Amazon and Jeff Bezos has had a long road to its current success, growing from an online bookstore in 1994 to one of the largest tech companies in the world in 2017. That success was reflected in the stock market with Amazon's shares reaching a big milestone.
Hitting The Mark
Not long after the markets opened on May 30, Amazon's stock price hit $1,000 a share for the first time in the company's history. That didn't last long as the share prices dropped back down shortly after. Given how most stocks dropped after Memorial Day Weekend, this further exemplifies the success the company has attained since its humble beginnings in Seattle.
What's shocking about Amazon hitting the $1,000 mark is how short it took to hit it. Stocks started taking off for the company when it emerged as a dominant player in the online retail space. While on a steady incline, it really exploded in the last 3 or 4 years with shares shooting up in pretty quickly. This was buoyed by Amazon turning a profit for eight straight quarters, which has been one of the longest periods of sustained success Amazon has seen.
Hitting this mark puts Amazon in elite company, with only 14 companies hitting this mark beforehand. The only other tech company that is in this club is Priceline Group, which trades for over $1800 a share. That said, Amazon's value is four times higher than the 14 other companies combined. This also gives Amazon bragging rights as it had been in a close race with Alphabet, Google's parent company, to hit $1,000 a share. Alphabet is likely to hit that very soon, though, with shares sitting around $995.
Long Road To $1,000
Despite how quickly Amazon's stock surged to that price, it was a bit of a long road for the Seattle-based company. Jeff Bezos founded it back in 1994 to jump on the internet boom that was happening and went live in 1995. Bezos would then take the company public in 1997 despite any clarity regarding its future. That was reflected in the stock shares which would sit around or below $100 for over a decade after.
Things started to change in the late 2000s and Amazon started experiencing consistent growth and expansion thanks to the growing online retailing space. Part of this was because of Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud-computing business. The other half of this success was Amazon Prime, which started out as a premium shipping service that promised two-day shipping for orders in select countries. Amazon Prime is also a good representation of its growth as a company with it now including Amazon Music, Amazon Video, and Amazon Now.
In recent years, Amazon has also managed to successfully branch into electronics. This started en-mass with the Amazon Kindle, one of the first e-books on the market that allowed users to download and read books on a tablet device instead of buying physical books. Most recently, Amazon Echo and Alexa by Amazon have clearly established another future for the company as it works to grow its place in people's home with the voice assistant. With all these ventures, things are looking good for Amazon's efforts to take over the world.
