amazon-revenue-per-employee

Amazon Revenue Per Employee

Business / By / July 18, 2023

Amazon had 1,541,000 full-time and part-time employees in 2022, generating $333,539 per employee, compared to over $292,000 in 2021.

Amazon Employees1,541,000 full-time and part-time employees
Revenues per Employee$333,539
Analysis by FourWeekMBA
Key Facts
FounderJeff Bezos
Year & Place FoundedJuly 5, 1994, Bellevue, WA
Year of IPO5/15/1997
IPO Price$18.00
Total Revenues at IPO$15.75 million
Total Revenues in 2022$514B
Analysis by FourWeekMBA

Revenue per employee in Big Tech

revenue-per-employee-in-big-tech
  • Tesla:
    • Revenue per employee declined from 2019 to 2020, but then increased significantly in 2021 and 2022.
    • Tesla experienced the highest percentage increase in revenue per employee from 2020 to 2022 (43.0%).
  • Google:
    • Revenue per employee remained relatively stable between 2019 and 2020, but then experienced a significant increase in 2021.
    • However, Google’s revenue per employee decreased in 2022 compared to 2021, but still remained higher than 2019 and 2020.
  • Amazon:
    • Revenue per employee decreased from 2019 to 2020 and continued to decrease in 2021, reaching its lowest point.
    • In 2022, Amazon’s revenue per employee rebounded, but it was still below the 2019 level.
  • Apple:
    • Apple consistently increased its revenue per employee from 2019 to 2022, with the highest figure in 2022.
    • Apple had the highest revenue per employee across all companies in each year.
  • Meta (formerly Facebook):
    • Meta experienced a decrease in revenue per employee from 2019 to 2020, followed by an increase in 2021.
    • However, revenue per employee decreased again in 2022, settling between the 2020 and 2021 figures.
  • Microsoft:
    • Microsoft’s revenue per employee increased steadily from 2019 to 2022, although the increase was relatively modest compared to other companies.

Key Trends in Revenue Per Employee in Big Tech

  • Apple consistently had the highest revenue per employee among the listed companies.
  • Tesla exhibited the most significant percentage increase in revenue per employee from 2020 to 2022.
  • Amazon was the only company that experienced a decrease in revenue per employee for two consecutive years (from 2019 to 2021).
  • Microsoft displayed the most consistent and steady growth in revenue per employee over the years, although at a more modest rate compared to other companies.
  • Google and Meta had a fluctuating trend in revenue per employee, with both companies experiencing a decrease in 2022 compared to 2021.
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Read Next: Amazon Business Model

amazon.annual-revenue

Connected to Amazon Business Model

Amazon Business Model

amazon-business-model
Amazon has a diversified business model. In 2022 Amazon posted over $514 billion in revenues, while it posted a net loss of over $2.7 billion. Online stores contributed almost 43% of Amazon revenues. The remaining was generated by Third-party Seller Services, and Physical Stores. While  Amazon AWS, Subscription Services, and Advertising revenues play a significant role within Amazon as fast-growing segments.

Amazon Revenue By Country

Amazon Revenue By Country
In 2022, most of Amazon’s revenue came from the US, with over $356 billion in revenue, followed by Germany with $33.6 billion, the UK with $30 billion, Japan with $24.4 billion, and the rest of the world generated almost $70 billion in net sales.

Amazon Cost Structure

amazon-cost-structure
Both the North American and International segment of Amazon are running at negative margins. Indeed, in 2022, for the North American segments, of almost $316 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $319 billion in operating costs to run it, thus it generated $2 billion in operating losses in 2022. For its International segment, of $118 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $126 billion to operate it. Thus, it reported a $7.7 billion operating loss. While for AWS, with $80 billion in revenue, Amazon spent $57 billion to operate it, thus generating almost $23 billion in operating income. The high operating costs are primarily due to the high cost of running Amazon’s inventory and fulfillment infrastructure behind its e-commerce operations. Indeed, Amazon is as much as a physical player as a digital one.

Is Amazon Profitable Without AWS?

is-amazon-profitable-without-aw
Amazon was not profitable once AWS was removed in 2022. In fact, Amazon, without AWS generated $10.6 billion in operating losses. While Amazon, without AWS, generated $12.2. billion operating income.

Amazon Profit Breakdown

amazon-operating-profit-breakdown
Amazon is subdivided into three operating profit segments: North America, International, and AWS. Amazon AWS is the most profitable segment, with almost $23 billion in operating profit in 2022. While Both the North American and International segments run at negative operating losses, with $2 billion and $7.74 billion in operating losses, respectively, in 2022.

Amazon Revenue Breakdown

amazon.annual-revenue

Amazon Revenue Per Employee

amazon-revenue-per-employee

Amazon vs. Walmart

amazon-business-modelwalmart-business-model

eBay vs. Amazon

ebay-vs-amazon
In 2021, Amazon generated almost $470 billion in revenue, vs. eBay’s over $10.4 billion. In comparison, looking at revenues, Amazon was 45x times larger than eBay.

Amazon Mission Statement

amazon-vision-statement-mission-statement (1)
Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” 

Customer Obsession

customer-obsession
In the Amazon Shareholders’ Letter for 2018, Jeff Bezos analyzed the Amazon business model, and it also focused on a few key lessons that Amazon as a company has learned over the years. These lessons are fundamental for any entrepreneur, of small or large organization to understand the pitfalls to avoid to run a successful company!

Amazon Revenues

amazon-revenue-model
Amazon has a business model with many moving parts. The e-commerce platform generated $220 billion in 2022, followed by third-party stores services which generated over $117 billion; Amazon AWS, which generated over $80 billion; Amazon advertising which generated almost $38 billion and Amazon Prime, which generated over $35 billion, and physical stores which generated almost $19 billion.

Amazon Cash Conversion

cash-conversion-cycle-amazon

Working Backwards

working-backwards
The Amazon Working Backwards Method is a product development methodology that advocates building a product based on customer needs. The Amazon Working Backwards Method gained traction after notable Amazon employee Ian McAllister shared the company’s product development approach on Quora. McAllister noted that the method seeks “to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.”

Amazon Flywheel

amazon-flywheel
The Amazon Flywheel or Amazon Virtuous Cycle is a strategy that leverages on customer experience to drive traffic to the platform and third-party sellers. That improves the selections of goods, and Amazon further improves its cost structure so it can decrease prices which spins the flywheel.

Jeff Bezos Day One

jeff-bezos-day-1
In the letter to shareholders in 2016, Jeff Bezos addressed a topic he had been thinking quite profoundly in the last decades as he led Amazon: Day 1. As Jeff Bezos put it “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”

More Resources

About The Author

Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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