{"id":17108,"date":"2019-07-06T00:31:32","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T00:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17108"},"modified":"2019-07-07T07:09:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T07:09:32","slug":"amazon-is-turning-25-heres-a-look-back-at-how-it-changed-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/amazon-is-turning-25-heres-a-look-back-at-how-it-changed-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon is turning 25 \u2013 here’s a look back at how it changed the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venkatesh Shankar<\/a>, Texas A&M University <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A quarter of a century ago, on July 5, 1994, a company, which shared a name with the world\u2019s largest river, was incorporated. It sold books to customers who got to its website through a dial-up modem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first bookstore to sell online. (Books.com launched in 1992.) But it behaved like a local store, whose shopkeeper knew customers by name \u2013 a bell even rang in the company\u2019s Seattle headquarters every time an order was placed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s founder, Jeff Bezos, set his sights on making it an \u201ceverything store.\u201d The company would go on to become not just an everything store, but an \u201ceverything company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, 25 years later, Amazon has reshaped retailing permanently. It is one of the top three most valuable companies in the world, with a market capitalization hovering around US$1 trillion, greater than the GDP of nearly 200 countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you had bought $100 worth of its IPO shares in 1997, it would be worth about $120,000 today.<\/p>\n