第十封信中英文对照：

To our shareholders:

致我们的股东：

At Amazon’s current scale, planting seeds that will grow into meaningful new businesses takes some discipline, a bit of patience, and a nurturing culture.

以Amazon现阶段的规模，如果想在未来收获有价值的新业务，必须要依靠有纪律、有耐心的文化。

Our established businesses are well-rooted young trees. They are growing, enjoy high returns on capital, and operate in very large market segments. These characteristics set a high bar for any new business we would start. Before we invest our shareholders’ money in a new business, we must convince ourselves that the new opportunity can generate the returns on capital our investors expected when they invested in Amazon. And we must convince ourselves that the new business can grow to a scale where it can be significant in the context of our overall company.

我们已经建立的业务是根深蒂固的小树。它们在一个很大的细分市场运作，拥有很高的资本回报率，并且持续成长。以上这些特征，为我们之后开展新业务时，树立了极高的标准。在我们为新业务进行投资时，我们必须先说服自己，新业务有机会创造足够高的报酬，正如投资者投资Amazon时的预期。同时，我们必须说服自己，新业务能成长茁壮，发展到具有重要意义的规模。

Furthermore, we must believe that the opportunity is currently underserved and that we have the capabilities needed to bring strong customer-facing differentiation to the marketplace. Without that, it’s unlikely we’d get to scale in that new business.

此外，我们认为当前的机会在于现有的服务质量不够好，而我们专注于客户体验的能力，能带给市场差异化的服务。如果没有这点，我们不太可能在新业务中扩大规模。

I often get asked, “When are you going to open physical stores?” That’s an expansion opportunity we’ve resisted. It fails all but one of the tests outlined above. The potential size of a network of physical stores is exciting. However: we don’t know how to do it with low capital and high returns; physical-world retailing is a cagey and ancient business that’s already well served; and we don’t have any ideas for how to build a physical world store experience that’s meaningfully differentiated for customers.

我经常被问到：「你们打算什么时候开实体店？」而这正是我们已经拒绝的扩张方式。在我们的测试案例中，开设实体店的扩张方式，只有一次是成功的，其他都失败。实体店的潜在市场的确很吸引人，然而，我们不知道怎么在开设实体店时，保持低资本投入与高回报率。实体零售是个古老的产业，它已经十分完善。我们不晓得怎么做，才能让Amazon开设的实体店，与其它实体店有不同购物体验。

When you do see us enter new businesses, it’s because we believe the above tests have been passed. Our acquisition of http://Joyo.com is a first step in serving the most populous country in the world. E-commerce in China is still in its early days, and we believe it’s an excellent business opportunity. Shoes, apparel, groceries: these are big segments where we have the right skills to invent and grow large-scale, high-return businesses that genuinely improve customer experience.

当你看到我们开展一项新业务时，这意味着这项新业务通过了我们的测试。收购卓越网（http://Joyo.com），是Amazon开始服务全世界人口最多的中国市场的第一步。中国的电子商务依然还在早期阶段，我们认为其中蕴含机会。鞋子服装、杂货，在这些领域中，我们能够做得很好，并且把规模扩大，进而透过高回报的业务来改进客户体验。

Fulfillment by Amazon is a set of web services API’s that turns our 12 million square foot fulfillment center network into a gigantic and sophisticated computer peripheral. Pay us 45 cents per month per cubic foot of fulfillment center space, and you can stow your products in our network. You make web services calls to alert us to expect inventory to arrive, to tell us to pick and pack one or more items, and to tell us where to ship those items. You never have to talk to us. It’s differentiated, can be large, and passes our returns bar.

我们将Amazon的物流体系，整合为一套网络服务的API，将我们占地1200万平方英尺的出货中心，变成一个庞大而复杂的计算机设施。使用我们的出货中心，每立方英尺一个月只要花费45美分，你可以将你的产品，存放在我们的网络之中。你可以使用我们的服务，提醒我们拣货、包装和出货。使用这一切服务，你甚至不用和我们说上任何话。

Amazon Web Services is another example. With AWS, we’re building a new business focused on a new customer set … software developers. We currently offer ten different web services and have built a community of over 240,000 registered developers. We’re targeting broad needs universally faced by developers, such as storage and compute capacity—areas in which developers have asked for help, and in which we have deep expertise from scaling http://Amazon.com over the last twelve years. We’re well positioned to do it, it’s highly differentiated, and it can be a significant, financially attractive business over time.

Amazon Web Services（简称AWS）是另一个例子。有了AWS，我们便有了专注于新客户群－软件开发者的新服务。我们目前提供十种网络服务，建立了一个超过24万注册开发者的社群。我们的目标是开发人员最普遍的需求，即储存空间和计算能力。在这些领域中，开发人员一直在寻求帮助，而我们在过去12年扩张Amazon规模的过程中，储备了深厚的知识。我们已经做好准备，我们的服务有高度差异，随着时间流逝，AWS会成为一项具有财务吸引力的业务。

In some large companies, it might be difficult to grow new businesses from tiny seeds because of the patience and nurturing required. In my view, Amazon’s culture is unusually supportive of small businesses with big potential, and I believe that’s a source of competitive advantage.

在一些大公司中，由于开展新业务需要耐心，因此很难从萌芽时期慢慢将新业务拉拔长大。在我看来，Amazon不是这样的公司，我们的公司文化能够支持具有巨大潜力的小业务持续发展。我相信这是一种竞争力来源。

Like any company, we have a corporate culture formed not only by our intentions but also as a result of our history. For Amazon, that history is fairly fresh and, fortunately, it includes several examples of tiny seeds growing into big trees. We have many people at our company who have watched multiple $10 million seeds turn into billion dollar businesses. That first-hand experience and the culture that has grown up around those successes is, in my opinion, a big part of why we can start businesses from scratch. The culture demands that these new businesses be high potential and that they be innovative and differentiated, but it does not demand that they be large on the day that they are born.

就像其他公司，我们的企业文化，不是我们有意为之，而是我们的历史塑造的。我们的历史是相当年轻，而且幸运的是，其中包括不少小种子长成大树的例子。在我们公司里，有许多人见过价值千万的新业务从0开始的过程。在我看来，我们之所以能从头开始发展新业务，正是由于这种亲身亲历的所造就的文化。这种文化要求新业务具备强大的潜力，具有高度创新和差异化，但不要求新业务从诞生之日就拥有巨大的规模。

I remember how excited we were in 1996 as we crossed $10 million in book sales. It wasn’t hard to be excited—we had grown to $10 million from zero. Today, when a new business inside Amazon grows to $10 million, the overall company is growing from $10 billion to $10.01 billion. It would be easy for the senior executives who run our established billion dollar businesses to scoff. But they don’t. They watch the growth rates of the emerging businesses and send emails of congratulations. That’s pretty cool, and we’re proud it’s a part of our culture.

我记得在1996年，当我们的图书销售额超过1000万美金时，我们感到多么兴奋！这很难不让人兴奋！我们从0开始取得这样的成绩。今天，当有一项业务从Amazon内部萌芽，成长价值为1000万的新事业，Amazon整间公司的市值只是从100亿变成101亿。这一点数字，对于我们的资深员工来说，很难放在心上。但是，他们并不轻视这样的成绩。相反，他们关注新业务的成长速度，并且在第一时间寄发祝贺信。这很酷吧！这是我们引以为傲的文化。

In our experience, if a new business enjoys runaway success, it can only begin to be meaningful to the overall company economics in something like three to seven years. We’ve seen those time frames with our international businesses, our earlier non-media businesses, and our third party seller businesses. Today, international is 45% of sales, non-media is 34% of sales, and our third party seller businesses account for 28% of our units sold. We will be happy indeed if some of the new seeds we’re planting enjoy similar successes.

根据我们的经验，如果一项新业务取得了巨大的成功，它只会在前3至7年对公司整体创造经济层面的影响。我们看过很多案例，包括非媒体业务，和我们的第三方卖家业务。如今，国际业务占销售额的45％，非媒体业务占销售额的34％，我们的第三方卖方业务占我们销售单位的28％。如果我们那些正处于萌芽期的新业务取得类似的成功，我们会非常开心。

We’ve come a distance since we celebrated our first $10 million in sales. As we continue to grow, we’ll work to maintain a culture that embraces new businesses. We will do so in a disciplined way, with an eye on returns, potential size, and the ability to create differentiation that customers care about. We won’t always choose right, and we won’t always succeed. But we will be choosy, and we will work hard and patiently.

自从我们达到第一个1000万之后，已经走了好长一段路。随着我们持续发展，我们将会努力维持拥抱新变化的文化。我们将以纪律严明的方式做到这一点，着眼于回报、潜在规模及差异化能力。我们不可能总是选择正确，我们也不可能总是成功。但是，我们会持续以高标准做选择，努力并耐心地工作。

As always, I attach our 1997 letter to shareholders. You’ll see that our philosophy and approach have not changed. Many thanks for your support and encouragement.

如同往常，我把我们在1997年写的致股东信附在文末。你会看到我们的理念和方法依然不变。非常感谢你们的支持和鼓励。

Jeffrey P. Bezos

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Amazon.com, Inc.

杰夫·贝索斯

Amazon创始人暨CEO

我的观点

这是第10封信，亚马逊都上市10年了，国内上市10年还一直在增长的公司，我感觉很少，因为很多公司都是上市既巅峰。

贝索斯在回答亚马逊为啥不看实体店时说， “我们不知道怎么在开设实体店时，保持低资本投入与高回报率”，这其实是有底线的。看不懂的事情，就不要去做，有底线，不要什么都去碰。

这封信里说到，亚马逊收购了卓越网，然后开始了中国市场的运营，亚马逊在中国市场的旅程，从封信开始了，后面可以写一篇这10几年的故事。

然后就是亚马逊的新业务：AWS。

AWS的目标是开发人员最普遍的需求，即储存空间和计算能力，通过云来提供存储和计算能力，这也算是云计算的开始把。

然后贝索斯说，亚马逊的文化是可以支持一些小业务，新业务发展的，因为亚马逊很耐心。确实，耐心是非常重要的一种文化，可以持续的投入和迭代，带来新的体验和价值。新业务，重点关注的是成长速度，这也和亚马逊前10多年通过增长带来利润是一致的。