Jeff Bezos Lost Billion’s 10 Amazon Founder Mistakes That Caused Loss

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost $ 19.2 billion this week due to the jump in the value of his company’s shares on the stock exchange. This is a new anti-money peak. But Jeff is no stranger. 

“Failure is part and parcel of trying to invent something. We understand this and believe that it is better to be wrong because sooner or later you will be right, ”says Jeff Bezos.

Stock exchange

On October 29, Bloomberg reported that Jeff Bezos set a  new anti-record, losing $ 19.2 billion in two trading days on the stock exchange. Prior to that, Mark Zuckerberg suffered the maximum losses, having lost $ 16.5 billion in July this year.

The reason is that Amazon’s third-quarter revenue was below forecast. After that, the value of the company dropped. However, Bloomberg estimates that Jeff still has $ 128.1 billion left.

Charitable donation

In September 2018, Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, announced colossal donations to a homeless and educational foundation. The total donation was $ 2 billion – the largest Bezos has ever donated. By comparison, Bezos’s previous donation was limited to $ 33 million.

In the world, this gesture was regarded as hypocrisy. Amazon employees have repeatedly complained about inappropriate working conditions, illegal layoffs, and work-related injuries. Some workmen share horror stories on the net.

But Jeff himself refutes all these stories: “When you are criticized, look in the mirror and think: are the critics right? If they’re right, change. If not, then don’t change. “

Amazon Fire Phone

In the summer of 2014, Amazon launched a new product on the market – The fire Phone. But the project failed. A year later, in September 2015, it was closed. The company put an end to the production of smartphones.

At the start of sales, the gadget cost about $ 200, but after a few months, the price dropped to 99 cents! As a result of critically low demand for Fire Phone, the company had to write off $ 170 million for smartphones, which remained in stock.

Pets.com and Kozmo.com

Jeff Bezos called his participation in these two projects  “tooth filling without anesthesia.” None of these companies were of interest to buyers. But Amazon invested a total of $ 110 million in its development.

In 1999, Amazon bought 50% of the pet food company Pets.com, further investments amounted to $ 50 million. But in 2002, Pets.com was closed.

The next $ 60 million investment went to Kozmo.com, a grocery delivery company. But this time, fortune was not on the side of Bezos: soon after the investment, the company was closed. And only in March 2018, Kozmo.com announced its return to the market.

Amazon Destinations

In April 2015, the company announced the launch of a new weekend travel booking service, offering users only hotels in the area.

In October, it was no longer possible to visit the Amazon Destinations website – the service ceased its short-term existence. The company declined to comment on the closure of the project, but it is clear that it was not attractive enough to clients. “We’ve learned a lot, but still decided to close Amazon Destinations,” was all the company said.

Amazon wallet

Another Amazon service flopped but nobody noticed. Amazon Wallet is an application for storing discounts and gift cards.

The American giant launched the project in mid-2014. The plans were ambitious: to help Android users store their credit cards in the app. But this venture also failed. Six months after the launch, Amazon announced the closure of the service.

The reason – the service was not in demand and lost the competition to Apple Wallet.

Askville

This project of Bezos was lucky to stay on the market much longer than those mentioned above, but it still did not become fantastically successful, which its founder would have wanted so much.

Askville is a platform where users ask each other any questions they get answers to. The project, which opened in 2006, existed for seven years and became a huge repository of information. But this was not enough to continue to keep the resource afloat under the pressure of the popularity of social networks.

Amazon WebPay

In 2009, Bezos’s company launched an online service that made it possible to pay people you know through Amazon. The product was supposed to compete with PayPal’s Venmo service.

But the service could not stand this competition. It was closed in 2014.

Test Drive

One of Amazon’s coolest features was Test Drive, which allowed Android apps to be tested right in the browser. Test Drive launched with Amazon’s app store in 2011.

Test Drive was closed four years later as free apps gained popularity.

Kindle censorship

In 2009, Amazon removed George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from all Kindle devices. This was demanded by copyright holders, but users were outraged by how easily the company manages to censor their personal gadgets.

Jeff Bezos apologized for this precedent: “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, frivolous, and totally out of line with our principles. This is completely our fault and we deserve the criticism we received. “

Also, Read this: Pancreas Operation Cost in India | Cost of Pancreas Treatment