Who Is Andy Jassy, Amazon's New Commander-in-Chief?

Bezos Steps Down as Amazon CEO in Q3 This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Following Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), who will lead Amazon starting from the third quarter of this year, is the person who has been at the forefront of Amazon's key growth engine, the cloud business. He has played a leading role in transforming Amazon into a major e-commerce company over 24 years working closely with Bezos.

Jassy, a graduate of Harvard Business School, joined Amazon in 1997. He started his career in the then-new online bookstore Amazon, which had only about 100 employees, by selling music albums. Successfully establishing the online music sales business in the U.S. market, he paved the way to expand Amazon's business portfolio, which was then focused on book sales, to include music albums, electronic devices, and home appliances.

In 2003, he ventured into the cloud sector and proposed a new growth engine for the company. At that time, he served as Bezos's technical advisor and laid the groundwork for what is now the AWS business. Amazon's AWS is a cash cow generating massive profits, accounting for more than half of Amazon's total revenue. As of the fourth quarter last year, 52% of Amazon's revenue came from AWS.

Amazon's AWS holds a dominant 33% market share in the global cloud computing services market. It leads the market by widening the gap with second and third place Microsoft (18%) and Google (9%). Recognizing these achievements, he was promoted to AWS CEO in 2016.

On the 2nd (local time), at the event announcing the fourth-quarter earnings, Bezos stated, "I believe now is the optimal time for a CEO transition as Amazon is showing its most creative and innovative side," and added, "Jassy has been with Amazon for a long time, and I believe he will be an excellent leader," explaining his resignation.

After stepping down as CEO, Bezos is expected to focus on other areas such as Blue Origin and The Washington Post outside of Amazon. In an earlier email to employees, he said, "I will continue to be involved in company management as chairman of the board, but I want to focus more of my energy and attention on new projects." He added, "I have more energy than ever and am not retiring."

Bezos is leading the development of rockets and spacecraft by founding Blue Origin and has been focusing on digital transformation by acquiring The Washington Post in 2014, which was struggling financially, to strengthen its online content.

Meanwhile, Amazon also revealed a surprising milestone of $100 billion in quarterly sales for the first time ever. In the fourth quarter of last year, Amazon achieved quarterly sales of $100 billion for the first time in history. This growth was achieved amid the rapid expansion of the non-face-to-face market due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Amazon's revenue and operating profit increased by 44% and 77% year-on-year, reaching $125.6 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively. The annual revenue for last year was $386.1 billion, with operating profit of $22.9 billion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.