Jeff Bezos surpasses Bill Gates as richest person in world

Jeff Bezos surpasses Bill Gates as richest person in world



Jeff Bezos, owner of online retail giant Amazon.com, surpassed Bill Gates as the wealthiest man in the world on Thursday.

Gates, the 61-year-old co-founder of Microsoft Corp., has held the top spot since May 2013.

Shares of Amazon.com jumped 1.8 percent to $1,071.31 as of 9.30am in New York, pushing Bezos' personal wealth to over $91 billion.



Bloomberg notes that if shares of Amazon.com maintain to end of trading at 4.00pm, Bezos, 53, will surpass Gates on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Amazon is projected to post a 22 per cent jump in its quarterly revenue, rising to an estimated $37.2 billion based on the average assessment of 34 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, with earnings per share of $1.42.

Amazon's diverse portfolio, which includes apparel and groceries, is helping boost its market projections, but investors are keeping an eye out for an increase in the company's subscription-based services.

The Internet retailer sells a $99 -a-year Amazon Prime service, which offers delivery discounts and video and music streaming.

Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst, told Bloomberg that 'Anyone who joins Prime... shops in retail stores 10 percent less, and that number will keep accelerating as Amazon adds more inventory.'



 'Amazon Prime is the reason why so much physical retail is going away,' Pachter added, referring to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

And it's Amazon's model of shifting the buying of good and services from the outside world to inside the home that is leading the company's success.

Amazon's cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Service, is also contributing to the overall health of the company, which is seeing profits and accounts for 10 per cent of the company's overall revenue.

According to Bloomberg, Bezos owns 17 per cent of Amazon, which has seen 40 percent increase in revenues this year.

The increase has led to additional $24 .5 billion for his personal net worth, surging him to the top of the billionaires list from his starting position of fourth where he began this year.

Inditex SA founder, Amancio Ortega now ranks third with $82.7 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffet sits at the No. 4 with $74.5 billion.

Bezos started Amazon.com in Seattle, Washington on July 5, 1994.