5 Reasons Amazon Will Rule the World
Words: Charlie Gardiner-Hill
With the launch of the Amazon Fire (the first smartphone to have 3D capabilities), Jeff Bezos’ latest bid to infiltrate the lives of gentlemen across the world, we’ve rounded up the reasons why America’s largest online retailer is set for world domination.
They control the news and the internet
Like much of this list, you probably won’t have heard that Amazon runs a cloud service and it’s the most powerful cloud service in North America. If you’ve ever streamed House of Cards on Netflix, clicked on a Pinterest pin or listened to Johnny Cash on Spotify, then you’ve used Amazon’s web services, which pull in $3.8 billion in revenue for the behemoth. As far as the news goes, Princeton graduate and Amazon majority shareholder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.
Amazon can fly
When Amazon first announced it was developing a same day delivery service which used drones that landed on your doorstep, the internet sceptics called their bluff. Except the retailer wasn’t bluffing, they’re hoping for the Federal Aviation Authority to give their ‘octocopters’ the green light as early as 2015 and they’ve planned to hit Europe a year later.
Amazon will feed you
With five years of trials in Seattle under its belt, Amazon is poised to break into the $600 billion US groceries market. Given its reputation for Caesar-esque divide and conquer, it’s not surprising that Bezos is looking to tap into the market for the one thing that everyone needs. Rich or poor, conservative or Catholic, we all eat food and Amazon Fresh wants to get in your kitchen.
Amazon can spy on you
Amazon endlessly collects demographic data and in-depth information to predict what you’ll want to buy, when you’ll want to buy it. Every time you look at, disregard or search for a product Amazon remembers which, crucially, provides them with valuable information on how they can reach into your pockets. But the proverbial chocolate on top of Bezos’ billionaire shortcake, must be that the CIA recently signed a $600 million deal to use Amazon’s cloud storage services – it’s a small world.
It’s called Amazon
Back in 1994, when a young Jeff Bezos was coming up with a name for his book distributor he nearly called it Relentless, but eventually an even more apt name got the prize. The eventual winner, Amazon, isn’t just a name; it’s a metaphor for the aspirations of a man who turned a company he started in his garage into the 56th largest company in the country and the 15th largest retailer. Whoever you are and wherever you shop, the world’s largest river affects the air you breathe, the paper of your receipt and the water you drink in a fundamental way. Bezos’ ambitions may not be as elemental but they are just as grand.
By Charlie Gardiner-Hill
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