Amazon hard on Apple’s heels

Amazon Go, Seattle, WA. © iStock.

Just one month after Apple, Amazon passed a market value of 1 trillion dollars yesterday. After 24 years of operation, the company is the second in history to reach the symbolic milestone of 1,000 billion dollars (10¹²). Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon was initially an on-line bookstore, gradually developing a unique logistical operations platform to sell a growing range of products. According to the New York Times, Amazon “captures 49 cents of every e-commerce dollar in the United States”. Its market value is greater than those of the 10 biggest brick-and-mortar retailers combined. However, Amazon is less profitable than Apple, posting “just” $3 billion in profits in 2017, compared to Apple’s $48 billion.

⇨ Ars Technica, “Amazon achieved a market value of $1,000,000,000,000.”