Jeff Bezos in the 2010s: From bookseller nerd to digi-stud muffin – a decade in the life of the world’s richest man
From a high-profile divorce and naked photo blackmail scandal to launching rockets into space, finding a new love in Lauren Sanchez and beating out Bill Gates as the world’s richest man, we trace a tumultuous 10 years for Amazon’s CEO
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has had a pretty big decade.
In the past 10 years, he’s seen Amazon turn 25, been declared the richest man in the world, and even became a meme. He also introduced the world to Alexa and bought Whole Foods. And he weathered an attempt at blackmail and a high-profile divorce.
As the decade draws to a close, let's take a look back at what Jeff Bezos has been up to in the 2010s.
In 2010, he launched Amazon Studios as something of a crowdsourced, anti-Hollywood studio.
Amazon Studios acquires movies and series, or produces original ones. In the last few years, it's made shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and movies like the double-Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea.
That year, Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, attended “billionaires' summer camp” at Sun Valley together. At this point, he was worth US$12.6 billion.
At some point in the early aughts, Bezos started shaving his head, but he hadn't yet committed to the bald look. That came later.
In 2013, Bezos bought The Washington Post for small change – US$250 million, which amounted to less than 1 per cent of his net worth.
2014 was Amazon's first, and so far last, attempt at releasing a smartphone. The Fire Phone flopped, but by this point, Bezos was worth US$30.5 billion. So, no biggie.