It is almost 2001, and Feng Yu had come to Seattle. Jeff Bezos had called Feng Yu over to announce a piece of good news.
“Everyone, I want to share a piece of good news. With the increase in profits during the fourth quarter, Amazon had finally made profits since it is set up!!”
All the directors and top executives cheered and clapped. Amazon is finally making money after so many years.
Amazon is eligible to be listed a long time ago, but the main shareholder opposed it. That’s why Amazon was not listed during the internet boom.
All the shareholders and directors were scolding Feng Yu behind his back. If Amazon got listed in 1997, the shareholders could dump their shares in 1999, and the returns will be at least ten times of their investments!
Look at eBay. The company’s value increased by 100 times after it was listed. Even if Amazon is not as good as eBay, the gap should not be too far apart. The shareholders think that Amazon’s shares might even be more popular than eBay, as the main shareholder is Feng Yu. Feng Yu’s name will give investors confidence that this company will do well!
Feng Yu is the World’s youngest billionaire and is currently the Second Richest Person in the World. He also won against Soros and is famous for his wins in the financial market.
But Feng Yu just refused to let the company get listed. He will continue to inject funds into the company when necessary. Jeff Bezos also supported Feng Yu’s decision, and the other minor shareholders cannot do anything.
Feng Yu’s assistant, Ralph, had told the minor shareholders that they can sell off their shares if they are unhappy with Feng Yu’s decision. Feng Yu will acquire their shares at 10% above the market rate.
The minor shareholders will never sell!
Initially, the shareholders had wanted to dump their shares for profits after the company got listed. But later, they realized Amazon’s potential.
The eCommerce store is more advantageous and can allow customers more variety of choices easily.
In the US, many middle-income families live in the suburbs, where the environment is nicer, and houses are bigger.
Most families will go grocery shopping once a week, and it’s too tiring to buy one week supply. Sometimes, they also have to search for the whole supermarket for one product.
But with Amazon, everything becomes simpler. With just a few clicks, customers can find what they want and just wait for the items to be delivered after placing the order.
During the initial phase, Amazon practices cash on delivery. But some customers find it troublesome as they need to prepare small change.
But later, Amazon changed its payment system to internet banking. More customers started to trust Amazon, and the number of customers increases.
Amazon also increased the variety of its products. All legal products started appearing on Amazon. Customers can buy small items like toothpicks to big items like refrigerators and washing machines on Amazon.
Those shareholders noticed the number of registered users and sales increasing, and Amazon’s losses started to decrease.
Although these shareholders hold on to very few shares, they firmly believe the shares they own will bring them high returns very soon.
Amazon has plans to enter South America, and with a bigger market, the profits will be higher.
One year ago, Amazon had set up a music store, selling all sorts of music-related products, like CD, MD, DVD, amplifiers, earphones, etc. It also provides MP3 downloads.
At that time, many shareholders, including some Directors, opposed this idea. The concept of music download is good, but who will buy it?
But very soon, the shareholders know what this website is for. AIWA was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, and MP3 players become popular throughout the US, North America, Asia, and Europe. Their MP3 downloads shot up.
Because Amazon has more customers, Amazon became one of AIWA’s distributors. Many people chose to download from Amazon’s music store, and their downloads are higher than AIWA’s website.
Now, Amazon’s Music Store has more than a million downloads every month. After AIWA launched their latest MP3 player, the downloads shot up again. This music store and the books category brought in most of Amazon’s profits.
Last month, Amazon’s music store merged with AIWA’s music website, and the number of downloads increased further.
Those shareholders and top executives of Amazon were impressed with Bezos’s foresight. But Jeff Bezos knew in his heart that he had opposed this idea initially.
Feng Yu’s representative, Ralph, had asked him to set up this music store. As the major shareholder, Feng Yu has never interfered with Amazon’s operations. He had only told Jeff Bezos not to enter the Chinese and East Europe market.
But Feng Yu is asking Jeff Bezos to set up this music store. This means Feng Yu takes MP3 downloads seriously, and Jeff Bezos had to carry out this order.
So, Jeff Bezos got the credit for doing this.
Amazon is no longer the biggest online book store now. It is also the biggest online music store and online retail store.
Amazon’s current slogan is “Earth’s biggest bookstore,” which sounded very arrogant.
But no one can say anything, as Amazon has the widest variety of products and number of users.
Of course, from its value, Amazon is lagging behind other online companies as they are not listed yet.
Now, Amazon is preparing to change its slogan to “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Many companies focus on their customer service, but Amazon had added the words, ‘Earth’s most,’ in front, resulting in many companies attacking Amazon.
But those attacks did not affect Amazon’s development and helped Amazon becomes more popular.
If Jeff Bezos had not invested 30% of its revenue into marketing, many Amazon would be profitable a few months ago.
But it is still not too late, and Feng Yu is pleased with the company’s performance.
It is a success when other internet companies are losing money, and Amazon is making profits!
Feng Yu crossed his legs and started reading the financial report. He wants to see what surprises Amazon has in store for him.
But when Feng Yu saw the profits, he rolled his eyes.
The profit is slightly over 30,000 USD.
Damn! The world’s biggest eCommerce company had only made 30,000 USD a year, and still want to announce this as good news?!
