15 interesting facts you may not know about Amazon

Amazon is known for its Kindle e-book reader, lightning-fast delivery, quality customer service and all the goods in the world. In addition to the ability to influence world e-commerce and the buying and selling habits of consumers and retailers, Amazon owns interesting secrets for more than 20 years of establishment and development.

1. Fun things around Jeff Bezos's life - Amazon's founder and CEO

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.Photo source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

When Amazon first debuted in 1995 as a book-selling website, founder Jeff Bezos had a vision of the company's boom and e-commerce dominance. Jeff Bezos had originally wanted Amazon to be " a store with everything ". In the book by Brad Stone in 2013 about the origin of Amazon, he has shown people a picture of the early days of the company and how it has become.

Jillian D'Onfro contributed a version before this story.

"Amazon" is not the original name of the company

Image source: Amazon / Villages Web Design

Jeff Bezos initially wanted to give the company a name that sounded " Cadabra ". Amazon is almost a bit called " Cadabra " separated from the phrase " Abracadabra " which means " Mum three mules ". However, this idea did not come true because Jeff Bezos' first CEO, Todd Tarbert, said that " Cadabra " is easily mistaken for " cadaver " meaning " corpse ," especially. when listening on the phone.

Besides, Jeff Bezos also supports the name " Relentless ". If you visit Relentless.com today, you'll know this site is directed to . However, Jeff Bezos eventually chose " Amazon " because he liked the company name to be named after the big river. most in the world, so the company's logo is designed as shown above.

In the early days of Amazon's establishment, every time someone bought, the bell would pop up and everyone would focus on whether they were familiar with the customer or not.

Shel Kaphan, Amazon's first employee.Photo source: Flickr / somegeekintn

It took a few weeks before the bell rang, they were so happy that they turned off the phone. Amazon began moving out of Bezos garage because the servers the company used required so much energy that Bezos and his wife could not start the hair dryer or vacuum in the house when Do not blow fuses.

In its first month of release, Amazon sold books to people in 50 states and 45 countries around the world.

A book about the obscure "lichens"

Photo source: Flickr / Jessamyn West

Book distributors require retailers to order 10 books at a time, so Amazon does not need to have a lot of inventory (or a lot of money).

Therefore, the group discovered a " hole ". Although distributors require Amazon to order 10 books / time, the company does not need to receive much. They will ask for a book they need and 9 copies of the little-known book, which is always devalued.

In the early days, Jeff Bezos held meetings at Barnes & Noble

Photo source: Thomson Reuters

In the early days, Jeff Bezos, the wife of Mr. MacKenzie and their third employee, Shel Kaphan, held meetings at the local Barnes and Noble.

In 1996, Jeff Bezos met Barnes & Noble's owner during dinner and executives said they admired Bezos but would soon launch a website that could " crush " Amazon. When the site was launched, one of the company's founders, Len Riggio, wanted to call it the Predator Book .

Jeff Bezos wants employees to work at least 60 hours / week. The idea of ​​a balance between work and life no longer exists.

Jeff Bezos owns a green Peugeot car.Photo source: Wikimedia

An employee originally worked tirelessly for 8 months - cycling to the company working from early morning to late evening - Jeff Bezos completely forgot the green Peugeot car parked near his apartment. Even Jeff Bezos did not have time to read the letter and when he was done, Jeff Bezos saw a few parking tickets, a notice that his car could be pulled away and a final announcement that His car was sold at an auction.

Amazon's first crazy Christmas season in 1998

This is what in Amazon's inventory on this day.Photo source: Shutterstock

This company has a lot of employees. Every employee has to change tasks at the centers to fulfill orders. They bring their friends and family with them, often sleeping in the car before going to work the next day.

Later, Amazon vowed that it would never be for lack of labor to meet the holiday needs anymore, which is why Amazon hired so many seasonal workers today.

When eBay launched, Amazon tried to build its own auction site to compete.

The skeleton is still there. Photo source: Business Insider

This idea failed, but Bezos loved it. Jeff Bezos bought a $ 40,000 skeleton of a bear at Ice Age and displayed in the hallway of the company's headquarters. Besides, it is also a sign that " Please don't feed bears ". It is still there today.

Bezos likes to move fast, often creating chaos, especially in Amazon's distribution centers.

Photo source: Ted S. Warren / AP

Amazon suffered from increasing " pain " in the late 1990s and early 2000. The facilities were closed for hours because they hung up, the workload was ignored by workers and there was no preparation for them. New product type. When the stove was introduced for the first time, the knives had not been closed to protect the casing. This is very dangerous.

Especially in 2012, Amazon's website was interrupted for 49 minutes and the company lost nearly $ 5.7 million in sales.

In early 2002, Bezos introduced the concept of "two pizza rules" to Amazon.

Photo source: Melia Robinson

The more people attend, the less effective the meeting will be. Because the idea given will end with all participants agreeing, instead of expressing their opinions and giving their own ideas.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a very helpful solution to this problem, called " Two Pizza Rules ": " There is never a meeting where two pizzas are not enough for the whole group to eat ". That means that the number of attending members should be small, so that the whole group eats 2 pizzas. In fact, Bezos's advice is to just meet when it's really necessary.

" Bezos wants a decentralized, even disorganized company, where independent ideas will prevail over collective thinking ," said author Richard Brandt of The Wall Street Journal.

Unsatisfied customers can email directly to Jeff Bezos and he will forward the message to the right person - along with a scary addition: "?"

Photo source: Drew Angerer / Getty

Stone wrote:

" When Amazon employees received Bezos' question mark emails, they reacted as if they found a bomb being detonated. They often took several hours to resolve any issues that the CEO had. flagged and prepared for a thorough explanation of what happened, that explanation was reviewed by managers before being presented to Bezos. Bezos's method to ensure customer voices are heard from within the company ".

Before Google had "Street View - Street View", Amazon had "Block View - Block the view".

Photo source: Anton Tang

In 2004, Amazon launched a search engine, A9.com. The A9 group has started a project called " Block View - Blocking view ", a visualization of yellow pages, combining street photos, shops and restaurants with their lists in search results. Search of A9. With a budget of under $ 100,000, Amazon has taken photographers to 20 major cities, they rented cars to start taking photos of restaurants. Amazon eventually lowered Block View in 2006 and Google did not start Street View until 2007.

Amazon employees are encouraged to use "primitive screams" as a release of treatment during a stressful holiday.

Photo source: Shutterstock

Amazon has hired seasonal workers, but the holiday season is still very stressful for logistics teams.

In the early 2000s, Jeff Wilke, managing Amazon's operations, allowed any individual or group of people to achieve an important goal of closing their eyes, crouching and shouting at the phone with him. Wilke told Brad Stone that " some primitive screams " almost blew away the speakers.

Working conditions at the Amazon centers have long been famous for being bad and there are some funny stories about unhappy " rebellious " workers.

Photo source: Reuters

Once, an employee was about to take a break from jumping on the conveyor of the cargo handling center and riding it happily around the entire facility.

The funniest story was in 2006 and involved a temporary employee at a cargo handling center in Kansas. He appeared right at the start of his shift, but people did not know when he came to work. It takes at least a week for people to know what's going on: He digs the tunnel inside a huge pile of pallets, uses Amazon products to create a bed, separates photos from books of Amazon into a wall of dressing and Amazon food for snacks. When discovered, he did not feel surprised and was later fired.

"Fiona" is the original code name for Amazon's Kindle

Photo source: Amazon

Kindle takes its name from a book called " The Diamond Age " by Neal Stephenson, a girl's companion who has many amazing features like talking and the words will change in a way. miraculous according to the story of the story. This novel is about the future of an engineer who stole a book to give to his daughter, Fiona. The team working on Kindle's prototypes thought that fictional textbooks were the template for the device they were studying. They asked Bezos CEO to keep Fiona's name, but he decided to give another suggestion, Kindle, because it evoked the idea of ​​starting a fire.

Jeff Bezos is a good boss and can "explode" with any employee. Rumor has it that he had to hire a leadership coach to help him "calm down" the feelings down.

Photo source: Mike Segar / Reuters

Bezos is known for its frustrating or sarcastic responses to employees if he is not satisfied with what they report. It is said that Bezos hired a leadership coach to try to contain his " harsh reviews ".

Below is an excerpt from Brad Stone's book:

" In a memorable meeting, Bezos reprimanded [Diane] Lye and her colleagues in the usual 'destructive' way, telling them that they were stupid and saying they should come back in a week after Bezos walked a few steps, stood still as if something unexpected happened to him, looked around and added, "But everyone works great ."

Bezos's " different " leadership style is growing. A former Amazon executive remembers, when some managers suggested that employees communicate more with each other, Jeff Bezos stood up and protested: "No, communication is terrible!" (temporarily translated: " No, communication is terrible! ").

With his different ways of working, CEO Jeff Bezos has made Amazon the king of online retailing everything from high-end fashion retailing, film production to tablets. Amazon even sells extremely cheap database software for businesses.

Refer to some more articles:

1. Fun facts behind 10 popular technology terms
2. 7 ways to make money on Amazon
3. According to Amazon, these are the 25 best books about success and leadership you need to read

Having fun!