Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and the site went online in 1995. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard the name as "Cadaver". The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is one of the largest rivers in the world and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with "A" and therefore would show up near the beginning of alphabetical lists. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and China. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products.
HISTORY
Amazon was founded in 1995,[3] spurred by what Bezos called "regret minimization framework", his effort to fend off regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush.[4] Company lore says Bezos wrote the business plan while he and his wife drove from New York to Seattle,[5] although that account is disputed. Bezos flew from New York to Texas, where he picked up a car from a family member, and then drove from Texas to Seattle.
The company began as an online bookstore;[6] while the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer more. Bezos named the company "Amazon" after the world's largest river. Since 2000, Amazon's logotype is an arrow leading from A to Z, representing customer satisfaction (as it forms a smile); a goal was to have every product in the alphabet.[7]
Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington. In July 1995, the company began service and sold its first book on amazon.com - Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.[8] In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at an IPO price of US$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s).
Barnes and Noble filed a lawsuit on 12 May 1997, alleging that Amazon's claim to be "The world's largest bookstore" was false. They asserted "[It] isn't a bookstore at all. It's a book broker." The suit was later settled out of court. Amazon continued to call itself "The world's largest bookstore."[9] This was followed by Walmart filing suit on 16 October 1998, alleging that Amazon had stolen trade secrets by hiring former Walmart executives. Although this suit was settled out of court, it led to work restrictions and reassignment of the former Walmart executives.[9]
Amazon's initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its "slow" growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing online shopping.
[edit] Acquisitions
- 1998: Bookpages.co.uk,[10] a UK online book retailer, which became Amazon UK on October 15, 1998.[11]
- 1999: Internet Movie Database (IMDb).;[12] Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll, a reminder service; Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based data mining startup[13]Alexa Internet, Accept.com, and Exchange.com[14]
- 2003: online music retailer CD Now.[citation needed]
- 2004: Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website.[15]
- 2005: BookSurge,[16] a print on demand company, and Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.[17][18] CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, California-based distributor of on-demand DVDs.[19] CreateSpace has since expanded to include on-demand books, CDs, and video.
- 2006: Shopbop, a Madison, Wisconsin-based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women.[20]
- 2007: dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website; Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States.[21]
- 2008: Audible.com; Fabric.com;[22] Box Office Mojo;[23] AbeBooks;[24] Shelfari;[25] (including a 40% stake in LibraryThing and whole ownership of Bookfinder.com, Gojaba.com, and FillZ); Reflexive Entertainment,[26] a casual video game development company.
- 2009: Zappos,[27] an online shoe and apparel retailer[28] Lexcycle[29]
- 2010: Touchco.,[30] Woot,[31] Quidsi, Buyvip, Amie Street.
- 2011: Lovefilm[32]
[edit] Investments
- 2010: LivingSocial, a local deal site.[33]
[edit] Spinoffs
- 2004: A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.[citation needed]
- 2007: Endless.com, an e-commerce brand focusing on shoes.[34]
Merchant partnerships
The website CDNOW is powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would similarly bring up amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.[35] Amazon also hosted and ran the website for Borders bookstores, but this ceased in 2008.[36]Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, Sears Canada, Benefit Cosmetics, bebe Stores, Timex, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, and Lacoste. For a growing number of enterprise clients, currently including the UK merchants Marks & Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' UK entity, edeals.com, and Mothercare, Amazon provides a unified multichannel platform where a customer can seamlessly interact with some people that they call the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, or phone-based customer service agents. Amazon Web Services also powers AOL's Shop@AOL.
Business results
Amazon's net income was $35 million in 2003, $588 million in 2004, $359 million in 2005, and $190 million (including a $662 million charge for R&D) in 2006. Retained earnings were negative $1.8 billion in 2006, negative $1.4 billion in 2007, negative $730 million in 2008, and $172 million in 2009.[37] Annual revenues, aided by product line expansion and rapid growth in international sales, grew from $3.9 billion in 2002 to $10.7 billion by 2006.On November 21, 2005, Amazon entered the S&P 500 index, and, on December 31, 2008, the S&P 100 index. On March 26, 2010, Amazon had a higher market cap than Target Corporation, Home Depot, Costco, Barnes and Noble, and Best Buy, only lagging behind that of Walmart among American brick and mortar retailers.[38]
