The Maps That Show Amazon's Plans to Rule the World

If you follow Amazon, you know CEO Jeff Bezos has global ambitions. Amazon already registers 39 percent of its revenue overseas, and the company is just ramping up investment in promising e-commerce markets such as China and India.

So what does this global ambition look like on a map? Funny you should ask! A company called ChannelAdvisor, which helps companies sell goods on Amazon, eBay and other shopping marketplaces, has you covered. ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo today published a blog post examining how many warehouses Amazon has and where they are located. It’s a logistics nerd’s paradise.

Some of the warehouses are what Amazon calls fulfillment centers: These are big ol’ buildings where Amazon holds product inventory and from which it ships stuff out to customers. Some are what Amazon calls “sortation centers”: A newer type of facility, typically smaller than fulfillment centers, where orders are sorted in-house rather than by a partnering shipping company. And some, represented by a wrench, are under construction.

A couple of things to note here: Wingo says his company used a combination of press reports, job postings and an analysis of actual shipping addresses to come up with this map. So while this looks to be a very comprehensive list, there’s no guarantee that ChannelAdvisor has uncovered every single Amazon center operating or in the works. An Amazon rep declined to comment.

Also, look at the build-out overseas. Amazon is working on four new warehouses in India, according to the map, as part of a $2 billion investment it recently announced. The map also shows nine fulfillment centers in Germany, where Amazon has a $10 billion business but has run into problem with a labor union. The company also appears to already have at least a dozen fulfillment centers in China. Watch out, Alibaba?

Here’s the map of the U.S.:

And here’s the map of Europe and Asia:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via