>> i'm jeff bezos. >> what is yr claim to fame? >> i'm the founder of amon.com. >> narrator: from the award-winning producers of "the facebook dilemma". >> ricst guy in the world. >> narrator: frontline investigates amazon. >> is amazon taking over the world a good thing? >> narrator: questioning those who run the company... >> what would you say to someone who feels as thoughumans are increasingly being treated like robots? >> that's not the experience >> narrator: and to longerp. there. >> most people would assume there's a pretty high safety standard on amazon.

>> and that assumption would be incorrect. >> the tools are not what call battle tested. >> some people asking if amazo is a monopoly. >> the question for the democracy is, e we okay with one company esntially winning capitalism? >> how do you and jeff think about the call to break you guys up? >> simply because the company's be successful doesn't mean it's somehow too big. >> narrator: now on frontline...mi >> dotion was very much the idea. >> narrator: "amazon empire". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. anby the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by th johnd catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. and by the ford foundation: working with visionarithe frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abramfoundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation,di ted to heightening public awareness of critical issues.

thjohn and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation: opportunity, and possibilities. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from ura debonis and scott nathan. >> jeff bezos has already conquered the retail frontier. now he's got a plan to colonizel thets. >> bezos is laying out his plans for colonizing space. >> bezos is known for going big, d now he's literally shooting for the moon. >> narrator: in may of 2019, jeff bezos, the richest person on the planet, unvled his latest invention. >> this is blue moon. it's time to go back to theim moon, thisto stay. >> jeff has said over and over again that the most important work he's doing is work in

space. what he's built in amazon is really imptant and really interesting, and it's, it's relutionized commerce. but it's only revolutionized commerce. >> narrator: bezos's plan is to chart a new course for the future of humanity. >> manufactured worlds rotated to create arficial gravity with centrifugal force. these are very large structures, miles on end. and they hold a million people or more each.s >> narrator: i idea he's had since he was a teenager. >> this is me in high school. and i want to ghlight this quote: "the earth is finite, and if the world economy and population is to keep expanding, space is the only way to go." i still believe that. >> the way jeff bezos sees is it is that consumerism is an example of how tod's society lives better than our parents did and ougrandparents. and he wants, you know, future generations to continue to have

an increasingly better lifestyle. a >> the beautiful. people are going to want to live here. >> narrator:ezos unveiled his extra-terrestrial plans at a time of growing concern about the empire he's built here on earth. >> amazon is the great disrupter, from books to retailo to grocerys. >> narrator: for more than 25 years, jeff bezos has been t srupting and transforming almost every aspof our modern lives. >> once you start connecting the dots, you see that amazon is a buildi of the invisible infrastructure for our futures. >> amazon announced a healthcare partnership... >> amazon is helping the c.i.a. build a secure cloud... >> how much of the internet do you run?t' >> ta good question, um, it's a lot, though. >> narrator: but in recent years, amazon-- and bezos-- have come under scrutiny for their aggressive tactics and expanding power. (bezos laughing) g >> everythat is admirable abouamazon is also something

that we should fear about it. >> narrator: for the past year we've been investigating how jeff bezos built his empire-- and at what cost. >> and so think about this. big things start small. ♪ >> narrator: jeff bezos's empire has its roots not in silicon valley, but on wall st. that's where the young princeton graduate went to work in the early 1990s, at a secretive hedge fund called d.e. shaw. >> david shaw was thone who w revolutionizl street by introducing data. and i think jeff really embraced that, that idea that, "hey, if u you have datimately, you win."

>> one of ththings that david shaw asked jeff bezos to do was wto go and instigate ne businesses, and in particular '90s called the world wide web. (dial-up modem connecting) >> we all know that a communications revolution is unrway in this country. >> what is the internet? >> it's sort of the mother of all networks. >> is information highways.t' >>kind of like your remote control to the world. >> nartor: bezos was quick to see the untapped potential of the new digital landscape and was determined to get in on it. >> i came across thistartlin statistic that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year. so, i decided i would try andin find a bs plan that made sense in the context of that growth, and i picked books as the first best product to sell online. ♪ because books are incribly unusual in one respect, and that is that there are more items inhe boocategory than there are items in any other

category by far. so, when you have that many items,ou can litally build a store online that couldn't exist any other wa >> narrator: the store he was imagining didn't exist, so he decided to build it himself. ♪ ea the reaction to jeff's to start selling books on the internet was pretty incredulous, you know, from a lot of the people close to him. his mom tried to convince him to just do it at night or over the weekends. she didn't want to see him give upis job. >> jeff called, and he told me h thand mackenzie were quitting their jobs, and they were moving to seattle and starti a company. said, "great, well, what are you going to do?" he said, "we're going to sell books." i said, "nic" he said, "on the internet." i said, "oh. jeff, why will anybody buy anything from you?" and he said, "well, we're going to have more books than anybody else." >> narrator: one of the first

names bezos considered for his newebsite was relentless.com. >> why "relentless?" >> relentless meant, "we move on no matter what." he ultimately, obviously, decided that "relentless" wasn't quite the right fit. amazon, earth's largest river, was.am on means gigantic. >> in terms of relentlessness, opping at nothing, that's, is that an aptf description of >> no.it not that jeff stops at nothing, it's that when jeffin sets hison a goal that he thinks he can achieve, he won't op until he's proven wrong or until he achieves it. ♪ >> jeff and mackenzie had rented a house in bellevue. d then we moved to a small, second-floor office in the south part of seattle. >> narrator: shel kaphan was amazon empyee number one, one

of nine former amazon insiders who agreed to talk on camera. >> whathe company is now was nowhere in my wildest imagination. nowhere,o, the fact that it could have the-the kind of position in the world thatt has now, i had no clue. >> narrator: in july 1995, amazon.com went ve. >> it was an incredible novelty, was tiny and obscure, and it's very hard to imagine, but the entire universe that amazon now dominates did not exist. >> amazon.com, this virtual shop claims to be the world's largest bookstore. >> narrator: it didn't take long for bezos's vision to prove prescient. >> what makes us different is vast selection, convenience-- we deliver right to the desktop. if our catalog were printed on paper, it would be the size of sen new york city ebooks. ♪

>> narrator:he company quickly outgrew the garage and soon had more than 50 employees. in 1996, james marcus applied to be number 55. >> there was a very palpableth excitement in air at this place, and of course at thisin jeff bezos was the first person to interview every prospective employee. so i was ushered into his office. he wanted to see how fast you were on your feet. a o always wanted to know your s.a.t. scores. >> he nted to know your s.a.t. scores? >> every time, yes. >> how old were you at the time? >> i was 36 or 37. >> this is the origil sign that i made for amazon.com. bluepray paint on white post board. >> jeff wasn't a figure out folklore at that point, he wase not the-althiest man in the world. >> here's my computer, amazon.com up onhe screen. "hello, jeff bezos." >> he was a small, nondescript, ndy-haired man sting at a

desk wh quite a large and ertive laugh. (laughing in multiple scenes) was a normal guy to a sort of he amazing extent. >> hal 9000 hat, very important. hal and i share a birthday, we're th born january 12. >> it belied, you know, an enormous, napoleonic ambition. >> one of the people i really like, thomas edison, here's a model of his original light bulb. he's famous for saying, "one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration." (laughs) it turns out ideas are the easy part, execution is everything. >> domination was on jeff's nd from the beginning. one of his sort of second-in-command people said to me, "you have to understand that jeff wants to sell many more things than books. and jeff's idea is that in the near-distant future, you could buy a kayak from amazon. and if, and after you brout the kayak, you cou figure out

good places to kayak and buy so, those ambition veryazon." clear, and this was very early on. but he was clearly thinking in t those terms fr get-go. >> how did that ring to you at the time? >> a little bit exciti a little bit nutty. >> amazon.com, very good website. you should really try it. (bezos laughs) >> if you signed on to work at a-a kind of futuristic owned it was suddenly talking about selling, you know, every object in the iverse, you just weren't sure how seriously to take it. (bezos laughing) (bezos screaming playfully) >> narrator: though his public image was often unserious... >> that was awesome! >> narrator: inside company, bezos was a hard-charging manager relentlessly focused on the principle that would make amazon one of the most trusted brds in the world: the

customer always comes first. >> this culture of customer obsession... obsessive focus on customer... obsesses over our customers... totally obsessing over the custerxperience. >> we used to call it customer ecstasy. it means building, delivering, focusing on your customer. and we did it, you know, in the very, very early days at every >> narrator: jennist was there in the early days and is one of six top amazon executives the company put forward to speak to us. >> customer obsession was our north star. and so, you know, it was a place where wenew we were a part of something that was new, the internet. there was an excitement that we were doing something that hadn't been done before. we were all aligned around building for customers. >> hey, you guys. >> hey. (bezos laughs)er >> i've heard was an empty chair that would often

be put at meetings. >> yea >> who was in the pty chair? >> yeah, so that empty chair was there to remind us all to understand the customer, have empathy for the customer, understand the details of the customer expernce. the customer isn't there, we have to bring forward the voice of the customer. (phone ringing) >> thank you for calling. amazon.c >> narrator: and bezos quickly world, he could understandnline exactly how customers were behaving. >> all orders do need be placed online. >> it was made clear from the beginning th data collection waalso one of amazon's businesses. all customer behavior that flowed through the site was recorded and tracked. and that itself was a valuableit comm >> have you visited our website? >> we could track how a customer navigated through the site. so we could see what you lookeds at, we couldsee what you paused at, we could see what you puin your basket but didn' order, we could see what youut in your basket and did order. tedthat's when we st realizing, "man, this is rich.

this is rich, rich, rich." and so we've used it forer hing. >> what do you do with that information? >> that's the data that allows us to predict, or try to predict, what books that you would like that you haven't discovered yet. b >> narrator:ezos treated the site as a laboratory, where he studied customer behavior along with his chief scientist andreas weigend. >> i was shocked to see how predictable people are. if you take the time of the day into accou, if you take maybe how long they werethe site site, last time, how lonthey're on the site today, you know what they're falling for. >> whoever owns, collects, the data, if you have access to it and rights to data, then you are king. it's all about the data. everything. >> one of the most fascinating kind of tools we have at o

disposal is the ability to do active experiments. it's, you know, it's kind of this huge laboratory. >> we did not think about it as exploiting, we thought about helping peopleake better decisions. >> i was starting to feel that that was ls respectful toward the consumer, who was,fter all, supposed to be our god, the person whose ecstasy was our very reason for being. and it was closer to getting a cow into a milking stall and extracting as many pails as ssible during each visit and that felt a little more unsavory. but that was the business of amazon. >> amazon has added 880,000 new >> narrator: while bezos was using these insights to bring more and more customers into amazon... >> the number of customers who see the website has increa fourfold... ne>> narrator: there was o thing he hadn't done yet. >> the company's never made a profit. >> that's right. why... how does that...?that.. >> it seems like a new math,

doesn't it? >> it does.ra >> nr: bezos would spend years losing money trying to beat his competition, and he convinced investors to go ong with it. >> one of jeff bezosgreatest accomplishnts has been his g ability toet wall street to accept the fact the first 20-somyears, amazon wasn't going to be very profitable. and that's okay because they're building infrastructe at ll cate huge opportunities for them to gain scale and gain customers and gain business. >> narrator: he spelled it out in a letter to shaholders after the company first went blic: "it's all about the long term," he wrote, than short-term profits or wallr strections. >> he essentially says, "we are going to forego profits in order to take market share. that our strategy is to lose money, which enables us then to put other companies out of business who can't afford to lose money." >> narrator: that strategy

wouldn't sit well with critics like stacy mitchell, who advocates for small businesses. beginning, he's signaling to shareholders, "i have a strategy to monopolizthe market, and that's going to reward you, but it's going to be far down the road, d will you come along with me?" and they said yes. >> narrator: investors also recognized bezos' essentiale vantager physical stores, which had to charge their customers sales tax, unlike online businesses. >> so, not collecting sales tax gave amazon a big leg up over bricks and mortar retailers. and that was central to their early strategy of gaining market share as quickly as theya n. >> what booksellers were saying to me is that, "this is drivingt my customeamazon. they'll come into the store, they'll browse, they find what thgo want, but then they'll buy it on amazon, because they can save that salex." >> so it was a very irksome,y, eaig issue for the book vendors, first of all, they were kind of the canaries in thene

so to speak, and then lots of other retailers. ♪ >> amazon has added thousands of warehouse workers and three million square feet of space. >> nartor: amazon's sales-tax advantage would be central to its success as it expanded beyond books, into other products. >> and we have a fantasticn select things you can look at. electronics and then of course toys. yeah, thank you, here is, we've got have the friendly pokémon. this is more than ten times the selection th you will find in a typical, physical world software store. >> narrator: but bezos was still a long way from his goal of amaz being the place where y could buy everything online. (drills whirng) and he saw a way to achieve it. >> amazon could soon become the walmart of the internet. >> narrator: the were thousands of businesses eager to sell online. bezos offered them a way to do it. >> amazon is tnsforming itself from an online bookstore to an online mall. >> nrator: he transformed

amazon into a retail platform ere anyone could sell their goods to his customers and invited thousands of othero businesses a part of it. >> it's the easiest place r anybody, small or large, who wants to set up shop online to sell online, because ty can access our 12 million-plus customers. anybody, all comers. >> we'realking about hundreds of thousands of companies withy literalltens of millions of products. >> narrator: name-brand stores started selling on bez platform, and so did tens of thousands of small entrepreneurs. >> everyone knew amazon.com. the only people thatnew superduperhoops.com were the ones that were searching to buy a basketball hoop ansaw our name on an advertisement. to us it was really a no-brainer. we knew that we would, you know, increase our sales. first year we did 100,000, next year we did a million, we did two million, four million, we were doubling every year in the

early days. >> narrator: it was great for the companies-- and even greater for jeff bezos. >> amazon has become the most merecognizable name in e-crce. >> narrator: not only would he take a cut of everything other businesses sold, he'd also keep his own store on the platform, competing against everyone elset he marketplace he owned and controlled.>> e owns the main street.ai he has the mstreet real estate. corner, the entire main street. ♪ >> narrator: how amazon wouldr marketplace would allyine become a question for government regulators, but early on, theree ndications. the first to see them were book publishers. >> amazon took over a large market share of the publishing industry very, very fast. athey were very quickly i position to demand concessions.

u know, i think that was moment where publishers started to realize, "oh, wait a minute, like, we... they're our partner, but they now have the beginnings of a boot on our windpipe." >> narrator: inside the company, they had launched a strategy that some called "thlle project," because they'd heard bezos wanted them to pursue publishers the way a cheetah pursues a sickly gazelle. >> well, you don't go after the strongest. it's like the cheetah. the cheetah looks for the weak, looks for the sick, looks for the small, that's what you go for. so don't start with, younow, number one publisher. start with number seven publisher, and by the time you get to number three, two, and one, the noise has gone,otten back to them. they're going to know this is u coming, and chances are y be able to settle that without a full-on war. >> we were just this little nym and pop publishing com publishingoetry books and translated ficti.

the number of booknnisrly 2000s, johnson was selling on amazon had been rising steadily. then one day, he got a phone call. >> our distributor called us up to talk abouour amazon contract. s and d, "i went out to dinner last night with amazon, it was like going out to dinner with the godfather. they want a kickback."he that's tord he used, kickback. and he said they wanted four percent more of our sales. >> was that unusual? >> it was... in our experience, it was totally unprecedented, yes. >> narrator: randy miller ran the european book teamays he saw nothing wrong with amazon's tough tactics to challenge publishers on prices and profit margins. in>> in order to bring the line, we would actually take them out of automated merchandising, take their prices up to list price; we wou put

references on the product page, their product page, saying, "you want it cheaper, you want this book for, on this topic for a way cheaper price?k clre." and we'd send them to whoever we thought their worst competitor was. that was how amazon their vendors to-to comply. (stammering): but that's an old walmart trick, i mean, it wasn't like amazon created that. and it made, it made a difference and, you know, jeff kind of got excited about it. >> narrator: when dennis johnson still refused to give in to amazon's terms, he says the buy button on all melville hse books suddenly disappeared, making it impossible for customers to purchase them on amazon >> i mean, this is the company that referred to little publishers like me as wounded gazelles, i believe? that's how they think, that's how he tught from the beginning. what at the time i called ay bribe. and our attitude toward amazon was, you know, "render unto

asesar that which is caesar's." and then carry oest as you can. >> jeff bezos may say that amazon comes ong and has given publishers like yourself access to a huge distribution channel for your books. has amazon been goodor your business? >> well, absolutely they have.se any boer that sells our books is good for our business. so, i'not complaining that amazon is selling our books. i'm just complaining of the way that their tactics are hurting the industry i love. >> narrator: in addition to granting interviews, amazon responded to wrien questions. regarding dennis johnson's characterizations, it told us, "amazon disagrees with this account." >> were you uncomfortable with that sort of ruthlessness ever? >> well, no, 'cause i was in retail-- i mea people think that's ruthless. you know, i looked, and some people at amazon, "wow, that's kind of mean," and'm like, "oh, a retailer and a supplier

having aisagreement? st the presses!" it happens all the time. i mean, you know, look, you've got a finite margin, and somebody's going to have to give. and-and a lot of times amazon't wahe one giving. >> kindle is a purpose-builtg readvice. >> narrator: the tension between ramp up even furthh theers would unveiling of the kindle, which helped the industrtransition to the digital age, but gave amazon more power to set prices lower. and new releases are only $9.99. >> narrator: around that time, barry lynn, an advocate for broad antitrust enforcement, was growing increasingly concerned by what he was hearing from publishers. >> if the door was open, the publisher wod say, "hey, you know, amazon, they're just a terrific customer, they're our biggest cuomer. ey buy the most books, they we love them."books. then you close the door, and they say, "amazon is destroying

our business model, they're destroying our business, theyh have way too mwer, we must do something about them." >> narrator: lynn wanted publishers to speak up publicly and thought federal titrust regulators might in astigate whether amazon w monopoly, illegally abusing itsi market dominan anticompetitive ways. t >> ay'd say, "no way, i'm not going to talk about amazon in public.in i'm not taabout them on capitol hill. they will take retribution against me." >> to which you responded? >> "ll, that's why we have to do something about it."r: >> narraennifer cast ran amazon's books division in its formative years. >> we've had a difficult time in some ways getting publishers to talk to us on camera about amazon. in part, it seems the reason is that they're afraid. atw do you react to that, publishers find it uncomfortable toalk about amazon publicly? >> i don't know, i mean, i-i

haven't seen that. in yeah. >> i haven't beeour shoes. i'm sure they have... i mean, if you're saying that they-they don't talk negatively about us, i mean, i know they have a lot um, you know, i-i don't know why they wouldn't speak their minds. we certainly value speaking our minds. >> there is this ll-known anecdote about cheetahs and gazelles, this gazelle program. do you knoabout that? >> i don't. >> we've talked to former amazonians about it,e jeff had said, "we should basilly try to negotiate with book publishers and try to get better terms and treat the smaller publishers as a cheetaha would go aftounded gazelle." >> i didn't hear the cheetah and gazelle example, buthat we were looking for was people that were willing to move away from the old model of bricks and mortar to a new model, which was, you know, a-a virtual store that had many different types of

opportunities to present theirme books to cus. >> i want to talk a little bit about how we think about innovation at amazon.com. >> narrator: amazon would begin to accumulate even more power in 2005, when bezos quietly rolled out a revolutionary new program: amazon prime. >> now they ve something called the prime shipping program. >> amazon prime-- we only launched this a week ago-- u pay $79 a year, and you get two-day shipping for free. >> narrator: it was a risky bet, and it paid off. >> the lynchpin, or the glue, if you will, and probably the seminal moment in amazon's business history, was the introduction of what has become the most successful membership prime.m in history, and that's >> many of you in this audnce will already be amazon prime b members,less you. this is very much appreciated. >> it changes the way you shop. >> narrator:ventually more than 150 million people would sign up for the free shipping--

a tremendous expense for amazon. but to bez, it was worth it. >> the prime program at amazon is one of the most importantof drivermazon's growth. when you go on and look to buy a product, and it's availae in o days, delivered to your door anywhere ithe country, that amazon prime program becom a mechanism that keeps bringing you back as a customer to keep a buyi keep searing for new products on amazon. >> narrator: two-day delivery anywhere in the country was a big promise for a companthat, at the time, had less than ten warehouses. so bezos went on a buildg spree. ♪ across the country amazon wareuses began to spring up, filled with millions of products being sold on bezos's platform. he'd call them fulfillment centers, and they'd create hundreds of thousands of jobs in places hard hit by the great

>> ten percent of pennsylvania residents unemployed... >> job market is in complete disarray. >> narrator: like allentown, pennsylvania. >> at that time, it was tremendous news that an employea was coming aually opening a facility and hiring people, versus, you know, gutting halfaf the >> narrator: spencer ser was a business reporter for the "allenwn morning call" when amazon opened in the area in 2010. he began hearing stories about working in the warehouse. t people are basically ins big, sprawling warehouse that's stocked with goods ivery random fashion. ged they have scanners that and people are walki maybe ten, 15 miles a day. so people just kind of crisscrossing this big wehouse all day long. >> narrator: as workers told him abmet the punishing pace to the daily quota of packages, and the intense heat, soper and his lleagues started to investigate further. >> people really felt like

amazon was pying fast and loose with their, with their health. >> narrator: soper disred there had been numerous complaints to authorities at the occupational safety and health administration, osha. >> ty actually had a complaint om an emergency-room doctor who called their hotline one day saying, "listen, you might want to check out this amazon place. i've had, like, people parading through my emergency room to be trted for heat stress." there was a security guard who worked in the facility who sent a complaint to osha saying that he saw pregnanwomen suffering and so there's just, like, these red flags right and le. >> narrator: after an investigation, osha said amazon needed to keep the temperatures in the warehouses lower. in a statement at the time, thea compan it installed new industrial air conditioning and pledged that worker safety was its number-one priority. >> amazon is shrewd businessople, shrewd businesspeople know when have leverage. and when you'rthe only shop

hiring people in town, you can push them a lot harder than you can when-when they've got alternatives. >> narrator: or the following years, amazon would hire hundreds of thousands of workers and become one of the largest jobs n creators ie country. at the fulfillment centers, bezos experimented with new techniques and technologies to boost productivity. i willingness to experime the key to be able to do new things. so we do, you know, hundds of experiments every day in our fulfillment centers to get a little bit better. kind of like incremental invention. ♪ >> narrator: when a company called kiva perfected a warehouse robot, amazon bought the whole company. >> amazon has acquired kiva systs. they make shipping robots. >> narrator: it helped transform the work environment in amazon's warehouses. >> when i firsshowed up at amazon in 1999, i led our global operations team.ef

>> narrator:wilke created the amazon fulfillment center system and is one of two c.e.o.s under jeff bezos. >> as we've added 200,000 robots, in that same time frame since 2012 we've added 300,000 people in our fulfillment nters. so what happens is the robots change the work, so they allow us... people don't have walk as far, which is a complaint that we've heard in the past. they make the job safer, they make them higheruality, becauswe present a smaller set of options to-tomployees. and that's all good for customers, and it's good for employees too. >> narrator: but at the same time, complaints have persisted. >> peoplwho've worked in warehouses for decades say, "this is different. this is not the same." we're here today because wewa nt to make sure that these workers know about their rights in the workplace, especially around heat. >> narrator: sheheryar kaoosjite is an advoor warehouse workers in the san bernardino, california, area-- an amazon hub, with ten fulfillment centers and over 15,000

employees. >> because of the way thats, amazon operaecause of the way that they set their rates for productivity, it's a lot harder work physically but alsoa psycholoy. >> narrator: we sat down with a group in san berrdino who'd recently worked at amazon. >> when they first got here, i thought it was exciting. like, for me, i was thinkinge macould find a-a place where, you know, i'm going to t roots of a good job, y know, move up in-in the place. while, i was like,e's nor a way." >> it's like, "okay, this is where i can probably make are ." but once you worked there for a certain amount of time, it'se, just lt's just not realistic, how they expect you to work. >> narrator: like dozens of workers we'vspoken to around the country, they say they've struggled to keep up with the rate amazon expect them toac pick anditems. >> how realistic are the rates that they're givg you? i mean, what's... >> not realistic at all. >> not-not realistic? >> no. there's absolutely no way to make rate, you know, you got to

find little ways to-to cheat it, because once you hit rate, the end of the week, they raised it, they bump it up ain.rt cause they seeing, "hey, people can hit those rates, can hit those numbers, hey,pu let' them a little harder." every week it seemed like it was goinup. ♪ >> you have security cameras right behind you at all times,ki 24-seven.g at you and if you don't meet standards or the rates, you're out the door, you're just disposable. >> every worker haa scanner at all times that basically track exactly where you're at. >> and they have a little blue line at the bottom of the screen, and it has, like, how many seconds that you have t have idone by the time it hits ro, and it puts you into panic mode. >> and pretty much you can't talk to people, you can't be in

the same aisle as them, you just constantly have to sit there scanning like a robot all day long. if they catch you not scanning, you get a write-up. >> and what they're doing is they're producing this mass of data that they are using to be able to analyze the entire workforce. >> we're not treated as human beings, we're not even treated as robots. we're treated as part of the data stream. >> it's the incentive atwa anhouse, on any assembly line, to get the most out of any worker. >> yes. >> to make rates, to-to be as efficient as possible, to be as productive as possible. so, i don't see exactly what's different about amazon as opposed to any other warehouse. >> amazon is the cutting edge. other warehouses areing to adopt these technologies, her companies are definitely i interestedn doing what amazon is doing. data collection could becomee basically andard for all workers, and that there's... you're never good enough,bl you're nevere to keep up. ♪

>> narrator: amazon told us work rates are not based on individual employee's performance, and that the scanning devices workers use are not for tracking people but inventory-- a common practice in the warehouse industry. >> we've talked to workers around the count,nt both curnd former workers. they've described the pace of work as being really grueling. the early thinking about rates and how far you could push human beings in tms of their productivity, what was the thinking about that? well, obviously if the rates are too high, you're not going work.ve peoplehowing u so, we have 600,000 people at the coany, most of them are in the fulfillment centers, and they-they come to work every day, they st for years. these are considered great jobs in the hundreds of communities where we have fulfillm centers all over the world, and in the u.s. we have, almost every state has an operation in it, and people come to work because these are great jobs.th

're safe, we pay double the minimum wage, the national benefits.age, we have terrific the benefits for the folks that work on the floor are the same benefits that my family s access to-- our family leave is like 20 weeks. so, the rates are t so that we can accomplish what we need to, which is get orders to customers in a-a reasoble time and in a high-quality way, and that creates a workplace that pple want to come back to, and they do. >> narrator: amazon wouldn't tell us how long fulfillment-center workers stayo on the job ooften they're injured. but workers we spoke to say the rates are higher than other warehouses-- and that the company rebuffs attempts to unionize. >>are do not believe unions e in the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, orr most intly, our associates. >> narrator: this is a clip from a video the mpany says it used in the past to teach managers about employees' rights and labor laws. >> the most obvious signs would include use of words associated

with unions or union-led movements like "living wage" or "steward." >> early on, amazon took a position to basicay be anti-union. why was that decision made? >> i don't think we made the decision to be anti-ion. we just feel that all of the things that-that unions would-would want to-toet us to do, we've already done. >> what-what abo setting rate, though? do you not see that there's a little bit more leverage in the hands of management in this enario than there would be in a unionized environment? >> i don't know, it's hard to speculate on that, but-but i do think that we have the obligation to set rates that are, again, going to encourage people to seek the jobs and deliver for customers, you knoww whve promised. >> what would you say to someone, though, who's, who's worked in-in your fulfillment centers that feels as though are increasingly being treatedns like robots? 'cause it's something that we'vc ally heard, and i don't sense it's hyperbole.

>> well, that's not the experience that-that i had in setting it up or that i've seen. that-that these jobs are not for everybody, and there-there mayeo bee that don't want to do this kind of work. >> narrato amazon executives also stress the company has become an industry leader in trainingts workforce for career advancement. >> we just announced a plee recently to spend $700 million to upskill, which is basically creating career opportunitiespe fole, 100,000 of our employees. we pay 95% of tuition to go to-to college to get a skill that isn't about amazon, that'su creating options for the employees, and i would expect those people to take advantagefo of that, worus for a couple of years and then go do something that they woulmuch rather do, and that's okay. >> there will be people th will hear what y'all are saying, and they'll say, "well, you signed up for physical labor, a job is a job, there were benefits, and they are now

investing $700 million to do retraining for other types of jobs. what's the real grievance? what is there to complain about?" i actuallused to think that way for a while whenever i, when i first started, whoever i heard complaints fro i was like, "well, it was in the job description, and you signed up for it." is the safety rules that youut have to ignore to make rate. it's not just you go in, okay, that's it.u do your jo >> so, you're in, you're in a weird bind. >> it's incredibly hard to mt rate while following all thety sarocedures. we've heard from w in terms of the sort of automation of their work as humans, some of them telling us that, yes, there are high safety standards in these fulflment centers, but that in order to make rate, they're having to cheat the standard a little bit. >> well, i would say that's not okay. so i, from the moment that i arrived 20 years ago, i made it

very clear to our operations teams that we will not compromise theafety of our employees to do anything else. so, we have, we ha a culture that if-if we are asking people to do something that is, that they have to do too fast to be safe, they can raise their handa an "this isn't right," and-and we'll fix it. (phone vibrates) >> narrator: for years, amazonha put a happy face on its business a its workforce. ("give a little bit" by supertramp plang) >> ♪ give a little bitt give a little your love... ♪ >> even in amazon's commercials, the people are almost likeow s and silhouettes. a it about boxes, and there's just like happy boxes singing and bumbling their way to your door, like, , no, no. >> ♪ there's so much that we need. ♪ >> hello. >> hey. >> they don't wa you to evenho think abouthey do this. they just want you to be wowed and, "oh, how'd th, how'd this get here?" my love to you. ♪little bit of

>> they wanted people to just think, "whoa, magic!" ♪ >> narrator: and mag was a big part of bezos' marketing strategy, with an emphasis on the company's miraculous level of innovation and growth. >> we started amazon prime in 2005, but en something very extraordinary happened. this. in 2011, the slope of that graph changed-- a lot. >> narrator: as amazon grew, he want his top executives to think about e kind of company it was becoming. he wrote a memo titled, "amazon.love." copy of it was obtained by brad stone. >> the memo is another examplein of jeff very prescient about the future. it's jeff grappling with the idea that t all big companies

are loved. that there is something that we get uncomfortable with when we ta about very big companie "rudeness is not cool. defeating ti guys is not cool. risk taking is cool. winning is cool. polite is cool. defeating bigger, unsympathetic guys is cool. inventg is coo explorers are cool. conquerors are not cool." >> some businesses, you can tell when yogo in and have meetings with them, they have a and there's a big difference between being a conqueror d being an explorer.d think in, yoknow, this very inventive space that we're in, it pays to explore. ♪ >> narrator: but to some watching amazon's growth, the company was falling ort of that ideal, and taking steps to make sure nothing got in its way. ♪

in 2013, amazon was moving to create its own delivery system and made a key decision: rather than hire its own drivers, it built a neork of independent businesses to deliver paages. >> they weren't just going to dabble here and dabble there. they were going to go and create a system that would rival fedex or ups. >> narrator: propublica reporter patricia callahan, in conjunction with buzzfeed, has investigated the system amazon seup. >> they figured out a way to get around regulation. the cargo vans they choose are big enough to stuff withhu they're small enough that, but they're not regulated by the federal government >> an 84-year-old woman struck and killed by an amazon delivery truck. >> a woman hit and killed in a parking lot. >> narrator: propublica and buzzfeed found that drivers are under intense pressure to deliver packages. after striking him, the

van maneuvered around salinas and his dog. >> narrator: and they documented more than 60 crashes, including 13 deaths, since 2015. >> an infant critically injured in a car crash has died. >> when it came time to figuret o's responsible, amazon would always say, "it's a contractor, it's not our responsibility." >> now you've been able to find 13 deaths. and that's over the course of several years. that statistically significant given all of the packages that they deliver inor any dany given year? >> i don't pretend to claim that there's only 13 deaths ande that i found single one. i just found enough to show that this is happening around the country. u wi, there's a record. there's a federal record you ca look at ny serious injury and fatal accidents they have. with amazon, that doesn't ext. no one knows the safety records ntof all of amazon's ctors.

>> narrator: amazon disputed the propublica report. it would not release any data on crashes involving its driver network but to us it had a "better than average" safety record and that nothing is more important to them than safety. >> any accident is one accident too many, so just as we were focused on safy in the fulfillment centers and product safety, we are... we set very high standards with l of those partners for safe performance. we have aining videos for the third parties that work with us to help themnderstand what we expect in terms of the drivewe have mapping software that we routes.help them find the right every one of our drivers is required, including the third rties, are required to have comprehensive insurance, cluding liability insurance, so that if there is an accident that the person who's injured is covered. amazon wants to get prime

members their packages even faster...n >> narratothe last year, amazon announced a change to the way it handles prime deliveries. instead of delivering packages t days, they promised to don it ione. d >> free next-divery all across the u.s.... >> it's impossible for me to imagine a world 20 years from now where a customer comes up ov me and says, "jeff, i l amazon. i just wish your prices were a little higher." , "i love amazon. i just wish you delivered a little more slowly." >> narrator: at the same time the deliry network was being set up, amazon was also rapidly expanding its product offerings, inviting more sellers on the site. (computer plays tune) including those from china. >> it basically makes it to where it's super-easy for these companies, who are maybe not as careful with adhering to the law, where they're able to just start a business up on amazon, import some stuff, sell it, cause some problems, and then dispear.

>> narrator: rachel greer worked in proct safety at amazon, and worried that the site was being potentially unsafe products. >> are there proper warnings? harit been safety-tested fo durability? if a child chews on it, will the paint come off is that paint leaded? >> most people would assume that there's a pretty high safy standard on amazon. >> and that assumption would be incorrect. >> narrator: she says that's, because amazke other tech companies, takes the position that it's not legally responsible if its customersre harmed by products sold by third parties on the site. >> if someone buys something that cses harm at waart or walmart or target.mer can sue >> right, 'cause no one's forcing you, when you come into walmart, to enter the doors of walmart. they aren't making you sign away your rights. b when do you sign that when you go on amazon.com?

>> when you make your account. when you accept the terms and conditions. challenging amazonms and been conditions in court. some have even been successful. >> ultimately, who's on the hook when a customer buys a daerous product on amazon? who takes ultimate responsibility for that? >> well, in the rare case where that, where something like thata ens, if it's a third-party third-party sellerit isa the seller's responsibility to, to sell a legitima product to a customer, and then, when amazon is the retailer, and we sell a product to the, to a customer, then it's our obligation to makeure that we understand the manufacturer and the supply chain for that product and its, and its safety. >> but when the other sellers are selling in youre, stou're not responsible for it ultimately, if they're selling your customer a defectivor dangerous product? >> i think the way things work

in the u.s. is that the seller of record is the person who isic setting the and who is purchasing the product, and for things not sold by amazon-- and it says on the detail page, it'll tell you who the seller is-- it's the seller's responsibility for tse things, and for us, it's very clear. it says amazon.com whenever we sell i >> do you audit your sellers in terms of whether they're actually providing safe products to your customers? >> we do. you know, some of our sales... p about, almost 60% of our sales are by thities, and those sales, some of themco directly from the trd party, so we're not involved at all. >> but you take a cut. i mean, it's on yo infrastructure, it goes through amazon.com, so, i mean... >> well, it's on our infrastructure in terms of the website and payments, but we're not..., >> and fees thu know, you're taking a cut of the sale, right? >> sure, sur and we're providing, you know, traffic

that, that... you know, it's kind of theay they think about marketing is why they would pay that fee, it's harder to, before an experience, inspect that, that product. >> a south carolina woman who bought a hair dryer onmazonen said this ha. >> fire is coming out of the hair dryer.>> arrator: amazon's approach has had consequences. >> a hoverboard caused a fire that destroyed their home. >> narrator:angerous products were flagged by authorities in washington state. >> .found dozens of school supplies that had high levels of toxic mals. >> narrator: and a recent report found thousands of banned, unsafe, or mlabeled products. >> i'm having a hard time understanding something, which is that, that... anu know, amazon's entire is about the customer, right? >> yes. >> that it's... oh, i reminded them of this over and over again. >> you reminded them of what? >> i said that no customern wants to buysafe product. no customer wants selection

that harms their child.s no customer wa buy something that burns down their house because it looks cool and it's the latest, coolest thing. >> sitting here today, are you able to basically say that the products that you sell on amazon.com are safe? >> what i can say is, we work really hard to make sure that they're safe. we have... we've spent $400 million in the last year on systems that seek out things that are not safe, and, you know, there are millions of sellers and hundreds of millions of products, and our job is to, as fast as we can, weeout the ones that don't belong oour site. we're going to have to be vigilant as a retailer and aa technology company, and were definitely dedicated to, to protecting the safety of our customers. >> narrator: we heard that concern for the customer overov an in our interviews with amazon executives. >> customer trust in a company like amazon, it's sort of foundational. >> customer obsession is the first leadership principle, and itn.it's not a corporate slo

>> we try to stay really focused onustomers. >> very focused on, on delivering results for our customers. p viding a great customer experience that customers want. customer delight.t, that >> narrator: this commitment to the customer, and to keeping prices low, had anothebenefit: it helped them avoid running afoul of regulators who enforces the natintitrust laws. >> it's important to understand sort of that there's two fundamental philosophies of y antitrust, of anti-monopw. you know, there's the you, you want to break up allich potential concentrations of power that you can. but for the last 30 years, there's been this change in how we do antitrust. and this is the idea that the only purpose of antitrust ould be to drive prices lower, to serve the interest of e consumer. >> narrator: lynn had been

urging regulators to take a more traditional approach a examine whether the company was gaining market power in exploitative way stifling fair competition, but keeping prices low for consumers. >> we live in a society of consumers, though, an seemingly there is some net benefit to all of us when prices are low. so, what's wrong with that view of things? >> it's obviously good for people to... for all people if we can drive down ices, if we have lower-priced drugs, if we have books that anybody could buy. that's a good thing. it's a good thing for soety, ansit's a good thing for us consumers. but we're not only consumers, we're also producers. we're also people who think and who make things and ow things, and we want to havess aco open markets. thearrator: once agai tension was most pronounce with book publishers.li amazon was s around 40%

of all new books in america and two-thirds of all electronic books, thanks to the success of the kindle. then, one of the world's largest publishers, hachette, decided to push back. franklin foer was one of its authors. >> hachette and amazon set out to renegotiate theirk contract. and hachette said, "no, we don't accept the terms of your contract." and amazon basically said, "to hell with you, hachette. we're going to stop delivering your books. if somebody searches for a hachette title, we're going to redirect them to another publisher." >> amazon's battle with hachette and the authors that hachette publishes is heating up. >> narrator: as bezos's virtual blockade dragged on for months. >> a bitter, seven-month standoff... >> narrator: thousands ofau ors, including bestsellers like douglas preston, were caug in the middle. >> some authors were losing 50% to 90% of their sales from

amazon. it was absolutely devastating to first-time authors. it actually destroyed their careers. >> did you see your sales plummet? >> i did, yes. i saw my sales plummet tremendously. >> narrator: in frustration,to prpenned an open letter on behalf of all authors. it was published in "the new york times" with more than 900 signatures. >> we authors have loved amazon. we have enthusiastically supported it, and this is howre they t us? this is not right. >>mazon has been accused o doing everything from raising prices to deliberately delaying shipments. >> is this what happens when jeff bezos decides to flex his muscles? >> narrator: while he and amazon were at an impasse, and other authors went to foer, washington, and asked the obama administrati to open an investigation. >> i went to the justice department and i went to the federal trade commissi with the authors guild, and we tried

to explain to them why this power was so dangerous. we pointed it out of all then waysich amazon was bullying the publishing industry. >> the department of justice listened to us. and their answer was essentially this: "amazon is one of the most popular companies in the country. (camera clicks) they have brought tremendous services to consumers, and they've brought lower prices." and that we hadn't given them any kind of reason to open an antitrust investigation. >> narrator: eventually, hachette and amazowould settle their dispute, with amazon allowing hachette to setc its own for e-books, but offering it incentives to keep them low. >> it's great to be he amazon. (crowd cheering) >> narrator: azon would thrive during the obama years, and eventually account for nearly 40% of all online commerce in the country.

>> last year, during the busiest day the christmas rush, customers around the world ordered mo than 300 items from amazon every second. >> narrator: but the complaints about its tactics would continue, with retailers of all kinds concerned that amazon had become the online-shopping gatekeeper. >> you've got to be on amazon. you have to be there, because that's where eveone is that... 100 million prime subscribers. they are the de facte-commerce channel in the united states period, end of list. >> amazon executives have told us that there are many other options out there. there is walmart, there is alibaba. as a seller, you've got options. >> i've heard that re from amazon executives before, and w did that, we wsted, we listed all of our products on every other online marketplace. but it's testament to just all of the others that were

non-amazon combined did about n percent of what we were doing on amazon. >> narrator: businesses big and small ha been accumulating complaints about amazon's hold on them., >> on amaze customer belongs to amazon-- it doesn't belong to the third-part seller. you're basically renting the amazon customer. >> narrator: james thomson used to recruit brands to come onto amazon and now advises them on how to do business with the company. >> i represent brands today that face a number of challengewith amazon. >> narrator: among those challenges, businesses say that amazon has access to theira, valuable dat which gives it an unfair advantage. th also complain about increasingly higher fees to stay on the platform, and pressure tm uson's warehouses and shipping services. e spoke to numerous name-brand companies, but nuld share its grievances on camera.

>> my account was suspended. >> narrator:ome small businesspeople have been talking about their experiences-- good and bad-- online. >> when you're selling on amazon, you're playi in someone else's playground. >> who gets placed where, whether or not your product shows up in the search results... >> they suspended my account without warning. >> these are all things that are governed by amazon's. and if there's a dispute within that arena, ifou feel you are mistreated, you know, the judge and jury is azon. >> they don't care, they'll just kill your account like that or suspend it... >> there are all sorts of crazyu stories why people get their accounts shut down on amazon. and it could take a week, it could take months, it could bebe nevere you're back online again. amazon has the upper hand das the ability toally take your business away from you at any given moment. >> selling on amazon, take one. >> narrator: amazon said third-party sellers account for more than half of everything sold on the site.

>> i sell mini-longboard ateboards. >> i sell mineral water. this is what i do. >> narrator: and it's ellers'ed to its success-- proactively contacting them when their accounts are at risk of suspension and offering an appls process to resolve disputes. >> you already have great products. scale up... >> narrator: but in the eyes of some businesses, amazon has essentially become like the railroads the turn of the last century that controlled the flow of commerce across the country. >> startelling today. >> do you see yourself as being kind of like the rails for e-commerce, that sellers bring their goods to market on your rails, through your marketplace? >> i don't think of it that way, and here's why: the, the vast majority of stuff that's... well, all of the stuff that's sold is manufactured, right? so it's manufactured, meaning there are brands and factories seat produce stuff and the it. we're one rcent of the retail sales in the world, about. >> well, you are the

biggest marketplace online, right? >> no, so, again, i, i don't... the idea that there's an online, distinct for brands to sell their stuff and distinct from physical, just doesn't make sense to me, and we're far from rgest retailer. so, i, i describe this as, retad we're competing against walmart and target and costco and carrefour and alibaba and tmall and all kinds of folks who are, are now selling both physical stores and online. ad >> narrator: in tion to pointing to other large retailers, inside the company employees have been schooled in how to talk about its size and power. >> when i worked at amazon, we had training specifically on the use of ter like "monopoly." we were not allowed to use ake term like "mshare." amazon has what's known as "market segment share." what is market segment? i don't know, but i know that the lawyers at amazon feel those

terms are, are much safer th using terms like market share. >> so market share was something they were really y ncerned about. >> clearly somebth the necessary legal training or pr training recognized that amazon was growinvery quickly, and when we were asked to use the term "maet segment" and "market segment shar" in essencit's a polite way of saying, 'm not going to talk to you about how b we are." >> narrator: since leaving amazon 20 years ago, shel kaphan has been watching the company with increasing concern, and he's speaking about it for the first time. >> i think that th characterization of amazon as being a ruthless competitor is true, and under the flag of customer obsession, they can do a lot of this which might not be good for people who aren't their customers. >> i know you're not a legal scholar, but are you basically concerned that amazon

is a monopoly? >> i'm, i'm concerned that it has that type of power. i think it, you know, whether you technically can call it a i monopoly or noon't know. ♪ >> narrator: that question has contued to loom over amazon. >> i think that amazon is looking out, and the existential threat that they may face is going to be from government. it's whether or not in and intervene a, "youo step have too much power." >> narrator: for years, bezos r has beenping up amazon's profile in washingn. >> amazon has been lobbying the f.a. to lift... >> trying to cozy up to politicians, so that they will give him the biggest tax breaks around... >> narrator: spending millions r n lobbying. >> amazon lobbied more government entities than any other tech company. >> narrator: and hiring as its spokesman the former white house press secrary jay carney.

>> you've got an army of lobbyists, many of wve revolved in and out of government, including yourself.a wh you hoping to get for all that lobbying spend and all that infence? >> one of the things we discovered is, because of the visibility of our company, but also the range of businesses that we' in, we need subject-matter experts on food safety, on transportation, on drones, on privacy. and also, we can be a resource, an infortion provider to policymakers and regulators. it's not lobbying in thead ional sense, in terms of trying to persuade somebody to do something, it's just answering questions and, and providing data and information. >> narrator: bezos himself would also become a presence in the thpital, and eventually bu largest private residence in town. >> jeff bezos ner really showed much interest in politics, but as he's cemented himself in the city, he's started to acquire this physical presence. he bought a mansion, then

developed it into a place that is explicitly designed to be bacial. >> it has a big llroom, i mean, it is designed to create a real presence for him in the nation's capital, where he can hobnob with the people who make decisions. >> narrator: he'd even bought the hometown newspaper... >> jeff bezos sent a thunderbolt through the media world this. week >> narrator: spending a quarter of a billion dollars to rescue the struggling "washington post." >> i dbelieve that democracy dies in darkness. of the united statamericacity washington post."e "the >> i got to say, you know, full credit to him, he hasn't intervened in any of the coverage of the paper. and he's invested in the paper. every dollar of profit that the paper makes is plowed back into making it a better paper. >> bezos allowed the "post" to hire, to restock its newsroom, he reversed what had been an

atmosphere of sort of decline. i'd say "the washington post" has really flourished under, under bezos's ownership. let's cut this digital ribbon. >> narrator: at the time, critics saw a more cynical motive. >> perhaps he's buying "theon washingtost" to buy some sort of protection. >> precisely. >> this deal could give him more influence over politics. >> nobody hangs out in shington, dc, just to go to the free museums. you buy a home in washington, you buy a newspaper inus washington, beit is the most influential city in the world, and you want to lay your hands that power. ♪ >> narrator: bos saw a business opportunity there, as well. the obama administration plaed to modernize the federal government by embracing cloud computin bezos had been quietly building a revolutionary cloud computing business. a he called zon web >> it's basically computing

power in the cloud, but really it's amazon's server farms arnd the world that give people access to the kind of technology services they need. >> narrator: to keep amazon running, bezos had developed an unprecedented digital infrastructure. he realized he could rent parts businesses, but also to the government. >> our infrastructure is built to satisfy the security standards the most risk-sensitive organizations. >> he's already got a huge edge over the other big competitorsin t. so he wants to take that lead and capture the u.s. government. >> narrator: in 2013, he got a major boost when it was revealed that amazon web services had designed a computing cloud for the c.i.a. >> amazon web services was awarded a ten-year contract for $600 million. >> amazon is helping the c.i.a.

network...cure cloud computer >> the c.i.a. contract was probably one of the best things that happened to amazon's cloud business. it lifted all doubts about the security of the cloud and on whether you could trust amazon p with your mocious data. >> the message to the world is, "if thc.i.a. trusts amazon with its data, then maybe other companies and government "instutions can, as wel >> narrator: and they d. >> experience it with expedia. >> narrator: a.w.s. became by cloud-computing platform. >> on cbs. >> narrator: today, more than a million businesses, as well as pbs, pay amazon to store and manage their data. >> narrator: bezos had again anticipated the next frontier in technology, and had made himself indispensable to it. >> what jeff bezos is after is really creating a company that is the infrastructure, that owns the infrastructure for how commerce is done. and that's an incredibly powerful place to be.

♪ we >> pleasome chief executive officer of amazon web servic andy jassy. >> narrator: andy jassy created and runs a.w.s. he credits the service with making it easier to do business and sparking innovation throughout the economy. >> look at what a.w.s. has enabled with regard to change in o society. look at, netflix changed the way that we consume digital content, and airbnb changed the way that we get accommodations, andola and grab and lyft and uber changethe way that we get transportation. a.w.s. has enabled, has been a part of enabling all these huge innovations and changes in consumer experiences that have, have made life better for people. >> and we're the cloud with the most capabilities, the mostin >> narrator: the disionomers. generated $35 billion in sales last year.>> amazon web services. >> yes!

>> build on. >> narrator: the success of a.w.s. gave bezos billions to expand amazon from a company that sls everything to a company that does everything. a top priority... >> to boldly go where no man has gone before. >> narrator: ...was to create the sci- future he'd fallen in c love with asld. >> gentlemen, this computer has an auditory se it can, in effect, hear sounds. >> narrator: a world ofti cial intelligence, in which computers can think and make decisions forumans and about humans. >> jefbezos is a big fan of "star trek." he, he admits that that was on his brain when he came up with the idea that amazon should bers ng a little disk that you can bark commands into. >> stop. >> this is his "beam me up, scotty" fantasy alized.

>> we started working on this device. and our, our vision was, in the tlong term, it would beco star trek computer. >> when it first arrived from tazon, i didn't know what was. >> narrator: in 2014, bezos's echo, hit the market.s mazon >> iit for me? >> it's for everyone. >> narrator: the voice known as alexa would emd amazon deeper into the lives of millions o people. >> alexa, what do you do? >> i can play music, answer quesons, get the news and weather. assistant, and just that term implies this intimate connection that we then begin to develop with amazon.>> lexa, sing the abc song. >> ♪ a, b, c, d, e, f... >> i believe that when we think about the future and the future with artificial intelligence, given where we currently areso today, alexa i ways

represents the moment that it ncomes seamlessly interwo with our lives. >> alexa, how many teaoons are in a tablespoon? >> one tablespoon equals three teaspoons. >> oh, okay. >> and the problem is that we's forget that here. >> alexa, lights on. >> okay. >> narrator: but alexa is also listening-- and she's learning. >> i'm answering questions and learning more. >> narrator: and that helps amazon in the race to dominate i artificielligence. >> alexa... >> every time you ask alexa something, you're making the alexa algorithm better. it's one of the reasons why amazon, having had a head start, is able kind of preserve that head start, because they've got the most data of anyone. >> alexa is one more way for amazon to gather extremely valuable data. and this data collection is extremely important to this business model. it's extreme hard too, and, you know, convincing people to just deploy something like this in their home is a biant trick.

>> narrator: dave limps amazon's head of devices. >> how is it that youd convinns of millions of people to put what is essentiay a, a listening device in their homes? >> well, i, i would first disagree with the premise. it doesn't, it's not a listening device. the, the device in its core is. it has a detector on it. we call it internally a and that detector is listening-- not really listening-- it's detecting o thing and one thing only, which is the word you've said that you want to get the attention of that echo. >> narrator: once the device is awake and the blue light is on, it's recording. and last year, it was revealed th amazon employs thousands of people around the world to listen and transcribe some ofin those reco to help train the system. >> do you think that you did a go enough job of disclosing that to consumers? th, that there are humans involved in listening to these recordin?

>> we, we try to articulate whao we're doing wi products as clearly as we can. but if i could go back in time, and i could be more clear, and the team could be more clear, on how we were using human beings to annote a small percentage of the data, i would, for sure. what i would say, though, is that once we realized that customers didn't clearly understand this, and within a couple of days, we added an opt-out ature, so that customers could turn off annotation if th, if they so chose. and thenithia month or two later, we allowed people to auto-delete data, which they also asked for within at, within that time frame. you know, we're not going to always be perfect, but when weis makekes, i think the key is that we correct them very quickly on behalf of customers. >> narrator: but even one of the founders of amazon web services approaches his alexa devices with caution. >> when do you turn off your alexa?n >> i tf my alexa when i know for a fact that the conversation that i am going to

have, or, or whenever i just want to have a private moment. i don't want certain coersations to be hed by humans, conversations that i know for a fact are not things that should not be shared, then i actually turn off those particular listening devices. >> we have had an incredible year. behalf of customer id a lot on cannot wait to show you what we have.to >> nar so far, limp and his team have made alexa compatible with more than 100,000 products. a echo frames allow you to get done more around be more present in the everyday. >>ow they're going to know more about you than anyone knows. they're trying to move as intimately as possible and as quietly as possible into everyday lif >> echo loop is a smart ring, packed with ways to sttop

of your day. >> amazon wants to have the entire environment essentially miked. >> alexa, start my running playlist. >> they want your walk in the park, they want your run down the city street. >> nationwide's teamed up with amazon to ing you the all-new echo auto. car, they want whau do inin your your home. >> amazon smart oven. >> alexa, ke for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. (oven beeps) >>ll these intimacies, all this insight is being integrated, analyzed and integrated. >> alexa, alarm off. >> that is an extraordinary kind of power that has never before existed. >> narrator: afterlexa, amazon would go on to spend nearly a billion dollars to buy ring... >> hey, bud, the police are on the way. >> narrator: a doorbell camera and app thatmazon describes as "the new neighborhood watch." h , get away! >> get out of there!

>> narrator: to promote it, amazon has enlisted the help of hundreds of cal police departments. >> it's a phenomenal tool assist dectives. themrrator: they gi access to a portal to request footage and have given free cameras to hd out-- and talking points. >> this system is so simple to use... >> you have amazon in partnership with polic departments, who have basicallyn policemen into, like, avon salespeople for amazon ring.e they havgiven police departnts talking points and marketing materials to encourage e installation of ring by community residents. none of this was public knowledge. >> and this is ring's first indoor cam. it is... cute, is what i would say. >> narrator: amazon has continued to expand the scope of ring. last fall, dave limp unveiled a version designed to monitor e inside of people's homes.

within weeks, hackers discovered a way to terrorizeing customers. >> did you see that video? >> i did see that video. >> what did you think of >> i think that tha industry problem. it's not just about the, a ringa ca it could be about anybody's cameras. it's about any device in that... 've already investigated that one to make sure what, what the root cause was. what we want to be able to do in those cases is, we want to minimize them. we'd like to dett them. and we also want to build tools that give them the ability so that doesn't... that, that makes it harder for those kinds of attacks to happen. there's a lot of bad people in this world. >> here's a devi that you had described as cute and seems harmless, and i'm just wondering whether you're being

straight with people about the attendant risks to your customers that you are obsessed with, supposedly. >> well, it's t supposedly, we are obsessed with customers. i, i would say that we are trying to build security stack: operating systems,f the authentication, fraud detection. we offer things that customers can turn on that make it even, attacks to happen.r for those >> yo, what's up, how's your day? >> who is that? >> what's goinon, buddy? what are you watching? >> narrator: there were a series of similar attacks across the country. >> what's up, homie? i still see you. >> you hungry? >> what's going on, n man shaq? >> narrator: and it's not just hackers. ring has fired some of its own employees for spying on customers. ge >> in gerwell's "1984," he describes a dystopia in which, "you had to live, you did live from habit that became

intinct in the assumption t every sound you made was overheard." and wonder if you ever think about how easily this could become dystopian to some degree> ell, i don't want to live in that world. so, i do not want to invent the technology that, or have myhe teams inventechnology that would create that world. and so... but i am an optimist. i, i think if you take the, the absolute view of that, we wouldn't invent anything. living in a world in which your products and your designs are there. do, can you see how it could be concerning in some ways that we all can't opt out of that world this point? >> oh, sure, i can see why it could be concerning to somecu omers. our job in building that technology is to build it in such a way that it, that it takes into account for thear scs that you just talked about, as best as we possibly can. you know, the, the reality of it

is, that world happened way before ring or alexa. ♪ >> narrator: that's something that bezos himself wrestled with 20 years ago >> i believe that privacy is going to be one of the prominent issues of the 21st century. the thing is, there are towns now in thenited states that have installed security cameras on every corner, and their crime rates decreased by 80%,ou but do yeally want cameras on every corner? there are very strange things that are going to haen over the next 100 years with respect to technology that are going to challenge us as a society to figure out how we want to deal with privacy. >> narrator: decades later, bezos would be at the vanguardof xpanding the use of that kind of technology. ro >> icing amazon rekognition video. >> rekognition allows you to pass an image to us. you can say, "do these two faces match?" which is incredibly useful for applications in the security space. you can imagine...

out a facial recognition tool, it marketed it to law enforcement. a >> recognind track persons of interest from a collection of tens of millions of faces. >> narrator: police we've spoken to say it's a valuable too identify suspects quickly. >> .appears to be a match, b i'm gonna make sure i look at them all. >> narrator: and whi amazon has offered guidelines for how it should be used, there are few thws governing the use of technology. >> it returns anybody withlo warrants tha like her. >> narrator: civil liberties advocates have raised concerns, as have computer scientists, who worry amazon has released the software before it's ready, and that police are essentiallyin field-teit on the public on behalf of the company.oo >> the are not what i call battle-tested. and we still do not understand how well they work in the environments in which they'll be applie >> narrator: anima anandkumar

was the principal scientist for artificial intelligence aton am in her first interview about her concerns she told us she was particularly alarmed by an m.i.t. study that found thene software pro to mistakes with darker-skinned faces amazon has questioned theth study's ology. >> as a researcher in a.i., i feel it's my personal responsibility to educate the public of where a.i. truly i today, right? because they hear h of a.i. being hyped up, you know, it's suppod to be magical, it's supposed to solve all the world's problems. i see the potential in doing that, but at the same time we need a reality cck. we need to ask, where is a.i. today? what can it truly do well? >> and when it comes to facial recogtion, you don't think it's ready for primetime. >> i don't think face primetime in challenging applications like law enforcemen >> narrator: anandkumar and other scientists have asked amazon to st selling

rekognition to law enforcement accuracy is still in question, and there are no clear regulations about how it's used. we asked andy jassy about it. >> i have a different view, and we've spent... we've had the facial recognition technology out for use for over two-and-a-half years now. wo and in thosend-a-half years, we've never had any reported misuse of lawg enforcement use facial recognition technology and, you know, i think a lot of societal good is already beg done with facial recognition technology. already, you've seen hundreds of missing kids reunited with their parents, and hundreds of humanin traffivictims saved, and all kinds of security and identity and education uses, so there's a lot of good that's been done with it. t i also understand that it could be misused. and i think at the end of the y with anyechnology, whether you're talking about facial recognition technology or thanything else, the peopl use the technology have to be responsible for it, and if theyr use itponsibly, they have

to be held accountable. >> there's been all sorts of problems with policing in this country. w allowolice departments to experiment? >> we believe that governments and the organizations that are arged with keeping our communities safe have to have access to the most sophisticated, modern technology that exists. we don't have a large number of police departments that are iing our facial recognition technology, and aid, we've never received any complaints of misuse.om let's see ifow they abuse the technology. they haven't done that, and to assume that they're go it and therefore you shouldn't allow them to have access to thp moststicated technology out there, doesn't feel like the right balance to me. it's been difficult to even know how many police departments are using the facial recognition technology, d there's no public auditing to know whether there are complaints about abuse. th how woulpublic ever know? >> you know, again, i don't think we know the total number of police departments that are using faci recognition technology. i mean, there's, you can use any

number-- we have 165ervices in our technology infrastructurepl form, and you can use them in whatever conjunction, any combination that you want. we know of some, and the vast majority of those that are using it are using it according to the guidance that we've prescribed. and when they're not, we have that they're using somee find irresponsible way, we won't allow them to use the servicee and atform. ♪ y and jeffr: andy ja bezos have said they want governments to hurry up and regulate how law enforcement can use facial recognition. but in the meantime, amazon has forged ahead, and has even discussed its services with immigration and customs enforcement. >> at amazon webervices... >> narrator: and the u. military. >> ...partner community to deliver for our warfighters and defensleaders for when it matters most. >> narrator: bezos himself has made it clear that he sees amazon playing a critical role in national serity, as well as

in commerce. >> we are going to continue to support the d.o.d., and i think we should. and if big tech companies are gonna turn their back on the u.s. department of defense, this country is gonna be in trouble. >> narrator: as amazon has revolutionized one industry ter another, jeff bezos' reputation has grown to mythic proportions. >> you've called what jeff bezos has built a miracle. >> absolute miracle. i wish i could give him a blood test or something so i could pick it out, but... >> you want to clone him? >> no, i want a transf actually. >> amazon is now worth $1 illion... >> narrator: his every move moves the markets. >> amazon advertising is just on fire. >> narrator: starting a digital facebook and google. to rival >> some breaking news on whole foods... >> holy cow. >> jim, i heard you gasp just now. >> holy cow, this is such a game-changer. >> narrator: buying the grocery ain whole foods. >> in a record-breaking deal i amazonbuying whole foods for $13.7 llion.

>> the day the acquisition was announced, the nation'largest grery company lost billions of dollars because amazon acquired a company one-12th the se. >> everybody thinks s is the smartest person in the world and he's gonna come and crush me. l when amazon announced the acquisition of pck... >> news of the deal sent shockwaves through an industry... >> the retail pharmacy sector shed billions of dollars. >>eook at this story-- thre titans of industry... >> when amazon was mentioned in a press release with berkshire hathaway and jp morgan saying they were looking at healthcare costs-- no detl in what that meant... >> healthcare companies are panicked about amazon's forthcoming entry into the bealthcare market. >> on the openin the next morning, the healthcare industry's largest players shed billions of dollars. >> and insurance stocks are down after amazon announced a healthcare partnership withrk ire hathaway and jp morgan chase. >> bezos basically wants to own the whole economy, right?wi >> you think h. >> i kind of think he will. i kinda think that in, like, ten years ff bezos owns every single thing there is. >> so amazon has these darth

vader-like abilities tjust look at a sector and begin choking it of oxygen withouten ouching it. amazon can begin beating competitors without even competing. >> you actually think that amazon is having a negative effect on competition in the innovation economy right now? >> i think it's a mixed bag, i think that you could argue, and there's evidence that they have inspired innovation in certain sectors. but i think there's a lot of small companies that aren't being formed, because if you go in to try and raise money r an e-commerce company, it's, "well, how are we going to compete against amazon?" and i say, "well, the answer can be summarized in one word: impossible." >> all right, let's move some earth. >> every single area that he enters into, he mages to succeed in a fairly major way. (crowd cheering) >> we've had another great prime day. >> we've never seen anything like a company that is so integrated into the faf existence, so, you know, at a unavoidable.t, it bemes

>> amazon just yesterday said... >> bezos would even extend his reach into the heart of popular culture. >> can you imagine macy's starting a media compa? we couldn't even imagine that. but amazon does it, and people take it seriously. (explosionchoes) (people screaming) >> narrator: amazon esting billions in new shows and movies. >> oh. hi. >> hey. >> narrator: and on being up its streaming service, which streams around four times as many movies as netflix, major >> narrator: and on beefing up its streaming service, which streams four times as many movies as netflixmajor league baseball, and pbs showson like thi (audience applauding) >> and the golden globe goes to... "transparent." amazon instant video. >> i want to thank amazon, jeff bezos. >> to amazon, my new best... friend. (audience laughing) >> bezos likes to joke aboutve how, time he wins a golden globe...

>> ...it helps us sell more shoes. and it does that in a very direct way, because whenou people... ifook at prime members, they, they buy more on amazon than non-pre members, and one of the reasons they do annual fee, they'ring paid their around to see, "how can i get more value out of the program?"t >> they'ing to use this entertainment to get people into the pipeline. >> alexa, play "jack ryan" on fire tv. >> to keep them sitting within this structure that is amazon, where it becomes this unthinking habit that'starting to pattern all these parts of our existence. >> so you're doing the media stuff to encourage people to use more of prime. >> correct. >> amazon is repsented at the academy awards. amazon is the first streamingic senominated for best picture. >> he's like one of the old studio bosses right now. r lly enjoys having this place in the industry and

really seems to relish being at the center of attention there. >> i also want you to know, jeff, if you win tonight, you can expect your oscar to arrive in two to five business days... (audience laughing) >> whayou see now is someone who is so supremely self- confident. ♪ uty who has beco a titan. >> amazon is ao get bigger. it's looking for another home in north america. >> narrator: bezos and amazon's n soaring stature would bell the company announced a contest to find a location for a second headquarters. >> ...called hq2. >> narrator: they promised $5 billion in capital investments. >> $5 billion... >> ...in local investment... >> narrator: and 50,000 jobs. >> 50,000...

>> 5000 people. >> 50,000 high-paying jobs. >> cities are salivating over the opportuny. >> it was unprecedented because the number of jobs was head-and- shouers more than had ever been offered in a deal before. this was a super-high-profile auction by the most popular consumer company in the, in the country. >> narrator:he company invited a ties across north americto pitch themselves. >> how about, i don't know, here? >> narrator: 238 took them up on . >> i chose, miami-- you should, too. >> can't wait to see you, amazon >> i, ebenezer scrooge... >> narrator: some with elaborately produced videos. >> ...i live in atlanta. >> amazon is demonstrating tha it has the power to get thousands of elected officials to remake their workday and bow down before amazon. >> i'm mark bound, mayor of the city of danbury. >> and offer it huge tax breaks. >> georgia offered $billion. >> maryland offered $5 billion. >> $7 billion from new jery.

>> huge infrastructure promises, huge prime parcels of land. >> philadelphia is offering the most land-- 28 million square feet. >> they know that these places all don't have a prayer. >> so to those who saw it as a kindf grotesque display of corporate power, to dangle 50,000 jobs and potential billions of dollars of revenue over metropolitan cities around the country, you say what? >> look, i, i think, i used to work for the united states government, like, we want businesses to invest in the united states. states want businesses to invest in states, cities, city officials want businesses invest in cities. the proposals we got, the cities made the proposals, they wanted us to come, and they presented to uwhy they were an attractive option. ♪ >> narrator: in november 2018, amazon announced there were two: winnrlington, virginia, and neyork cit ♪

>> this is by far the biggest new jobs deal in the history of new york city, the history of new york state. >> narrator: new yk city and state had campaigned hard for it, offering up nearly $3 billion in subsidies and tax eaks. >> i'll change my name to "aman cuomo" if that's what it takes. >> narrator: in return, amazon promised 25,000 jobs, billions of dollars in capital investments, and amall number of projects earmarked for local community meers. >> i thought it could be a greao thing for ne. we are more and more of a tech center, we wanted to consolidate that reality having amazon here would have helped immensely. >> amazon has got to go! >> narrator: but not every was enthused about giving billions in tax breaks to a trillion-dollar corporation. >> corporate handout!>> et out! >> alexandria ocasio-cortez says the tax break isn't worth it. (gavel pounding) >> welcome to today's oversight

hearing on the deal... >> narrator: though the deal had already been finalized, the new public hearing.il insisted on a it quickly turned contentious. mr. husman, you mention that there are 5,000 employees that are currently working herew inork city for amazon, is that correct? >> yes. >> narrator: council members grilled amazon executives onn their positionions, and whether the company would pledge to remain neutral if workers in new york state tried to unionize. >> how my of those employees are unionized? >> none, sir. >> none. would you be oy with agreeing to neutrality so that rkers can unionize? >> no, sir, we respect... >> you wouldn't agree to that. >> correct, sir, we would not. >> to go to a city council hearing, as amazon did, and antagonize the city council-- if they wanted to start a fight,id they great job. if they wanted to actually show that they wereilling to work with this community and our values, they did a horrible job. >> you are in union city. and one of the firstrs to your question today, is-- would you be neutral?-- you said no. that is not a way to come to our

city. >> narrator: it was not the reaction the company expected when it launched the contest. two weeks later, amazon pulled out. lu>> amazon is pulling theon >> we decided we dhave to be there in that political dynamic. the fact of the matter is, when it turd out the governor and the mayor supporting something turned out not to be enough to persuade other critics that it was the right kind of investment for new york to make, we decided, that's fine, we can go elsewhere. h said to us that it turned out that the governor and the mayor supporting something wasn't enough to persuade other critics that it was the right ykind of investment for nk to make. so we decided... we decided it's fine, we'lgo elsewhere. >> that's an idiotic statement on its face. that is pure idiocy from auy who should know a hell of a lot better.e, the deal was dmazon knew it was done. there was noise, there was

posturing by people in the political world, but the deal was ne, so all we're talking about here is the background noise. in what world are there no critics? well, yeah, in an autocratic totalitarian world, maybe they're not allowed, abe that's the world that jeff bezos somewhere in his mind thinks he is entitled to. ♪ >> narrator: at the time, bezos was involved isome personal turmoil. >> amazon c.e.o. jeff bezos o and his wi25 years announcing they are splitting. >> the announcement coming amid tabloid reports that bezos is now a relationship with former news anchor lauren sanchez. >> narrator:he "national enquirer" had been pursuing him for months. >> the tabloid claims it tracked him across five stat and over 40,000 miles. >> narrator: bezos saw the "enquirer's" report as politically motivated. >> so what would be the motive here of getting that embarrassing material about bezos and his alleged affair to the "national enquirer"? who would want to get the dirt

in the press? >> narrator: the magazine's owner, david pecker, was linked to t powerful men who disliked how they were covered by bezos's "washington post." the first was president trump. >> it's put there for the benefit of "the washington o postamazon... >> narrator: the second: saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman, who the c.i.a. had tied to the murder of one of the "post's" journalists, jamal khashoggi. >> former c.i.a. dector john brennan said, "i have no doubt that saudi arabia would want to embarrass jeff bezos and hurt him financially." >> narrator: david pecker demanded that bezos publicly declare the "enquirer's" coverage was not politicallyte motior he'd publishto intimate phos of him. >> breaking news tonight, a stunner from the richest man in the wod. >> narrator: rather than give in, bezos fought back. >> jeff bezos calling out the publisher of the "national enirer," david pecker.

>> bezos published a personal account accusing the "national enquirer" of blackmail, of extoion. >> he turned the situation around and handled it so transparent, he was veryy courageous, admitted some very embarrassing things about himself, didn't try to deny it-- and positioned the other ndindividual as the bully, kicked the bully in the nuts, and somehow turned this into a net positive. i mean, this really was the pr strategy and execution of thees i've never seen anhing like this. ♪ >> narrator: publicly, bezos has pushed ahead undaunted-- a world-famous celebrity. divorce settlement, still the richest person on the planet. (cheers and applause) but the calls to rein in his mpany are growing louder. >> amazon reported $10 billion in profits and paid zero in taxes. >> i will single out companies likealliburton or amazon tha pay nothing in taxes in our need to change that. >> here's bezos achithis american dream and success.d,

nd he's now the target of, of all of this criticism. and basically, it becomes a symbol of all of his problems. >> amazon is closing 30% of america's stores and mnd paying... >> you're basically a piñata dangling in front of any politician with a populist message. anyone who wants to talk aboutwe th inequality, they're pointing their finger at you.hr >> this is why people own more wealth than the bottom half. >> if they want to talk about problems with capitalism in neral, they're pointing their finger at you. >> we need to enforce our, antitrust laeak up these giant companies. >> arrator: and it's coming from all sides. >> president trump just sent a chill down the spine of jeff bezos...nt >> the presigain teed off against amazon on twitter. >> narrator: president trump has made bezos's ownership of "the washington post" a regular target. >> "washington post," bezos uses

that as his lobbyist, okay? >> he kind of assumed that "the washington post" w operated in the so of way that he would operate a newspaper. and so he thought that bezos was dictating coverage to the "post," which we should be i careful to snot the case. >> narrator: trump has also criticized amazo and accused the company of evading taxes. last year, the compa competing for a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the department of defense. >> this contract would have solidified bez's dominance in cloud computing. this is a hugely important ing. >> narrator: but the company intervened to scuttle the deal. >> and we're looking at it very seriously. it's a very big contract. one of the biggest ever given. >> a big win for microsoft, beating out amazon... >> amazon can protest the outcome, especially given the unusual, unprecedented cments president trump... >> it's an extraordiry times we live in that one of the

world's biggest corporations, amazon, is now saying, "the president of the united states has corrupted our ability to win this contract." >> is there any evidence of that? >> the evidence is what the president has publicly said. >> narrator: and amazon's problems have continued to multiply. the federal trade commission is now reconsidering its stance on antitrust enforcement and is looking at amazon-- as are regulators in the e.u.ke >> this gateep power and how the platforms are exercising it is of tremendous concern. >> narrator: in washington, democratic congressman david cicilline s launched an antitrust investigation into allegations of abusiveonduct by amazon and the other tech giants. >> given your experience, do you agree with amazon's statements suggesti that it seeks to act in the best interest of independent sellers? >> i disagree with that. we get, i dot know, what i might call bullying with a smile. >> we were able to get several

cc.e.os. to come to a pub hearing. that required tremendous courage because there's a reential for economic retaliation for their sharing that. >> we don't havehe resources to fight amazon. we could use some help. >> in the course of your investigation thus far, andad you'veeveral public hearings, have you seen any evidence of anti-competitive behavior by amazon? >> um, we have seen evidence of anti-competitive behavior by all the large platforms as a result otheir market dominance. but it sort of doesn't fall on the companies to fix this problem. it falls on us. without objection, the hearing is adjourned. >> narrator: cilli's committee is considering everything from imposing limits on what businesses a company like amazon can engage in, to restricting the collection and use of data. ♪ the man who helped jeff bezos build amazon 25 years ago says it may be necessary to go even

further. on >> on thhand, i'm proud of what it became, but it also scares me. and, um, i just feel like it's important r someone in my situation to, you know, at least say what they think about what's going on. >> this is sort of in some ways a baby that you gave birth , right? and so, i mean, you helped birth azon. >> um, yeah, very much so. in fact, i used to, um, you know, get up several times during the night to, just to see if it was working and... and, you know, take care of it if it wasn't, so... >> and when you look at what amazon has grown into today,ou see what? >> (chuckles) well, um... you know, you don't want to see your offspring, um, become, um, antisocial adults, right?

so i think not all of the effects of the company on thear worlfor the best and, um... and, you know, i, i wish it weren't so, and i... you know,.. and ut i had something to do with bringing it into existence, so, it's partly on me. >> and, i mean, isn't... isn't this just capitalism? isn't this just a company doing what a company does? >> yes. yes, it is, um, and i think they're dog what the business schools teach people to do, and they're dog it aggressively and skillfully and with great intelligence. and they will continue to do that unless they'rconstrained by other forces in society. >> there are proposs out there to break up amazon. is that something you'd promote, the idea of breaking theup? >> um, i think that they're now at the scale where that could potentially make sense. >> how do you and jeff and others at the seor leadership level think about the

call to break you guys up? >> we don't think about it very, very deeply.ee you know, i'veat amazon now for 22-and-a-half years, and i always remember one of the first ings i heard jeff bezos say back when we could fit the whole company in just one conference room for an all-hands meeting. at night fearing your go to d competitors or fearing any external issues. t i would bed at night fearing whether you're doing right by your customers." and that really is a credo that we live here and it's what we spenmost of our time thinkin about. >> well, i, i understand that we're big, and that, that we deserve scrutiny, and i thinkha everythings... that's large in the economy and in society should deserve scrutiny. the problem is, when you think about us, we're in a lot of verticals, yes. there's... there's vid, and there's commerce, and there's, you know, there's web services therare all these things. but in every one of them, we have inten competition, and i do understand why, when you're in a lot of them, can seem like we're everywhere, but the

global... if we were everywhere, that global economy, no global the retail-- it's so vast, we're just, you know, we're a speck. >> to the public, it may sound strangcoming from amazon, which is a company with basically a trillion-dollar rket cap, your c.e.o. is the richest man in the world, but jeff wilke said to me that you're kind of just a speck in the scheme of things. do you see how that could seemgr strange or incus? >> you know, amazon as a whole has become, you know, has been successful, but simply because the company's been successful in a few different business segmen doesn't mean it's somehow too big. ♪ >> narrator: as jeff bezos's company is coming under ever greater scrutiny-- for everything from how wields power to even its impact on the environment-- he's continuing to look beyond it all. >> we get to preserve this unique gem of a planet which isr

completelylaceable. there is no plan b. we have to save this planet, and e shouldn't give up aut for our grandchildren's grandchildren of dynamism and growth. we can have both. who is gonna do this work? (rocket rumbling) >> narrator: he's spending all bin dollars a year of his personal fortune on a ace exploration company he created. >> and it's this generation'sto job uild that road to space, so that the future generations can unleash their creativity. >> narrator: for bezos, it's always been about one thing: his vision for the future. >> i want you tohink about this this vision sounds very big, and it is. none of this is easy, all of it is hard, but i want to inspire you, and so think about this.

big things start small. (audience applauding) thank you. (audience cheers and applauds) ♪ >> go to pbs.org/frontline for extended excerpts of our executives and insiders,on including employee number one. >> on one hand i'm proud of what it became, but it also scares me. m >> ae on amazon's use of facial recognition software. >> i think a lot of societal good is already being done with facial recognition technology. >> connect to the frontline community on facebook and twnter, and watch anytime o the pbs video app, or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs u.ation from viewers like thank you.

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. bymajor support is providehe john d. and catherine t. to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. anby the ford fodation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation,co itted to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustwonahy josm that informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation: unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities.t and frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagr. and additional support from laura debonis and scott nathan. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> for more on this and other "froline" programs, visit ou website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ to order frontline's, "amazon empire: the rise and reign of jeff bezos", on dvd visishop pbs or call0- 1-ay-pbs. this program is also available on amazon primvideo. ♪ ♪ you're watching pbs. ♪

ert mueller has submitted his report... >> the truth is rarely black and white. >> ...intelligence officials are e.pected to be face to fac >> all we hear about... >> but if we ask the hard questions... >> ...ssia witch hunt. >> check the facts. >> we face a number im rtant issues around privacy... >> dig a little deeper. >> boom! >> and take a breath... thtruth is closer than you think. ♪

-weaving through the crowded streets of istanbul, "amina" gracefully follows aminata fall, a senegalese wan who migrates to tu build a better life. ♪ -[ speaking french ] -as she faces alienation in a foreign country and longs for her daughter back home, she pursues her dreams. ♪ turkish director kivilcim akay colorfully documents the sounds, tastes, and intimate interactions