Jeff Bezos's Master Plan
The Atlantic|November 2019
What he wants for his empire and himself, and what that means for the rest of us
Franklin Foer
Jeff Bezos's Master Plan

1.O

Where in the pantheon of American commercial titans does Jeffrey Bezos belong? Andrew Carnegie’s hearths forged the steel that became the skeleton of the railroad and the city. John D. Rockefeller refined 90 percent of American oil, which supplied the pre-electric nation with light. Bill Gates created a program that was considered a prerequisite for turning on a computer.

At 55, Bezos has never dominated a major market as thoroughly as any of these forebears, and while he is presently the richest man on the planet, he has less wealth than Gates did at his zenith. Yet Rockefeller largely contented himself with oil wells, pump stations, and railcars; Gates’s fortune depended on an operating system. The scope of the empire the founder and CEO of Amazon has built is wider. Indeed, it is without precedent in the long history of American capitalism.

Today, Bezos controls nearly 40 percent of all e-commerce in the United States. More product searches are conducted on Amazon than on Google, which has allowed Bezos to build an advertising business as valuable as the entirety of IBM. One estimate has Amazon Web Services controlling almost half of the cloud-computing industry— institutions as varied as General Electric, Unilever, and even the CIA rely on its servers. Forty-two percent of paper book sales and a third of the market for streaming video are controlled by the company; Twitch, its video platform popular among gamers, attracts 15 million users a day. Add The Washington Post to this portfolio and Bezos is, at a minimum, a rival to the likes of Disney’s Bob Iger or the suits at AT&T, and arguably the most powerful man in American culture.

Esta historia es de la edición November 2019 de The Atlantic.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición November 2019 de The Atlantic.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE THE ATLANTICVer todo
THE AIRPORT-LOUNGE ARMS RACE
The Atlantic

THE AIRPORT-LOUNGE ARMS RACE

Inside the ever more extravagant competition to lure affluent travelers

time-read
8 minutos  |
June 2024
Hypochondria Never Dies
The Atlantic

Hypochondria Never Dies

The diagnosis is officially gone, but health anxiety is everywhere.

time-read
9 minutos  |
June 2024
Miranda July's Weird Road Trip
The Atlantic

Miranda July's Weird Road Trip

The author's midlife-crisis novel is full of estrangement, eroticism, and whimsy.

time-read
9 minutos  |
June 2024
The Wild Blood Dynasty
The Atlantic

The Wild Blood Dynasty

What a little-known family reveals about the nation's untamed spirit

time-read
9 minutos  |
June 2024
The Engrossing Darkness of The Crow
The Atlantic

The Engrossing Darkness of The Crow

Can a cult hit point the way forward for the beleaguered comic-book movie?

time-read
5 minutos  |
June 2024
The Godfather of American Comedy
The Atlantic

The Godfather of American Comedy

The funniest people on the planet think there's no funnier person than Albert Brooks.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
June 2024
The History My Family Left Behind
The Atlantic

The History My Family Left Behind

A gun, a lynching, and an exodus from Mississippi

time-read
10+ minutos  |
June 2024
Ozempic or Bust
The Atlantic

Ozempic or Bust

America has been trying to address the obesity epidemic for four decades now. So far, each new \"solution\" has failed to live up to its early promise.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
June 2024
THE ART OF SURVIVAL
The Atlantic

THE ART OF SURVIVAL

In living with cancer, Suleika Jaouad has learned to wrench meaning from our short time on Earth.

time-read
9 minutos  |
June 2024
DEMOCRACY IS LOSING THE PROPAGANDA WAR
The Atlantic

DEMOCRACY IS LOSING THE PROPAGANDA WAR

AUTOCRATS IN CHINA, RUSSIA, AND ELSEWHERE ARE NOW MAKING COMMON CAUSE WITH MAGA REPUBLICANS TO DISCREDIT LIBERALISM AND FREEDOM AROUND THE WORLD.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
June 2024