As Amazon turns 30, three factors will define its next decade

This success is the result of the company’s tireless focus on customers and its enthusiasm for experimenting. Activists may complain about how it kills off brick-and-mortar stores. But punters are delighted with their sackfuls of smiling cardboard boxes; Amazon routinely tops customer-satisfaction surveys. In its quest to please shoppers, it diligently ploughs its profits back into its business. Last year no firm spent more on research and development or capital expenditure than Amazon. Plenty of companies say they are customer-obsessed. But for Amazon, that claim actually rings true.