Bezos stepped down, 26-year-old Amazon ushered in the second CEO

Bezos stepped down, 26-year-old Amazon ushered in the second CEO

　　 On July 5th local time, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos officially stepped down as CEO of the company, and his successor was Andrew R. Jassy, CEO of the company's cloud computing business.

　　 Some media quoted sources as saying that even if he stepped down as CEO, Bezos will still have a huge influence on Amazon in the future. He is Amazon’s largest individual shareholder, long-term mentor of the new CEO and executive chairman of the company.

　　 In 2018, Bezos was on the Forbes list of the world's richest people. According to Forbes, as of press time, Bezos is still the world's richest man, worth nearly 20,200 million US dollars. After resigning, Bezos will board a spacecraft made by the "Blue Origin" company he invested in on July 20 for space travel.

　　According to documents submitted by Amazon to the SEC on July 2, Jassi will be promoted to CEO on July 5, and the board of directors will also elect Jassi as a director of the company. According to the stock incentive plan implemented by the company in 1997, Amazon awarded Jiaxi a stock award for 61,000 shares of the company's common stock, which will be honored within ten years. According to Amazon's share price of $3510.98, this reward is worth more than $214 million.

　　 In February of this year, Bezos said that he would step down as the company's CEO in the third quarter of this year. Regarding the reasons for resignation, Bezos stated in an internal employee letter that serving as Amazon's CEO is a matter of great responsibility, and is extremely energy-consuming, and it is difficult to focus on other things. After serving as the executive chairman of Amazon's board of directors, he will continue to participate in Amazon's major affairs, and has the energy to invest in Day 1 Fund, Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, Washington Post and his other affairs.

　　 Bezos established the Cadabra online bookstore in 1995, and later renamed Cadabra to Amazon. Amazon gradually expanded its business scope from the previous books to the entire category.

　　 However, the outside world also has different opinions about Bezos's resignation. It is reported that Bezos's resignation is also related to antitrust. Bezos stepped down as CEO at a critical moment for Amazon. The new crown epidemic has led to an increase in online shopping demand, and Amazon's profits and recruitment have also surged. But the company's explosive growth has attracted the attention of regulators. Foreign media said that once the richest man no longer at the helm of the company, Amazon can better withstand scrutiny, and stepping down will also help protect Bezos from criticism from some legislators.

　　 In the past year, Amazon has received antitrust investigations from the United States, Germany, Spain and other countries.

　　 Amazon, which was founded 26 years ago, has also ushered in its second CEO after founder Bezos stepped down as CEO. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has held various leadership positions. Since serving as Senior Vice President from April 2006 to April 2016, he has been leading Amazon Web Services and has served as CEO since April 2016.

　　 Jiaxi’s appointment also means that the importance of AWS in Amazon’s business system has become more prominent. According to Amazon's financial report for the first quarter of 2021, Amazon's sales in the first quarter of 2021 reached US$108.5 billion, an increase of 44% from US$75.5 billion in the same period last year. Among them, AWS sales in the first quarter accounted for 12.4% of the company's sales. Although sales accounted for a small proportion, AWS contributed nearly half of operating income. AWS’s operating income in the first quarter was US$4.16 billion, and Amazon’s total operating income in the fourth quarter was US$8.86 billion, with AWS accounting for 47%.

　　 Bezos previously stated in the financial report that AWS has become a technology company with annual sales of 54 billion U.S. dollars, and customers include Airbnb, McDonald's and Volkswagen.

　　 In the Chinese market, Amazon develops e-commerce business with a cross-border e-commerce model, AWS-based cloud business, and hardware products represented by kindle. In terms of e-commerce, Amazon is facing competition from the emerging vertical online shopping e-commerce. In terms of cloud business, Amazon faces competitors such as Microsoft, Google, Ali and IBM.