Jeff Bezos In 1999 On Amazon's Plans Before The Dotcom Crash

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Published 2019-02-08

Jeff Bezos explained his ambitious vision for Amazon in a 1999 interview. He made clear the company’s focus was on “great customer service” and discussed his real estate strategy. Bezos said, “There’s no guarantee that Amazon.com can be a successful company. What we’re trying to do is very complicated.” He added, “Scale is important to us and we’re going to go after that kind of scale.”

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Jeff Bezos In 1999 On Amazon's Plans Before The Dotcom Crash

All Comments (21)

@icedcoldkilla 2 years ago

Employee: Am I fired? Jeff: No, you're promoted to customer.
@sanjidnet 4 years ago

Legend has it Jeff is still maintaining eye contact with the interviewer
@RusuSilva 14 days ago

It's sad how difficult things have become in the present generation. I was wondering how to utilise some money I had. I used some of it for e-commerce business, but that sank. I'm thinking of how to use what's left to invest, but I don't really know which way to go.
@Bdhacker101 2 years ago

Interviewer: So Jeff, how did you meet your first wife? Jeff: She was my first customer
@icedcoldkilla 3 years ago

Interviewer: youre losing hair jeff Jeff: i gave it to my customers
@kmd4614 4 years ago

If another guy explains his business plan with that kind of eye contact and belief, we better go buy some of his stocks.
@navjotrehal9423 1 year ago

The way he answered all the questions is just amazing. Every word on point.
@g5realestate280 1 year ago

He gets Oscar for the best eye contact. 👍😊
@alisinarahimian4576 4 years ago

He looks like a mix of Kevin Spacey and Nicholas Cage
@caninho1 3 years ago

How are you jeff? - it doesnt matter how i feel. but the question is: how does the customer feel?
@desimo147 7 months ago

You could just see the drive and determination within him during this interview to turn Amazon into what it is today. I bet he was working 100 hr weeks back in those days.
@shayneoneill1506 2 years ago

The interesting thing about amazon is at this point people still percieved them as a small online book store. But 3000 employees and a million+ sq feet of distro centers, in 1999 is huge, for the time.
@ryanking6915 3 years ago

Jeffs Wife: Honey i just got in an accident, its bad. Jeff: Is the customer ok?
@redrum3425 4 years ago

Seems like a nice guy, hope his book company works out for him.....
@larslover6559 1 year ago

Love him or hate him: a heck of a businessman.
@alexanderblanco3518 5 years ago

interviewer: you cant just disrupt every industry jeff bezos: hold my shminternet
@darev6780 3 years ago

One of Jeff's eyeballs is looking at his customers. The other is looking for new customers.
@FM-yk1yr 6 months ago

“Internet, schminternet!” 😅
@Efex1996 1 year ago

Very interesting to see that Jeff back then looked at the internet in a very different way than the interviewer. Jeff saw back then the internet as a tool to provide the best customer service, while the interviewer (in my opinion) looked at the internet as the product it self.
@wolfgangkeyser3970 3 years ago

Jeff Bezos's mother: "OMG, he is about to say his first words!" 10 month old Jeff: "The key is customer service"