It's almost 2001, and Feng Yu comes to Seattle in the United States. Jeff Bezos specially notified Feng Yu to attend, saying that he had good news to tell Feng Yu.
"Everyone, I have a piece of good news for you today. Thanks to the increase in profits in the fourth quarter, Amazon has made a profit for the first time since its establishment!"
All the directors and senior executives were applauding enthusiastically. After so many years, Amazon has finally made a profit.
Amazon was able to go public long ago, but due to opposition from major shareholders, the company has never been able to go public. It was the spring of Internet companies at that time. After going public, the stock price soared.
They complained privately to Feng Yu more than once. If Amazon was listed in 1997, they would be able to cash out in 1999. The profit is at least dozens of times!
Look at eBay. After going public, the company's market value increased a hundred times. Even if Amazon is not as good as eBay, it's not much different, right? Even in their hearts, Amazon may be more popular than eBay. After all, Amazon's major shareholder is Feng Yu. This is a golden sign that makes investors believe that the company will give them a guarantee of generous returns!
Feng Yu is the youngest billionaire and the second-largest in the world. He is also the person who defeated Soros. He is famous in the investment community.
It's a pity that Feng Yu refused to go public. He said that the company was short of money, so he continued to inject capital. He also got the support of Bezos, leaving them, small shareholders, helpless.
Didn't Feng Yu's assistant Ralph say that if any of you object, it doesn't matter. We will buy your shares at a premium of 10% based on the market price.
Of course they don't sell it!
At the beginning, they had the idea of cashing out and making money after listing. But later, they also saw the potential of Amazon.
Online shopping malls do have an important advantage over physical stores, that is, they can give customers a richer selection of products, and they are even very simple.
Here in the United States, many middle class people live in the suburbs, where the environment is good, the place is large, and the life is relatively comfortable.
They usually go to the supermarket once a week to buy daily necessities for the week. They are very tired every time. Sometimes they have to look for the same product for a long time.
But it's different in Amazon's online mall. You only need to keystroke a few times and click search to find the product you want. Then place your order and wait for it to be delivered to your door.
In the beginning, Amazon also offered cash on delivery, but some consumers also found it troublesome and always had to prepare change.
But later, Amazon eliminated this trouble when it was possible to pay in advance using online banking. Some users believe in Amazon's reputation, and slowly, more and more such users are becoming available.
Amazon’s product categories are becoming more and more abundant. As long as it is a legal product, they can sell it. Everything from toothpicks to large appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines can be purchased through Amazon and delivered to your door.
When those shareholders saw that there were more and more registered users, higher and higher sales, and less and less losses, they stopped saying anything.
Although the shares in their hands are very small, they firmly believe that these shares will bring them generous returns in the future. And this day is not too far away.
Amazon plans to enter South America. By then, the market will be bigger and the profits will be even greater.
The year before last, Amazon opened a music store, which sold various music products, such as tapes, CDs, MDs, DVDs, etc., as well as various players, headphones and other related products. At that time, Amazon launched a free MP3 download.
At that time, many people opposed it, even several directors strongly opposed it. This free download is a good idea, but who will buy it
But soon, they knew what product this was for. AIWA was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. Then MP3 players quickly became popular in the United States, and then throughout North America, America, Asia, and Europe. Their MP3 audio downloads skyrocketed.
Since they have more users and are also one of the sellers of AIWA products, many people choose to download MP3s from their music store. As a result, the number of downloads from them exceeds that from AIWA.
Now almost every month, they have more than one million downloads, and since AIWA launched that new MP3, their downloads have skyrocketed again. This music store, together with the bookstore, has become the bulk of Amazon's profit.
And just last month, their music store merged with AIWA's music website. The two merged, and downloads increased again.
The directors and executives all admired Bezos and praised him for his vision. But Bezos knew very well that when he wanted to download MP3, he refused.
It's just that Ralph, on behalf of Feng Yu, forced him to do this. As a major shareholder, Feng Yu almost never interferes in Amazon's management. He just told him not to enter the Chinese market and Eastern European market.
But now, Feng Yu actually asked him for this, which shows that he attaches great importance to MP3 downloading. How dare he not execute it.
So such a credit became his wise decision and far-sightedness.
Amazon is now not only the largest online bookstore, but also the largest bookstore, the largest music store, and the largest comprehensive online retailer.
Amazon's current promotional slogan is "the largest online retailer", which is very arrogant.
But there is nothing others can do about it. No matter in terms of product types, registered users or sales, Amazon is the largest and deserves the title.
Of course, from the perspective of market value, Amazon is worse because Amazon is not listed on the market.
Now, Amazon is preparing to add another one to its slogan: the most customer-centric company. The slogans of many companies are customer-centric, but Amazon adds a last word in front of it, causing many companies to constantly criticize Amazon for this.
Unfortunately, these criticisms not only did not affect the development of Amazon, but also increased Amazon's popularity and caused Amazon's sales to rise steadily.
If Bezos hadn't made a big move and invested 30% of his income in marketing activities to attract customers, Amazon might have been profitable a few months earlier.
But it’s not too late to make a profit now. Feng Yu was very satisfied with this.
While other Internet companies are losing money, Amazon is making a profit. This is success!
Feng Yu took the report, crossed his legs, shook it, and opened it. He also looked at this report to see how much surprise Amazon could bring him.
But when Feng Yu saw the final profit figures carefully, he couldn't help but roll his eyes.
The profit amount was more than 30,000 US dollars.
Damn it, the world's largest online retailer, its annual profit is only over 30,000 US dollars. This is good news for me!
(End of chapter)