Now a colossal $1.5 trillion marketplace, Amazon began its journey as an exclusive bookseller. In a rediscovered video interview in 1997, Jeff Bezos, the visionary behind Amazon, shed light on why he started with books.

The video interview, taken at a Special Libraries Association conference, resurfaced in 2019 when it was posted online by entrepreneur Brian Roemmele. Bezos shared that the idea for creating Amazon originated approximately three years ago, before the interview, when he worked for a quantitative hedge fund in New York City.

At that time, Bezos came across a notable statistic revealing that web usage grew at a staggering 2,300 percent yearly. With this knowledge, he created a business plan that would make sense and work well with this fast growth.

Why Amazon Began With Books

When Amazon started in 1994, the Internet and online shopping were only starting, and Bezos had an intelligent reason for choosing to focus specifically on books. He highlighted the 'incredibly unusual benefit' that books offered - there were more book items than any other category. With over 3 million books worldwide - 1.5 million in English alone - Amazon built an unparalleled online store. 

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Bezos also stated that music was the second-largest category, with around 200,000 active music CDs at any given time. However, books outnumbered items in any other category by a significant margin.

Bezos explained his rationale, stating that the vast number of book items enabled the creation of a unique online store that could not exist through traditional methods. This choice was crucial given that the web was still an emerging technology, and Bezos believed in starting with concepts that set Amazon apart from physical retailers. He understood that it would take a while for everyone to shop online regularly. That was why he decided to begin with an idea that could not be copied by a seller who only had physical stores.

Jeff Bezos' Visionary Outlook: Amazon and AI

Even in those early days, Bezos hinted at Amazon's expansive potential, emphasizing their movement into various areas. He said it was just the beginning, referring to it as the 'Kittyhawk stage of electronic commerce.'

Bezos also mentioned that attention was a rare commodity in the late 20th century. Amazon captured people's attention by offering something valuable - an online marketplace for easy shopping of the most popular media. This attention allowed Amazon to skip advertising in its first year, relying only on word of mouth and articles by journalists to spread the word about the new company.

Drawing parallels to the present, Bezos' approach to artificial intelligence (AI) mirrors his early strategy with the Internet. He sees the current era as the 'beginning of a golden age of AI' and envisions its positive impact on various aspects of life. In a 2019 statement, he highlighted that we have just started to unlock AI's vast potential, achieving things once thought of as science fiction. Despite recognizing risks, Bezos is hopeful about AI's role in advancing medicine, technology, and more. His visionary thinking, which guided Amazon's evolution from a bookstore to a global e-commerce giant, now extends into AI.

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