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典重读 | 亚马逊股东信(1997)
焦俊
此文是贝索斯在亚马逊上市首年写给投资者的信。贝索斯出身投行，深知价值观对于一个企业的重要性。文中着重强调了亚马逊的价值观：我们的成功标准是能够为股东创造长期价值；而实现这一目标必须以客户为中心。亚马逊1997年上市时正处在互联网大潮方兴未艾之际，市场上对于互联网概念趋之若鹜。在此背景下，贝索斯对长期价值与短期盈利的取舍更显得弥足珍贵。贝索斯每年都会将此文附在给股东信之后，以重申亚马逊对价值观的一以贯之，足见此文的重要性。我们谨以此文作为经典重读的开篇，以餮读者。
——国盛社服
致我们的股东：
亚马逊在1997年跨过了许多里程碑：截至年底，我们服务的用户超过了150万，营收增长了838%，达到了1.478亿美元，并在当前非常激烈的市场竞争中强化了我们的市场领导地位。
但是这只是互联网产业发展的“第一天”[1]，也只是亚马逊发展道路的“第一天”（如果我们在未来能够做得更好的话）。如今，电子商务为用户节省了开支和宝贵的时间。在未来，通过“个性化”服务，我们将会加速在电子商务这个领域的探索之旅。
一直以来，亚马逊都在用互联网为用户创造真正的价值，与此同时，我们希望通过这样能建立起经久不衰的专营权，不管是对于既有的市场抑或是更大的市场。
我们为卖家提供了一个投入资源、寻求网络商机的平台，也为愿意建立崭新关系的买家提供了一个全新的网购平台。这种极富竞争性的视野正在迅猛地进化。很多卖家已经通过网络信用支付将其业务搬到网络上，并且致力于持续的能量和资源投入，以获得关注、流量以及销售业绩。我们的目标就是在其它新的电子商务领域追求网络商机的同时，尽快强化并拓宽自身目前的市场地位。我们在目标市场中看到了长期可持续的发展机会。这种发展战略并非完全没有风险：它需要审慎的投资和果敢的执行力，以对抗那些已经建立起根深蒂固的专营权的所谓行业领导者。
一切以长期价值为中心
我们相信，衡量我们是否成功的一个最基本的标准，就在于我们是否为股东创造了长期价值。这种价值直接来自于我们巩固并拓展市场领导地位的能力。我们的市场领导地位越强大，我们的商业模式越具有竞争力。强大的市场领导地位能带来更高的收入，更多的利润，更快的资金周转速度，以及更强大的资本回报率。
一直以来，我们所做的每个决策都反映了这一点。从一开始，我们就将我们的市场领导地位指标化：用户增长率、收入增长率、用户回头率、品牌力量。为了建立一个持续的专营权，我们已经并会继续发起投资攻势，借助杠杆的力量扩大用户基数，强化我们的品牌，加强基础设施建设。
由于我们专注于长期发展，我们所做的很多决策以及衡量得失的方法都有别于其它一些企业。因此，我们希望与您们分享我们的基本管理和决策方法，以向我们的股东证实这完全符合您们的投资哲学：
我们将继续毫无保留地专注于用户至上的理念。
我们的投资决策将继续基于“长期市场领导地位”这一目标，而非关注短期的盈利以及华尔街的短期反应。
我们将继续批判地评估我们的项目以及投资决策的有效性，以果断抛弃那些不能提供相应回报的项目，而追加投资那些运作良好的项目。同时，我们将继续从我们的成功及失败中汲取经验教训。
我们将毫不犹豫地投资那些有助于提升我们市场领导力的机会。这些投资有的可能会得益，有的或许不会，但我们至少能从每一个案例中汲取有价值的经验教训。
如果一定要在最优化GAAP报表[2]和最大化未来现金流二者之间做出选择，我们会选择后者。
我们在做大胆的投资决策（竞争压力可行性范围内）时，会与您们分享我们的战略决策流程，以让您们评估这样的长远投资决策是否理性。
我们会努力优化精简开支，保持我们精益生产的企业文化。我们明白持续建立合理管控成本这种企业文化的重要性，特别是对于那些正在亏损的项目。
我们会平衡长期盈利与资本管理二者之间的关系。在这个阶段，我们会把市场增长放在第一位，因为我们相信，一定的企业规模是实现我们这种商业模式的潜能最为核心的基础。
我们会继续专注于雇用并留住那些全方位发展、极具天赋的人才，继续向他们提供更多的股权激励，而非现金。我们深知，我们能否取得成功就在于我们能否吸引并留住那些积极进取的员工，这样的员工一定是能从公司的主人翁地位出发进行思考的人。
我们不敢贸然宣称我们的上述战略就是“正确”的投资哲学，但这至少就是属于我们的投资哲学。而我们如果连自己已经采取并会继续使用的发展方法都不清楚，那只能被解释为玩忽职守。
在此基础上，我们准备回顾一下我们的业务重点、我们在1997年取得的进步以及我们对未来的展望。
关注用户需求
一开始，我们就专注于为用户带来价值。我们意识到，网络曾经是、并且仍然是举世瞩目的焦点。因此，我们开始为用户提供一些他们无法从其他途径获取的东西，并开始向他们提供图书销售服务。我们向用户提供比实体书店更丰富的选择（我们现在的仓库面积相当于六个足球场大小），我们所有的书籍商品都能随时随地方便地搜索和浏览。我们坚持提升购物体验，并于1997年大规模地对我们的线上书店进行优化改进。亚马逊目前能够提供优惠券、一键购物[3]更多评论、内容、浏览选择、以及产品推荐等多种功能。同时，我们大幅度地降低了商品的售价，更大程度上提升用户价值。口碑依旧是我们吸引用户最有力的武器，我们也十分感激用户给予我们的信任。高回头率和良好的口碑共同铸就了亚马逊在线上图书销售市场的领先地位。
1997年，亚马逊在各种指标上都取得了突出的成绩
销售额从1996年的1570万美元，增至1.478亿美元，同比增速高达838%。
累计用户账户由18万增至151万，同比增速为738%。
用户回头率由1996年Q4时的46%，增至1997年Q4时的58%。
据MediaMetrix统计，亚马逊网站的用户使用率[4]排名由90名，升至20名。
我们和AmericaOnline、Yahoo、Excite、Netscape、GeoCities、AltaVista、@Home、Prodigy等公司建立了长期战略合作关系。
基础设施建设
1997年，为了支撑我们快速增长的流量、销售、以及服务水平，我们努力扩大了公司基础设施：
亚马逊的员工从158人大幅增至614人，管理团队也进行了重要的扩充。
仓储物流中心从之前的5万平方英尺扩充到了28.5万平方英尺，其中包括我们扩充了近70%的西雅图设施，以及11月份在特拉华州建立的第二个仓储中心。
截至年底，我们的库存增加到了20万种，这使得我们能为消费者提供更多的选择。
我们的现金及投资余额在年底达到了1.25亿美元，这得益于亚马逊在1997年5月份的IPO以及7500万美元的贷款。充裕的资金保证了我们战略执行过程中更具灵活性。
我们的员工
过去一年的成功是我们这群极具天赋、聪明能干的员工团队共同努力的结果，我为自己是其中一员感到非常的自豪。打造一个高标准、高质量的招聘流程体系，是我们一直以来并将长期坚持的一项工作，因为这是亚马逊未来成功道路上最为重要的因素。
在这里工作并不那么容易（当我面试求职者时，我对他们说，“完成一项任务，你有三种方法：长时间工作、非常努力地工作、或者非常高效率地工作；但是在亚马逊，这三种方法必须同时使用，缺一不可”），但是我们会努力建立一些非常重要的工作方法，特别是关系到我们用户的内容，这甚至是我们可以给我们的子孙们讲的一些东西，这一切并不容易。但是幸运的是，我们拥有这样一群乐于付出、拥有牺牲精神并极富激情的团队，是他们打造出了今天的亚马逊。
1998年的目标
对于怎样通过电子商务和网络交易为我们的用户创造新的价值，我们目前仍处于早期的学习阶段。我们的目标仍然是巩固并努力拓展我们的用户群体，以及提升我们的品牌知名度。这需要我们加大对系统及其它基础设施的持续投入，以便为我们的用户提供更便捷、更多选择的服务。我们计划将音乐纳入我们的产品范围，并且随着时间的推移，我们相信其它一些产品也将会是我们谨慎的投资对象。我们也相信，提升服务海外用户的能力，包括缩短配送时间以及增强更好的用户体验等，将给我们带来巨大的机遇。确切地说，一个对我们目前最具挑战性的难题，不是寻找新的商业扩展途径，而在于如何划分我们投资的优先级顺序。
相较于亚马逊刚刚建立之日，我们现在对电子商务了解的更加透彻，但是我们仍然有很多东西需要学习。尽管我们对未来充满了信心，我们必须时刻保持警惕和紧迫感。在实现我们长期愿景的路途中，我们将面对如下一些困难及挑战：那些激进的、有能力的、资金丰富的竞争对手；持续增加的挑战与运作风险；产品与市场扩充所带来的风险；市场扩张中不可避免的持续投入资金。然而，正如我们一直所强调的，总体来看，网络书店，以及电子商务将会被证明是一个具有巨大机会的庞大市场，极有可能有很多企业会从中获取巨大收益。我们对目前所做的一切感到非常满意，也对我们将来要做的事情感到兴奋。
1997年是非凡的一年。亚马逊向我们所有的用户表示感谢，感谢他们的业务支持与信任，感谢所有辛勤工作的每一位员工，同时要感谢我们的股东，今天的成功离不开您们的支持与鼓励。
杰弗里·贝索斯
亚马逊公司创始人、首席执行官
[1]译者注：“第一天”原文为Day1，这个词会在今后每年的致股东信中反复出现，与2016年致股东信中的“第二天”（Day2）相对应。前者意为企业发展之初充满活力的阶段，后者意为企业业绩放缓、逐渐丧失活力的停滞期。
[2]译者注：GAAP全称为GenerallyAccepted
Accounting
Principles，即一般公认会计准则。GAAP报表即为在一般公认会计准则下披露的财务报表。
[3]译者注：“一键购物”，原文为“1-Click”Shopping，可使某一网店的回头客只需用点击一下鼠标便完成商品的购买，这样用户就不用再次输入信用卡卡号以及个人信息。
[4]译者注：用户使用率原文为audience
reach，指在某个月使用某一特定搜索引擎的用户在所有互联网用户中所占比例。
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.
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(SM)
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.
（特别鸣谢本文编辑：陈俊彦）
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来自： xindiandengshw > 《但斌》
