Bill Gates has always been looked up as the richest and the wealthiest man alive. However, recently, Jeff Bezos took his place. He crossed the milestone this month and many news media had been tracking his net worth. A rise in the Amazon stock by 2 per cent saw Bezos’ net worth go up by $4.9 billion. That itself was enough to make him the first person ever to amass a fortune of $200 billion. Whereas, Bill Gates holds the second position with a fortune of $124 billion, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg with $100 billion, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk with over $100 billion. This escalation can be attributed to consumers engaging in more online buying during coronavirus.
Criticism on the success of Jeff Bezos has been making rounds on all social media platforms. It has been deemed as a “morally grotesque” act for possessing so much wealth in the time of such crisis. The seed of the mega brand Amazon was sown by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and it grew into a success when he received the tag of wealthiest person in the year 2017. Consumer habits have drastically changed since coronavirus started spreading uncontrollably. People have switched to online shopping rather than going to physical shops for their daily and urgent necessities. Since the beginning of the year, Amazon has seen an 80 per cent rise in its stock.
In January, the net worth of Jeff Bezos amounted to something around $115 billion, but it saw a huge leap as the year progressed. Reports have estimated that his net worth would have been higher had he not gone through the most expensive divorce settlement. The planet now has centibillionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg and it is a spectacle to see how consumer behaviour can make someone’s net worth skyrocket any day.
