Beech Tree News Network

Monday night, I watched the series premiere of Filthy Rich on Fox.  The show is about a televangelist family headed by Gerald McRaney and Kim Catrall.  Among their empire was a home shopping network kind of thing, not to different from QVC or, say, an Amazon Prime.  

Amazon is the largest internet company by revenue in the world.  Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994.  The company started as an online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry.  Its subsidiary is Whole Foods Market, Amazon Publishing.  

Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos’ rented home in Bellevue, Washington.  Bezos’ parents invested almost $250,000 in the start-up.  In July 1995, the company began service as the online bookstore.  In the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries.  

Amazon Prime was launched on September 7, 2006 as Amazon Unbox in the United States.  The service grew with its expanding library and added the Prime Video membership with the development of Prime.  It was renamed as Amazon Instant Video On Demand (VOD).  The service also hosts Amazon original content alongside titles on video as well.  (www.wikipedia.com) 

Where did Bezos get the name Amazon? He initially named the new company Cadabra but later changed the name to Amazon after the Amazon River in South America.  He was later talked out of it by Amazon’s first lawyer, Todd Tarbert. He told Bezos it sounds similar to cadaver.  Bezos also used to hold meetings at Barnes & Noble in Amazon’s early days. 

There’s a lore about Amazon’s early days.  For example, the team used to ring a bell in the office every time someone made a purchase.  That was quickly abandoned when purchases skyrocketed.  

We know Amazon gets craziest, like most things do, around Christmas.  Amazon’s first intense Christmas season came in 1998.  The company was dramatically understaffed.  Every employee had to take the graveyard shift in the fulfillment center to meet orders.  Workers would often sleep in their cars before going to work the next day.  After that, Amazon vowed it would never have a shortage of labor to meet demand for the holidays again, which is why Amazon hires so many seasonal workers today.  

Amazon hasn’t been all success.  In 2004, Amazon launched a search engine, A9.com.  The A9 team started a project called Block View, a visual Yellow Pages, which would pair street-level photographs of stores and restaurants with their listings in A9’s search results.  On a budget of less than $100,000, Amazon flew photographers to 20 major cities where they rented vehicles to start taking pictures of restaurants.  Amazon dropped Block View in 2006 and Google didn’t start Street View until 2007.

A few final tidbits: Amazon employees were encouraged to use “primal screams” as therapeutic release during the high-tension holiday season.  Don’t we all wish we could do that? Or maybe we do.  Amazon fulfillment centers have had issues with their working conditions since the beginning and many unhappy workers have found ways to rebel.  For example, one worker would show up and leve on time for his shift but never logged in or out.  

“Fiona” was the original codename for Amazon’s Kindle.  The Kindle got its original name from a book called “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson.  It was a novel set in the future about an engineer who steals a rare interactive textbook to give to his daughter, Fiona.  (www.businessinsider.com) 

I hope you enjoyed this short journey through the Amazon (Ha) and learned a few things along the way.