Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone is subtitled Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire and follows up on The Everything Store by Stone from 2013. In Amazon Unbound, it notes that at the end of 2010, Amazon had 33,700 employees and a market capitalization of $80B, with the net worth for Bezos at $15.9B. Amazon as of early Sept 2021 has roughly 1,300,000 employees and a market cap around $1.6T, with Bezos' net worth some $200B. Amazon Unbound details this exponential growth, with below the chapters and primary topics...
Chapter one – on the building of the Echo
Chapter two – on early efforts to create Amazon grocery retail stores
Chapter three – on Amazon in India
Chapter four – on AWS and Amazon stock doubling in 2015 after previously hiding its profitability to keep competitors out
Chapter five – on Bezos and his ownership of the Washington Post, purchased in 2013 for $250M
Chapter six – on efforts in Hollywood and Prime video
Chapter seven – on the Amazon flywheel leading to growth, counterfeit goods, and unhappy merchants
Chapter eight – on efforts in grocery and the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods
Chapter nine – on logistics and supply chain
Chapter ten – on selling ads in Amazon site search results
Chapter eleven – on Bezos' Blue Origin space startup, founded in 2000
Chapter twelve – on the relationship with and impact of Amazon on Seattle and other cities with its HQ2 bakeoff
Chapter thirteen – on the breakup of Bezos’ marriage, including extortion and potential Saudi hacking
Chapter fourteen – on government investigation into potential monopolistic and anti-trust behavior by Amazon
Chapter fifteen – on the pandemic, including the Amazon firing of whistleblowers around worker safety
