Amazon Crosses the USD 1 Trillion Mark, Launches Hindi Website in India

After tech giant Apple last month, another American company, the e-commerce major Amazon has now crossed the 1 trillion-dollar mark at the stock market. Trading at USD 2,050.27 yesterday afternoon, Amazon shares lifted the firm’s market valuation to more than a trillion dollars.

Based in Seattle, the company was founded by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore in 1994. Now, the company owns several successful businesses worldwide, including the American newspaper, The Washington Post, and counts subsidiaries like CreateSpace, Goodreads, and Shelfari.

Amazon and Embassy Group to Launch Alexa-Enabled Smart Homes

With regards to revenue and market capitalization, the company is the largest Internet retailer in the world, and second largest in terms of total sales, the first being the Alibaba Group. Amazon’s story of market disruption is the stuff of legends, with millions of customers across several countries. The firm has separate retail websites for US, UK, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the US by market capitalization in 2015.  This year, Amazon stocks have soared by 75% taking its market capitalization to a whooping USD 435 billion. This number is the combined market capitalization of America’s top three retailers, Walmart, Costco and, Target.

Also, with the increased popularity of the company’s Echo speakers and the virtual assistant Alexa, Amazon has plans to start its first TV campaign for its music-streaming service, featuring ads with songs from the likes of Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, and Queen. The move is being seen as part of a bigger scene that will include billboards, online video, and radio, in countries like US, UK, and Germany.

In India, Amazon has collaborated with the Embassy Group to bring Alexa-enabled smart homes. In fact, Amazon’s presence in India has increased considerably in the past few years ever since they entered the Indian e-commerce market in February 2012 with the launch of online shopping service Junglee.

Amazon Go is Inspiring AI in Retail

Last year Amazon tried to buy a sizeable stake in its toughest competitor Flipkart offering a ‘breakup fee’ of around USD 1-2 billion. However, the deal was given to Walmart, which has now entered the Indian e-commerce space.

This week, Amazon has also launched the Hindi version of its online shopping website in India, catering to Android mobile users. The move is targeting shoppers in tier ll and lll Indian cities. Currently, their website is available in over five international languages.

Amazon has also invested in futuristic projects like Amazon Go, which are AI-based self-shopping stores, and recently, Bezos has suggested a plan to create a permanent human colony on the Moon.