Table of Contents
What has happened?
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that he’ll step down as the online retailer major’s CEO later this year, after 27 years at the helm.
- Bezos will now take over as Amazon’s executive chairman and continue to be its biggest shareholder.
About amazon
- Bezos, who’s been the company’s CEO since it was founded in 1994 as an online book seller,
- Has overseen its transition to the world’s biggest e-commerce company, employing 3 million people — that’s equivalent to the strength of the Indian Army.
- For a company that went public in 1997, it recorded its first full year of profit in 2003.
- The company’s stock price too, has rocketed, giving a return of 170,600% since its listing 24 years back on May 15, 1997.
- Apple has given a return of 98,029% in the same period.
- That propelled Bezos to become not just the richest man in modern history but also the first man worth over $200 billion last year.
Successor
- Bezos will hand over the CEO reins to Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cash-cow cloud computing division and someone who’s been at Amazon for much of its existence.
- Jassy is one of Bezos’ most trusted lieutenants and he was widely seen as his successor, given that he was appointed the CEO’s “shadow” technical way back in 2003.
Cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- He is credited as having written the AWS original business plan and having run the division since its launch in 2006.
- Jassy’s elevation also signals the importance of AWS among Amazon’s array of divisions.
But why Bezos stepdown
- Bezos, according to multiple reports, has been stepping back from day-to-day role managing Amazon’s business in recent years,
- Focusing on the longer-term projects at the company, including his rocket venture Blue Origin.
- “As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition,” Bezos said in a letter to employees Tuesday.
- “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions,” he wrote.
Amazon in India
- Amazon has doubled down on the India market in recent years, after losing the e-commerce battle in China to local rivals.
- The online retail giant has committed investments worth $6.5 billion in the country to date.
- Over the years, the company has also expanded its offerings in the country beyond e-commerce to foray into sectors like digital payments, music streaming, grocery delivery, video streaming, and education among others.
- “I predict the 21st century will be the Indian century.
- This country has dynamism and energy and everywhere I go here we see there is an improvement in growth.
- This country has something special” Bezos said when he visited India in January last year.
- June 2013:Amazon goes live with its India marketplace.
- July 2014: Jeff Bezos says Amazon will spend $2 billion to grow its e-commerce business in India.
- February 2016: Amazon launches its two-hour grocery delivery service, Amazon Now, in India. This was later rebranded as Prime Now in May 2018 and Amazon Fresh in August 2019.
- June 2016: Jeff Bezos says the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, taking its total investment in the country to over $5 billion.
- July 2016:Amazon launches its Prime membership programme.
- December 2016: Amazon launches Pay Balance, its payments service in India.
- December 2016: Amazon Prime Video makes its India debut.
- March 2018:Amazon Prime Music is launched in India.
- September 2018: Amazon and private equity firm Samara Capital jointly acquire Aditya Birla Group’s grocery retail chain More for Rs 4,050 crore. They invested a further Rs 275 crore in the venture in September 2020.
- August 2019: Amazon enters into an agreement to acquire 49% stake in Future Coupons, a promoter entity of Future Retail, in August 2019 for around Rs 1,500 crore.
- August 2019:Amazon opened its largest campus in the world in Hyderabad.
- January 2020: Jeff Bezos says Amazon will invest $1 billion in digitising Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in India. Amazon India also makes a commitment to induct 10,000 electric vehicles into its delivery fleet by 2025.
Q) ‘BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes’ is managed by the?
- Asian Development Bank
- International Monetary Fund
- United Nations Environment Programme
- World Bank
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