Amazon now world’s third most-valuable company

Amazon's shares took an unexpected down-turn, this week - seeing them overtaken by rival Microsoft as the world's second most-valuable company.

The online retailer was superseded late on Thursday evening, despite third quarter revenues increasing 29 per cent to $56.6bn (£44.2bn).

Although impressive, the epic sum was way below market predictions. Specifically, they were hoping for numbers between $66.5bn (£51bn) and $72.5bn (£56bn). At one point, Amazon's shares dropped as much as 10 percent.

Currently, Apple remains the industry leader with a 2018 market value of 926.9 billion U.S. dollars.

That said, E-commerce titan Amazon has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1994. Once a fledgling startup launched in an inauspicious location, the company is now one of the largest and most influential in the world.

The company’s phenomenal success in recent years has also drawn criticism, with some, particularly U.S. Senator and former 2016 election candidate Bernie Sanders, alleging the tech giant underpays its warehouse workers, prompting CEO and founder Jeff Bezos to announce that the company will now raise its minimum wage to $15 (£11.53) per hour. Amazon is an e-commerce and cloud computing company founded by Jeff Bezos and based in Seattle, Washington. The company is the largest online retailer in the world based on market capitalization and revenue and second only to the Alibaba Group of China based on total sales.

Amazon also surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the U.S. based on market capitalization in 2015 and acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017 for $13.4 billion (£10.3bn). As of October 2, 2018, Amazon’s stock price was believed to be approximately $1,971.31 (£1,516.54) per share.

Amazon’s all-time high record stock price was $2,050.50 (£1,577.68) per share on September 4, 2018, the same day it hit the $1 trillion (£768.8bn) market cap.

On September 4, 2018, Amazon became the second publicly traded U.S. company after Apple to reach the $1 trillion (£768.8bn) market cap valuation, attesting its rapid growth and prominence within both the U.S. economy and the worldwide technology sector.