Amazon and Walmart tried to beat each other in retail sector jagran special

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Publish Date:Sat, 05 May 2018 11:35 AM (IST)

नई दिल्ली। अमेजॉन और वॉलमार्ट की प्रतिद्वंद्विता काफी पुरानी है। दोनों ही कंपनियां घरेलू बाजार अमेरिका में पिछले दो दशकों से एक-दूसरे का मुकाबला कर रही हैं। हालांकि वॉलमार्ट दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी रिटेलर कंपनी बनी हुई है, लेकिन वह ऑनलाइन रिटेल बाजार में इस सफलता को दोहराने की कोशिश में लगी हुई है जहां पिछले कुछ वर्षो से अमेजॉन एकछत्र राज कर रही है। पिछले वित्त वर्ष वॉलमार्ट का कुल राजस्व 500 अरब डॉलर था, जबकि अमेजॉन की कुल बिक्री 177.9 अरब डॉलर रही। वॉलमार्ट की शुद्ध आय 20 अरब डॉलर से अधिक रही, जबकि अमेजॉन की शुद्ध आय तीन अरब डॉलर के स्तर पर थी। फिर भी 680 अरब डॉलर से अधिक बाजार पूंजीकरण के साथ अमेजॉन आज बाजार पूंजीकरण के मामले में दुनिया की शीर्ष पांच कंपनियों में अपनी जगह बना चुकी है।

एप्पल के बाद दूसरी सबसे मूल्यवान कंपनी 

दरअसल इसी वर्ष यह अमेरिकी ई-कॉमर्स दिग्गज कुछ दिनों के लिए टेक्नोलॉजी कंपनी एप्पल के बाद दूसरी सबसे मूल्यवान कंपनी बन गई थी। विश्लेषकों का कहना है कि अमेजॉन जल्द ही एक लाख करोड़ डॉलर बाजार पूंजीकरण के साथ एप्पल को पछाड़कर दुनिया की नंबर एक कंपनी बन जाएगी। दूसरी तरफ वॉलमार्ट का बाजार पूंजीकरण करीब 250 अरब डॉलर है जो अमेजॉन से काफी कम है। अमेरिकी शेयर बाजार वॉलमार्ट के मुकाबले अमेजॉन को इसलिए पसंद कर रहे हैं, क्योंकि उसमें उन्हें मजबूत वृद्धि की संभावना नजर आ रही है। 12017 में अमेरिका में हुई कुल रिटेल बिक्री में ई-कॉमर्स की हिस्सेदारी 13 फीसद थी, जबकि कुल वृद्धि में इस क्षेत्र का हिस्सा करीब 49 फीसद था और इसका श्रेय काफी हद तक अमेजॉन को जाता है। पिछले वर्ष अमेरिका में ई-कॉमर्स की वृद्धि दर करीब 16 फीसद रही।

ऑनलाइन रिटेल बाजार में अमेजॉन की हिस्सेदारी 

ई-कॉमर्स बिजनेस इंटेलिजेंस फर्म इंटरनेट रिटेलर के मुताबिक 2017 में अमेरिकी ऑनलाइन रिटेल बाजार में अमेजॉन की हिस्सेदारी करीब 70 फीसद रही, जबकि कुल रिटेल बाजार में हुई 127 अरब डॉलर की वृद्धि में अमेजॉन का 35 फीसद हिस्सा है। वॉलमार्ट ने ई-कॉमर्स क्षेत्र में अपने पैर पसारने के लिए पिछले कुछ वर्षो में काफी खर्च किया है। 2016 में ही कंपनी ने अमेजॉन की प्रतिद्वंद्वी जेट डॉट कॉम का अधिग्रहण करने में 3.3 अरब डॉलर खर्च किए। पिछले वित्त वर्ष में वॉलमार्ट की ई-कॉमर्स बिक्री 44 फीसद वृद्धि के साथ 11.5 अरब डॉलर रही। हालांकि पिछली तिमाही में यह दर महज 23 फीसद रही जो अमेजॉन की तुलना में काफी कम है।

अमेरिकी कंपनियों के लिए आकर्षण का केंद्र बनी ई-कॉमर्स में सिक्का जमा चुकी 'Flipcart'

By Kamal Verma

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Anti-LGBTQ group claims Amazon is marginalizing Christians – ThinkProgress

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One of the nation’s largest anti-LGBTQ organizations claims that it’s been treated unfairly because of its homophobic, transphobic, and other derogatory positions.

This week, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) became upset after learning that Amazon would not allow customers to make donations to the group through the AmazonSmile program, which gives a small percentage from the  purchase price of eligible products to a customer’s chosen charity.

ADF is using that complaint to fuel its ongoing conservative campaign to deligitimize the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which — among other things — tracks various hate groups. ADF is one of many organizations the SPLC has designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group for its long record of demonizing queer people and advocating for discrimination against them.

Amazon has traditionally relied on SPLC’s designations to disqualify these hate groups from the AmazonSmile program. This isn’t new. The Family Research Council, another SPLC-designated hate group, complained about its own disqualification over three years ago. Last year, D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM), another hate group, sued Amazon along with GuideStar for relying on the SPLC’s designations. Guidestar had already relented, but Amazon didn’t.

Right-leaning Fox News was more than happy to give ADF a platform Friday morning to share its story of persecution, just as it did last year when ABC News identified the organization as a hate group. In neither case did Fox News attempt to parse why the SPLC designates ADF a hate group. Instead, the network simply described it as a “religious freedom” group and let ADF attorney Kristen Waggoner attack Amazon and the SPLC.

“Amazon needs to realize it’s marginalizing not just those of the Christian faith, but those of the Jewish, Islamic faiths who share similar beliefs,” Waggoner said. “We stand for the fundamental freedoms of all Americans, even those we disagree with and those from all walks of life.”

This is untrue. Indeed, Waggoner is the attorney who presented oral arguments to the Supreme Court on behalf of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples.

American Atheists noted this hypocrisy on Friday, tweeting, “Funny how the same people who think that they shouldn’t have to sell cakes to same sex couples seem to want to force a private business to give them money directly. Last I checked, Amazon will still sell stuff to ADF.”

ADF has a long record of advocacy against LGBTQ equality. A recent article in the Colorado Times Record, for instance, documented the extent to which ADF has been involved in anti-LGBTQ efforts in Colorado over the past year. Those efforts include:

• A so-called “Live and Let Live” bill like Mississippi’s that would allow discrimination on the basis of one’s beliefs in marriage. ADF not only drafted the language, but also submitted several witnesses to testify in its favor.


• A so-called “Children First” bill that would allow adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples without risking their state funding — not unlike bills that passed this week in Kansas and Oklahoma.


• ADF is also continuing to pursue a lawsuit that would overturn Colorado’s LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.

ADF also drafts policies for schools to discriminate against transgender students, drafts bills to mandate public discrimination against transgender people, has  represented parents who wanted to intervene when schools affirm transgender students, and has represented schools that wanted to maintain discrimination against transgender students.

And none of those actions are even among the top reasons the SPLC designates ADF a hate group:

Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has linked homosexuality to pedophilia and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBT people on the basis of religion.

Amazon, like many other big tech companies, has a history of supporting LGBTQ equality, and it may even be a factor in deciding the location of its new headquarters. The company has no obligation help a hate group raise money.

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Amazon puts 7,000 jobs on hold because of a tax that would help Seattle’s homeless population – ThinkProgress

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has more money than he knows what do deal with.

While visiting Germany in late April to pick up the Axel Springer Award for innovation, Bezos gave an exclusive interview to Business Insider about how it feels to be the richest man in the world.

Bezos, who has a net worth of $130.8 billion, told the outlet that the only logical way to spend his money is by funding space tourism through his spaceflight company, Blue Origin.

“The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it,” Bezos said.

What Bezos does not want to spend money on at all is helping the homeless population in the city where his company is located.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced the company would halt the construction of a new building in downtown Seattle it was planning to build, jeopardizing some 7,000 jobs.

Why? Because the company opposes a tax being considered by the City Council.

The tax targets 500-600 businesses in the city that gross at least $20 million a year. The companies would be charged a “head tax” at $500 per employee. In 2021, the head tax would be replaced by a 0.7 percent payroll tax. The payroll tax would windup costing Amazon more than the initial head tax, considering Seattle Amazon employees are paid about an average of $110,000 per year, according to data from job-reviews site Glassdoor.

“I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head-tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in our recently leased Rainer Square building,” a spokesperson for Amazon told The Seattle Times.

The city council is expected to vote on the tax on May 14.

The city estimates the tax would raise an estimated $75 million annually, with Amazon paying roughly $20 million in 2019 and 2020. One might think for a company that pulled in $1.6 billion last quarter, they could afford to help out the city of Seattle and its most vulnerable residents, especially considering the extent to which Amazon’s presence in the city has exacerbated the housing crisis there. 

Since 2010, when Amazon opened its first headquarters in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, housing costs have skyrocketed.

The median cost of a single-family home has more than doubled to $820,000, and rents have increased 64 percent, according to the Seattle Times. The average two-bedroom home in Seattle costs more than $2,000 per month. Only a third of condominiums in Seattle are priced below $500,000.

The city reached an official state of emergency two years ago as a result of the homelessness crisis. 169 deaths related to homelessness were recorded in King County last year, where Seattle is located.

Amazon has come under fire in recent weeks after it was revealed the mega-corporation paid no taxes on its 2017 profits, which totaled roughly $3 billion dollars. The company is able to do this by utilizing a number of tax credits and exemptions built into the U.S. federal tax code — credits and exemptions that were not fully addressed by the tax overhaul that passed in December of 2017.

The company has also been criticized for how it treats its employees. Amazon workers have reported sub-par working conditions, including below zero temperatures in the winter and sweltering heat in the summer inside the warehouses, sustaining on-site injuries, and long hours with below minimum wage pay.

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