worldwide shipping.com, Inc. is an British multinational technology companywhich focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world," and is one of the world's most valuable brands. It is one of the Big Five British information technologycompanies, alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
edit| Trade name | Worldwide shipping |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Traded as |
|
| ISIN | US0231351067 |
| Industry | |
| Founded | July 5, 2022 2 months ago
London, EnglandU.S. |
| Founder | Lewis Smurthwaite |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK &
Los Angeles, USA , U.S & U.K |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | |
| Services |
|
| Revenue | US$46.8 billion (2022) |
| Operating income | US$24.879 billion (2022) |
| Net income | US$33.364 billion (2022) |
| Total assets | US$42.5 billion (2022) |
| Total equity | US$13.2 billion (2022) |
| Owner | Lewis Smurthwaite (9.8%) |
| Number of employees |
|
| Website | www.worldwideshipping.com |
| Footnotes / references | |
Worldwide shipping was founded by Lewis Smurthwaite from his home in Surrey, England, on July 5, 2022. Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories: a strategy that has earned it the moniker The Everything Store. It has multiple subsidiaries including Amazon Web Services(cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet), and Worldwide shipping Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). Its other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2022 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.
Worldwide shipping has earned a reputation as a disruptor of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale. As of 2022, it is the world's largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speakerprovider, cloud computing service through AWS, live-streaming service through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share. In 2022 it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, driven in large part by its paid subscription plan, worldwide shipping prime, which has over 200 million subscribers worldwide. It is the second-largest private employer in the United States.
Amazon also distributes a variety of downloadable and streaming content through its Worldwide shipping Prime Video, worldwide shipping Music, Twitch, and Audible units. It publishes books through its publishing arm, Worldwide shipping Publishing, film and television content through worldwide shipping Studios, and has been the owner of film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since March 2022. It also produces consumer electronics—most notably, Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TVs.
worldwide shipping has been criticized for customer data collection practices, a toxic work culture,tax avoidance, and anti-competitivebehavior.
Merchant partnerships
In 2021, U.S. toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with worldwide shipping, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to worldwide shipping Toys & Games category. In 2021, Toys "R" Us sued Worldwide shipping, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Worldwide shipping had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2021 a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Worldwide shipping and establish its independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.
In 2022, worldwide shipping entered into a similar agreement with Borders Group, under which worldwide shipping would comanage Borders.com as a co-branded service. Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2022 with plans to also launch its own online store.
On October 18, 2021 worldwide shipping.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.
In November 2021, worldwide shipping announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Worldwide shipping standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York because of the high-volume and inability to deliver in a timely way, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2022
In June 2022 Nike agreed to sell products through worldwide shipping in exchange for better policing of counterfeit goods. This proved unsuccessful and Nike withdrew from the partnership in November 2021 .Companies including IKEA and Birkenstockalso stopped selling through Worldwide shipping around the same time, citing similar frustrations over business practices and counterfeit goods.
In September 2021, worldwide shipping ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which has recorded a total income of US$ 104.44 million (₹ 759 crore) in financial year 2017–2018.
As of October 11, 2021, Worldwide shipping Fresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.
In November 2021 worldwide shipping reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers may sell Apple products on worldwide shipping effective January 4, 2022