Jeff Bezos shares 1999 article predicting Amazon's failure, Elon Musk takes another dig

Jeff Bezos on Monday, October 11, took to Twitter and posted an image of a 1999 magazine cover, titled ‘Amazon.Bomb’, which called him “just another middleman” and predicted that his company’s stock price would come crashing down. American magazine named Barron’s had published the cover in May 1999. It said that the real winners of the internet boom would be firms that sell their own products directly to consumers. 

However, the prediction made by the magazine did not turn out to be true as today Bezos is among the world’s richest people and he is worth $1.6 trillion in the market cap. Taking to Twitter, the Amazon founder shared an inspirational message, highlighting that the 1999 story is just one of many which predicted Amazon’s failure. Bezos even said that today, Amazon has “revolutionised” two entirely different industries — e-commerce and space.

Bezos post has gone viral on Twitter. While some users praised the Amazon founder for his inspirational message, others called him “World’s No. 1 Global emperor”. But most attention was given to his longtime rival, Elon Musk, who, in yet another dig, responded to Bezos’ tweet with a silver medal emoji.

Elon Musk - Jeff Bezos rivalry 

Notably, Musk’s silver medal tweet comes after he had joked that he would be sending a silver medal and a “giant statue” of the number 2 to Amazon founder. Back in September, after surpassing Bezos as the world’s richest person, Musk said that he is sending a “giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B, along with a silver medal.” It is worth noting that Musk and Bezos have been trading places as the world’s wealthiest person for months. 

Last year, Bezos had crossed $200 billion as Amazon shared surged. Tesla’s share, on the other hand, has been skyrocketing ever since the pandemic began. According to reports, Musk has added more than $43 billion to his net worth since January 1, 2021. Bezos has, however, added fewer than $7 billion this year. 

In addition to duelling for the title of the world’s richest person, Musk and Bezos have also clashed over their space ambition. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has repeatedly criticised Bezos’ Blue Origin for investing so much in suborbital launches. Last month, Bezos’ firm, on the other hand, sued NASA and alleged that it unfairly awarded a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX. Musk, however, responded by saying that Blue Origin should spend more time designing and building rockets and less time suing SpaceX. 

(Image: AP)