Fortune announced its 2023 list of the World’s Most Admired companies, and Amazon ranks No. 2 for the seventh year in a row. The annual ranking is determined by asurvey of top executives and analysts. Companies are evaluated based on nine criteria, including the quality of their management, innovation in products and services, and commitments to social responsibility.
Amazon teams work diligently to show up for our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve—as demonstrated throughout the past year. Some of the initiatives we undertook in 2022 are listed below.
Prime Video released the highly anticipated new series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, receiving positive reviews from critics and breaking viewership records. The first season of exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Footballon Prime Video covered a historic run of firsts, streaming milestones, and sports-media breakthroughs.
![Galadriel and Halbrand from Amazon's Lord of the Rings series ride horses through a forest.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/f9aac84/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x1023+0+0/resize/767x490!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F86%2F01%2F9f2aa5da4918bf1b573e6ccf3487%2Famazon-lord-of-the-rings-series.jpg)
Buy with Prime was introduced as a new benefit for Prime members to extend popular shopping benefits—like seamless checkout experiences, easy returns, and fast, free shipping—to online stores beyond Amazon. It's a win for merchants, too. Data shows Buy with Prime has been shown to increase shopper conversion by 25% on average.
![A person's hands hold an iPhone with a product page pulled up with the "Buy with Prime" blue button as an option.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/b4d0c18/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F62%2Ff4%2F07d08fc644c2a32a6d6dce78a653%2Fbuy-with-prime-hero.jpg)
This year’s Prime Day event offered some of the biggest sales days for Amazon’s selling partners, many of whom are small and medium-sized businesses. Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide, and saved over $1.7 billion, more than any previous Prime Day event. Customers spent more than $3 billion on small business items included in the Support Small Businesses to Win Big sweepstakes during Prime Day 2022.
![An image of disco ball floating above a display of items. There is an Amazon box, a plastic, blue purse, and a mirror with an orange watch draped on top of it. There is confetti on the ground as well as bracelets and an earring. The background for all of this is bright yellow.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/529fde4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1125+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbe%2F7a%2F7cc2c2e94d4e81275cf007c75f75%2Fprimeday-earlydeals-hero-final.jpg)
This Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend was Amazon’s biggest ever, with customers around the world purchasing hundreds of millions of products between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Customers supported small businesses this holiday shopping weekend, generating more than $1 billion in sales for small businesses in the U.S.
![A collage of six photos representing small businesses. Some photos are of the business owners, some photos are of produces such as cookies, games, and shea butter.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/1597037/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1125+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F33%2F4b%2Fae143d734f769a29e061699b29d9%2Fsbe-sellers-hero-2000x1125.jpg)
Amazon Access launched to provide a hub of resources that make it easier for customers to save money while shopping on Amazon, including information on discounted Prime memberships for qualifying government-assistance customers.
![An image showing a prime delivery](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/30e284c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fc4%2F993f8001457fb2b26f336ba918a7%2Fprimeaccess-inline-1600x900.jpg)
Amazon and Amazon Web services (AWS) supported relief efforts in Ukraine, providing funding for organizations on the ground, setting up education resources for students, and preserving essential data to help the country rebuild.
![An image of the top of the Ukraine parliament building. There is a Ukraine flag flying at the top of the building.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/ceac55d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F99%2F52%2Fc020ff614c63b7a251f202682ea4%2Faws-ukraine-data-support.jpg)
Amazon Disaster Relief teams quickly delivered essential supplies and support to impacted communities in Puerto Rico as Hurricane Fiona made landfall in September 2022, and they assembled again when Hurricane Ian hit the Florida coast a few days later.
![Amazon employees push a large cart of relief supplies toward a plane loading dock.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/caa02a7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1126+0+0/resize/767x432!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff9%2Fc8%2F744b072f4756a274a23743c737ea%2Ffionadisasterrelief-hero-2000x1126.jpg)
AWS made headway on its commitment to provide 29 million people with free skills training by 2025. The company introduced three new skills training programs, including AWS re/Start Associate, the AWS Skills Center in Arlington, Virginia, and the game-based cloud computing training, AWS Cloud Quest.
![A screenshot of the AWS Cloud Quest game of a character riding a skateboard.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/57009c0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2088x1180+0+0/resize/767x433!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb4%2Fa0%2Fe5d346b8408aba54415963154724%2Fplayerone.png)
The Amazon Benefits team launched six new mental health benefits and resources for employees and their families, including free counseling sessions, updated trainings, and new virtual care for children and teens. The Career Choice program also hit an exciting milestone with more than 110,000 participants joining in 2022 to learn new skills and earn certificates and degrees to take the next steps in their careers.
![Catherine Lemonds holds a tablet while her colleague points to the tablet and talks with Catherine.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/5bf15c8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1220x915+0+0/resize/767x575!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F62%2F7f%2F4f71e2794a75bed503cf260a5390%2Fcareer-choice-amazon.jpg)
Amazon increased wages for its U.S. operations employees—a nearly $1 billion investment over the next year—in addition to investing in new skills training and wage access programs. A major technological advancement—called Sparrow—was introduced to support our employees. Sparrow is Amazon’s new intelligent robotic system that streamlines the fulfillment process by moving individual products before they get packaged. Sparrow will take on repetitive tasks, enabling our employees to focus their time and energy on other tasks, while also advancing safety.
![An operations employees wears a yello safety vest as he lifts up his hat and smiles.](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/b759683/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1126+0+0/resize/767x432!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famazon-blogs-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5b%2Fa8%2Fdfb11266494fa6ff76e808053de2%2Famazonwageannouncement-hero-2000x1126.jpg)
While naming all of our teams’ accomplishments in one article is impossible, we’re extremely proud of all of our Amazon employees’ impactful work around the world throughout the past year. Being recognized on Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies is an exciting honor, and we remain committed to finding innovative ways to better serve our employees, customers, and communities in 2023.