1997年Amazon致股東信：在Day 1定義長期主義價值觀｜見識之旅

導讀

這封信是1997年Amazon的第1封致股東信。

Amazon創始人Jeff Bezos在做決策時，偏好選擇做那個「日後悔恨最小」的決策。於是，看上互聯網巨大潛力的Jeff Bezos，毅然決然離開華爾街對沖基金D. E. Shaw & Co.，開始他的車庫創業之路。

1994年7月5日，Jeff Bezos創立了Cadabra，這間公司後來改名為Amazon，就是這一系列致股東信的主角。

1997年5月15日，Amazon於納斯達克證券市場進行IPO。 由於Jeff Bezos的長期主義使然，Amazon並不急於在短期內實現大幅盈利，這引起股東們的不滿。

於是，從1998年開始，Jeff Bezos每年都給股東們寫信。

在這封第一封，也是回顧1997年公司表現的致股東信中，Jeff Bezos除了提供各式數據指標，更重要的是完整闡述Amazon的「長期主義」價值觀，以及「顧客至上」的信念。

那段經常被用於說明Amazon長期主義的話，也出自這封1997年致股東信：「當被迫在優化會計報表和最大化未來現金流的現值之間做選擇時，我們會選擇現金流。」

向股東闡述價值觀，是為了讓股東辨別自己是否投資了想要投資的公司，希望股東不要只看帳面上的盈利數字。

在日後的致股東信及公司表現，我們可以看到，Amazon確實把長期主義和顧客至上的精神發揮到極致，一直瘋狂地走在這條路上。

Amazon的技術不斷迭代，但長期主義的方向一直沒變，這也使得這封定義Amazon「長期主義」的致股東信更具意義。

好了，導讀結束，以下致股東信正文開始。

正文

To our shareholders:

致我們的股東：

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.

1997年，Amazon達到了幾個里程碑：到年底為止，我們一共服務了超過150萬消費者，帶來1億4780萬的收入，提升838%。儘管競爭激烈，依然拓展了Amazon的市場領先地位。

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.

然而，這只是互聯網的第一日（Day 1）。若我們做得好，也只是Amazon的第一日。今天，電子商務（Online Commerce）節省了消費者的金錢和寶貴的時間。明天，透過個性化服務，電子商務將會加速人們發掘新事物的過程。Amazon持續利用互聯網帶給消費者價值，希望即使是在成熟的大型市場中，也能建立一個近乎特許的市場領先地位。

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.

我們目前有機會以頭部玩家的身分，整合我們的資源，尋求與新的電子商務用戶建立關係的機會。電子商務的競爭格局持續快速發展。許多頭部玩家來到線上，並提供可觀的優惠補助，投入相當大的精力和資源來提高知名度、提升流量和銷量。我們的目標是快速鞏固與拓展我們現今的市場地位，同時開始尋求其他領域的電子商務機會。在我們的目標市場，我們看到相當大的機會。這個戰略不是沒有風險：它需要大量的投資和清晰明快的執行，以應對目標市場既有的領先玩家。

It’s All About the Long Term

這一切關乎長期

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.

我們深信，衡量成功的根本標準是我們為股東創造多少長期價值。我們拓展和鞏固市場領先地位的能力，將會直接成為我們的長期價值。我們的市場領先地位越強大，我們的商業模式就越強大。市場領先地位可以直接解讀為更高的收益、更強的獲利能力、更快的資本周轉速度，和更高的資本投資回報。

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.

我們的決策始終反映了這個重點。衡量我們的市場領先狀況，我們用的是最具代表的指標：消費者增長和收益增長、消費者重複購買次數，以及我們的品牌力量。我們過去持續投資於擴大客戶群、品牌和基礎設施，隨著我們的市場領先地位日益鞏固，我們還將繼續積極投資於此。

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:

因為我們重視長期勝於短期，經過權衡取捨，我們也許會做出與某些公司不一樣的決定。因此，我們想要和你分享我們的基本的管理和決策方法，讓身為我們股東的你，可以確認它與你的投資理念一致。

We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers.

我們將會持續致力於服務客戶。

• 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.
• 我們將會持續根據長期市場領先地位做投資決策，而不是短期獲利能力或是華爾街的短期反應。
• 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.
• 我們將會持續衡量我們的計畫和投資的有效性，捨棄僅能提供低回報的投資，加大表現最好的投資。我們將會持續從成功和失敗中學習。
• 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.
• 當獲得市場領先地位的可能性足夠大時，我們將會做大膽的投資決策。有些投資會獲得回報，有些則不會。無論是否獲得回報，我們將會從投資中學習。
• 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.
• 當被迫在優化會計報表和最大化未來現金流的現值之間做選擇時，我們會選擇現金流。
• 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.
• 在允許的情況下，當我們做大膽的決策時，我們會和你分享我們決策過程中的思考，這樣一來你就能評估我們是否在做合理的長期投資決策。
• 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.
• 我們將理性花費金錢並維持我們的精益文化。我們了解強調注重成本的文化是多麼的重要，尤其是在一間淨虧損的公司裡。
• 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.
• 我們將會在長期獲利能力增長和資本管理之間取得平衡。在此階段，我們優先考慮增長，因為我們認為規模對商業模式至關重要。
• 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.
• 我們將會持續注重聘雇與留用有才能的員工，以股票選擇權而非現金來衡量他們的貢獻。我們知道成功將奠基於我們是否能吸引人才，並建立一個積極進取的人才庫。因為每個員工都必須像個老闆一樣去思考，因此員工本身必須就是Amazon的老闆，這就是為什麼我們提供員工股票選擇權。

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.

我們不敢大膽地說以上是「正確」的投資哲學，但它的確是我們的投資哲學。如果我們對自己過去採用，並在未來持續採用的投資哲學都不清楚，那麼我們將會懈怠疏忽。

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.

在此基礎上，我們回顧一下我們的業務重點，1997年的進展以及未來展望。

Obsess Over Customers

一切為了消費者

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.

從一開始，我們的重點一直都是向消費者提供價值。我們意識到，Web以前是，而且現在依然只是全球範圍的等待（World Wide Wait）。因此，我們著手為消費者提供無法在別處得到的東西，並開始向他們提供書籍。我們帶給他們遠超實體店面的書籍選擇（Amazon商店的書籍可以佔滿6個足球場），在一年365天，每天24小時開放的商店中，以實用、易於搜索和瀏覽的方式展售書籍。我們執著於改進消費體驗，並於1997年大幅改進商店。我們現在向消費者提供禮券、一鍵購物，以及更多的評論、內容、瀏覽選擇和推薦功能。我們大幅降低價格，進一步向消費者提供更多價值。口碑仍是我們最強大的獲客手段。對於消費者的信任，我們很感謝。重複購買和口碑，兩者結合造就Amazon在書籍電商領域的市場領先地位。

By many measures, Amazon.com came a long way in 1997:

從許多方面來看，Amazon在1997年取得了長足的進步：

• Sales grew from $15.7 million in 1996 to $147.8 million — an 838% increase.
• 消費額增長838%，從1996年的1570萬，提升到1億4780萬。
• Cumulative customer accounts grew from 180,000 to 1,510,000 — a 738% increase.
• 消費者帳戶數增長738%，從18萬，提升到151萬。
• 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.
• 1996年第四季度，由舊用戶購買產生的訂單，佔整體訂單的46%，1997年第四季度則提升至超過58%。
• In terms of audience reach, per Media Metrix, our Web site went from a rank of 90th to within the top 20.
• 從受眾觸及的角度而言，Amazon的網站排名從90名，提升到前20名。
• We established long-term relationships with many important strategic partners, including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home, and Prodigy.
• 我們與以下重要戰略夥伴建立長期關係：美國線上（America Online）、雅虎（Yahoo!）、入口網站Excite、網景（Netscape）、地球村（GeoCities）、搜尋引擎AltaVista、零售商@Home和線上服務商Prodigy。

Infrastructure

關於基礎建設

During 1997, we worked hard to expand our business infrastructure to support these greatly increased traffic, sales, and service levels:

為了支撐起這些大幅增加的流量、銷售和服務水平，在1997年，我們努力拓展基礎建設：

• Amazon.com’s employee base grew from 158 to 614, and we significantly strengthened our management team.
• Amazon的員工從158人提升至614人，我們大幅加強管理團隊。
• 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.
• 配送中心從5萬平方英尺提升至28萬5千平方英尺，其中包含我們西雅圖工廠擴建70%空間，以及我們位於特拉華州（Delaware），11月要啟動的第二個配送中心。
• Inventories rose to over 200,000 titles at year-end, enabling us to improve availability for our customers.
• 到了年底，存貨將超過20萬種，消費者將會有更多選擇。
• 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.
• 得益於1997年5月的首次公開募股，以及7500萬美元的貸款，到年底，我們的現金和投資餘額為1億2500萬，為我們提供了極大的戰略靈活性。

Our Employees

關於員工

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.

一個才華洋溢、聰明且勤奮的團隊，造就了過去一年的成功，身為團隊的一份子，我感到很自豪。在招聘中樹立高標準，一直是而且將繼續成為Amazon成功的最重要元素。

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.

在Amazon工作並不容易（當我面試時，我告訴面試者「你可以長期、努力或聰明地工作，但在Amazon你三項都要具備），我們正在努力打造一些對消費者來說很重要的東西，那些是值得告訴孫子孫女的東西。這樣的事必然不容易。我們非常幸運地擁有一群敬業的員工，他們的奉獻精神和熱情造就了Amazon。

Goals for 1998

關於明年目標

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.

我們仍處於早期階段，學習著如何透過電子商務提供消費者新價值。我們的目標依然是繼續鞏固和拓展我們的品牌和消費族群。這要求我們持續在系統和基礎建設上進行投資，在我們不斷成長的同時，提供傑出的服務。我們計畫將音樂加入到我們提供的產品選項中，其他產品則是我們認為須謹慎對待的投資選項。我們認為有很多機會可以為海外客戶提供更好的服務，例如減少交貨時間和打造更好的消費體驗。可以肯定的是，對我們而言，最大的挑戰不是尋找拓展業務的新方法，而是對投資進行優先排序。

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.

與Amazon成立之初相比，我們現在對電子商務的了解增加許多，但是我們還有很多東西要學習。儘管我們很樂觀，但我們必須持續警惕並保持緊迫感。為實現Amazon的長期願景，我們將面臨的挑戰與障礙包括：與積極、有能力且資金充裕的對手競爭；巨大的增長挑戰和執行風險；產品和地域擴張的風險；以及為了滿足不斷擴大的市場所需的大量投資。然而，正如我們前面早已說過的，線上圖書銷售和整個電子商務應該是一個非常大的市場，並且很可能會有許多公司從中受益。我們認為我們所做的事情是好事，而且對於我們想做的事情感到更加興奮。

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.

1997年確實是令人難以置信的一年。Amazon對客戶的信任、員工的辛勤工作，以及股東的支持和鼓勵充滿感謝。

/s/ JEFFREY P. BEZOS

Jeffrey P. Bezos

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Amazon.com, Inc.

傑夫·貝佐斯

Amazon創始人暨CEO

以上就是1997年Amazon致股東信。

想看隔年的Amazon致股東信，請至《1998年Amazon致股東信：瘋狂增長，根基是扎實的基礎建設》。

想看全系列導讀目錄，請至《Amazon 1997–2019年致股東信導讀目錄》。