To our shareowners:
致股东：
The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently announced the results of its annual survey, and for the 8th year in a row customers ranked Amazon #1. The United Kingdom has a similar index, The U.K. Customer Satisfaction Index, put out by the Institute of Customer Service. For the 5th time in a row Amazon U.K. ranked #1 in that survey. Amazon was also just named the #1 business on LinkedIn’s 2018 Top Companies list, which ranks the most sought after places to work for professionals in the United States. And just a few weeks ago, Harris Poll released its annual Reputation Quotient, which surveys over 25,000 consumers on a broad range of topics from workplace environment to social responsibility to products and services, and for the 3rd year in a row Amazon ranked #1.
美国消费者满意指数近期发布了年度调查报告，亚马逊连续（in a row）8年排名第一。英国也有一个类似的指数，英国消费者满意指数，由消费者服务协会（Institute of Customer Service）发布。亚马逊连续5年在这个调查中雄踞榜首。亚马逊也是LinkedIn2018年顶级公司（top companies）列表中的第一名。这个表格列出了员工最想效力的美国公司（sought after places to work for professionals）。就在几个星期前，Harris民意调查（Harris Poll）发布了他们的年度声誉指数（Annual Reputation Quotient）。这个指数调查了超过2.5万名消费者，涵盖了工作环境（workplace environment）到社会责任感（social responsibilities）到产品和服务等广泛的主题（a broad range of topics）。亚马逊连续3年拔得头筹。
Congratulations and thank you to the now over 560,000 Amazonians who come to work every day with unrelenting customer obsession, ingenuity, and commitment to operational excellence. And on behalf of Amazonians everywhere, I want to extend a huge thank you to customers. It’s incredibly energizing for us to see your responses to these surveys.
恭喜并感谢目前超过56万名的亚马逊员工，感谢你们毫不懈怠的（unrelenting）用户至上精神（customer obsession），感谢你们发挥出的聪明才智（ingenuity），感谢你们追求卓越运营的敬业奉献精神（commitment to operational excellence）。我谨代表所有的亚马逊员工，向顾客们致以衷心的感谢（extend a huge thank you to customers）。看到你们对这些调查的反馈真的很燃（incredibly energizing）。
One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static – they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’. I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before.
我喜欢顾客的一点在于，他们非常不安于现状（divinely discontent）。他们对产品的期待从不是一成不变的（static）——而是不断提升（go up）。这是人的天性。如果自满于现状，我们一定无法从狩猎-采集的时代进化（ascend）成现在的样子。人们对更好的生活有着贪婪的胃口（voracious appetite）。昨日的“哇偶”很快就变成了今天的“一般般”（ordinary）。产品升级迭代的周期（cycle of improvement）远比过去短得多。
It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before – in only a few seconds and with a couple taps on their phones, customers can read reviews, compare prices from multiple retailers, see whether something’s in stock, find out how fast it will ship or be available for pick-up, and more. These examples are from retail, but I sense that the same customer empowerment phenomenon is happening broadly across everything we do at Amazon and most other industries as well. You cannot rest on your laurels in this world. Customers won’t have it.
可能是因为顾客能轻易接触到（have such easy access to）比以前更多的讯息。只消在手机上动动手指并等待几秒，他们就可以看到商品的评价，从不同的商家处进行比价，查看某样商品是否货源充足（in stock），得知它要多久才能发货（ship）或者送达（available for pick-up），等等。这些例子都是来自零售业（retail），但我知道（sense）相同的客户赋能现象（customer empowerment phenomenon）正在亚马逊的每一个角落发生，大多数其他行业也是如此。在这个世界上你不能骄傲自满驻足不前（rest on your laurels）。顾客们可不接受。
How do you stay ahead of ever-rising customer expectations? There’s no single way to do it – it’s a combination of many things. But high standards (widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We’ve had some successes over the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We’ve also had billions of dollars’ worth of failures along the way. With those experiences as backdrop, I’d like to share with you the essentials of what we’ve learned (so far) about high standards inside an organization.
你如何在日益增长的（ever-rising）顾客需求上保持领先（stay ahead of）？没有一个简单的方式可以一劳永逸——必须全盘考虑。但是高标准（广泛运用并且事无巨细/widely deployed and at all levels of detail）显然是一个重要的组成部分。我们已经在多年（over the years）满足顾客高需求的道路上（in the quest to）积累了一些成功经验。这期间我们也交了数十亿美元的学费（xxx dollars’ worth of failures）。有这些经验作背景（backdrop），我非常愿意与你们分享目前我们学到的关于如何在公司内部实行高标准的基本要素（essentials）。
Intrinsic or Teachable?
先天或后天？
First, there’s a foundational question: are high standards intrinsic or teachable? If you take me on your basketball team, you can teach me many things, but you can’t teach me to be taller. Do we first and foremost need to select for “high standards” people? If so, this letter would need to be mostly about hiring practices, but I don’t think so. I believe high standards are teachable. In fact, people are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure. High standards are contagious. Bring a new person onto a high standards team, and they’ll quickly adapt. The opposite is also true. If low standards prevail, those too will quickly spread. And though exposure works well to teach high standards, I believe you can accelerate that rate of learning by articulating a few core principles of high standards, which I hope to share in this letter.
首先，有一个基本的问题：高标准是先天的还是后天的？如果你让我加入你的篮球队，你可以教会我任何事，但是你无法教我长高。我们首要（foremost）要做的是不是招入“高标准”的人马？如果是，那么这封信将会大部分阐述招聘套路（hiring practices），但我并不这么认为。我相信高标准是后天习得的。事实上，人们非常善于仅仅通过人际交往（exposure）就能学会高标准。高标准是具有传染性的（contagious）。把一个菜鸟带到一个高标准团队，他们会很快适应。反之亦然。如果劣币能驱逐良币，那么这也是具有传染性的。虽然人际交往能很好地传授高标准，但是我相信你可以通过直接口授（articulate）高标准来加速这个学习的过程。这正是我要在信中分享的。
Universal or Domain Specific?
通用的还是按领域区分的？
Another important question is whether high standards are universal or domain specific. In other words, if you have high standards in one area, do you automatically have high standards elsewhere? I believe high standards are domain specific, and that you have to learn high standards separately in every arena of interest. When I started Amazon, I had high standards on inventing, on customer care, and (thankfully) on hiring. But I didn’t have high standards on operational process: how to keep fixed problems fixed, how to eliminate defects at the root, how to inspect processes, and much more. I had to learn and develop high standards on all of that (my colleagues were my tutors).
另一个重要的问题就是高标准是通用的还是按领域区分的。换句话说，如果你在某一领域建立起高标准，你是否自然而然地在其他领域获得高标准？我相信高标准是根据领域区分的，你必须在每个感兴趣的领域（arena）分别学习高标准。初创亚马逊时，我在研发（inventing），客服（customer care），（谢天谢地）还有招聘上都有高标准。但是在运营流程上却没有，例如如何确保问题真的解决（keep fixed problems fixed），如何消除产品的根源性缺陷（defect at the root），如何监控流程（inspect processes），等等。我不得不在这些方面学习并开创高标准（我的同事们帮了我大忙）。
Understanding this point is important because it keeps you humble. You can consider yourself a person of high standards in general and still have debilitating blind spots. There can be whole arenas of endeavor where you may not even know that your standards are low or non-existent, and certainly not world class. It’s critical to be open to that likelihood.
理解了这点至关重要，因为那会使你保持谦逊。你可以把自己看作一个具备普遍高标准但是某些方面依然是软肋（debilitating blind spots）的人。可能在一些领域上（whole arenas of endeavor），你并不知道自己的标准其实很low甚至完全没有标准，这显然不是世界级的表现。所以，对这种可能性持开放态度是至关重要的（critical）。
Recognition and Scope
认知和范围
What do you need to achieve high standards in a particular domain area? First, you have to be able to recognize what good looks like in that domain. Second, you must have realistic expectations for how hard it should be (how much work it will take) to achieve that result – the scope.
在特定的领域里如何取得高标准呢？首先，你必须能够识别在那个领域什么样才算做得好（what good looks like）。其次，你必须对解决问题的难度（需要多少工作量）保持着现实的预期，也就是所谓的范围。
Let me give you two examples. One is a sort of toy illustration but it makes the point clearly, and another is a real one that comes up at Amazon all the time.
让我给出两个具体的例子。一个是比喻（toy illustration）但能把问题描述得更加清晰，另一个是不停（all the time）发生（come up）在亚马逊的真实案例。
Perfect Handstands
完美倒立
A close friend recently decided to learn to do a perfect free-standing handstand. No leaning against a wall. Not for just a few seconds. Instagram good. She decided to start her journey by taking a handstand workshop at her yoga studio. She then practiced for a while but wasn’t getting the results she wanted. So, she hired a handstand coach. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but evidently this is an actual thing that exists. In the very first lesson, the coach gave her some wonderful advice. “Most people,” he said, “think that if they work hard, they should be able to master a handstand in about two weeks. The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting.” Unrealistic beliefs on scope – often hidden and undiscussed – kill high standards. To achieve high standards yourself or as part of a team, you need to form and proactively communicate realistic beliefs about how hard something is going to be – something this coach understood well.
我的一个好友最近在学习完美的无支撑倒立（free stranding handstand）。即不靠墙（leaning against a wall），几秒钟就行。她决定在她的瑜伽馆（studio）里参加一个倒立培训班（workshop）。她训练了一段时间，但是并未达到她所期望的效果。于是她请了一个倒立私教。是的，我知道你们在想什么，但显然（evidently）这是一个真实存在的事情。在第一节课，教练给他一些很好的建议。“大多数人，”他说，“认为只要他们努力训练，他们就能够在两周内掌握。而事实是要花费大约6个月的日常训练。如果你认为你可以在两周内达到目标，你最终只能放弃（end up quitting）。”不现实的预期（unrealistic beliefs）——常常是未公开的的且未经过讨论的——会扼杀高标准。为了取得高标准，你需要形成并且主动地（proactively）沟通某件事情难易程度的现实预期——这名教练深谙此道。
Six-Page Narratives
6页纪要
We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon. Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos. We silently read one at the beginning of each meeting in a kind of “study hall.” Not surprisingly, the quality of these memos varies widely. Some have the clarity of angels singing. They are brilliant and thoughtful and set up the meeting for high-quality discussion. Sometimes they come in at the other end of the spectrum.
我们在亚马逊不使用PowerPoint（或者任何其他幻灯片工具/slide-oriented）。相反地，我们写叙事体的6页备忘录。我们在被称为“学堂”（study hall）的地方开会前会静静地读一份备忘录。不出意外地（not surprisingly），这些备忘录的质量参差不齐（varies widely）。有一些备忘录脉络清晰（clarity）犹如天使在歌唱。它们是杰出而周密的（brilliant and thoughtful），将为会议开启一次高质量的讨论。但有时候，备忘录的质量却正好相反。
In the handstand example, it’s pretty straightforward to recognize high standards. It wouldn’t be difficult to lay out in detail the requirements of a well-executed handstand, and then you’re either doing it or you’re not. The writing example is very different. The difference between a great memo and an average one is much squishier. It would be extremely hard to write down the detailed requirements that make up a great memo. Nevertheless, I find that much of the time, readers react to great memos very similarly. They know it when they see it. The standard is there, and it is real, even if it’s not easily describable.
以倒立为例，你可以非常直观地识别高标准。清楚描述（lay out in detail）一个合格（well-executed）倒立的要求并不难，之后的问题就是你能否完成倒立。而备忘录的例子就大不相同。一份好的（great）备忘录和一份普通的（average）备忘录之间的界限很模糊（be much squishier）。要写下构成（make up）一份杰出备忘录的具体要求（detailed requirements）将会极其困难。然而（nevertheless），我发现大多数情况下（much of the time），读者们对杰出备忘录的反应相当趋同（very similarly）。当他们看到时知道就是它了。标准就在那儿，真实存在，尽管难以描述。
Here’s what we’ve figured out. Often, when a memo isn’t great, it’s not the writer’s inability to recognize the high standard, but instead a wrong expectation on scope: they mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more! They’re trying to perfect a handstand in just two weeks, and we’re not coaching them right. The great memos are written and re-written, shared with colleagues who are asked to improve the work, set aside for a couple of days, and then edited again with a fresh mind. They simply can’t be done in a day or two. The key point here is that you can improve results through the simple act of teaching scope – that a great memo probably should take a week or more.
这是我们所发现的。通常，如果一份备忘录写得不好，并非作者无法识别（inability to recognize）高标准，而是他们对工期产生了错误的预估：他们错误地认为一份高标准的6页备忘录可以在一两天甚至几个小时内完成，而事实上可能消耗一个星期或更长时间！他们把倒立理想化（perfect）为一两周的功夫，因为我们并没有把他们教好（coach them right）。杰出的备忘录会一改再改，分享给同事并让他们帮忙润色，最后留出几天时间（set aside a couple of days），以清醒的头脑（fresh mind）再度编辑。这些工作绝不可能（simply can't be done）在一两天内完成。关键点在于你完全可以通过合理估计工期来提升执行效果——这样一份优秀的备忘录会消耗一周多的时间。
Skill
技巧
Beyond recognizing the standard and having realistic expectations on scope, how about skill? Surely to write a world class memo, you have to be an extremely skilled writer? Is it another required element? In my view, not so much, at least not for the individual in the context of teams. The football coach doesn’t need to be able to throw, and a film director doesn’t need to be able to act. But they both do need to recognize high standards for those things and teach realistic expectations on scope. Even in the example of writing a six-page memo, that’s teamwork. Someone on the team needs to have the skill, but it doesn’t have to be you. (As a side note, by tradition at Amazon, authors’ names never appear on the memos – the memo is from the whole team.)
除了认识标准（recognizing the standard）和正确估计工期（have realistic expectations on scope）之外，有什么其他技巧？对于写一份世界级的备忘录，你需要先成为一位顶级作家（extremely skilled writer）吗？这是必备条件吗？在我看来（In my view），不太需要，至少对于团队中的个体而言。橄榄球教练并不需要投球能力，电影导演也不需要演戏能力。但是他们都需要能够辨别这些事情的高标准，并且能够对工期做出切合实际的估量。写6页备忘录这事是团队协作。团队里的某人需要掌握这个技能，但并不一定是你。（话说/As a side note，按照亚马逊的传统，作者名从不会出现在备忘录中——备忘录出自整个团队）
Benefits of High Standards
高标准的好处
Building a culture of high standards is well worth the effort, and there are many benefits. Naturally and most obviously, you’re going to build better products and services for customers – this would be reason enough! Perhaps a little less obvious: people are drawn to high standards – they help with recruiting and retention. More subtle: a culture of high standards is protective of all the “invisible” but crucial work that goes on in every company. I’m talking about the work that no one sees. The work that gets done when no one is watching. In a high standards culture, doing that work well is its own reward – it’s part of what it means to be a professional.
建立一套高标准文化绝对是事半功倍的（be well worth the effort），能带来诸多好处。显而易见的是（naturally and most obviously），你将因此为顾客生产出更好的产品和服务——有这个好处就够了！还有个也许没那么明显的原因：人们被吸引到（be drawn to）高标准团队中来——这有助于人才的招募和留存（recruiting & retention）。更为隐晦的（subtle）原因在于：高标准文化是每个公司里所有隐形但又至关重要（crucial）的工作的保证（protective）。我指的是那些没人看到的工作。这些工作在没人监督的情况下神不知鬼不觉地完成了。在高标准文化里，把这些工作做好本身就是嘉奖（doing that work well is its own reward）——这本身就是专业人士分内的事（it's part of what it means to be a professional）。
And finally, high standards are fun! Once you’ve tasted high standards, there’s no going back.
So, the four elements of high standards as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope. For us, these work at all levels of detail. Everything from writing memos to whole new, clean-sheet business initiatives. We hope they help you too.
最后要说的是，高标准本身是趣味十足的！一旦开始，就无法停止。
（Once you've tasted high standards, there's no going back.）
所以，我们可以总结高标准的四个属性：
- 他们是后天习得的；
- 他们是按领域划分的；
- 你必须识别它们；
- 你必须有切合实际的预期。
对于我们来说，这些属性在任何工作细节上都起作用（at all levels of detail）。小到备忘录撰写，大到崭新的（whole new, clean-sheet）商业计划。我们希望它们也能帮到您。
Insist on the Highest Standards
坚持（insist on）高标准
Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high.
-- from the Amazon Leadership Principles
领导人具有持之以恒的（relentless）高标准——即便许多人认为这些标准过于苛刻（unreasonably high）
—— 亚马逊领导守则（Amazon Leadership Principles）
Recent Milestones
最新里程碑
The high standards our leaders strive for have served us well. And while I certainly can’t do a handstand myself, I’m extremely proud to share some of the milestones we hit last year, each of which represents the fruition of many years of collective effort. We take none of them for granted.
我们的领导层努力追求的（strive for）高标准让我们受益匪浅（serve us well）。虽然我不会倒立，但是我依然非常自豪地与您分享我们去年达成的一系列里程碑。每一项里程碑都是多年努力（collective effort）的结晶（fruition），没有任何一项是天上掉馅饼（take none of them for granted）。
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Prime
13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime members globally. In 2017 Amazon shipped more than five billion items with Prime worldwide, and more new members joined Prime than in any previous year – both worldwide and in the U.S. Members in the U.S. now receive unlimited free two-day shipping on over 100 million different items. We expanded Prime to Mexico, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and introduced Business Prime Shipping in the U.S. and Germany. We keep making Prime shipping faster as well, with Prime Free Same-Day and Prime
Free One-Day delivery now in more than 8,000 cities and towns. Prime Now is available in more than 50 cities worldwide across nine countries. Prime Day 2017 was our biggest global shopping event ever (until surpassed by Cyber Monday), with more new Prime members joining Prime than any other day in our history. -
Prime | 优选
在推出这项服务13年后（post-launch），我们在全球收获了超过1亿名付费Prime会员。2017年亚马逊通过Prime交付了超过50亿份快递。今年有比往年更多的会员加入Prime——不论是全球范围还是美国国内。美国会员如今可享受覆盖1亿种不同商品的无限免费两日送达服务。我们把Prime推广到了墨西哥，新加坡，荷兰和卢森堡，同时把Prime商务送货服务引入了美国和德国。我们保持着Prime一如既往的高效投递，在8000多个市县实现当日免费送达和24小时免费送达。Prime现如今已经登陆全球9个国家的50多个城市。2017 Prime day是我们有史以来最大的全球购物狂欢节（biggest global shopping event），直到被Cyber Monday（感恩节假期后第一个上班日的网购促销狂欢节）超越（surpass）。Prime day这天新加入的Prime会员数创造了历史新高。 -
AWS
It’s exciting to see Amazon Web Services, a $20 billion revenue run rate business, accelerate its already healthy growth. AWS has also accelerated its pace of innovation – especially in new areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and serverless computing. In 2017, AWS announced more than 1,400 significant services and features, including Amazon SageMaker, which radically changes the accessibility and ease of use for everyday developers to build sophisticated machine learning models. Tens of thousands of customers are also using a broad range of AWS machine learning services, with active users increasing more than 250 percent in the last year, spurred by the broad adoption of Amazon SageMaker. And in November, we held our sixth re:Invent conference with more than 40,000 attendees and over 60,000 streaming participants. -
AWS | 亚马逊云服务
非常高兴能见证亚马逊云服务这样一个200亿美元营收的高速增长业务（run rate business），而且其在原来健康增长的步调上再度提速。AWS也加快了它创新的步伐——特别是新兴领域，例如机器学习和人工智能，物联网，无服务器计算等方面。2017年AWS发布了超过1400项具有影响力的（significant）服务和功能，包括SageMaker，这玩意儿彻底（radically）降低了开发者每天创建复杂（sophisticated）机器学习模型的难度（accessibility & ease of use）。成千上万的（tens of thousands of）顾客在使用AWS广阔的（broad range of）机器学习服务。正是因为受到了SageMaker大面积使用的刺激（spurred by the adoption of），去年AWS活跃用户增长率超过了250%。11月份，我们举办了第六届re:Invent大会，有逾4万名与会者（attendees）到场参加，也有逾6万名线上与会者（streaming participants）同步观看大会直播。 -
Marketplace
In 2017, for the first time in our history, more than half of the units sold on Amazon worldwide were from our third-party sellers, including small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Over 300,000 U.S.-based SMBs started selling on Amazon in 2017, and Fulfillment by Amazon shipped billions of items for SMBs worldwide. Customers ordered more than 40 million items from SMBs worldwide during Prime Day 2017, growing their sales by more than 60 percent over Prime Day 2016. Our Global Selling program (enabling SMBs to sell products across national borders) grew by over 50% in 2017 and cross-border ecommerce by SMBs now represents more than 25% of total third-party sales. -
Marketplace | 商城
2017年，亚马逊有史以来第一次有超过一半以上的商品销售来自我们的第三方卖家（third-party sellers），包括中小商家（SMBs, small and medium-sized businesses）。2017年，超过30万家美国本土的中小商家开始在亚马逊上销售。亚马逊为全球的中小商家交付了数十亿的商品。全球的顾客们在2017 Prime Day从中小商家订购了超过4亿件商品，让他们的销售额较2016 Prime Day同比增幅超过60%。我们的全球销售计划（促进中小商家跨国销售）在2017年增幅超50%。中小商家的跨国电商业务如今占第三方总销售业务的25%。 -
Alexa
Customer embrace of Alexa continues, with Alexa-enabled devices among the best-selling items across all of Amazon. We’re seeing extremely strong adoption by other companies and developers that want to create their own experiences with Alexa. There are now more than 30,000 skills for Alexa from outside developers, and customers can control more than 4,000 smart home devices from 1,200 unique brands with Alexa. The foundations of Alexa continue to get smarter every day too. We’ve developed and implemented an on-device fingerprinting technique, which keeps your device from waking up when it hears an Alexa commercial on TV. (This technology ensured that our Alexa Super Bowl commercial didn’t wake up millions of devices.) Far-field speech recognition (already very good) has improved by 15% over the last year; and in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, we’ve improved Alexa’s spoken language understanding by more than 25% over the last 12 months through enhancements in Alexa’s machine learning components and the use of semi-supervised learning techniques. (These semi-supervised learning techniques reduced the amount of labeled data needed to achieve the same accuracy improvement by 40 times!) Finally, we’ve dramatically reduced the amount of time required to teach Alexa new languages by using machine translation and transfer learning techniques, which allows us to serve customers in more countries (like India and Japan). -
Alexa | 智能管家
顾客们对Alexa丝毫不减的热情使得Alexa支持的设备稳居亚马逊畅销榜。我们看到许多公司和开发者迫不及待地想要使用Alexa来创建它们自己的应用体验。Alexa向外部开发者提供了超过3万个技能接口。顾客们可以通过Alexa操控来自1200个独立品牌的超4000件智慧家庭设备。Alexa的基础设备也变得越来越智能化。我们开发并实现了一个设备指纹识别技术，这将使你的设备在听到电视上的Alexa广告（commercial）时不会被唤醒。（这项技术保证我们的Alexa超级碗广告不会唤醒数以百万计的设备。）远程语音识别（Far-field speech recognition，已经非常成熟）能力在去年提升了大约15%；在美国、英国和德国，过去一年里我们通过增强Alexa的机器学习组件和采用半监督学习（semi-supervised learning）技术，使Alexa对口语识别能力（spoken language understanding）提升了超过25%。这些半监督学习技术把需要达到相同识别精度所需的标记数据的数量减少了约40倍！最后，我们通过使用机器翻译和转移学习技术显著地（dramatically）减少了教会Alexa新语言的时间，这使得我们可以为更多国家（例如印度和日本）的顾客提供服务。 -
Amazon devices
2017 was our best year yet for hardware sales. Customers bought tens of millions of Echo devices, and Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa were the best-selling products across all of Amazon – across all categories and all manufacturers. Customers bought twice as many Fire TV Sticks and Kids Edition Fire Tablets this holiday season versus last year. 2017 marked the release of our all-new Echo with an improved design, better sound, and a lower price; Echo Plus with a built-in smart home hub; and Echo Spot, which is compact and beautiful with a circular screen. We released our next generation Fire TV, featuring 4K Ultra HD and HDR; and the Fire HD 10 Tablet, with 1080p Full HD display. And we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kindle by releasing the all-new Kindle Oasis, our most advanced reader ever. It’s waterproof – take it in the bathtub – with a bigger 7” high-resolution 300 ppi display and has built-in audio so you can also listen to your books with Audible. -
Amazon devices | 亚马逊设备
2017是我们硬件销售业绩最好的一年。顾客们购买了数千万台Echo设备，Echo Dot 和搭载了Alexa的 Fire 电视棒是亚马逊上全品类全商家（across all categories and all manufacturers）最畅销的商品之一。在今年的假日购物季，顾客们购买 Fire 电视棒和儿童版Fire平板电脑的数量是去年同期的两倍（twice as many...this holiday season versus last year）。2017年，我们全新版本的Echo发布，具备升级的设计，更美妙的音效，以及更实惠的价格；Echo+内置了智慧家庭中心（smart home hub）；Echo Spot小巧（compact）而美观，自带一个圆形的屏幕。我们发布了下一代Fire电视，主打4K超清和高清；还有Fire 10高清平板电脑，自带1080p全高清显示屏（display）。同时，Kindle 10周年庆典我们推出了全新的Kindle绿洲，这是目前我们推出的最高级阅读器。它是防水的（waterproof）——你可以在洗泡泡浴（bathtub）时使用——拥有7英寸高分辨率300ppi的显示屏并且内置音响，这样你就可以使用Audible听书。 -
Prime Video
Prime Video continues to drive Prime member adoption and retention. In the last year we made Prime Video even better for customers by adding new, award-winning Prime Originals to the service, like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, winner of two Critics’ Choice Awards and two Golden Globes, and the Oscar-nominated movie The Big Sick. We’ve expanded our slate of programming across the globe, launching new seasons of Bosch and Sneaky Pete from the U.S., The Grand Tour from the U.K., and You Are Wanted from Germany, while adding new Sentosha shows from Japan, along with Breathe and the award-winning Inside Edge from India. Also this year, we expanded our Prime Channels offerings, adding CBS All Access in the U.S. and launching Channels in the U.K. and Germany. We debuted NFL Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, with more than 18 million total viewers over 11 games. In 2017, Prime Video Direct secured subscription video rights for more than 3,000 feature films and committed over $18 million in royalties to independent filmmakers and other rights holders. Looking forward, we’re also excited about our upcoming Prime Original series pipeline, which includes Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan starring John Krasinski; King Lear, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson; The Romanoffs, executive produced by Matt Weiner; Carnival Row starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne; Good Omens starring Jon Hamm; and Homecoming, executive produced by Sam Esmail and starring Julia Roberts in her first television series. We acquired the global television rights for a multi-season production of The Lord of the Rings, as well as Cortés, a miniseries based on the epic saga of Hernán Cortés from executive producer Steven Spielberg, starring Javier Bardem, and we look forward to beginning work on those shows this year. -
Prime Video | 优选视频
Prime视频让Prime会员得以持续增长和留存（adoption and retention）。去年我们改进了Prime视频，在服务中加入了新的屡获殊荣的（award-winning） Prime 原创剧目（Originals），例如《了不起的迈塞尔夫人》（The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel）拿下了两项评论家选择奖（Critics' Choice Awards）和两项金球奖（Golden Globes），还有奥斯卡提名（Oscar-nominated）电影《大病》（The Big Sick）。我们扩大了全球节目计划（slate of programming），发行了美国市场新一季的《博斯》（Bosch）和《诈欺担保人》（Sneaky Pete），英国市场的《大世界之旅》（The Grand Tour），德国市场的《网络寻凶》（You Are Wanted），同时增加了新的日本市场的Sentosha剧，还有印度市场的《喘息》（Breathe）、大放异彩的《内角》（Inside Corner）。今年，我们还扩充了我们的Prime频道产品（offerings），完成了美国哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System）的全方位接入，开通英国和德国频道。我们首次（debut）在Prime视频播出全美橄榄球联盟（NFL, National Football League）的周四晚橄榄球赛，11场比赛累计收看数量超过1800万人次。2017年，Prime直接视频获得（secure）超过3000部剧情片（feature films）的订阅权，向独立电影人（independent filmmakers）和其他版权人（rights holders）贡献了1800万美元的版税（royalties）。向前看，我们为Prime原创系列计划表（pipeline）中即将问世的（upcoming）作品振奋不已。我们取得了多季（multi-season）产品《魔戒》（The Lord of the Rings）的全球电视播放权。与此同时还有《Cortés》，一部基于Hernán Cortés的史诗级传说（saga）改编的迷你剧（miniseries）。这部戏由Steven Spielberg监制，Javier Bardem主演，我们非常期待（look forward to）今年这些戏的开拍。 -
Amazon Music
Amazon Music continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers. Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months. -
Amazon Music | 亚马逊音乐
亚马逊音乐的市场份额持续快速增长，如今已经拥有了数千万的付费用户（paid customers）。亚马逊音乐无限公司，我们有广阔市场需求且无广告的产品，在2017年推广到了30多个新国家，会员数在过去6个月里翻了一番以上。 -
Fashion
Amazon has become the destination for tens of millions of customers to shop for fashion. In 2017, we introduced our first fashion-oriented Prime benefit, Prime Wardrobe – a new service that brings the fitting room directly to the homes of Prime members so they can try on the latest styles before they buy. We introduced Nike and UGG on Amazon along with new celebrity collections by Drew Barrymore and Dwyane Wade, as well as dozens of new private brands, like Goodthreads and Core10. We’re also continuing to enable thousands of designers and artists to offer their exclusive designs and prints on demand through Merch by Amazon. We finished 2017 with the launch of our interactive shopping experience with Calvin Klein, including pop-up shops, on-site product customization, and fitting rooms with Alexa-controlled lighting, music, and more. -
Fashion | 亚马逊潮牌
亚马逊成为了数千万顾客淘潮牌的地方。2017年，我们引入了首个面向潮牌的优惠促销（benefit），Prime衣橱——这种新型服务会把试衣间（fitting room）直接带到Prime会员家里，这样他们就可以在买之前试穿最新款的流行服饰（try on the latest styles）。我们引入了Nike和UGG，以及Barrymore和Dwyane Wade的名人系列（celebrity collections），还有一批新的独立品牌，例如 Goodthreads 和 Core10。我们也通过亚马逊的Merch让数以千计的设计师和艺术家按需推出他们独到的设计和版式（prints）。我们在2017年和Calvin Klein联合推出了（launch）交互式购物体验，包括闪店（pop-up shops），现场产品定制（on-site product customization），以及由Alexa控制灯光、背景音乐的试衣间等等。 -
Whole Foods
When we closed our acquisition of Whole Foods Market last year, we announced our commitment to making high-quality, natural and organic food available for everyone, then immediately lowered prices on a selection of best-selling grocery staples, including avocados, organic brown eggs, and responsibly-farmed salmon. We followed this with a second round of price reductions in November, and our Prime member exclusive promotion broke Whole Foods’ all-time record for turkeys sold during the Thanksgiving season. In February, we introduced free two-hour delivery on orders over $35 for Prime members in select cities, followed by additional cities in March and April, and plan continued expansion across the U.S. throughout this year. We also expanded the benefits of the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card, enabling Prime members to get 5% back when shopping at Whole Foods Market. Beyond that, customers can purchase Whole Foods’ private label products like 365 Everyday Value on Amazon, purchase Echo and other Amazon devices in over a hundred Whole Foods stores, and pick-up or return Amazon packages at Amazon Lockers in hundreds of Whole Foods stores. We’ve also begun the technical work needed to recognize Prime members at the point of sale and look forward to offering more Prime benefits to Whole Foods shoppers once that work is completed. -
Whole Foods | 全食超市
去年收购（acquisition）全食超市（Whole Food Market）之后，我们承诺（announce our commitment）要为每个人提供高品质自然的有机食品（high-quality, natural and organic food），并马上降低了畅销主食（grocery staples）的价格，包括牛油果（avocados），有机棕蛋（organic brown eggs），以及养殖鲑鱼（responsibly-farmed salmon）。随之而来的是11月的第二轮降价，并且在我们感恩节的火鸡销售中，Prime会员的专享优惠力度打破了全食的历史记录。二月份，我们在部分城市（select cities）推出了针对Prime会员购物超过35美元即可享受免费两小时送货上门的服务。三四月份时又增加了新的城市，在美国本土（across the U.S.）整个活动全年（throughout this year）都在持续升级发酵（continue expansion）。我们也增加了亚马逊Prime联名Visa卡（Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card）的补贴力度（benefits），使得Prime会员在全食超市消费可享受5%的折扣（get 5% back）。除此之外，顾客们还可以在亚马逊上购买全食的自有品牌产品（private label products），例如365每一天价值，也可以在100多家全食商店购买Echo或者其他亚马逊设备，还可以在100多家全食商店的亚马逊储物柜（locker）取件或者退件（pick-up or return Amazon packages）。我们也启动了技术研发以便在结账时识别Prime会员身份。当这项工作完成后，将有望（look forward to）向全食顾客推出更多的Prime优惠。 -
Amazon Go
Amazon Go, a new kind of store with no checkout required, opened to the public in January in Seattle. Since opening, we’ve been thrilled to hear many customers refer to their shopping experience as “magical.” What makes the magic possible is a custom-built combination of computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning, which come together to create Just Walk Out shopping. With JWO, customers are able to grab their favorite breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and grocery essentials more conveniently than ever before. Some of our top-selling items are not surprising – caffeinated beverages and water are popular – but our customers also love the Chicken Banh Mi sandwich, chocolate chip cookies, cut fruit, gummy bears, and our Amazon Meal Kits. -
Amazon Go | 新零售
Amazon Go是一种购物后不需要结账的新零售商店，1月时在西雅图向公众开放。从开业以来，许多顾客都用“魔幻”（magical）来形容（refer to）他们在Amazon Go的购物体验，对此我们感到非常振奋（thrilled）。这种魔术源于一套定制（custom-built）技术的组合，包括计算机视觉，传感器融合（Sensor fusion is combining of sensory data or data derived from disparate sources such that the resulting information has less uncertainty than would be possible when these sources were used individually.），以及深度学习。这些技术相互配合才成就了“转身就走”（Just Walk Out）的购物体验。有了“转身就走”，顾客们可以比以往更方便地取用（grab）他们想要的早餐、午餐、晚餐、小吃以及日用品（grocery essentials）。店里最畅销的莫过于咖啡因饮料（caffeinated beverages）和饮用水。我们的顾客也喜欢鸡肉三明治（Chicken Banh Mi sandwich），巧克力曲奇（chocolate chip cookies），切片水果（cut fruit），小熊软糖（gummy bears），还有我们的亚马逊便当（Amazon Meal Kits）。 -
Treasure Truck
Treasure Truck expanded from a single truck in Seattle to a fleet of 35 trucks across 25 U.S. cities and 12 U.K. cities. Our bubble-blowing, music-pumping trucks fulfilled hundreds of thousands of orders, from porterhouse steaks to the latest Nintendo releases. Throughout the year, Treasure Truck also partnered with local communities to lift spirits and help those in need, including donating and delivering hundreds of car seats, thousands of toys, tens of thousands of socks, and many other essentials to community members needing relief, from those displaced by Hurricane Harvey, to the homeless, to kids needing holiday cheer. -
Treasure Truck | 珍宝车
珍宝车从西雅图的一台车发展到一支拥有35辆卡车穿越全美25个城市、全英12个城市的车队。我们的吹泡泡和放音乐的（bubble-blowing, music-pumping）卡车实现了（fulfill）了成千上万的订单，从优质牛排（porterhouse steak）到任天堂游戏（Nintendo releases）。去年一整年，珍宝车陪伴了邻里街坊（local communities），为他们加油鼓劲（lift spirits）并向那些需要帮助的人们伸出援手（help those in need），包括捐款，输送数百张车椅，数千件玩具，数万双袜子，还有许多发给急需援助（relief）的街坊邻居（community members）的生活必需品。他们的援手伸向了因哈维飓风流离失所的（displaced by）人们，伸向了无家可归的（homeless）浪人，伸向了那些期待欢度节日的孩子们。 -
India
Amazon.in is the fastest growing marketplace in India, and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile, according to comScore and SimilarWeb. The Amazon.in mobile shopping app was also the most downloaded shopping app in India in 2017, according to App Annie. Prime added more members in India in its first year than any previous geography in Amazon’s history. Prime selection in India now includes more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers, and Prime Video is investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and over a dozen new shows in production. -
India | 亚马逊印度
根据comScore和SimilarWeb的数据，亚马逊印度是印度成长最快的消费者市场，也是桌面PC和移动端访问量最大的网站。根据App Annie的数字，亚马逊印度app也是印度2017年下载量最大的购物app。仅仅登陆印度一年，新Prime会员的注册量就超过了亚马逊之前在任何其他国家地区的同期历史数据。Prime精选收录了超过4千万第三方商户的土特产（local products）。并且Prime视频也在大规模地（in a big way）投资印度本土的原创视频内容制作，包括两部最近将要上映的剧目和十来部正在制作中的片子。 -
Sustainability
We are committed to minimizing carbon emissions by optimizing our transportation network, improving product packaging, and enhancing energy efficiency in our operations, and we have a long-term goal to power our global infrastructure using 100% renewable energy. We recently launched Amazon Wind Farm Texas, our largest wind farm yet, which generates more than 1,000,000 megawatt hours of clean energy annually from over 100 turbines. We have plans to host solar energy systems at 50 fulfillment centers by 2020, and have launched 24 wind and solar projects across the U.S. with more than 29 additional projects to come. Together, Amazon’s renewable energy projects now produce enough clean energy to power over 330,000 homes annually. In 2017 we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Frustration-Free Packaging, the first of a suite of sustainable packaging initiatives that have eliminated more than 244,000 tons of packaging materials over the past 10 years. In addition, in 2017 alone our programs significantly reduced packaging waste, eliminating the equivalent of 305 million shipping boxes. And across the world, Amazon is contracting with our service providers to launch our first low-pollution last-mile fleet. Already today, a portion of our European delivery fleet is comprised of low-pollution electric and natural gas vans and cars, and we have over 40 electric scooters and e-cargo bikes that complete local urban deliveries. -
Sustainability | 可持续发展
我们致力于通过优化运输网络减少碳排放（carbon emissions），改善产品包装（product packaging），并在我们的经营活动中提升能效（energy efficiency）。我们有一个长远的目标在我们的全球基础设施中使用100%的可再生能源。近期我们在德克萨斯开设了风电场（wind farm），这是我们迄今为止最大的风电场，每年将从100多台涡轮机（turbine）输出超过1兆兆瓦/时（megawatt hours）的清洁能源。我们计划2020年前在50个配送中心（fulfillment center）打造（host）太阳能系统。目前我们已经启动了全美的24个风电和太阳能工程，还有超过29个工程待启动。加在一起，亚马逊的可再生能源计划目前每年可输出满足33万户家庭用电量的清洁能源。2017年我们举办了亚马逊环保包装（Frustration-Free Packaging）推出十周年的庆典。这种包装是首套可持续包装方案（sustainable packaging initiatives），相当于在过去十年中减少使用了超过24万4千吨的包装原料。此外，单单2017年我们的项目就显著地（significantly）减少了包装废料，相当于（equivalent）少用了3亿多个快递箱（shipping boxes）。亚马逊还在世界范围内与我们的服务提供商签订协议，成立了我们第一支低碳（low-pollution）最后一英里车队。目前，我们的欧洲运输车队（delivery fleet）部分是由低碳的电力或天然气作能源的货车（van）组成的（be comprised of）。同时，我们还有40多部电动滑板车（electric scooters）或电动货运自行车（e-cargo bikes）用于完成本地市内投递（local urban deliveries）。 -
Empowering Small Business
Millions of small and medium-sized businesses worldwide now sell their products through Amazon to reach new customers around the globe. SMBs selling on Amazon come from every state in the U.S., and from more than 130 different countries around the world. More than 140,000 SMBs surpassed $100,000 in sales on Amazon in 2017, and over a thousand independent authors surpassed $100,000 in royalties in 2017 through Kindle Direct Publishing. -
Empowering Small Business | 赋能中小商家
目前全球数百万的中小商家都通过亚马逊向世界各个地区的顾客销售他们的商品。这些中小商家来自全美的任何一个州，来自全球130多个不同的国家或地区。2017年，超过14万中小商户创造了10万美元的以上的（surpass）销售额，1000多名独立作者通过Kindle直接出版赚取了超过10万美元以上的版税。 -
Investment & Job Creation
Since 2011, we have invested over $150 billion worldwide in our fulfillment networks, transportation capabilities, and technology infrastructure, including AWS data centers. Amazon has created over 1.7 million direct and indirect jobs around the world. In 2017 alone, we directly created more than 130,000 new Amazon jobs, not including acquisitions, bringing our global employee base to over 560,000. Our new jobs cover a wide range of professions, from artificial intelligence scientists to packaging specialists to fulfillment center associates. In addition to these direct hires, we estimate that Amazon Marketplace has created 900,000 more jobs worldwide, and that Amazon’s investments have created an additional 260,000 jobs in areas like construction, logistics, and other professional services. -
Investment & Job Creation | 投资 & 就业
自2011年起，我们就对全球的配送网络（fulfillment network），运输系统（transportation capabilities）、高科技基础设施（technology infrastructure）包括亚马逊云服务数据中心，投资了超过1亿5千万美元。亚马逊为全球直接或间接创造了超过170万个就业岗位。单单就2017年而言，我们直接在亚马逊创造了超过13万个就业岗位，这还不包括商业并购，让我们的全球雇员数超过了56万。我们的新岗位涵盖了非常广阔的职业范围，从人工智能科学家到包装专家到配送中心员工（associates，An associate is a retail worker who does not have previous experience or qualifications. ）。除了这些直接招聘的岗位，我们估算亚马逊市场也在全球创造了90多万个工作机会，并且亚马逊的投资项目也在诸如基建、物流（logistics）以及其他专业服务领域（professional services）创造了26万个工作机会。 -
Career Choice
One employee program we’re particularly proud of is Amazon Career Choice. For hourly associates with more than one year of tenure, we pre-pay 95% of tuition, fees, and textbooks (up to $12,000) for certificates and associate degrees in high-demand occupations such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, and nursing. We fund education in areas that are in high demand and do so regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon. Globally more than 16,000 associates (including more than 12,000 in the U.S.) have joined Career Choice since the program launched in 2012. Career Choice is live in ten countries and expanding to South Africa, Costa Rica, and Slovakia later this year. Commercial truck driving, healthcare, and information technology are the program’s most popular fields of study. We’ve built 39 Career Choice classrooms so far, and we locate them behind glass walls in high traffic areas inside our fulfillment centers so associates can be inspired by seeing their peers pursue new skills. -
Career Choice | 职业选择计划
“亚马逊职业选择计划”是我们非常自豪的一个员工项目。任期（tenure）超过一年的时薪制员工（hourly associates），若谋求具有迫切市场需求的职业（in high-demand occupations），例如飞机修理工（aircraft mechanics），计算机辅助设计（computer-aided design），机床技术（machine tool tech），医学实验室技术，护工（nursing）等，而进修资格认证和专科学位（associate degree），我们会为其预付95%的学费（tuition）和课本费（最高12000美元）。我们资助（fund）那些有巨大缺口的行业的教育需求，不论这些技能是否与亚马逊的职位挂钩（be relevant to）。从2012年项目启动后，全球超过1万6千名亚马逊员工（1万2千多名位于美国）参加了职业选择计划。该计划已经实施于（be live in）10个国家，正在向南美，哥斯达黎加扩张，今年下半年还会登陆斯洛文尼亚。商用卡车驾驶，卫生保健（healthcare），以及IT业都是这个项目最受欢迎的进修方向（fields of study）。我们目前成立了39个职业选择课堂，并把它们开在配送中心人流密集区（in high traffic areas）的玻璃幕墙后面。这样员工们就能在看到同侪（peers）追求（pursue）新技能时得到鼓舞与激励（inspired）。
The credit for these milestones is deserved by many. Amazon is 560,000 employees. It’s also 2 million sellers, hundreds of thousands of authors, millions of AWS developers, and hundreds of millions of divinely discontent customers around the world who push to make us better each and every day.
这些里程碑值得人们的赞许（credit）。亚马逊是56万名员工的，它也是200万名商家的，是数十万内容创作者的，是数百万云服务开发者的，是全球数亿极度不安于现状的消费者的。正是你们，让我们每天变得更好。
Path Ahead
展望未来
This year marks the 20th anniversary of our first shareholder letter, and our core values and approach remain unchanged. We continue to aspire to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and we recognize this to be no small or easy challenge. We know there is much we can do better, and we find tremendous energy in the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
今年距离我们第一封致股东的信发出过去了整整20年，而我们的核心价值观（core values）和做事的方法依然没变。我们依然立志成为（aspire to be）全球最以客户为中心的（customer-centric）公司，并且我们认识到这并不是一个简单又轻松的挑战。我们知道我们还可以做得更好，同时我们可以在前路无尽的挑战和机会（in the many challenges and opportunities）中发掘巨大的潜能（tremendous energy）。
A huge thank you to each and every customer for allowing us to serve you, to our shareowners for your support, and to Amazonians everywhere for your ingenuity, your passion, and your high standards.
As always, I attach a copy of our original 1997 letter. It remains Day 1.
我们要向每一位顾客致谢，感谢您让我们有机会为您服务；
向股东们致谢，感谢您的支持；
向亚马逊人致谢，感谢你们的谋略，你们的激情，还有你们的高标准。
一如既往地，我附上我们1997年的信函。
不忘初心，方得始终。（It remains Day 1.）
Sincerely,
诚挚地，
Jeffrey P. Bezos
杰夫·贝索斯
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
创始人 & 首席执行官
Amazon.com, Inc.
亚马逊公司
1997 LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS
(Reprinted from the 1997 Annual Report)
To our shareholders:
Amazon.com passed many milestones in 1997: by year-end, we had served more than 1.5 million customers, yielding 838% revenue growth to $147.8 million, and extended our market leadership despite aggressive competitive entry.
But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even in established and large markets.
We have a window of opportunity as larger players marshal the resources to pursue the online opportunity and as customers, new to purchasing online, are receptive to forming new relationships. The competitive landscape has continued to evolve at a fast pace. Many large players have moved online with credible offerings and have devoted substantial energy and resources to building awareness, traffic, and sales. Our goal is to move quickly to solidify and extend our current position while we begin to pursue the online commerce opportunities in other areas. We see substantial opportunity in the large markets we are targeting. This strategy is not without risk: it requires serious investment and crisp execution against established franchise leaders.
It’s All About the Long Term
We believe that a fundamental measure of our success will be the shareholder value we create over the long term. This value will be a direct result of our ability to extend and solidify our current market leadership position. The stronger our market leadership, the more powerful our economic model. Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity, and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.
Our decisions have consistently reflected this focus. We first measure ourselves in terms of the metrics most indicative of our market leadership: customer and revenue growth, the degree to which our customers continue to purchase from us on a repeat basis, and the strength of our brand. We have invested and will continue to invest aggressively to expand and leverage our customer base, brand, and infrastructure as we move to establish an enduring franchise.
Because of our emphasis on the long term, we may make decisions and weigh tradeoffs differently than some companies. Accordingly, we want to share with you our fundamental management and decision-making approach so that you, our shareholders, may confirm that it is consistent with your investment philosophy:
We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers.
We will continue to make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions.
We will continue to measure our programs and the effectiveness of our investments analytically, to jettison those that do not provide acceptable returns, and to step up our investment in those that work best. We will continue to learn from both our successes and our failures.
We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a sufficient probability of gaining market leadership advantages. Some of these investments will pay off, others will not, and we will have learned another valuable lesson in either case.
When forced to choose between optimizing the appearance of our GAAP accounting and maximizing the present value of future cash flows, we’ll take the cash flows.
We will share our strategic thought processes with you when we make bold choices (to the extent competitive pressures allow), so that you may evaluate for yourselves whether we are making rational long-term leadership investments.
We will work hard to spend wisely and maintain our lean culture. We understand the importance of continually reinforcing a cost-conscious culture, particularly in a business incurring net losses.
We will balance our focus on growth with emphasis on long-term profitability and capital management. At this stage, we choose to prioritize growth because we believe that scale is central to achieving the potential of our business model.
We will continue to focus on hiring and retaining versatile and talented employees, and continue to weight their compensation to stock options rather than cash. We know our success will be largely affected by our ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must think like, and therefore must actually be, an owner.
We aren’t so bold as to claim that the above is the “right” investment philosophy, but it’s ours, and we would be remiss if we weren’t clear in the approach we have taken and will continue to take.
With this foundation, we would like to turn to a review of our business focus, our progress in 1997, and our outlook for the future.
Obsess Over Customers
From the beginning, our focus has been on offering our customers compelling value. We realized that the Web was, and still is, the World Wide Wait. Therefore, we set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way, and began serving them with books. We brought them much more selection than was possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy 6 football fields), and presented it in a useful, easy- to-search, and easy-to-browse format in a store open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We maintained a dogged focus on improving the shopping experience, and in 1997 substantially enhanced our store. We now offer customers gift certificates, 1-Click shopping℠, and vastly more reviews, content, browsing options, and recommendation features. We dramatically lowered prices, further increasing customer value. Word of mouth remains the most powerful customer acquisition tool we have, and we are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in us. Repeat purchases and word of mouth have combined to make Amazon.com the market leader in online bookselling.
By many measures, Amazon.com came a long way in 1997:
Sales grew from $15.7 million in 1996 to $147.8 million – an 838% increase.
Cumulative customer accounts grew from 180,000 to 1,510,000 – a 738% increase.
The percentage of orders from repeat customers grew from over 46% in the fourth quarter of 1996 to over 58% in the same period in 1997.
In terms of audience reach, per Media Metrix, our Web site went from a rank of 90th to within the top 20.
We established long-term relationships with many important strategic partners, including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home, and Prodigy.
Infrastructure
During 1997, we worked hard to expand our business infrastructure to support these greatly increased traffic, sales, and service levels:
Amazon.com’s employee base grew from 158 to 614, and we significantly strengthened our management team.
Distribution center capacity grew from 50,000 to 285,000 square feet, including a 70% expansion of our Seattle facilities and the launch of our second distribution center in Delaware in November.
Inventories rose to over 200,000 titles at year-end, enabling us to improve availability for our customers.
Our cash and investment balances at year-end were $125 million, thanks to our initial public offering in May 1997 and our $75 million loan, affording us substantial strategic flexibility.
Our Employees
The past year’s success is the product of a talented, smart, hard-working group, and I take great pride in being a part of this team. Setting the bar high in our approach to hiring has been, and will continue to be, the single most important element of Amazon.com’s success.
It’s not easy to work here (when I interview people I tell them, “You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three”), but we are working to build something important, something that matters to our customers, something that we can all tell our grandchildren about. Such things aren’t meant to be easy. We are incredibly fortunate to have this group of dedicated employees whose sacrifices and passion build Amazon.com.
Goals for 1998
We are still in the early stages of learning how to bring new value to our customers through Internet commerce and merchandising. Our goal remains to continue to solidify and extend our brand and customer base. This requires sustained investment in systems and infrastructure to support outstanding customer convenience, selection, and service while we grow. We are planning to add music to our product offering, and over time we believe that other products may be prudent investments. We also believe there are significant opportunities to better serve our customers overseas, such as reducing delivery times and better tailoring the customer experience. To be certain, a big part of the challenge for us will lie not in finding new ways to expand our business, but in prioritizing our investments.
We now know vastly more about online commerce than when Amazon.com was founded, but we still have so much to learn. Though we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency. The challenges and hurdles we will face to make our long-term vision for Amazon.com a reality are several: aggressive, capable, well-funded competition; considerable growth challenges and execution risk; the risks of product and geographic expansion; and the need for large continuing investments to meet an expanding market opportunity. However, as we’ve long said, online bookselling, and online commerce in general, should prove to be a very large market, and it’s likely that a number of companies will see significant benefit. We feel good about what we’ve done, and even more excited about what we want to do.
1997 was indeed an incredible year. We at Amazon.com are grateful to our customers for their business and trust, to each other for our hard work, and to our shareholders for their support and encouragement.
Jeffrey P. Bezos
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, Inc.
Reference
2017 Letter to Shareholders
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