In Amazon.com Jeff Bezos built something the world had never seen. He created the most recognized brand name on the Internet, became for a time one of the richest men in the world, and was crowned "the king of cyber-commerce."Yet for all the media exposure, the inside story of Amazon.com has never really been told. In this revealing, unauthorized account, Robert Spector, journalist and best-selling author, gives us this up-to-date, fast-paced, behind-the-scenes story of the company's creation and rise, its tumultuous present, and its uncertain future.
The tale of Amazon.com is well known to anyone who follows the stock market, the book business, the Internet explosion--heck, it's hard to imagine not knowing at least a piece of this extraordinary story. But few, it would seem, know the entire story, and it's these gaps that Robert Spector's Amazon.com: Get Big Fast attempts to fill (or at least the information available in early 2000, when the book was published). For example, those who know about Amazon.com's paradigm-shifting influence on the book business may not know it wasn't even the first online book retailer, or the second or the third. (It was preceded by clbooks.com, books.com, and wordsworth.com, the last of which beat Amazon.com to the Internet by almost two years.) Those who've heard quirky stories about Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos--for example, that he built his own desk out of a door, and that his mother bought the desk at an online charity auction in 1999 for $30,100--may not know that he was a studious overachiever from an early age. As a 12-year-old in Houston, he was even profiled in a book on gifted education in Texas. And those who marvel at the company's multibillion-dollar stock valuation may not know that it was broke and nearly out of business in the summer of '95. Put it all together and you have a book that should be interesting to many different readers. As a pure business read, it certainly provides a blow-by-blow account of an important company's critical decisions. And anyone looking for a brief history of e-commerce will see how one idea--Bezos's realization in 1994 that Web usage was growing 2,300 percent a year--set the entire online retailing phenomenon in motion. If nothing else, that last fact should propel parents to pay very careful attention to their kids' math scores. Had Bezos, a summa cum laude Princeton grad in computer science, not realized the implications of exponential growth ... well, let's just say you wouldn't be reading this review right now. --Lou Schuler
Author: Robert Spector
Publisher: Collins Business
Customer Reviews
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A Gripping and Informative Book
I picked up this book after reading various reviews about it here on Amazon. And I wasn't disappointed. It is probably the best book which describes, in quite some detail, the history and success of Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos. It gives interesting insights into the world of books and is a must-read for anybody who is interested in starting his/her own website.
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<br />Jeff Bezos's amazing business instincts coupled with the originality of the Amazon.com business model were responsible for the company's success. You will discover the details as you go through the book, page-by-page. A riveting book indeed.
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The Ultimate Online Experience
If you are "in love" with the amazon.com website then this may be one of the most exciting books you ever read on the subject. While the information basically only covers 1995-2000 it is an eye-opening account of what it truly took to make amazon.com a success story. For anyone interested in amazon.com's history, this is essential reading.
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<br />Robert Spector has written a compelling story that also includes interesting tidbits, like how Amazon.com used to reward cash prizes for the best customer book reviews. This was news to me. There is also detailed information on hiring practices. Who was hired when and how did they affect the company's progress? The details are at times a little overwhelming and this book is an intricately researched masterpiece.
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<br />For the most part, "Get Big Fast" shows the world the brilliance of Jeff Bezos and how his leadership and vision made amazon.com what it is today. Since 2000 I've personally watched the site grow into a place where you truly can buy anything your heart desires. It was fun to read about the beginnings of my favorite website that provides the ultimate online experience.
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<br />~The Rebecca Review
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A SHORT HISTORY OF AN E-COMMERCE GIANT
Amazon.com is probably the most cited online business of all times, and it will certainly be the case for the next ten years or so. Therefore, this little yellow paperback book is a must-read for those who do not know that the "e" at the beginning of e-commerce does not stand for "easy". Indeed, similar to its counterparts, Amazon.com was also born in a garage and then became an e-commerce giant in less than five years. This extraordinary story also proves that the industry clock-speed of e-commerce markets is really high, as demonstrated by Haim Mendelson in his novel book "Survival of the Smartest".
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<br />In his book, Robert Spector starts the history of Amazon.com from where it all began-the garage, and takes the reader smoothly to where it stands now-the peak. After reading this book, the reader learns about the customer-centric view of this company, the advantages of the so-called "get big fast strategy" in e-commerce, and finally why profit should not be the first priority of an online company during its initial years of operation.
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<br />Although this is intended to be a leisure book, it can well be adapted as a supplementary book for undergraduate and/or master's business students at universities. It will certainly make the course more enjoyable and down to earth.
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<br />Dr. Yasin Ozcelik
<br />www.misworld.org
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