What next for Amazon as it turns 30?
From Prime Video to AWS, the e-empire is stitching together its disparate parts
In the summer of 1994 a job vacancy for software engineers was posted on Usenet, an early precursor to online forums. The company in question planned to “pioneer commerce on the internet”. Eligible applicants needed to be capable of designing complex systems “in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible”. Résumés were to be addressed to Jeff Bezos at a Seattle-based startup named Cadabra.
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Growing closer”
From the July 6th 2024 edition
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Why Microsoft Excel won’t die
The business world’s favourite software program enters its 40th year
The trouble with Elon Musk’s robotaxi dream
Scaling up self-driving taxis will be hard, and competition will be fierce
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chemicals magnate turned sports mogul
The British billionaire is buying up teams from sailing to football to cycling
Masayoshi Son is back in Silicon Valley—and late to the AI race
This isn’t the first time the Japanese tech investor has missed the hot new thing
When workplace bonuses backfire
The gelignite of incentives
China is writing the world’s technology rules
It is setting standards for everything from 6G to quantum computing