致我們的股東、顧客和員工：

過(guò)去的三年半一直令人振奮劈伴。1998年密末，我們已累計(jì)為620萬(wàn)名用戶提供了服務(wù)；我們的年收入達(dá)10億美元跛璧；在美國(guó)严里，我們新上線音樂(lè)、視頻及禮品店赡模；英國(guó)和德國(guó)的亞馬遜網(wǎng)站今年開(kāi)始運(yùn)營(yíng)田炭；就在最近，我們啟動(dòng)了亞馬遜拍賣業(yè)務(wù)漓柑。

我們預(yù)計(jì)下一個(gè)三年半將會(huì)更加激動(dòng)人心教硫。我們致力于打造一個(gè)購(gòu)物平臺(tái)叨吮，數(shù)億用戶將在線上選購(gòu)商品，在這里可以買到想要尋找的一切商品瞬矩。這才真正是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的“ Day 1”茶鉴。如果我們經(jīng)營(yíng)得當(dāng)，這依然會(huì)是亞馬遜的“ Day 1”景用。目前來(lái)看這或許難以想象涵叮，但我們認(rèn)為，我們面臨的機(jī)遇和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)將比過(guò)去更為巨大伞插。我們將有意識(shí)地做出許多決定割粮，其中將不乏大膽、突破常規(guī)的決策媚污。我們希望有些最終能取得成功舀瓢。當(dāng)然，有些決定也難免犯錯(cuò)耗美。

回顧1998年（A Recap of 1998）

專注于用戶體驗(yàn)幫助我們?cè)?998年取得十分大的進(jìn)步：

?? 銷售額由1997年的1.48億美元增加至1998年的6.1億美元京髓，同比增速為313%；

?? 累計(jì)用戶數(shù)由1997年底的150萬(wàn)增加至1998年底的620萬(wàn)商架，增長(zhǎng)超過(guò)300%堰怨；

?? 不僅新增用戶增速驚人，亞馬遜網(wǎng)站的重復(fù)購(gòu)買率由1997年第四季度的58%增加至1998年第四季度的64%蛇摸。

?? 我們產(chǎn)品擴(kuò)張的第一步---亞馬遜音樂(lè)店备图，在上線第一個(gè)季度后，就成為了行業(yè)領(lǐng)先的在線音樂(lè)零售商皇型。

?? 我們將Amazon.co.uk和Amazon.de 塑造成為英德兩國(guó)市場(chǎng)上領(lǐng)先在線書店诬烹，1998年第四季度，亞馬遜英國(guó)和德國(guó)店第四季度的銷售額環(huán)比增長(zhǎng)近四倍弃鸦。

?? 在推出亞馬遜音樂(lè)店后绞吁，1998年11月我們又相繼推出了影視和禮品店 ，我們僅僅用了6周的時(shí)間就成為行業(yè)領(lǐng)先的在線視頻商唬格。

?? 1998年第四季度家破，亞馬遜25%的銷售額來(lái)自Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, 以及亞馬遜網(wǎng)站上新提供的音樂(lè)、影視购岗、禮品銷售幾項(xiàng)新起的業(yè)務(wù)汰聋。

?? 我們通過(guò)創(chuàng)新，如一鍵購(gòu)物（1-Click Shopping）喊积、銷售排行（store-wide sales rank）烹困、禮品點(diǎn)擊（Gift Click）、以及即時(shí)推薦等來(lái)大幅改善用戶體驗(yàn)乾吻。

?? 1998年公司的營(yíng)收和客戶增長(zhǎng)髓梅，以及如何確保1999年的持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)拟蜻，將依賴于我們基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施的擴(kuò)張。

?? 1998年公司員工總數(shù)由600左右增加到超過(guò)2100枯饿，公司管理層隊(duì)伍不斷壯大酝锅。

?? 我們?cè)谟ⅰ⒌聝蓢?guó)建立了物流和客戶服務(wù)中心奢方。在1999年初搔扁，我們宣布在Fernley, Nevada租賃了一個(gè)面積達(dá)323，000平方英尺的高效的物流中心蟋字，這將會(huì)使我們目前物流能力翻番稿蹲，同時(shí)也會(huì)使進(jìn)一步提高我們配送服務(wù)速度。

?? 庫(kù)存由1998年初的900萬(wàn)美元增加至年末的3000萬(wàn)美元鹊奖，庫(kù)存的增加提高了我們的產(chǎn)品供應(yīng)能力场绿。與此同時(shí)，我們也可通過(guò)從制造商那邊直接采購(gòu)的方式嫉入，來(lái)降低成本。

?? 我們的現(xiàn)金和投資余額目前已超過(guò)15億美元（其中包括了1998年5月發(fā)行的高息債以及1999年發(fā)行的可轉(zhuǎn)債）璧尸，這在很大程度上增強(qiáng)了我們的財(cái)務(wù)實(shí)力和保證了公司戰(zhàn)略的靈活性咒林。

熱衷于投資并精簡(jiǎn)高效（cash-favored and capital efficient）的商業(yè)模式，帶給我們成長(zhǎng)爷光，對(duì)此我們感到很幸運(yùn)垫竞。我們不需要建立實(shí)體店和為分別為它們建設(shè)庫(kù)房，亞馬遜集中管理的倉(cāng)儲(chǔ)物流模式蛀序，可以使我們?cè)趦H僅投入3000萬(wàn)美元廠房和3000萬(wàn)美元設(shè)備欢瞪，便可獲得10億美元的銷售額。在1998年徐裸，我們共產(chǎn)生了3100萬(wàn)美元的運(yùn)營(yíng)現(xiàn)金流遣鼓，這一數(shù)字要比我們固定資產(chǎn)總值多2800萬(wàn)美元。

我們的客戶（Our Customers）

我們力圖建立一個(gè)全球最大的以客戶為中心的公司重贺。我們堅(jiān)持這一理念——用戶是有洞察能力的骑祟，是明智的，品牌形象必須名副其實(shí)气笙，不能倒過(guò)來(lái)次企。我們的客戶告訴我們，他們之所以選擇亞馬遜潜圃，并能夠口碑相傳缸棵，是因?yàn)椋覀冞@里的選擇多谭期，操作簡(jiǎn)單堵第，價(jià)格低并且服務(wù)好吧凉。

但我們不能自滿而懈怠。我經(jīng)常提醒員工們每天早上起來(lái)后要有危機(jī)感型诚。我們擔(dān)心的不是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)客燕，而是我們的客戶。用戶成就了我們狰贯，他們與我們息息相關(guān)也搓，我們要對(duì)他們負(fù)很大的責(zé)任。我們希望他們始終保持著對(duì)亞馬遜的忠誠(chéng)度涵紊，除非誰(shuí)能提供更周到的服務(wù)傍妒。

我們必須不斷堅(jiān)持改進(jìn)、探索摸柄、創(chuàng)新颤练。我們喜歡做開(kāi)拓者，這就是亞馬遜的DNA驱负，我們需要這種開(kāi)拓精神帶給我們成功嗦玖，因此，這非常好跃脊。不斷的創(chuàng)新和和堅(jiān)持以用戶體驗(yàn)為核心宇挫，使得我們與眾不同，對(duì)此我們感到很自豪酪术。我們?cè)?998年的所做的一切就反映了這一點(diǎn)：跟亞馬遜美國(guó)書店一樣器瘪，音樂(lè)、影視绘雁、英國(guó)和德國(guó)新店都成為了最好的產(chǎn)品橡疼。

努力并樂(lè)于工作、成就歷史（WorkHard, Have Fun, Make History）

如果沒(méi)有非凡的人才庐舟，在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)中是不可能取得如此成就的欣除。但創(chuàng)造歷史并不是一件容易的事，我們現(xiàn)在擁有2100名聰明继阻、勤快耻涛、熱情的員工，他們將服務(wù)客戶視為己任瘟檩。設(shè)置較高的人才招聘門檻抹缕，在過(guò)去以及今后仍將成為亞馬遜成功的一個(gè)重要因素。

招聘期間墨辛，我們要求應(yīng)聘者在做決定之前考慮下面三個(gè)問(wèn)題：

你欽佩這類人嗎卓研？（Will youadmire this person?）

仔細(xì)想想你生命中令你欽佩的人，他們可能是你學(xué)習(xí)的榜樣。對(duì)于我來(lái)說(shuō)奏赘，我總是努力與我所欽佩的人打交道寥闪， 我鼓勵(lì)員工也去這樣做。

這個(gè)人能提高團(tuán)隊(duì)的效率嗎磨淌？（Will thisperson raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they are entering?）

我們招聘人才的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)還會(huì)繼續(xù)提高疲憋。 我要求應(yīng)聘者設(shè)想公司未來(lái)五年發(fā)展情況。從這一點(diǎn)來(lái)講梁只，亞馬遜所有員工都應(yīng)該說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)太高了吧缚柳？”，我很高心自己能進(jìn)入亞馬遜搪锣。

這個(gè)人在哪些方面是superstar秋忙？（Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?）

亞馬遜員工中有許多人都身懷絕技，擁有獨(dú)特的興趣愛(ài)好和想法构舟，這些都可以活躍我們的工作氣氛灰追。我知道某員工曾是1978年的“全國(guó)拼字比賽”冠軍。我想狗超，盡管這些可能在平時(shí)用不到弹澎，但如果你偶爾在大廳里攔住她，挑戰(zhàn)他努咐，必將活躍工作氣氛裁奇。

1999年目標(biāo)（Goals for 1999）

我認(rèn)為未來(lái)整個(gè)電商的機(jī)會(huì)是巨大的，1999年將會(huì)成為重要一年麦撵。盡管亞馬遜已經(jīng)建立了一個(gè)領(lǐng)先地位，但可以肯定的是溃肪，行業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)將會(huì)進(jìn)一步加劇免胃。我們將加大投資來(lái)打造一個(gè)擁有數(shù)10億美元營(yíng)收，上千萬(wàn)用戶的高效運(yùn)營(yíng)平臺(tái)惫撰。

盡管這種投資成本很大羔沙，同時(shí)存在諸多不確定性。但我們認(rèn)為厨钻，這些投資將會(huì)給用戶提供最好的端對(duì)端體驗(yàn)扼雏，為投資者帶來(lái)低風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的長(zhǎng)期價(jià)值。

1999年的計(jì)劃可能不會(huì)超出你的預(yù)料：

物流能力：我們打算建立一個(gè)龐大的物流中心來(lái)保證用戶所需的訂單夯膀，并實(shí)現(xiàn)快速與產(chǎn)品庫(kù)存對(duì)接诗充。

系統(tǒng)能力：我們將提升我們的系統(tǒng)能力，來(lái)匹配業(yè)務(wù)增長(zhǎng)诱建。系統(tǒng)團(tuán)隊(duì)的艱巨任務(wù)包括：擴(kuò)大系統(tǒng)容量來(lái)滿足短期業(yè)務(wù)增長(zhǎng)蝴蜓、針對(duì)數(shù)十億美元營(yíng)收規(guī)模和數(shù)千萬(wàn)用戶來(lái)調(diào)整系統(tǒng)，為新業(yè)務(wù)和創(chuàng)新建立新功能和系統(tǒng)，提高運(yùn)營(yíng)能力和效率茎匠。

品牌保證：相對(duì)于其他線下零售商來(lái)說(shuō)格仲，亞馬遜現(xiàn)在還是一個(gè)規(guī)模較小的年輕的公司。在這個(gè)重要時(shí)期诵冒，我們必須確保建立更廣范凯肋、更強(qiáng)的客戶關(guān)系。

擴(kuò)大產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)種類：1999年我們將繼續(xù)增加產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)種類汽馋，并推出新業(yè)務(wù)侮东。亞馬遜拍賣是我們最近推出的新服務(wù)。如果你們當(dāng)中有人還沒(méi)有體驗(yàn)過(guò)這種新服務(wù)惭蟋，我建議你們趕緊去試試苗桂。作為亞馬遜的用戶，你可以同時(shí)去“拍“或”賣“告组。作為賣家煤伟，你將會(huì)獲得800萬(wàn)亞馬遜在線資深用戶。

我們通過(guò)推出新產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)木缝、擴(kuò)展新區(qū)域以及收購(gòu)來(lái)豐富我們的業(yè)務(wù)便锨。我們計(jì)劃在團(tuán)隊(duì)、工作流程我碟、溝通以及人員發(fā)展方面增加投入放案。這種方式的規(guī)模發(fā)展是我們計(jì)劃中最具挑戰(zhàn)，最難的部分矫俺。

亞馬遜在過(guò)去幾年中已經(jīng)取得了巨大成就吱殉，但未來(lái)我們要走的路還很長(zhǎng)。我們很樂(lè)觀厘托，但我也知道友雳，我們必須時(shí)刻保持緊迫感。激進(jìn)的對(duì)手铅匹、擴(kuò)張而帶來(lái)的增長(zhǎng)挑戰(zhàn)和執(zhí)行風(fēng)險(xiǎn)押赊，為擴(kuò)大市場(chǎng)機(jī)會(huì)而追加投資等等，都是我目前面臨的挑戰(zhàn)包斑。

在這份信中流礁，我想說(shuō)的最重要的事情已經(jīng)在去年的信中說(shuō)過(guò)了，也就是我們的長(zhǎng)期投資計(jì)劃罗丰。我們?yōu)樾鹿蓶|（今年我們打印了超過(guò)20萬(wàn)份信神帅，去年我們打印了13份）準(zhǔn)備了1997年致股東的信，并附在這封信的后面萌抵。我希望你能再去讀讀小標(biāo)為“注重長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)價(jià)值“那部分內(nèi)容枕稀。你可能會(huì)想多讀幾遍，以確保亞馬遜是你理想的投資標(biāo)的。我們并不認(rèn)為這是至理名言萎坷，但我們只是認(rèn)為凹联，這是屬于我們自己的信條。

謝謝我們的用戶哆档、股東蔽挠，以及那些為了打造一個(gè)偉大的、永恒的公司而每天熱情工作的員工瓜浸。

?

杰弗里·貝索斯

亞馬遜公司創(chuàng)始人澳淑、首席執(zhí)行官

To our shareholders, customers, and employees:

The last 3? years have been exciting. We’ve served acumulative 6.2 million

customers, exited 1998 with a $1 billion revenue runrate, launched music, video, and gift stores in the U.S., opened shop in theU.K. and Germany, and, just recently, launched Amazon.com Auctions. We predictthe next 3? years will be even more exciting. We are working to build a placewhere tens of millions of customers can come to find and discover anything theymight want to buy online. It is truly Day 1 for the Internet and, if we executeour business plan well, it remains Day 1 for Amazon.com. Given what’s happened,it may be difficult to conceive, but we think the opportunities and risks aheadof us are even greater than those behind us. We will have to make manyconscious and deliberate choices, some of which will be bold andunconventional. Hopefully, some will turn out to be winners. Certainly, somewill turn out to be mistakes.

A Recap of 1998

Heads-down focus on customers helped us make substantialprogress in 1998:

? Sales grewfrom $148 million in 1997 to $610 million – a 313% increase.

? Cumulativecustomer accounts grew from 1.5 million at the end of 1997 to 6.2 million atthe end of 1998 – an increase of over 300%.

? Despitethis strong new customer growth, the percentage of orders placed on theAmazon.com Web site by repeat customers grew from over 58% in the fourthquarter of 1997 to over 64% in the same period in 1998.

? Our firstmajor product expansion, the Amazon.com music store, became the leading onlinemusic retailer in its first full quarter.

? Followingtheir October launch under the Amazon brand and with Amazon.com technology, thecombined fourth-quarter sales in the U.K. and German stores nearly quadrupledover the third quarter, establishing Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de as the leadingonline booksellers in their markets.

? Theaddition of music was followed by the addition of video and gifts in November,and we became the leading online video retailer in only 6 weeks.

? 25% of ourfourth-quarter 1998 sales was derived from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and music,video, and gift sales on Amazon.com, all very new businesses.

? Wesignificantly improved the customer experience, with innovations like 1-ClickSMshopping, Gift Click,store-wide sales rank, and instant recommendations.

1998’s revenue and customer growth and achievement ofcontinued growth in 1999 were and are dependent on expansion of ourinfrastructure. Some highlights:

? In 1998our employee base grew from approximately 600 to over 2,100, and wesignificantly strengthened our management team.

? We openeddistribution and customer service centers in the U.K. and Germany, and in early1999, announced the lease of a highly-mechanized distribution center ofapproximately 323,000 square feet in Fernley, Nevada. This latest addition willmore than double our total distribution capacity and allows us to even furtherimprove time-to-mailbox for customers.

? Inventoriesrose from $9 million at the beginning of the year to $30 million by year end,enabling us to improve product availability for our customers and improveproduct costs through direct purchasing from manufacturers.

? Our cashand investment balances, following our May 1998 high yield debt offering andearly 1999 convertible debt offering, now stand at well over $1.5 billion (on apro forma basis), affording us substantial financial strength and strategicflexibility.

We’re fortunate to benefit from a business model that iscash-favored and capital efficient. As we do not need to build physical storesor stock those stores with inventory, our centralized distribution model hasallowed us to build our business to a billion-dollar sales rate with just $30million in inventory and $30 million in net plant and equipment. In 1998, wegenerated $31 million in operating cash flow which more than offset net fixedasset additions of $28 million.

Our Customers

We intend to build the world’s most customer-centriccompany. We hold as axiomatic that customers are perceptive and smart, and thatbrand image follows reality and not the other way around. Our customers tell usthat they choose Amazon.com and tell their friends about us because of the selection,ease-of-use, low prices, and service that we deliver.

But there is no rest for the weary. I constantly remindour employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified. Not of ourcompetition, but of our customers. Our customers have made our business what itis, they are the ones with whom we have a relationship, and they are the onesto whom we owe a great obligation. And we consider them to be loyal to us –right up until the second that someone else offers them a better service.

We must be committed to constant improvement,experimentation, and innovation in every initiative. We love to be pioneers,it’s in the DNA of the company, and it’s a good thing, too, because we’ll needthat pioneering spirit to succeed. We’re proud of the differentiation we’vebuilt through constant innovation and relentless focus on customer experience,and we believe our initiatives in 1998 reflect it: our music, video, U.K. andGerman stores, like our U.S. bookstore, are best of breed.

Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History

It would be impossible to produce results in anenvironment as dynamic as the Internet without extraordinary people. Working tocreate a little bit of history isn’t supposed to be easy, and, well, we’refinding that things are as they’re supposed to be!

We now have a team of 2,100 smart, hard-working,passionate folks who put customers first. Setting the bar high in our approachto hiring has been, and will continue to be, the single most important elementof Amazon.com’s success.

During our hiring meetings, we ask people to considerthree questions before making

a decision:

? Will you admire this person?

f you think about the people you’ve admired in your life,they are probably people you’ve been able to learn from or take an examplefrom. For myself, I’ve always tried hard to work only with people I admire, andI encourage folks here to be just as demanding. Life is definitely too short todo otherwise.

? Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the groupthey’re entering?

We want to fight entropy. The bar has to continuously goup. I ask people to visualize the company 5 years from now. At that point, eachof us should look around and say, “The standards are so high now -- boy, I’mglad I got in when I did!”

? Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?

Manypeople have unique skills, interests, and perspectives that enrich the workenvironment for all of us. It’s often something that’s not even related totheir jobs. One person here is a National Spelling Bee champion (1978, Ibelieve). I suspect it doesn’t help her in her everyday work, but it does makeworking here more fun if you can occasionally snag her in the hall with a quickchallenge: “onomatopoeia!”

Goals for 1999

As we look forward, we believe that the overalle-commerce opportunity is enormous, and 1999 will be an important year.Although Amazon.com has established a strong leadership position, it is certainthat competition will even further accelerate. We plan to invest aggressivelyto build the foundation for a multi-billion-dollar revenue company serving tensof millions of customers with operational excellence and high efficiency.

Although this level of forward investment is costly andcarries many inherent risks, we believe it will provide the best end-to-endexperience for customers, and actually offer the least risky long-term valuecreation approach for investors.

The elements of our 1999 plan may not surprise you:

Distributioncapacity? We intendto build out a significant distribution infrastructure to ensure that we cansupport all the sales our customers demand, with speedy access to a deep productinventory.

Systemscapacity We’ll beexpanding our systems capacity to support similar growth levels. The systemsgroup has a significant task: expand to meet near term growth, restructuresystems for multi-billion dollar scale and tens of millions of customers, buildout features and systems for new initiatives and new innovations, and increaseoperational excellence and efficiency. All while keeping a billion dollar, 8 millioncustomer store up and available on a 24x7 basis.

Brandpromise Amazon.com is still a small and young companyrelative to the major offline retailers, and we must ensure that we build wide,strong customer relationships during this critical period.

Expandedproduct and service offerings In 1999, we will continue to enhancethe

scope of our current product and service offerings, aswell as add new initiatives.

Amazon.com Auctions is our most recent addition. If anyof you have not tried this new service, I encourage you to run – not walk – to www.amazon.comand clickon the Auctions tab. As an Amazon.com customer, you are pre-registered to bothbid and sell.

As a seller, you have access to Amazon.com’s 8 millionexperienced online shoppers. Bench strength and processes ? We’ve complicated our businessdramatically with new products, services, geographies, acquisitions andadditions to our business model.

We intend to invest in teams, processes, communicationand people development practices. Scaling in this way is among the mostchallenging and difficult elements of our plan.

Amazon.com has made a number of strides forward in thepast year, but there is still an enormous amount to learn and to do. We remainoptimistic, but we also know we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense ofurgency. We face many challenges and hurdles.

Among them, aggressive, capableand well-funded competition; the growth challenges and execution riskassociated with our own expansion; and the need for large continuing investmentsto meet an expanding market opportunity.

The mostimportant thing I could say in this letter was said in last years’ letter,which detailed our long-term investment approach. Because we have so many newshareholders (this year we’re printing more than 200,000 of these letters –last year we printed about 13,000), we’ve appended last year’s letterimmediately after this year’s. I invite you to please read the section entitledIt’s All About the Long Term. Youmight want to read it twice to make sure we’re the kind of company you want tobe invested in. As it says there, we don’t claim it’s the right philosophy, wejust claim it’s ours!

All the best and sincere thanks once again to ourcustomers and shareholders and all the folks here who are working passionatelyevery day to build an important and lasting company.

Jeffrey P. Bezos

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Amazon.com, Inc.