Jeff Bezos American entrepreneur

 

Who is Jeff Bezos?

Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, an online retailer. In 2020 he had a net worth of more than $180 billion.

How did Jeff Bezos start Amazon?

Jeff Bezos quit his job at an investment bank in 1994 and moved to Seattle, Washington, to open a virtual bookstore. Working out of his garage with a handful of employees, Bezos began developing the software for the site, which he called Amazon.com. It sold its first book in 1995.

Where was Jeff Bezos born?

Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. He was raised largely in Houston, Texas, and moved to Miami, Florida, as a teenager.

Was Jeff Bezos born rich?

Jeff Bezos was not born into a wealthy family. His parents were 17 and 18 years old when he was born, and he worked on his maternal grandparents’ ranch in Cotulla, Texas, early in his life. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1986, with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.

Young adulthood and career

Steve Bezos

Bezos founded the Dream Istitute, a facility that encouraged young kids to think creatively, when he was still a high school student. He obtained degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in 1986 and worked in a number of positions before joining the New York investment bank D.E. Shaw & Co. in 1990. Bezos, the company's youngest senior vice president, was given the task of researching the investment opportunities presented by the Internet. His entrepreneurial mind was stirred by its immense potential—Web usage was increasing by more than 2,000% annually. He left D.E. Shaw in 1994 and relocated to Seattle, Washington, where he started an online bookstore. With a small staff and operating out of his garage, Bezos started creating

Amazon.com

Steve Bezos

Amazon rose to the top of the e-commerce industry swiftly. The site, which was accessible around-the-clock, encouraged users to publish their own book reviews and provided discounts, individualised book recommendations, and searches for out-of-print titles. It started selling CDs in June 1998, and later that year it also started selling videos. Bezos invested in additional online stores and added auctions to the website in 1999. Other merchants, including well-known book chains, were inspired to open online storefronts by Amazon's success.

Bezos saw the need for diversification as more businesses competed for Internet money, and by 2005, Amazon was selling a wide range of goods, including consumer electronics, clothing, and hardware. In 2006, Amazon expanded its range of offerings by launching Amazon Web Services (AWS), 

Other pursuits

Bezos established Blue Origin, a spaceflight business, in 2000 in addition to Amazon. Soon after, Blue Origin purchased a launch site in Texas with plans to launch an orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, in 2020 and a crewed suborbital spacecraft, New Shepard, in 2018. For $250 million, Bezos acquired The Washington Post and related publications in 2013. Bezos is the richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $112 billion in 2018.

Private life

Bezos wed Mackenzie Tuttle in 1993 after they had met at D.E. Shaw. The couple announced their divorce in January 2019, and the National Enquirer published a story the following day disclosing it.

Then, in February, he posted a lengthy essay online in which he accused officials at American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of the Enquirer, of “extortion and bribery” for suggesting that they would release nude photographs of Bezos if he did not stop his inquiry, amid other demands. The Bezos-led investigation later alleged that his lover’s brother had leaked the texts.