>> i'm jeff bezos. >> what is youclaim to fame? >> i'm the founder of amaz.com. >> narrator: from the award-winning producers of "the facebook dilemma". >> richest guy in the world. >> narrator: frontline investigates amazon. >> is amazon taking over the rld a good thing? >> narrator: questioning those who run the company... >> what would you say to someone who feels as though mans are increasingly being treated like robots? >> that's t the experience that i had in setting it up. o >> narrator: and those nnger 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 i call battle tested. a >> some peopleing if amazon is a monopoly. >> the question for the democracy is, arwe okay with one company essentially winning capitalism? jeff think about e call to break you guys up? >> simply because the company's been successful doesn't mean it's somehow too big. >> narrator: now on frontline...na >> domion was very much the >> narrator: "amazon empire". >> frontline is made possiblby contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by thn john dcatherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. and by the ford foundation: n working with visionariese frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams undation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation,ca ded to heightening public awareness of critical issues.

the hn and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation: unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. and by the frontle 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 colonize the planets. >> bezos is laying out his plans for colonizing space. >> bezos is known for going bign now he's literally shooting for the moon. >> narrator: in may of 2019, ff bezos, the richest person on the planet, unveiled his latest invention. >> this is blue moon. it's time to go back to thee moon, this t stay. >> jeff has said over and over again that the most important work he's doing is work in space.

wh he's built in amazon is really important and really interesting, and it's, it's revolutionized commerce. but it's only revolued commerce. >> narrator: bezos's plan is to chart a urse for the future of humanity. >> manufactured worlds rotated to create artificial gravity with centrifugal force. these are very large structures, miles on end. and they hold a million people >> narrator: it's a he's had since he was a teenager. >> this is me in high school. and i want to highlight thisot "the earth is finite, and if the world econo and population is to keep expanding, space is the only way to go." i still believe that. >> the way jeff bezos sees iit is that consumerism is an example of how today'society lives better than our parents did and our grdparents. and he wants, you know, future generations to continue to have an increasingly betterst

lie. >> these are beautiful. people are going to want to live here. >> narrator: bezos unveiled his time of growing concern about the empire he's built here on earth. >> amazon is the great disrupter, from books to retail to grocery stores. >> narrator: for more than 25be years, jefs s been almost every aspec ourrming modern lives. at once you start connecting the dots, you see th amazon is building all of the invisible infrastructure for our futures. >> amazon announced a healthcare partnership... >> amazon is helping the c.i.a. build a secure cloud... >> h much of the internet do you run? >> that's a good question, um, a itot, though. >> narrator: but in recent years, amazon-- and bezos-- have aggressive tactics and expanding power. (bezos laughing) >> everything that is admirable abouamazon is also something that we should fear about it.

>> narrator: for the past year, jeff bezos built his empire-- and at what cost. >> and so think about this. big thin start small. ♪ has its roots not in siliconpire .lley, but on wall street that's where the young princeton graduate wt to work in the early 1990s, at a secretive hedge fund called d.e. shaw. >> david shaw was thone who revolutionized wall street by introducing data. and i think jeff really embraced that, that idea that, "hey, if you have data, ultimately, you win."

>> one of ththings that davisk shaw jeff bezos to do was to go and investigate new businesses, and in particular this new thing in the early '90s called the world wide web. (dial-up modem connecting) >> we all know that a communications revolution is undeay in this country. >> what is the internet? >> it's sort of the mother of all networks. >> it's information highways. >> it'kind of like your remote control to the world. >> narrator: bezos was quick to see the untapped potential of the new digital landscape and was determined to get in on it. >> i came across this artling statistic that web usage was growing at 2,300a year. so, i decided i would try andes find a busplan that made sense in the context of that growth, and i picked books as the first best product to sell online. ♪ because books are incredibly unusual in one respect, and that is that there are more items inhe book category than ere are items in any oth category by far.

sowhen you have that many items, youan literally build a store online that couldn't exist any other way. >> narrator: the store he was imagining didn't exist, so he decided to build it himself. ♪ >> t reaction to jeff's idea to start selling books on the internet was pretty incredulous, you know, from a lot of the people close to him. just do it at night or over theo weekends. she didn't want to see him give up his job. >> jeff called, and he told me that he and mackenzie were quitting their jobs, and they re moving to seattle and starti a company. i said, "great, well, what are you going to do?" he said, "we're goinell books." i said, "nice." 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 tybody 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. amazon means gigantic. >> in terms relentlessness, stping at f?thing, that's, is that an apt description of j >> no.'s ot that jeff stops at nothing, it's that when jeffd sets his m a goal that he thinks he can achieve, he won'tt until he's proven wrong or until he achieves it. ♪ >> jeff and mackenzie had rented a house in bellevue. and then we moved to a small, second-floor office in the south part of seattle. >> narrator: shel kaphan was amazon employee number one, one of nine former amazon insiders

who agreed to talk on cara. >> what the company is now was nowhere in my wildest imagination. nowhere, so,he fact that it could have the-the kind of position in the world that it has now, i had no clue. >> narrator: in july 1995, amazon.com went live. >> it was an incredible novelty, it 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. i >> narrator:didn't take long for bezos's vision to prove prescient. >> what makes us different is vast selection, convience-- we deliver right to the desktop. if our catalog were printed on paper, it would be the size of ebsen new york city phonks. ♪ >> narrator: the 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 palpable excitement in the air at thisf place, andurse at this point jeff bezos was the first person to interview every prospective employee. so i was ushered into his office. he wanted to see how ft you were on your feet. he also always wanted to know your s.a.t. scores. >> he wanted to know your s.a.t. scores? >> every time, yes. >> how old were you atme the >> i was 36 or 37. >> this is the originasign that i me for amazon.com. blue sprayaint on white poster board. >> jeff wasn't a figure out folklore at that point, he wasal not the-the iest man in the world. >> here's my computer, amazon.com up on the screen. "hello, jeff bezos." >> he was a small, nondescript, ndy-haired man sitting at a desk with ite a large and

ertive laugh. (laughing in multiple scenes) was a normal guy to a sort of he amazing extent. >> hal 9000 ha very important. hal and i share a birt we're both born on january 12. >> it lied, 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 tns out ideas are the eas part, execution is everything. >> domination was on jeff's mind 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. d jeff's idea is that in the near-distant future, you could buy a yak from amazon. and if, and after you brout the kayak, you cou figure out good places to kayak and buy

travel services from amazon." so, those ambitions were very eclear, and this was veryarly on. het he was clearly thinking in those terms fromet-go. >> how did that ring to you at the time? nd>> a little bit exciting 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 futuristice, bookstnd the guy who owned it was suddenly talking abt selling, you know, eve object in the universe, you just weren't sure how seriously to take it. (bezos laughing) (bezos screaming playfully) >> narrator: though his public image waoften unserious... >> that was awesome! >> narrator: inside the company, bezos was a hard-chargg manager relentlessly focused on the principle that would make amazon one of the most trusted bran 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 custer expience. >> 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 stag >> narrator: jennifer cast 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. lad so, you know, it was a where we knew 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. it was exhilarating. we were all aligned around building for customers. >> hey, you guys. >> hey. e ezos laughs) >> i've heard ths an empty chair that would often be put at meetings. >> yeah. >> who was in the pty

chair? >> yeah, so that empty chair was there to remind us all to understand t customer, have empathy for the customer, understand the details of the customer experie e. the customer isn't there, we have to bring forward the voicef he customer. (phone ringing) >> thank you for calling amazon.com. learned that in th onlineickly world, he could understand exactly how customers were behaving. >> all orders do need to be placed online. >> it was madelear from the beginning th data collection was also one of amazon's businesses. all customer behavior that flowed through the site was recorded and tracked. and that itself was a valuabley. commod >> have you visited our website? navigated through the site.tomer so we could see what you looked at, we could ae what you paused at, we could see what you put your basket but didn't order, we could see what you put in your basket and did order. so that's when we starte realizing, "man, this is rich. this is rich, rich, rich." and so we've used it forhi

ever. >> 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. >> narrator: bezos 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 account, you take maybe when they were last on the site, how long they were on the 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 othe most fascinating kind of tools we have at our disposal is the ability to do

active experiments. it's, you know, it's kind of >> we did not think about it as exploiting, we thought about helping people make better decisions. >> i was starting to feel that that was less spectful toward the consumer, who was, aft 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 poible during each visit. and that felt a little more unsavory.as but thathe business of amazon. >> amazon has added 880,000 new customers... >> narrator: while bezos was using these insights to brin more and more customers into amon... >> the number of customers who use thwebsite has increased fourfold... >> narrator: there was one thing he hadn't done yet. >> the company's never made a profit. >> that's right. >> now, why... how does that... why... how does that...? >> it seems like a new math, doesn't it? >> it does.to >> nar bezos would spend

years losing money trying to beat his competition, and he convinced investors to gong with it. >> one of jeff bezos' greatest accomplishnts has been hiset ability to wall street to t acce fact the first 20-some years, amazon wasn't and that's okay because they're building infrastructe that will cate huge opportunitieso for themin scale and gain customers and gain business. >> narrator: he spelled it out after the company t wenters blic: "it's all about the long term," he wrote, ratherho than-term profits or wall street reactions. he essentially says, "we are going to forego profits in order to take market shar 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." >> ntor: that strategy wouldn't sit well witics

like stacy mitchell, who advocates for small businesses. >> in essence, at the very beginning, he's signaling to shareholders, have a strategy to monopolize the market, and that's going to reward y, but it's going to be far down the road, and will you come along with me?"an they said yes. >> narrator: investors also recognized bezos' essentialov which had to chargrtores, 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 they can. >> what booksellers were saying to me is that, "this is driving my customers to amazon. they'll come into the store, they'll browse, they find what theyant, but then they'll go buy it on amazon, because they can save that saletax." >> so it was a very irksome,ig early,ssue for the book vendors, first of all, they were kind of the canaries in theso mineo speak, and then lots

of other retailers. ♪ >> amazon has added thousands of warehouse workers and three f million squat of space. >> narrator: amazon's sales-tax advantage would be central to its success as it expanded beyond books, into other products. >> and we have a fantastic selection of things you can thok at. electronics and en of course toys. yeah, thank you, here is, we've got have the friendly pokémon. this is more than ten times e selection that you will find in a typical, physical world software store. >> narrator: but bezos was stil ng way from his goal of amazon being the place where you could buy everything online. (drills whirring) and he saw a way to achieve it. >> amazon could soon become thee walmart ofnternet. >> narrator: there were thousands of businesses ger to se online. bezos offered them a way to do it. >> amazon is traforming itself om an online bookstore to an online mall. >> nartor: he transformed amazon into a retail platform

ere anyone could sell their goods to his customers and invited thousands of other businesses to be a part of it.e >> it's siest place r anybody, small or large, who tonts to set up shop onlin sell online, because they can access our 12 million-plus customers. anybody, all comers. >> we're talng about hundreds of thousands of companies with literally tens of millions of products. >> narrator: name-brand stores started selling on bezos platform, and so did tens of thousands ofmall entrepreneurs. >> everyone knew amazon.com. the only people that knew superduperhoops.com were the s ones that werching to buy a basketball hoop and saw 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 rercgnizable name in e-commee.ra >> narr: 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 elsee in t marketplace he owned and controlled.e >> hns the main street. he has the main street real estate. not just one building on the rner, the entire main street. ♪ >> narrator: how amazon wouldov wield its poer the online marketplace would evly become a question for government regulators, but early on, therei weications. the first to see them were book publishers. >> amazon took over a large maet share of the publishing industry very, very fast. ey were very quickly in position to demand concessions. yoknow, i think that was a 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 "the e 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. e cheetah looks for the weak, looks for the sick, looks for the small, that's what you go for. so don't start with, you know, number one publisher. start with number seven publisher and then number six publisher, and by the time you get to number three, two, and one, the noise has gone, gten back to them. they're going to know this is maming, and chances are yo be able to settle that without a full-on war. >> we were just this little mo,and pop publishing compa publishingoetry books and translated fiction

>> narrator: in the early 2000s, the number of books de johnson was selling on amazon had been rising steadily. then one day, he got a phone call. >> our distrutor called us up to talk about our 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." that's the word 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 team and says he sawothing wrong with amazon's tough tactics to challenge publishers on prices and profit margins. >> in order to bring them into line, we would actually take them out of automated merchandising, take their prices up to list price; we would p references on the product page,

their product page, saying, "yoa it cheaper, you want this book for, on this topic for a way cheaper price? click here." and we'd send them to whoever wu t their worst competitor was. that was how amazon forced theie ors to-to comply. (stammering): but that's an old walmart trick, i mea it wasn't like amazon created that. and it made, it made a difference. excited about it.ff kind of got >> narrator: when dennis johnson ostill refused to give in 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 companyef thatred to little publishers like me as wounded gazelles, i believe? that's how they think, that's how he thoug from the beginning. and we eventually had to pay at at the time i called a bribe. and our attitude toward amazon was, you know, "render unto caesar that which is caesar's."

and then carry on as best as you can.>> eff bezos may say that amazon comes along and has given publishers likself access to a huge distribution channel for your books. has amazon been good forour business? >> well, absolutely they have. any bookseller that sells our books is good for ouness. so, i'm not complaining that amazon is selling our books. i'm just complaining of the way that their tactics are hurting e industry i love. >> narrator: in addition to ngranting interviews, ama regarding dennis j's questions. characterizations, it told us, "amazon disagrees with this account." >> were you uncomfortae with that sort of ruthlessness ever? >> well, no, 'cause i was in retail-- i mean, people think that's ruthless. you know, i looked, and someop at amazon, "wow, that's kind of mean," and i'm like, "oh, a retailer and a supplier having a disagreement? stop the presses!"

it happens all the time.u i mean, ow, look, you've got a finite margin, and somebody's going to have to give. and-and a lot of times amazon wasn't the one giving. >> kindle is a purpose-builtg readvice. >> narrator: the tension between amazon and book publishers would ramp up even further with the unveiling of the kindle, whi helped the industry transition to the digital age, but gave amazon more power to set prices lower. >> and new releases are only $9.99. narrator: around th 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 would y, "hey, you know, amazon, they're just a terrific customer, they're our biggest custom. ey buy the most books, they sell the most books. we love them." en you close the door, a they say, "amazon is destroying our business model, they'rest ying our business, they

have way too much power, we must do sothing about them." >> narrator: lynn wanted publishers to speak up publicly and thought federal antitrust regulators might inveigate whether amazon was nonopoly, illegally abusing its market dominance anticompetitive ways. he >> andd say, "no way, i'm not going to talk about amazon in public.g i'm not talkout them on capitol hill. they will take retribution against me." >> to which you responded? >> "ll, that's why we have toet do sng about it." >> narrator: jennifer 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. how do you react to that, that publhers 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 tt they-they don't talk negatively about us, i mean, know they have a lot of good things to say about us. um, you know, i-i don't know why ey wouldn't speak their minds. we certainly value speaking our minds. >> there is this well-known anecdote about cheetahs and gazelles, thisga lle program. do you know about that? >> i don't. >> we've talked to former amazonians about it,er jeff had said, "we should basilly try to negotiate with book publishers and try to get better terms and treat the oualler publishers as a cheetah would go after aed gazelle." >> i didn't hear the cheetah and gazelle example, but what we wereooking for was people th were willing to move away from the d 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 psent their

books to customers. >> i want to talk a littleit about how we think about >> narrator: amazon would begin to accumulate even more power in 2005, when bezos quietly rolled out a revolutionary new program: amazon prime. >> now they haveomething called the prime shipping program. >> amazon prime-- we only launched this a week ago-- you pay $79 a year, and you get two-day shipping for free. >> narrator: it s 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 theod intion of what has become the most successful membership prime.m in history, and that's >> many of you in this audiee will already be amazon primess members, b you. this is very much appreciated.>> it changes the way you shop. >> narrator: entually more than 150 million people would sign up for the free shipping-- a tremendous expense for amazon.

but to bezos, it was worth it. >> the prime program at amazonne isf the most important drivers of amazon's growth.ou wheno on and look to buy a product, and it's available in o days, delivered to your door anywhere in the country, that amazon prime program becom a mechanism that keeps bringing you back as a customer to keep buying and keep searching for new products on amazon. >> narrator: two-day delivery anywhere in the countra big promise for a company that, at the time, had less than ten warehouses. so bezos went on a buildg spree. ♪ across the country amazon warehous began to spring up, filled with millions ofod prts 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

resides unemployed... >> job market is in complete disarray. >> narrator: like allentown, pennsylvania. >> at that time, it was tremendous news that an employet was coming andlly opening a facility and hiring people, versus, you know, gutting halff. the st >> narrator: spencer sop was a business reporter for the "allento morning call" when amazon opened in the area in 2010. he began hearing stories about working in the warehouse. >> people are basically in thisw big, sprawlingehouse that's stocked with goods in very random fashion. and they have scanners that tell them which things to get. and people are walkingaybe ten, 15 miles a day. so people just kind of crisscrossing this big warehouse all day long. >> narrator: as workers told him about e punishing pace to meet the daily quota of packages, and the intense heat, soper and his colleagues started to investigate further. >> people really felt like amazon was playing fast and loose with their, with their

health. >> narrator: soper discovered there had been numerous complaints to authorities at the occupational safety and health administration, osha. >> they actually had a complainr 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 emergency room to be treated for heat stress." there was a security guard who worked in the facility who sent a complaint to osha saying that he saw pregnant women sufferingt tress in-in the facility. and so there's just, like, these red flags right and left >> narrator: after an investigation, osha said amazon needed to keep the temperatures in the warehouses lower. in a statement at the time, thed company t installed new industrial air conditioning and pledged thatorker safety was its number-one priority. >> amazon is shrewd businessople, shrewd businesspeople know when they have leverage. and when you'rthe only sp hiring people in town, you can

push them a lot harder than you n when-when they've got alternatives. >> narrator: over the following years, amazon wod hire hundreds of thousands of workers and become one of the largest jobs e creators in thuntry. at the fulfillment centers, bezos experimented with new techniques and technologies to boost productivity. >> willingness to experiment is the key to be able to doew things. so we do, you know, hundreds of experiments everday in our fulfillment centers to get a little bit better. kind of like incrementalve ion. ♪ >> 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 envonment in amazon's warehouses. >> when i first showed up at operations team.i led our global >> narrator: jeff wilke created

the amazon fulfillment cente system and is one of two c.e.o.s under jeff bezos. >> as we've adde200,000 robots, in that same time frame since 2012 we've added 300,000 people in our fulfillment centers. so what happens is the robotsge chhe work, so they allow us... people don't have to walk as far, which is a complaint th we've heard in the past they make the job safer, they make them higheruality, becauswe present a s set of options to-to employees. and that's all good for customers, and it's good for employees too. >> narrator: but at the same time, complaints have persisted. >> people who've worked in warehouses for decades say,if "this isrent. 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 kaoosji is an advocate for warehouse workers in thean bernardino, california, area-- an amazon hub, with ten fulfillment centers and over 15,000 employees. >> because of the way that

amazon operates, because of the way that theset their rates for productivity, it's a lot harder worphysically but also psychologically. >> narrator:e 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 thinkingco maybe d find a-a place where, you know, i'm going to set roots of a good job, you know, move up in-in the place. but after being there for a while, i was like, "there's no way." i s like, "okay, this is where i can probably make a." care but once you worked there for a certain amount of time, it's just like, it's just not realistic, how they expect you to work. >> narrator: like dozens of workers we've oken to around the country, they say they've struggled to keep up with thera amazon expect them to pick and pack items. >> how realistic are the rates that they're giving you? i mean, what's... >> not realist at all. >> not-not realistic? >> no. there's absolutely no way to make rate, younow, you got to find little ways to-to cheat

it, because once you hit rate, t end of the week, they raised it, they bump it up cause they startg, "hey, people can hit those rates, can hit those numbers, hey, let's pushhem a little every week it seemed like it was going up. ♪ >> you have security cameras right behind you at all times, that are looking at you 24-seven. and if you don't meet standards or the rates, you're out the door, you're just disposable. >> every worker has a scanner at all times that basically track exactly where you're at. >> and they have a little blue line at the bottom of thed screen, anit has, like, how many seconds that you have to have idone by the time it hits zero, and it puts you into panic mode. >> and pretty much you can't talk to people, you can't be in just constantly hasitm, you

there scanning like a robot all day long. if,hey catch you not scanni you get a write-up. >> and what they're doing is they're producinthis mass of data that they are using to be workforce.alyze the entire >> 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 atre any use, on any assembly line, to get the most out of any worker. >> yes. >> to make rates, to-toen be as effias possible, to be as productive as possible. so, i don't see exactly what's different about amazon as >> amazon is the cutting edge. other warehouses are srting to adopt these technologiesother companies are definitely interested in doing what amazon is doing. data collection could becomean basically the rd for all workers, and that there's... e u're never good enough, you're nev ablto keep up. ♪

wo narrator: amazon told u rates are not based on individual employee's performanc 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, they've described ce of workers. work as being really grueling. t early thinking about rates and how far you could push human beings in termsf their productivity, what was the thinking about that? >> well, obviously if the rates are too hiu're not going to have people showing up for work. so, we have 600,000 peop at the company, 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 ere we have fulfillment 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. they're safe, we pay double the

minimum wage, the nati minimum wage, we have terrific benefits. the benefits for the folks that worke floor are the same benefits that my family has access to-- our family leave is likeeks. so, the rates are set so that we can accomplish what we need to, which is get orders to customers in a-a reasonabltime and in a high-quality way, and that creates a workplace that peopl want to come back to, and they do. >> narrator: amazon wouldn't tell uhow long fulfillment-center workers stay on the job or how often they're injured. but workers we spoke to say the rates are higher than other t warehouses-- at the company rebuffs attempts to unionize. >> we do not believe unions are in the best interest of ourcu omers, our shareholders, or mostmportantly, our associates. >> narrator: this is a clip from a video the coany 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 basicallbe anti-union. >> i don't think we made the decision to be anti-union. we just feel that all of the things that-that unions would-would want to-to g us >> what-what aboutdy done. setting rate, though? do you not s that there's a hands of management in this the 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 dever for customers, you know,e' what promised. >> what would you say to someone, though, who's, who's centers that feels as thought there's been... that-that humans are increasingly being treated like robots? 'cause it's something that we'vu ly 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. it's, it's certainly true that-that these jobs are not for everybody, and there-there maypl be pthat don't want to do this kind of work. >> narrator:mazon executives also stress the company has become an industry leader in training i workforce for career advancement. >> we just announced a pledg recently to spend $700 million to upskill, which is basically creating career opportunitiesle for pe100,000 of our employees. to-to college to get a skill that isn't about amazon, that'sr abouting options for the employees, and i would expect those people to take advantage of that, work for us for aan couple of yearthen go do something that they would much rather do, and that's okay. >> there will be people th will hearhat 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 actually ed to think that way for a while whenever i, when i first started, whoever i heard complaints from, was like, "well, it was in the job description,nd you signed up for it." is the safety rules that youut have to ignore to make rate. it's not just you go in, oy, and you-you do your job, and that's it. >> so, you're in, you're w inrd bind. >> it's incredibly hard to meetl rate whilewing all the safety procedures. >> a complaint that we've heard from workers 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, standard a little cheat the >> 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 the safety of our employees to do anything else. so, we have, we have 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, amazon has put a happy face on its business a its workforce. ("give a little bit" by supertramp playing) >> ♪ give a little bit give a little bit of your love... ♪ >> even in amazon's commercials, the people are almost likes shadowand silhouettes. it's all about boxes, and there's just like happy boxesng g and bumbling their way to your door, like, oh, no, no. >> ♪ there's so much that we need. ♪ >> hello. >> hey. >> they don't wa you to evenw think about ey do this. they just want you to be wowed get here?"how'd th, how'd this >> ♪ i'll give a little bit of my love to you. ♪ >> they wanted people to just

think, "whoa, magic!" ♪ >> narrator: and magic was a big part of bezos' marketing strategy, with an emphasis on the company's miraculous level of innovation and growth. >> we started amazonrime in 2005, buthen something very extraordinary happened. this. in 2011, the slope of that graph changed-- a lot. >> narrator: as amazon grew, hep want hisxecutives to think about the kind of company it was becoming. he wrote a memo titled, "amazon.love." copy of it was obtained by brad stone.o >> the m another example of jeff being very prescient about the future. it's jeff grappling with the mpidea that t all big coanies are loved. that there is something that we

comfortable with when we talk about very big companies. "rudeness is not cool. l.feating tiny guys is not cool. risk taking is c winning is cool. polite is cool.g defeatgger, unsympathetic guys is cool. inventing coo explorers are cool. conquerors are not cool." >> some businesses, you can tell when you in and have meetings with them, they have a conqueror mentality. and there's a big difference between being a conqueror d being an explorer.i anink in, yoknow, this very inventive space that we're in, it pays toxplore. ♪ >> narrator: but to some watching amazon's growth, the company was falling short 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 iver it built a network of independent businesses to deliver packages. >> they weren't just going to dabble here and dabble there. they were going to go and create a system that would rivalfe x 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 reds of amazon packages, but ey're small enough that 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 tode ver packages. >> after striking him, the van maneuvered around salinas and his dog.

>> narrator: and they documented 2re than 60 crashes, including 13 deaths, since5. >> an infant critically injured in a car crash has died. >> when it came time to figurewh ous responsible, amazon would always say, "it's a ntractor, it's not our responsibility." >> now you've been able ind 13 deaths. and that's over the course of several years. ishat 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 and that i found every single one.ou i just enough to show that this is happening around the country. with ups, there's a record. there's a federal record you can look at how many serious injury and fatal accidents they have. with amazon, that doesn't ext. cono one knows the safety s of all of amazon's contractors. >> narrator: amazon disputed thr

propubliort. 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 all of those partners for safe performance. we have training videos for the third parties that work with us to help themnderstand what we expect in terms of the drive, we have mapping software that w use to help them find the right routes. every one of our drivers is required, including the third parties, are required to have comprehensive insurance, including liability insurance, so that if there ian accident that the person who's injured i. cove >> amazon wants to get prime members their packages even faster...th

>> narratoe last year, amazon announced a change to the way it handles prime deliveries. instead of delivering packages t in days, they promised to doon el ie. >> free next-dayery all across the u.s.... >> it's impossible fore to imagine a world 20 years from now where a customer comes up to me and says, "jeff, i love amazon.is i justyour prices were a little higher." or, "i love amazon. i just wish you delivered a m litte slowly." >> narrator: at the same time the delivery nwork was being set up, amazon was also rapidly expanding its product offerings, inviting more selleronto 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 disapar.

>> narrator: rachel greer worked in produ safety at amazon, and worried that the site was being flooded with untested and >> are there proper warnings? has it been safety-tested for durability? a ifhild chews on it, will the paint come off? is that paint leaded? >> most people would assume that the's a pretty high safety standard on amazon. >> and that assumption would be incorrect. >> narrator: she says that's because amazon, like other tech companies, takes the position that it's not legally responsible if its customersrepr harmed bucts sold by third parties on the site. >> if someone buys something th cses harm at waart or at target, a consumer can sue walmart or target. >> 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. ut >>hen 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 dangerous product on amazon? who tas ultimate responsibility for that? >> well, in the rare case where that, where something like thatn ha if it's a third-party seller, the sale is by a third-party seller, ans the seller's responsibility to, to sell a legitimate product to 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. >> b when the other sellers are selling in your store, you're not responsibler ultimately, if they're defective or dangerous product? >> i think the way things workhe in.s. is that the seller

of record is the person who isic setting the and who is purchasing the product, and for thdgs not sold by amazon-- it says on the detail page, is-- it's the sell the seller responsibility for those things, and for us, it's very clear. it says amazon.com whenever we sell it. >> 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... sales are by thirdes,of our and those sales, some of themme irectly from the trd party, so we're not involved at all. b >> you take a cut. i mean, it's on your infrastructure, it goes through amazon.com, so, i mean... infrastructure in terms of the website and payments, but we're yot... >> and fees that 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 the w

they think about marketing is why they would pay that fee, but... it's harder to, before an experience, inspect that, that product. >> a south carolina woman who bought a hair dryer on amazoned said this happ >> firis coming out of the hair dryer. >> narrator: amazon's approach has had consequences. >> a hoverboard caused a fire that destroyed their home. >> narrator: dgerous products were flagged by authorities in washington state. >> ...found dozens of school pplies that had high levels of toxic metals. >> narrator: and a recent report found thousands of banned,be unsafe, or misd products. >> i'm having a hard timeun rstanding something, which is that, that... you ow, amazon's entire bran 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 customer wants to buy an unsafe product. no customer wants seleion that harms their child. no customer wants to buy

something that burns down theira house e it looks cool and it's the latest, coolest thing.h >> sittie 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 t things thaare not safe, and, you know, there are millions of sellers and hundreds of millions of products, and can, weeout the hatast as we don't belong on our site. we're going to have to be vialant as a retailer and a 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 obsessn is the first leadership principle, and it, it's not a corporate slogana >> we try toreally focused

on customers. delivering results for our customers. >> providing a great customer experience that customers want. >> delivering that, that >> narrator: this ment to the customer, and to keeping prices low, had anothebenefit: it helped them avoid running afoul of regulators who enforcea the nationitrust laws. sort of that there's twoerstand fundamental philosophies of latitrust, of anti-monopol you know, there's the traditional philosophy, in which you, you want to break up all potential concentrations of wer 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 the consumer >> narrator: lynn urd been ng regulators to take a more

traditional approach and examine whether thcompany was gaining market power in exploitative ways: stifling fair competition, but keeping prices low for consumers. >> we li in a society of consumers, though, and seemingly there is se 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 alle if can drive down prices, if we have books that anybody coulde buy. that's a good thing. it's a good thing for society, ansit's a good thing for us consumers. but we're not only consumers, we're also citizens. we're also producers. an're also people who thin things, and we wanaveho grow access to open markets. >> narrator: once again, the tension was most pronounce with book puishers. amazon was selling around 40% of all new books in america

and two-thirds of all electronic books, thankto 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 azon set out to renegotiate their e-book ntract. and hachette said, "no, we don't accept the terms of your contct." and amazon basically said, "to 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 auors that hachette publiss is heating up. >> narrator: as bezos's virtual blockade dragged on for months. >> a bitter, seven-month standoff... >> narrator: thousands ofth s, including bestsellers like douglas preston, were caught 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 yourme sales pl >> i did, yes. i saw my sales plummet tremendously. >> narrator: in frustration, uteston penned an open letter on behalf of allrs. 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 howat they tres? this is not right. >> amazon has been accused of doing everything from raising ices to deliberately delaying shipments. >> is this what happens when jeff bezos decides to is muscles? >> narrator: while hachette and douglas preston, franklin foer, and other authors went to washington, and asked the obama administrati to open an investigation. >> i went to the justice a departme i went to the federal trade commission with the authors guild, and we tried to explain to them why ts

power was so dangerous. we pointed it out of all then ways iich amazon wasub bullying theshing industry. >> the department of jtice listened to us. and their answer was essentially this: "amazon is one of the most popular companies the country.am a 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 amazon would 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 here at 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 ofhe christmas rush,

customers around the world ordered morehan 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 bscribers. they are the de facto e-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 response from amazon executives before, and w did that, we wsted, we listed all of our products on every other online mketplace. but it's a testament to just how go amazon is. all of the others that were

non-amazon combined did out ten percent of what we were doing amazon. >> narrator: businesses big and small have bn accumulating complaints about amazon's hold on them. >> on amazon, the customer belos to amazon-- it doesn't belong to the third-party 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 challenges with amazon.ng >> narrator: ahose challenges, businesses say that amazon has access to their w valuable data,ch gives it an unfair advantage. they ao complain about increasingly higher fees to stay on the platform, and pressure to use amazon's warehouses and s shippingvices. companies, but nond share-brand its grievances on camera. >> my account was suspended.

>> narrator: some small businesspeople have been talking about their experiences-- good and bad-- online. >> when you're selling on amazon, you're playing in someone else's playground. >> who gets placed where, whether or not your productup shown the search results... without warning.d my account >> these are all things that are and if there's a dispute within that arena, if you feel you are mistreated, you know, the judge and jury is amazon. >> they don't care, kill your account like that or suspend it... >> there are all sorts of crazyh stories aboupeople get their accounts shut down on amazon. and it could take a week, it could take months, it could befo never you're back online again. icazon has the upper hand d 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 everng sold on the site. >> i sell mini-longboard

skeboards. >> i sell mineral water. this is what i do. >> narrator: and it's committed to its sellers' success-- proactively contacting them when their accounts are at risk of suspension and offering an appealsrocess to resolve disputes. >> you already have great produc. scale up... >> narrator: but in the eyes of some businesses, amazon has essentially become like the railroadat 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 your rails, through your marketplace? >> i don't think of it that way, and here's why: the,ast majority of stuff that...ll all of the stuff that's sold is manufactured, right? so it's manufactured, meaning ere are brands and factories that produce stuff and then sell it. we're one rcent of the retail sales in the world, about. biggest marketplace online, right?

>> no, so, again, i, i don't...h idea that there's an online,nd distinct for bto sell their stuff and distinct from physical, just doesn't makese e to me, and we're far from the largest retailer. so, i, i dcribe this as retail, and 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 si and power. >> when i worked at amazon, we s had trainicifically on the use of terms like "monopoly." we were not allowed to use at term like "marare." amazon has what's known as "market segment share." what is market segment? what is market segment share? i don't know, but i know that the lawyers at amazon feel those terms are, are much safer than

using terms like market share. >> so market share w something they were really concerned about. >> clearly somebody with 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 essence it's a polite way of saying, "i'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 characterizati 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 monopoly or not, i don't know. ♪ >> narrator: that queson has continueto loom over amazon. >> i think that amazon is threat that they may face istial going to be from government. it's whether or not pocymakers are going to step in and intervene and sou have too much power." >> narrator: for years, bezospi has been ram up amazon's profile in washington. >> amazon has been lobbying the f.a.a. to lift... >> trying to cozy up to politicians, so that they will give him the biggest tax breaks around... >> narrator: spending millions o yelobbying. >> amazon lobbied more government entities than any her tech company. >> narrator: and hiring as its spokesman the former white house press secretary jay carney. >> you've got an army of

lobbyists, many of who revolved in and out of government, including yourself.e whatou hoping to get for all that lobbying spend and all that influce? >> one of the things we discovered is, because of the visibility of our company, but also the range of businesses that we're in, we need subject-matter experts on food safety, on transportation, on drones, on privacy. and also, we can be a ce, an information provider to policymakers and rulators. it's not lobbying in the traditionasense, in terms of trying to persuade somebody to 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 social. >> it has a big ballroom, i mean, it is desied 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 e 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.i ink that the capital city of the united states of america 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 per. >> 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.th >> narrator: atime, critics saw a more cynical motive. >> perhaps he's buying "the washington post" to buy some sort of protection. >> precisely. >> this deal could give him more influence over politics. >> nobody hangs out inwa ington, dc, just to go to the free museums. you buy a home in washington, itu buy a newspaper in washington, beca is the most influential city in the world, and you want to lay your hands on that power. ♪ >> narrator: bos saw a business opportunity there, as well. the obama administration planned to modernize the federal government by embracing cloud computing. bezos had been quietly building a revolutionary cloud computing business. he called it amazon web services.

>> it's basically computing power in the cloudbut 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 unprecedented digitalveloped an infrastructure. he reazed he could rent parts of it out, not just to businesses, but also to theve ment. >> our infrastructure is built to satisfy the security standards ofhe most risk-sensitive organizations. >> he's already got a huge edge over the other big competitors in it. so he wants to take that lead and capture the u.s. government. >> narrator:n 2013, he got a major boost when it was revealed that amazon web services had designed a computing cloud for the c.i.a. awarded a ten-year contract for $600 million. >> aman is helping the c.i.a. build a secure cloud computer network...

>> 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 with your most precious data. >> the message to the world is, "if the i.a. trusts amazon with its data, then maybe other companies and government stutions can, as well. >> narrator: and they d. >> experience it with expedia. >> narrator: a.w.s. became by cloud-computing platform. >> on cbs. >> narrator: tay, 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. 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. ♪

>> please welcome chief execute officer of amazon web services andy jassy. >> narrator: andy jassy created and runs a.w.s. he credits theervice with making it easier to do business throughout the economy. >> look at what a.w.s. has enabled with regard to change in ourociety. look at, netflix changed the way that we consume digital content, and airbnb changed the way that we get accommodations, and hola and grab and lyft and uber changed the way that we get transportation. part of enabling all these huge innovations and changes in consumer experiences that have, have made life better for people. >> and wre the cloud with the most capabilities, the most innovation, the most customers. >> narrator: the divion 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 c that sells everything to a company that ds everything. a top priority... >> to boldly go where no man has gone before. the sci- future he'd fallen in love with as a child. >> gentlemen, this computer has an auditory sensor it can, in effect, hear sounds. >> narrator: a world ofci arti intelligence, in which computers can think and make decisions for humans and about humans. >> jeff bezos 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 be pursuing a little disk that you can bark commands into. >> stop. >> this is his "beam me up, scotty" fantasy reized.

device.tarted working on this and our, our vision was, in the heng term, it would become star trek computer. >> when it first arrived from amon, i didn't know what i was. talking computer, the amazons echo, hit the market.it >> i for me? >> it's for everyone. >> narrator: the voice known as f exa would embed amazon deeper into the lives ollions of people. >> alexa, what do you do? >> i can play music, answer questis, get the news and weather. >> they call it a personal assistant, and just that term imies this intimate connection that we then begin to develop with amazon. a xa, sing the abc song., >> ♪ a, b, e, f... >> i believe that when we think about the future and the future with artificial intelligence, meven where we currently are today, alexa in ays represents the moment that it

becomes seamlessly interwoven with our lives. >> alexa, how many teaspoo are in a tablespoon? >> one tablespoon equals three teaspoons. >> oh, okay. >> and the problem is that we t forget that itre. >> 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 artificial intelligence. >> 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 to kinof 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 i extremely important to this business model. it's extreme hard to d and, you know, convincing people to just deploy something like this in their home is a brilliant trick. >> narrator: dave limp is

amazon's head of devices. >> how is it that you convinced tens of millions of people to put what is essentially 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 "wake-word engine." ald that detector is listening-- not listening-- it's detecting one thing and one thing only, which is the word you've said that you want to get the attention of at 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 t listen anscribe some of those recordings to help train the system. >> do you think that you did a go enough job of disclosing that to consumers? that, that there are humans involved in listeninhese recordings? a >> we, we try iculate what

we're doing with our 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 s, though, is that once we realized that customers didn't clearly understand this, and within af coupleys, we added an opt-out feature, so that customers could turn offth annotation i, if they so chose. and then withia month or two later, we allowed people to auto-delete data, which they also asked for within that within that time frame. you know, we're not going to always be perfect, but when we make mistakes, i think the key is that we correct them very quickly on behalf of customers. >> narrator:ut even one of the founders of amazon web services approaches his alexa devices with caution. when do you turn off your alexa? >> iurn off my alexa when it know for a fat the conversation that i am going to have, or, or whenever

want to have a private moment. i don't want certain conversations 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. year. have had an incredible the team has invented a lot on behalf of customers, and i cannotait to show you what we have. >> narrator: so far, limp and his team have made alexa compatible with more than >> echo frames all to get done more around you and be more present in the everyday. >> now they're going to know more about you than anyone knows. intimately as possible and as quietly as possible into everyday life. >> 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 bring you the all-new echo auto. >> they want what you do in your car, they want what you do in your home. amazon smart oven. >> alexa, bakeor 30 minutes at 350 degrees. (oven beeps) >> a 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: after alexa, 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 that amazon describes as "the new neighborhood watch." >> hey, get away! >> get out of there! >> narrator: to promote it,

amazon has enlisted the help of hundreds of local police departments. >> it's a phenomenal tool tosi as detectives. >> narrator: they give them access to a portal to request footage and have given free cameras to hd out-- and talking points. >> this syem is so simple to use... >> you have amazon in partnership with pol departments, w have basically turned policemen into, like, avon salespeople forn ring. they have given police depaments talking points and marking materials to encoura 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.to >> nar amazon has continued to expand the scope of ring. last fall, dave limp unveiled a version designed to monitor the 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 it? >> i think that that industry problem. it's not just about the, a ring- camet could be about anybody's cameras. it's about any device in that... and we've already investigated that one to make sure what, what what we want to be able to do in those cases is, we want to minimize them. we'd like to detecthem. and we also want to build tools that give them the ability so that doesn't... that, th makes it harder for those kinds of attacks to happen. there's lot of bad people in this world. >> here's a device 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 not supposedly, we are obsessed with customers. i, i would say that we are trying to build security features at every level of the stack: operating systems, authentication, fraud detection. we offer things that customers can turn on that make it even, make it evenarder for those attacks to happen. ho >> yo, what's ups your day? >> who is that? what are you watching?y? >> 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, my main man >> narrator: and it just hackers. ring has fired some of its own employeefor spying on customers. >> in george orwell's "1984," he describes a dystopia in which, "you had to live, you did live from habit that became instinct in the assumption tt every sound you de 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 theh logy that, or have my teams invent the technology 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 anythi >> we're increasingly 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 >> oh, sure, i canhy it could be concerning to some customers. our job in building that technology is to build it in such a way that it, that it takes into account for the scenarios that you just talked about, as best as we possiy can. you know, the, the reality of it is, that world happened way

before ring or alexa. ♪ >> nrator: that's something that bezos himself wrestled with 20 years ago. >> i believe that privacy goneg to be one of the promi issues of the 21st century. the thing is, there are towns now in the united states that have installed security cameras on every corner, a their crime rates decreased by 80%, but do you really want cameras on every corr? there are very strange things that are going to happ 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 uld be at the vanguard of expanding the use of that kind of technology. du >> intng 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... >> narrator: after amazon rolled out a facial recognition tool,

it marketed it to law enforcement.nd >> recognizerack persons of interest from a collection of tens of millions of faces. >> narrator: police we've spoken toay it's a valuable tool identify suspects quickly. >> ...pears to be a match, but i'm gonna make sure i look at them all. >> narrator: and whi amazon es for howd guidel it should be used, there are few laws governing the use of this technology. >> it returns anybody with warrants that look like her. narrator: civil liberti advocates have raised concerns, as have computer scientists, whs worry amazoneleased th software before it's ready, andl that pe are essentially field-testing it on the public on behalf of the company.ls >> the tre not what i call battle-tested. and we still do not understand how well they work in the environments in which they'll be applied. that's where i see a danger. >> narrator: anima anandkumar was the principal scientist for artificial intelligence at.

amaz in her first interview about her concerns she told us she was particularly alarmed by an m.i.t. study that found thene software po miakes with darker-skinned faces. amazon has questioned the study's methodology. >> as a researcher in a.i., i feel it's my personal responsibility to educate the public of where a.i. truly is today, right? because they hear soof a.i. being hyped up, you know, it's supposeto be magical, it's supposed to solve all the worls problems. i e the potential in doing that, but at the same time we need a reality check. we need to ask, where is a.i. today? what can it truly do well? >> and when it comes to facial recognion, you don't think it's ready for primetime. >> i don't think face recognition is ready for primetime in challenging applications like law enforcement. >> narrator: anandkumar and other scientists have asked amazon to stopelling rekognition to law enforcement

because they say the system's 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. -a and in those t-a-half years, we've never had any thported misuse of law enforcement usinfacial recognition technology and, you know, i think a lot of societal good is already beindone with facial recognition technology. already, you've seen hundreds of missing kids reunited with their parents, and hundreds of human trafficking victims saved, and all kinds of security and identity and education uses, so there's a lot of good that's been done with it.bu i also understand that it could be misused. and i think at the end of theda with any technology, whether you're talking about facial recognition technology or atything els the people use the technology have to be responsible for it, and if theys use it insibly, they have to be held accountable.

>> there's been all sorts of problems with policing in this country.hy sollow police departments to experiment? >> we believe that governments d the organizations that are charged with keeping our communities safe have to have access to the most sophisticated, modern technology that exists.av we don'ta large number of police departments that are using our facial recognition technology, and as i we've never received any owmplaints of misuse. let's see if somhey abuse the technology. they haven't done that, and to assume that they're gonna do it and therore u shouldn't allow them to have access to the most sophisticated technology out there, doesn't feel like the ght balance to me. >> it's been difficult to even know how many police cipartments are using the recognition technology, and there's no public auditing to know whether there are complaints about abuse. pu how would thic ever know? >> you know, again, i don't think we know the total number of police departments that are using facial recognition technology. i mean, there's, you c any number-- we have 165 services ie

ounology infrastructure platform, and you can use them anyhatever conjunctio 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 conversations, and if we find that they're using it in some irresponsible way, we won't allow them to use the service and the platform. ♪ bezos have said they want governments to hurry up and regulate how law enforcement can use facial recognition. but in the meantime, aman has forged ahead, and has even discussed its services with immigration and customs forcement. >> at amazon web services... >> narrator: and the u. military. >> ...partner community to deliver for our warfighters and defense leaders for when it matters most. >> narrator: bezos himself has made it clear that he sees amazon playing a critical role in national security, as well as inommerce. >> we are going to continue to

support the d.o.d., and i think we should. and if big tech companies are u.s. department of defense, this country is gonna be in trouble. >> narrator: as amazon has revolutionized one industry afr another, jeff bezos's reputation has grown to mythic proportions. >> you've called what jeff bezos >> 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 $1tr lion... >> narrator: his every move moves the markets. >> amazon advertising is just o. fire >> narrato starting a digital advertising business to rival facebook and google.ea >> some ng 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 chain whole foods. >> in a record-breaking deal, amazon is buying whole foods for $13.7 biion. >> the day the acquisition was

announced, the nation's laest grery company lost billions of dollars because amazon acquired a company one-12th the se. >> everybody thinks bes is the smartest person in the world and he's gonna come and crush . >> when amazon announced the acquisition of pill pack... >> ns of the deal sent shockwaves through an industry... >> the retail pharmacy sector shed billionof dollars. >>ook at this story-- thre titans of industry... >> when amazon was mentioned in a press release with berkshire hathaway a jp morgan saying they were looking at healthcare costs-- no detail in what that meant... >> healthcare companies are panicked about amazon'str forthcoming into the healthcare market. >> on the opening bell the next morning, the healthcare industry's largest players shed billions of dollars. >> and insurance stocks are dowm afteon announced a healthcare partnership with berkshire hathaway and jp morgan chase. >> bezos basically wants to own, the whole econight? >> you think he will. >> i kind of think he will. i kinda think that in, like, ten years jeffezos owns every single thing there is. >> so amazon has these darth vader-like abilities to just look at a sector and begin

choking it of oxygen without even touching it. amazon can begin beatinget coors without even competing. >> you actually think thve amazon is having a nega efct 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 th have inspired innovation in certain sectors. but i think there's a lot of small companies that aren'be g formed, because if you go in to try and raise money for 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 manas to succeed in a fairly major way. (crowd cheering) >> we've had another great prime day. >> we've never seen anythingny like a comhat is so integrated into the fabr of existence, so, you know, at a certain point, it becomes avoidable. >> amazon just yesterday said... >> bezos would even extend his

reach into the heart of popular lture. >> can you imagine macy's starting a media company? we couldn't even imagine that. but amazon does it, and people take it seriously. (explosionchoes) (people screaming) >> narrator: amazon is investing billions in new shows and movies. >> oh. hi. >> hey. >> narrator: and on beefing 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 netflix, major a league basebal pbs shows (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 jo about how, every time he wins a golden >> ...it helps us sell more shoes.

and it does that in a very direct way, because when people... if you look at prime members, they, they buy more o amazon than non-pre members, dod one of the reasons the that is, once they've paid their annual fee, they're looking around to see, "how can i get more value out of the program?"t >> they'ing to use this entertainment to get people into thpipeline. >> alexa, play "jack ryan" on fire tv. >> to ke 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 uff to encourage people to use >> correct.me. >> amazon is represented at the academy awards. amazon is the first streaming service nominated for best picture. >> he's like one of the old studio bosses right now.ll he renjoys havthis place in the industry and

really seems to relish being at the center of attention there. >> i also want you to know, jeffif 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. a guy who has become a titan. t >> amazon is aboget bigger. it's looking for another home in north america. >> narrator: bezos and amazon's soaring stature would be on full the company announced a contest to find a location for a second headquarters. >> ...called hq2. >> narrator: they promised $5 billion in cital investments. >> $5 billion... >> ...in local investmt... >> narrator: and 50,000 jobs. >> 50,000... >> 50,0 people. >> 50,000 high-paying jobs.

>> cities are salivating over the opportunity. >> it was unprecedented becauseo the numbf jobs was head-and- shoulds 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 citoes across north america pitch themselves. >> how about, i don't know, here? >> narrator: 238 took them up on it. >> 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 that it has the power to get thousands 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 $2 billion. >> maryland offered $5 billion. >> $7 billion from new jerse

>> 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 kind of otesque 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? work for the unitees i used to government, like, we want businesses to invest in the united states. states want businesses to invest in stas, cities, city officials want businesses toin st 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 optn. ♪ >> narrator: in november 2018, amazon announced there were two winners: arlington, virginia, and new york city. ♪ >> this is by far the biggest new jobs deal in the history of

new york city, the history of new york state. >> narrator: new yorcity and state had campaigned hard for it, offering up nearly $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks. >> i'll change my nameo "aman cuomo" if that's what it takes. >> narrator: in return, amazon promised 25,000 jobs, ns of dollars in capital investments, and a small number ofrocts earmarked for local mmunity members. >> i thought it could be a greao thing for ne. we are more and more of a tech center, we wanted to consolida that reality. having amazon here wou have helped immensely. >> amazon has got to go! >> narrator: but not everyone was enthused about giving billions in tax breaks to a trillion-dollar corporation. >> corporate handout! g 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 york city counsisted on a public hearing.d it quickly turntentious. >> mr. husman, you mentioned that there are 5,000 employees that are currently workingere in new york city for amazon, is that correct? >> yes. >> narrator: council members their position on , andes on whether the company would pledge to remain neutral if workers in new york state tried to unionize. >> how many of those employees >> none, sir.? >> none. would you be okay with agreeing to neutrality so that rkers can unnize? >> no, sir, we respect... >> you wouldn't agree to that. >> corre, 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, they did a great job. if they wanted to actually showh 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. >> amazon is pulling the plug on its new york plans. >> we decided we didn't have to be there in that political dynamic. the fact of the matter is, when it turd out the governor and the mayor supporng something turned out not to be enough to itrsuade other critics tha was the right kind of investment for new york to make, we decided, that's fine, go elsewhere. >> he said to us that it turned out tt the governor and the mayor supporting something wasn't enough to persuade other critics that it was the right kind of investment for new york to make. so we decided... we decided it's fine, we'll elsewhere. >> that's an idiotic statement on its face. that is pure idiocy from a g who should know a hell of a lot atter. the deal was donzon knew it was done. there was noise, there was posturing by people in the

political world, but the deal was do, so all we're talking about here is the background noise. critics?world are there no well, yeah, in an autocratic totalitarian world, maybe aythey're not allowed, and that's the world that jeff bezos somewhere in his mind thinks he is entitled to. ♪ >> narrator: at the time, bezos was involved in some personal turmoil. >> amazon c.e.o. jeff bezos and his wife of 25 years announcing they are splitting. tabloid reports that bezos is now in a rationship with former news anchor lauren sanchez. >> narrator: thenational enquirer" had been pursuing him for months. >> the tabloid claims it tracked him across five statesnd 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 affairo the "national enquirer"? who would want to t 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. benefit of "the washington post," of amazon... >> narrator: the second: saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman, who the c.i.a. had tied to the murder of one of the j "post'rnalists, jamal khashoggi. >> former c.i. director 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 politicallyor motivatee'd publish intimate photos of him. >>reaking news tonight, a stunner from the richest man in the world. >> narrator: rather than give in, bezos fought back. >> jeff bezos calling out the publisher of the "national enquir," david pecker. >> bezos published a personal account accusing the "national

quirer" of blackmail, of extortion. >> he turned the situation h around adled it so brilliantly-- he was very transparent, he was very courageous, admitted some very embarrassing things about himself, didn't try deny it-- and positioned the other individual as the bully, and kicked the bully in the nuts,d mehow turned this into a net positive. i mean, this reallwas the pr strategy and execution of the ages. this.never seen anything like ♪ licly, bezos has pushed ahead undaunted-- a world-famous celebrity. divorce settlement, still the (cheers and applause) planet. but e 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 like halliburton or amazon that pay nothing in taxes in our need to change that. >> here's bezos achieving this americ dream and success.

and, and 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 nderica's stores and malls paying... >> you're basically a piñata dangling in front of any politician with a populistag me anyone who wants to talk about wealth inequality, they're inting their finger at you. >> this is why three people own more wealth than the botm half. >> if they want to talk about problems with capitalism inne l, they're pointing their finger at you. ea we need to enforce our antitrust laws, up these giant companies. >> narrator: and it's coming from all sides.>> resident trump just sent a chill down the spine of jeff bezos... a >> the presidein 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" was operated in the sort of way that he would operate a newspaper. and so he thought that bezos was ctating coverage to the noost," which we should be careful to say ithe case. >> narrator: trump has also criticized amazon, andccused the company of evading taxes. last year, the company was competing for a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the department of defense. >> this contract would have solidified bezos's dominance in cloud computing. this is a hugely important thing. narrator: but the compa claims president trump intervened to scuttle the deal. >> and we're lking at it very seriously. it's a very big contract. one of the biggest ever given. >> a big win for microsoft, beating out amazon... >> amazocan protest the outcome, especially given the unusual, unprecedented cments by president tru... >> it's an extraordinary times we live in that one of the world's biest 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 puicly said. narrator: and amazon's problems have continued to multiply. the federal trade comm is now reconsidering its stance on antitrust enforcement and is looking at amazon-- as are regulators in the e.u. >> this gatekeeper power and how the platforms are exercising it is of tremendous concern. >> narrator: in washington, democratic congressman david cicilline halaunched an antitrust investigation into allegations of abusive cduct by amazon and the other tech giants. >> given your experience, do you agree with amazon's statements suggestinghat it seeks to act in the best interest of independent sellers? >> i disagree with that. we get, i don'know, what i might call bullying with a smile. >> we were able to get several e.os. to come to a publi hearing.

that required tremendous courage because there's a realtial for economic retaliation for their sharing that. resourcest have t to fight amazon. we could use some help. >> in thcourse of your investigation thus far, and you've had several public hearings, have you seen any evidence of anti-competitive behavior by amazon? >> um, we have seen evidence of anti-competitive behavior by all of the large platforms as a result othr market dominance. but it sort of doesn't fall on the coanies to fix this problem. it falls on us. without objection, the hearing is adjourned >> narrator: cicilline's committee is considering everyt 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 the one hand, i'm proud of what it became, but it also scares me. and, um, i just feel like it's important r someone in myn say what they think about what's going on. >> this is sort of i some ways a baby that you gave birth to, 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, wasn't, so...e care of it if it >> 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, antisoal adults, right? so i think not all of the

effects of the company on thee world r the best and, um... and, you know, i, i wish it weren't so, and i... you know, b and i. 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, umand i think they're doing what the business schools teach people to do, and they're doinit aggressively and skillfully and with great intelligence. and they will continue to do that unless they're nstrained by other forces in society. >> there are proposal out there to break up amazon. is that something you'd promote, the idea of breaking them up? >> 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 seni leadership level think about the call to break you guys up?

>> we don't think about it very, n ry deeply. you know, i've b amazon now for 22-and-a-half years, and i always remember one of the first thgs i heard jeff bezos say back when we could fit the whole company in just one conference room for ans all-haeting. he said, "i would not go to bed at night fearing your 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 aredo that we live here and it's what we spend most of our time thinking about.de >> well, i, i tand that we're big, and that, that we desee scrutiny, and i think everything that's... that's large in t economy and in society should deserve scrutiny. the problem is, when you think about us, wee in a lot of verticals, yes. there's... there's video, and there's commerce, and there's, you know, there's web es there are all these things. but in every one of them, we have inten competition, and i do understand why, when you're like we're everywhut theeem global... if we were everyere, that

means we're talking about the global economy, not just global just, you know, wespeck.re >> to the public, it may sound strange coming from amazon, which is a company with basically a trillion-dollar market cap, your c.e.o. is the richest man in the wort jeff wilke said to me that you're kind of just a speck in the scheme of things. strange or incongrt could seem >> 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 segments doesn't mean it's somehow too big.♪ ♪ >> narrator: as jeff bezos'sis companoming under ever greater scrutiny-- for everything from how it wlds 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 isp completely iceable.

there is no plan b. we have to save this planet, and we suldn't give up auture for our grandchildren's grdchildren of dynamism andgr th. we can have both. who is gonna do this work? (rocket rumbling) >> narrator: he's spending aio billdollars a year of his personal fortune on a space exploration company he created. >> and it's this generation's b job ld that road to space, so that the future generations can unleash theicreativity. >> narrator: for bezos, it's always been about one thing: his vision for the future. >> i want you to think about this. this vision sounds very big, and it is. none of this is easy, all of it is har but i want to inspire you, and so think about this. big things start small.ie

(ae applauding) thank you. (audience cheers and applauds) ♪ >> go to pbs.org/frontline for extended excerpts of our interviews with top amazon executives and insiders, including employee number one. on one hand i'm proud of what it became, but it also scares me.or >> andon 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 ontline community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app, or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible bt butions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting.

maher support is provided by john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. anby the ford foundaon: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed excellence in journalism.th park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthysm journahat informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation: unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. and by the frontline journalism fund,po with major s from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from laura bonis and scott nathan. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> for more on this and other "frontline" programs, visit our websitat pbs.org/frontline. ♪ to order frontline's, "amazon empire: the rise and reign of jeff bezos", on dvd visit shop pbs or call 1-800-play-pbs. this program is also available on amazon prime video. ♪ ♪ you're watching pbs. ♪ >> rober submitted his report...

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