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HomeNewsTrendsWatch: 1997 video of Jeff Bezos giving a demo of Amazon’s website

Watch: 1997 video of Jeff Bezos giving a demo of Amazon’s website

Jeff Bezos retweeted a 1997 video which showed him giving a demo of the Amazon website, showing the selection of books and the discounts on offer.

January 06, 2022 / 14:55 IST
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos retweeted the 25-year-old video on Thursday.

When Amazon first launched in 1995, it was a website that only sold books. But, founder Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company's explosive growth. He knew he  wanted Amazon to be "an everything store."

On Thursday, Bezos retweeted a 1997 video shared by journalist Jon Erlichman which showed the Amazon founder giving a demo of the company website, showing the selection of books and the discounts on offer.

In the video, recorded at an Amazon warehouse in Seattle, Bezos can be heard explaining how others always offer bestselling books at a 30% discount, but not the best books.

"One of the things we always thought was that the bestsellers are always discounted at 30%, but the best books are rarely discounted 30%. So, in addition to discounting the best sellers, we also decided to discount the every book that's reviewed by the New York Times every week by 30%," Bezos says in the 25-year-old video.

Read more: Jeff Bezos's friendly warning to Leonardo DiCaprio as viral video shows girlfriend, actor chatting

Several Twitter users seemed to love the "throwback" video. "OMG, I can't be the only one to miss the books-only main page they had for so long," said Rob Baker. "Loved it. I actually miss that there is no more store now as such - everything on their pages seems to show what they think are your personal preferences," he tweeted.

Another user, Rick Shiba commented, "Damn smart to discount the NYTs book of the week etc."

Apart from the use of Netscape browser, Twitter users also commented on Bezos's transformation over the years.

Read more: Billionaire yearbook photos: We've recognised Elon Musk, can you recognise the rest?

Twitter user Kaie found that Bezos looks younger now that he did 25 years ago, while another user Rob Peterson commented, "I don't know about younger, but his physical transformation has been significant."

The world's richest man had recently made headlines after he shared photos of his disco-themed New Year's party--which he hosted with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez--in which he was dressed in a colourful printed shirt and heart-shaped shades.

Ankita Sengupta
first published: Jan 6, 2022 02:35 pm

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