Amazon second Us$1-trillion company

NEW YORK • Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday became the second publicly traded company to be worth US$1 trillion, hot on the heels of iphone maker Apple Inc.

Launched as an online bookstore in 1995, Amazon has changed the way people shop for toilet paper, TVS and just about anything else.

In its two decades, the company has expanded far beyond those bookseller beginnings, combining its world-spanning retail operations with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud-computing businesses. It’s now expanding into the health-care industry and increasing its brick-andmortar presence.

The company’s rise has boosted the fortunes of its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos: His 16-per-cent stake in Amazon is now worth about US$160 billion. Forbes magazine placed him at the top of its 2018 billionaires list for the first time, surpassing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Amazon stock has increased almost 600 per cent in the last five years, including a 70-per-cent surge so far in 2018 alone. On Tuesday, the stock climbed enough to push the company’s valuation pass the Us$1-trillion mark, although it dropped back slightly after that.

Apple topped the $1-trillion mark in early August. Saudi Arabia’s national energy company, Aramco, is widely believed to be worth much more than either Amazon or Apple.

Bezos left a hedge fund job in 1994 to start an internet business. He decided to sell books, and called Amazon “earth’s biggest bookstore.” It quickly added more products, and then eventually opened up a marketplace where others could sell their products. Amazon has cemented customer loyalty through its Prime membership program, offering fast, free shipping as well as music and video-streaming perks. In April, Bezos disclosed for the first time that Amazon had more than 100 million paying Prime members around the world.