Amazon history

 

Its other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world",[8] and is one of the world's most valuable brands.[9] It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon logo.svg
Logo since 2000
Amazon Spheres 05.jpg
The Amazon Spheres, part of the Amazon headquarters in Seattle, U.S.
Trade name
Amazon
Formerly
Cadabra, Inc. It publishes books through its publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, film and television content through Amazon Studios, and is the owner of film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since 2022. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.[12]

Amazon has earned a reputation as a disruptor of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale.[13][14][15][16] As of 2021, it is the world's largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service through AWS,[17] live-streaming service through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share.[18] In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, driven in large part by its paid subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which has over 200 million subscribers worldwide.[19][20] It is the second-largest private employer in the United States.[21]

Amazon also distributes a variety of downloadable and streaming content through its Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible units. (1994–1995)
Type
Public
Traded as
Nasdaq: AMZN
Nasdaq-100 component
S&P 100 component
S&P 500 component
ISIN
US0231351067
Industry
E-commerceCloud ComputingArtificial intelligenceConsumer electronicsEntertainmentDigital distributionSelf-driving carsSupermarket
Founded
July 5, 1994; 27 years ago
Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Founder
Jeff Bezos
Headquarters
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jeff Bezos
(executive chairman)
Andy Jassy
(president and CEO)
Products
EchoFire TabletFire TVFire OSKindle
Services
Amazon.comAmazon AlexaAmazon AppstoreAmazon LunaAmazon MusicAmazon PrimeAmazon Prime VideoTwitchRingAmazon Web Services
Revenue
Increase US$469.822 billion (2021)[1][2]
Operating income
Increase US$24.879 billion (2021)[1]
Net income
Increase US$33.364 billion (2021)[1]
Total assets
Increase US$420.549 billion (2021)[1]
Total equity
Increase US$138.245 billion (2021)[1]
Owner
Jeff Bezos (14.0% voting power, 10.6% economic interest)[3]
Number of employees
Increase 1,608,000 (Dec. 2021)[1]
U.S.: 950,000 (June 2021)[4]
Subsidiaries
List
A9.com
AbeBooks
Alexa Internet
Amazon.com
Amazon Air
Amazon Books
Amazon Fresh
Amazon Games
Amazon Lab126
Amazon Logistics
Amazon Pharmacy
Amazon Publishing
Amazon Robotics
Amazon Studios
AWS
Audible
Body Labs
Book Depository
ComiXology
Digital Photography Review
Eero LLC
Goodreads
Graphiq
IMDb
MGM Holdings
PillPack
Ring
Souq.com
Twitch Interactive
Whole Foods Market
Woot
Zappos
Zoox
Website
amazon.com
Footnotes / references
[5][6]
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington,[10] on July 5, 1994. Amazon.com, Inc.[7] (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories: a strategy that has earned it the moniker The Everything Store.[11] It has multiple subsidiaries including Amazon Web Services (cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet), Amazon Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). It also produces consumer electronics—most notably, Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TV.

Amazon has been criticized for customer data collection practices,[22] a toxic work culture,[23] tax avoidance,[24][25] and anti-competitive behavior.[26][27].