Ott - Movers & Shakers
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MARKET: OTT - MOVERS & SHAKERS OTT - MOVERS & SHAKERS As part of profiling some of the Movers & Shakers in the global media industry we have attempted to showcase some of the names and highlight their personalities and contributions to the media industry AMAZON PRIME years old, his mother remarried Mike market by opening an online - JEFF BEZOS Bezos, a Cuban immigrant. bookstore. American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos graduated summa cum Bezos opened Amazon.com, Bezos is the founder and chief laude from Princeton University in 1986 named after the meandering South executive officer of Amazon.com and with a degree in computer science and American river, on July 16, 1995, after owner of 'The Washington Post.' His electrical engineering. asking 300 friends to beta test his successful business ventures have Bezos showed an early interest site. In the months leading up to made him one of the richest people in in how things work, turning his launch, a few employees began the world. parents' garage into a laboratory and developing software with Bezos in his Entrepreneur and e-commerce rigging electrical contraptions around garage; they eventually expanded pioneer Jeff Bezos is the founder and his house as a child. operations into a two-bedroom house CEO of the e-commerce company He equipped with three Sun Amazon, owner of The Washington moved to Miami Microstations. Post and founder of the space with his family as a The initial success of the exploration company Blue Origin. teenager, where he company was meteoric. His successful business ventures developed a love With no press promotion, have made him one of the richest people for computers and Amazon.com sold books in the world. Born in 1964 in New graduated across the United States Mexico, Bezos had an early love of valedictorian of and in 45 foreign countries computers and studied within 30 days. In two computer science and months, sales reached electrical engineering at $20,000 a week, growing Princeton University. After faster than Bezos and his graduation, he worked on Wall startup team had Street, and in 1990 he became envisioned. the youngest senior vice Amazon.com went president at the investment public in 1997, leading firm D.E. Shaw. Four years later, Bezos his high school. It was during high many market analysts to question quit his lucrative job to open school that he started his first whether the company could hold its Amazon.com, an online bookstore that business, the Dream Institute, an own when traditional retailers launched became one of the Internet's biggest educational summer camp for fourth, their own e-commerce sites. Two years success stories. In 2013, Bezos fifth and sixth graders. later, the start-up not only kept up, but purchased The Washington Post, and After graduating from also outpaced competitors, becoming in 2017 Amazon acquired Whole Princeton, Bezos found work at several an e-commerce leader. Foods. In February 2021, Amazon firms on Wall Street, including Fitel, Bezos continued to diversify announced that Bezos will step down Bankers Trust and the investment firm Amazon’s offerings with the sale of as CEO in the third quarter of the year. D.E. Shaw. In 1990, Bezos became D.E. CDs and videos in 1998, and later Bezos was born on January 12, Shaw's youngest vice president. clothes, electronics, toys and more 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to While his career in finance was through major retail partnerships. a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise extremely lucrative, Bezos chose to While many dot.coms of the Jorgensen, and his biological father, make a risky move into the nascent early '90s went bust, Amazon flourished Ted Jorgensen. world of e-commerce. He quit his job with yearly sales that jumped from The Jorgensens were married in 1994, moved to Seattle and targeted $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in less than a year. When Bezos was 4 the untapped potential of the Internet 2011. 38 SATELLITESATELLITE & CABLE & TV CABLE TV JANUARY 2021JUNE 2021 MARKET: OTT - MOVERS & SHAKERS As part of Bezos' 2018 annual following September, he shareholder letter, the media tycoon announced the new Kindle Fire said the company had surpassed 100 HD, the company's next- million paid subscribers for Amazon generation tablet designed to give Prime. By September 2018, Amazon Apple's iPad a run for its money. was valued at more than $1 trillion, the "We haven't built the best second company to ever hit that record tablet at a certain price. We have just a few weeks after Apple. built the best tablet at any price," At the end of 2018, Amazon Bezos said, according to ABC announced it was raising the minimum News. wage for its workers to $15 per hour. In early December 2013, The company has still been criticized Bezos made headlines when he for its working conditions and grueling revealed a new, experimental pace, with workers protesting during initiative by Amazon, called Prime Day in July 2019. "Amazon Prime Air," using drones In 2006, Amazon.com launched to provide delivery services to its video-on-demand service. Initially customers. He said these drones known as Amazon Unbox on TiVo, it would be able to carry items was eventually rebranded as Amazon weighing up to five pounds and Instant Video. be capable of traveling within a 10- Bezos premiered several mile distance of the company's American entrepreneur who was original programs with the launch distribution center. cofounder (1997) and CEO (1998– ) of of Amazon Studios in 2013. The The first Prime Air delivery took Netflix, a media-streaming and video- company hit it big in 2014 with the place in Cambridge, England, on rental company. critically-acclaimed Transparent and December 7, 2016. Hastings studied mathematics Mozart in the Jungle. Bezos oversaw one of at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, The company produced and Amazon's few major missteps when the Maine, graduating with a bachelor’s released its first original feature company launched the Fire Phone in degree in 1983. After serving in the film, Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, In 2015. 2014. Criticized for being too gimmicky, U.S. Marine Corps, he spent two years In 2016, Bezos stepped in front it was discontinued the following year. with the Peace Corps, most of the time of the camera for a cameo appearance Bezos had been eyeing the teaching math in Swaziland (now playing an alien in Star Trek food delivery market, and in 2017 Eswatini). He returned to the United Beyond. A Star Trek fan since Amazon announced it had acquired childhood, Bezos is listed as a Starfleet the Whole Foods grocery chain Official in the movie credits on IMDb. for $13.7 billion in cash. In early 2018, The Seattle The company began offering Times reported that Amazon had in-store deals to Amazon Prime consolidated its consumer retail customers and grocery delivery in as operations in order to focus on growing little as two hours, depending on the areas including digital entertainment market. As a result, Walmart and and Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant. Krogers also began offering meal Amazon released the Kindle, a delivery to its customers. States and went to Stanford University, handheld digital book reader that where he received (1988) a master’s allowed users to buy, download, read degree in computer science. and store their book selections, in NETFLIX Subsequently Hastings became a 2007. - REED HASTINGS software developer, and in 1991 he Bezos entered Amazon into the Reed Hastings, in full Wilmot founded Pure Software (later Pure Atria tablet marketplace with the unveiling Reed Hastings, Jr., (born October 8, Corporation), which he sold in 1997 for of the Kindle Fire in 2011. The 1960, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), a substantial profit. 39 SATELLITESATELLITE & CABLE & TV CABLE TV JANUARY 2021JUNE 2021 MARKET: OTT - MOVERS & SHAKERS In 1997 Hastings conceived the service. Its first such offering was the He joined Star as South Head idea of a subscription-based movie- episodic drama series House of Cards, in 2008 after Star acquired Asianet. rental service, after he incurred a large which debuted in 2013. Such content Madhavan is also Director of IBF and late fee when he failed to return a store- was hugely successful and became a the President of Kerala Television rented videocassette. DVDs were new major focus of the company. During Federation. to the market, but Hastings felt that this time Netflix also began producing Not many know how the man they would travel well through the mail. films. In 2020 it was announced that single-handedly transformed Asianet He and business partner Marc Ted Sarandos would serve as co-CEO from a regional entity to a global brand. Randolph (who left the company in with Hastings. In 1999, when he joined Asianet, the 2004) incorporated Netflix in California A noted philanthropist, regional brand from South India was in 1997 and started mail-order DVD Hastings devoted part of his time to on the verge of closing down. He then operations in 1998. Hastings became educational issues, notably charter took over the responsibility to turn the the company’s CEO later that year. At schools. From 2000 to 2004 he was tide for the network. first customers were allowed to rent president of the California State Board Turning a struggling regional each DVD for a seven-day period, but of Education. channel into a media powerhouse, by December 1999 subscribers could Madhavan ensured that the Asianet pay a set monthly fee to rent an bouquet of channels became the DISNEY + HOTSTAR unlimited number of DVDs. Although undisputed market leader in Kerala. But they selected DVDs and controlled - K MADHAVAN he didn't stop there.