2014, Amazon's Affiliate Program is used by 1.2% of all websites and it is the second most popular ad network after Google Ads. These are often used by websites and nonprofits to provide a way for supporters to earn commissions from them. Amazon reported more than 1.3 million sellers sold products through the Amazon site in 2007. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments are handled by Amazon.
Partners can access Amazon catalog directly on their website by using XML Web Services (AWS) XML service. The new affiliate product, aStore, allows the Partner to embed a subset of Amazon products on another website, or link to other websites. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched (reportedly internally called "Project Events") to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending certain products to third-party sellers for sale on Amazon. Suggested products are based on customer search history.
Amazon's sales ranking
Amazon's sales rank (ASR) gives an indication of the popularity of a product sold at every Amazon location. This is a relative popularity indicator that is updated hourly. Effectively, this is the "best seller list" for millions of Amazonian stockpiles. While ASR has no direct effect on the sale of a product, ASR is used by Amazon to determine which product to include in its best-seller list. The products that appear in this list enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this can lead to increased sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales rankings may be included in Amazon's "drivers and builders" list; such a list provides additional exposure that may lead to increased sales. For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon is now beginning to release point of sale data through the Nielsen BookScan service for verified authors. While ASR has been a source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon itself did not release details of its sales ranking calculation algorithms. Some companies have analyzed Amazon's sales data to generate sales estimates based on ASR, although Amazon states:
Please keep in mind that our sales ranking is solely meant to be a public interest guide for customers and not a definitive sales information for publishers - we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources
Technology
Amazon runs a data center for online services and has generators or purchases of electricity that match its consumption, mostly renewable energy. Amazon contracted with Avangrid to build and operate the first wind farm in North Carolina to drive the Amazon Virginia data center. The wind farm was built and commenced operations in December 2016 despite opposition from President Trump and several North Carolina Republic legislators.
Amazon records data on customer buyer behavior that allows them to offer or recommend to certain items or bundles of goods based on preference indicated through purchases or goods visited.
On May 5, 2014, Amazon announced a partnership with Twitter. Twitter users can link their accounts to Amazon accounts and automatically add items to their shopping cart by responding to each tweet with Amazon product links containing #AmazonCart hashtag. This allows customers to never leave their Twitter feeds and products waiting for them when they go to the Amazon website.
Multi-level sales strategy
Amazon uses multi-level e-commerce strategy. Amazon began by focusing on the business-to-consumer relationship between itself and its customers and the business-to-business relationship between itself and its suppliers and then moving to facilitate customer-to-customer with the Amazon market acting as an intermediary to facilitate transactions. This company lets anyone sell almost anything using the platform. In addition to affiliate programs that allow anyone who links post-Amazon and earn commissions for click-through sales, there are now programs that allow the affiliate to build an entire website based on the Amazon platform.
Some other major e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own websites. Sales are processed through Amazon.com and end up on individual sellers for order processing and order fulfillment and Amazon rental space for this retailer. Small sellers of secondhand and just go to the Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price. Amazon also uses the use of drop shippers or meta sellers. These are members or entities that advertise items on Amazon that order these items directly from other competitor websites, but usually from other Amazon members. These meta sellers may have millions of products listed, have large transaction numbers and are grouped together with other less productive members who give them credibility as someone who has been in business for a long time. Markup is anywhere from 50% to 100% and sometimes more, this seller retains that stuff in inventory when the reverse is true. When Amazon increases their dominance in the market, these drop shippers are becoming increasingly prevalent in recent years.
In November 2015, Amazon opened its first physical bookshop location. It's named Amazon Books and is located at University Village in Seattle. This store is 5,500 square feet and the price for all products matches the one on its website. Amazon will open its tenth physical bookshop by 2017; media speculation shows Amazon's plan to eventually launch 300 to 400 bookstores across the country. Amazon plans to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.
Revenue
Amazon.com is a retail site with sales revenue model; Amazon takes a small percentage of the selling price of each item sold through its website while also allowing the company to advertise their products by paying to be listed as a superior product.
Controversy
Since its establishment, the company has drawn criticism and controversy from various sources for its actions. These include: luring customers away from brick competitors and mortar sites, poor warehouse conditions for workers; anti-union efforts; Remote content disposal of Amazon Kindle; taking public subsidies; its "1-Click patent" claim; anti-competitive actions; price discrimination; decisions about whether to censor or publish content such as the WikiLeaks website; LGBT book sales rating; and work contains defamation, facilitating air combat, chicken fighting, or pedophilia activity. In December 2011, Amazon faced a reaction from a small business to run a one-day deal to promote the new Price Check app. Buyers using apps to check prices at brick and mortar stores are offered a 5% discount to buy the same items from Amazon. Companies like Groupon, eBay and Taap.it reply to Amazon's promotions by offering a $ 10 discount on their products. The company also faces charges of putting undue pressure on suppliers to maintain and expand its profits. One attempt to blackmail the most vulnerable book publishers is known within the company as Project Gazelle, after Bezos suggests, according to Brad Stone, "that Amazon should approach this little publisher like a cheetah will pursue a sickly deer." In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company stating that it promotes in-app purchases to children, transacted without parental consent.
Selling counterfeit goods
On October 16, 2016, Apple filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC for selling fake Apple products to Amazon. In the lawsuit, Apple provided evidence that Amazon sold these fake Apple products and advertised them as genuine. Through purchases, Apple can identify that nearly 90% of Apple's accessories sold and filled by Amazon are fake. Amazon is the source and sells the goods without properly determining whether they are genuine. Mobile Star LLC was settled with Apple for an undisclosed amount on April 27, 2017.
Sales and taxes
The Amazon state sales tax collection policy has changed over the years since the beginning of the company did not collect sales tax. In the US, state and local sales taxes are levied by state and local governments, not at the federal level. In most countries where Amazon operates, sales tax or value added tax applies uniformly across the country, and Amazon is required to collect it from all customers. Proponents force Amazon.com to collect sales taxes - at least in countries where it maintains a physical presence - argues the company holds an anti-competitive advantage over a storefront business being forced to collect sales taxes.
Many US states in the 21st century have passed an online shopping sales tax law designed to force Amazon.com and other ecommerce retailers to collect state and local sales taxes from their customers. Amazon.com originally collected sales taxes only from five countries in 2011, but in April 2017, Amazon collected sales taxes from customers in 45 states that had state sales taxes and in Washington, D.C.
Comments by President Trump
In 2018, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon's use of the US Postal Service and fixed its shipping rates, stating, "I am right about Amazon harming the US Post Office of large sums of money to become a Delivery Boy," Trump tweeted. "Amazon should pay these (plus) fees and not ask them to pay taxes by the American Taxpayer." Amazon shares fell as much as 6 percent over Trump's comments even though no actual facts were presented in support of President's claim.
Poor working conditions
Amazon has drawn widespread criticism for poor working conditions by both current employees, who call themselves Amazonians, and former employees, as well as the media and politicians. In 2011, it was published that in the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania warehouse, workers had to do the work with 100 Â ° C (38 Â ° C) heat, which caused employees to be very uncomfortable and suffer from dehydration and collapse. The bay-loading door was not opened to allow fresh air, due to corporate concerns over theft. Amazon's initial response was to pay an ambulance to sit outside to serve an overheated employee. The company finally installed the air conditioner in the warehouse.
Some workers, "pickers," who travel with trolleys and hand-pick scanners "opt for" customer orders can run up to 15 miles during their business day and if they fall behind their targets they can be reprimanded. Mobile scanners provide real-time information to employees about how sooner or later they work; scanners also serve to allow Team Leaders and Area Managers to track employee-specific locations and how many "idle time" they get when they are not working. In a German television broadcast aired in February 2013, journalists Diana LÃÆ'¶bl and Peter Onneken conducted a secret investigation at the Amazon distribution center in the town of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hessen. The report highlights the behavior of some security guards, themselves employed by third-party companies, who appear to have Neo-Nazi backgrounds or deliberately wear Neo-Nazi clothing and who intimidate foreign and temporary female workers in central distribution. The third-party security company involved was removed by Amazon as a business contact shortly after the report.
In March 2015, it was reported on The Verge that Amazon would remove the 18-month non-compete clause from the US employment contract for hourly workers, after criticism that it acted unreasonably in preventing such an employee from looking for another job. Even short-term temporary workers must sign contracts prohibiting them from working in any company where they will "directly or indirectly" support any goods or services that compete with those they support in Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they are fired or made redundant.
The substantial article New York Times published on August 16, 2015, illustrates evidence of an intimidating and confrontational work culture for corporate office workers.
In an effort to boost employee morale, on November 2, 2015, Amazon announced that it would extend 6 weeks paid leave for new moms and dads. These changes include biological parents and adoptive parents and can be applied together with existing maternity leave and medical leave for new mothers.
Conflicts of interest
In 2013, Amazon earned a $ 600 million contract with the CIA, leading to a conflict of interest involving Bezos Washington Post and his newspaper coverage of the CIA. Kate Martin, director of the National Center for Security Studies, said, "This is a potential serious conflict of interest for major newspapers such as The Washington Post to have a contractual relationship with the government and the secretive part of the government.
Lobby
Amazon lobbied the federal government of the United States and state governments on issues such as sales tax enforcement on online sales, transport security, privacy and data protection and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Amazon.com focuses lobbying on the United States Congress, Federal Communications Commission, and Federal Reserve. Amazon.com spends about $ 3.5 million, $ 5 million and $ 9.5 million to lobby, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Amazon.com is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Board (ALEC) corporate down to membership following a protest at shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.
In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it is ready to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve drone delivery programs, employ Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June. Amazon and its hobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officials and flight committees in Washington, D.C. to explain his plan to send the packet.
Famous business established by former employees
A number of companies have been started and established by former Amazon employees.
- Findory was founded by Greg Linden.
- Flipkart was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.
- Foodista.com was founded by Barnaby Dorfman.
- Hulu is led by Jason Kilar, a former SVP.
- Infibeam was founded by Vishal Mehta.
- Instacart was founded by Apoorva Mehta.
- Jambool and SocialGold were established jointly by Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein.
- Jet.com was founded by Marc Lore.
- Nimbula was co-founded by Chris Pinkham, former VP and Willem Van Biljon, former Product Manager.
- Opscode was co-founded by Jesse Robbins, a former engineer, and a manager.
- Pelago was co-founded by Jeff Holden, former SVP and Darren Vengroff, former Principal Engineer.
- Pro.com was founded by Matt Williams, a former Amazon executive and a "shadow" for Jeff Bezos.
- Quora was co-founded by engineer Charlie Cheever.
- TeachStreet was founded by Dave Schappell, the initial product manager.
- Book Depository was founded by Andrew Crawford; acquired by Amazon in 2011.
- Trusera was founded by Keith Schorsch, an early Amazonian.
- Twilio was founded by Jeff Lawson, former Technical Product Manager.
- Vittana was founded by Kushal Chakrabarti and Brett Witt.
- Wikinvest was founded by Michael Sha.
See also
- Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
- Amazon Flexible Payment Service
- Amazon Market
- Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
- List of book distributors
- Phrases that are not statistically possible - Amazon.com phrase extraction techniques for indexing books
References
Further reading
External links
- Official website
- Amazon Companies (companies) are grouped in OpenCorporates
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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