Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and Other Finance-Related Anecdotes

I recently received an email that said Amazon sold 20 million items in 1999 and generated an annual revenue of just over $1.6 billion. Two decades later, in 2019 Amazon, sold over 175 million products in a single day (Amazon Prime Day) and the revenue for the year was a whopping $280.5 billion. Said differently, in 2019 Amazon was generating more revenue every two days than it was making in a full year back in 1999.

When Amazon became a publicly traded company in May 1997, you could have bought shares for $1.50. For $150 you could have owned 100 shares of Amazon stock. Currently, the price of Amazon stock (AMZN) is $3,292 per share, but that does not mean your initial 100 shares  ($150) would be worth $329,200. The company had several stock splits while it was in early growth mode and you would actually now have 12 times that amount or nearly four million dollars. 

You don't have $150 to invest in the next Amazon? You probably spent more than that on Amazon Prime in a couple years or your cable bill in a few months or eating out (before Covid).

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There really aren't that many Amazons, are there? Ummm...  Actually, there are more than you think.

For more on this topic, read my story in the Data Driven Investor on Medium.  It includes an important reminder about risk.

Here is the Friend Link. 

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