Amazon.com, Inc.[1] (doing business as Amazon)[a] is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, entertainment, and artificial intelligence.[5] Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington,[6] the company started as an online book marketplace that gradually expanded to include virtually all consumer products as well as many other categories, positioned as "The Everything Store".[7]

As of 2026 it was the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon sells books, electronics, pharmaceuticals, car parts, video games, dining products, jewelry, food, music, and sports equipment.[8]

The company has multiple subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud computing; Zoox, a self-driving car division; satellite Internet provider Kuiper Systems; and Amazon Lab126, a computer hardware R&D provider. Other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and grocer Whole Foods Market. Amazon distributes downloadable and streaming content through its Amazon Prime Video, MGM+, Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible, and Wondery[9] units. It publishes books through its publishing arm, Amazon Publishing; produces and distributes film and television content through Amazon MGM Studios, including the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio; and owns Brilliance Audio and Audible, which produce and distribute audiobooks, respectively. Amazon produces consumer electronics, most notably Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TVs.

Amazon has a reputation as an industry disruptor through innovation and aggressive reinvestment of profits.[10][11][12][13] As of 2023, it was the largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service provider through AWS,[14] live-streaming service provider through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share.[15] In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, supported by its subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which had 200 million subscribers worldwide.[16][17] It is the second-largest private employer in the US[18], second-largest company in the US by revenue as of 2024 (after Walmart),[19] and the largest company in the world by revenue as of 2026.[20] As of October 2024, Amazon was the world's 12th-most visited website. 84% of its traffic comes from the US.[21][22]

Amazon has been criticized for its alleged business practices, including surveillance partnerships, poor working conditions, anti-union efforts, environmental harm, anticompetitive behavior, censorship controversies, and exploitative treatment of small businesses and suppliers.

History

1994–2010

Founder Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos's home in Bellevue, Washington, where the company was founded in 1994

On July 5, 1994, Amazon was founded as "Cadabra" by Jeff Bezos, after he relocated from New York City to Bellevue, Washington, to operate an online bookstore. Bezos chose Seattle for its abundance of technical talent from Microsoft and the University of Washington, as well as its smaller population and the proximity to a major book distribution warehouse in Roseburg, Oregon. Seattle beat out Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado.[23]

In November 1994, Bezos renamed the company Amazon to reflect his ambitions for his company. (Amazon is the world's largest river.)[24]

On July 16, 1995, the Amazon website launched, initially sourcing its books directly from wholesalers and publishers.[23][25]

In May 1997, Amazon went public.[26][27]

In 1998, Amazon began selling music and videos. It began international operations by acquiring online booksellers in the UK and Germany. In 1999, it expanded to sell more products, including music, video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and toys.[26][27]

In 2000, US toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with Amazon, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to Amazon's Toys & Games category. In 2004, Toys "R" Us sued Amazon, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Amazon had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2006, a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Amazon and establish its independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.[28][29][30]

In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement with Borders, under which Amazon would comanage Borders.com as a co-branded service.[31] Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007.[32]

In 2002, the company launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which initially focused on providing APIs for web developers to build web applications on top of Amazon's e-commerce platform.[33][34] In 2004, AWS expanded to provide website popularity statistics and web crawler data from its Alexa Web Information Service.[35] AWS later shifted toward providing enterprise services with Simple Storage Service (S3) in 2006,[36] and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2008, allowing companies to rent data storage and computing power.[37]

In 2006, Amazon launched the Fulfillment by Amazon program, which allowed individuals and small companies (called "third-party sellers") to sell products through Amazon's warehouses and fulfillment infrastructure.[38]

In March 2008, Amazon bought Audible for about $300 million.[39]

The AmazonBasics brand was introduced in 2009, offering a range of Amazon-branded products.[40]

In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched.[41]

2011–2020

On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership caused booksellers such as Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from its shelves.[42]

Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, a warehouse automation company, in 2012.[citation needed]

Amazon bought Goodreads in March 2013.[43]

In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with the US Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Greater Los Angeles and New York, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.[44]

Amazon acquired Twitch in August 2014 for $970 million.[45]

In November 2015, Amazon opened a physical Amazon Books store in University Village in Seattle. The store was 5,500 square feet and prices for all products matched those on its website.[46] Amazon opened its tenth physical bookstore in 2017.[47] All locations were closed in 2022 along with other retail locations under the "Amazon 4-Star" brand.[48]

In July 2016, the company announced that it was opening a 1,100,000 ft (335,280.0 m) square foot facility in Palmer Township in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. As of 2024, Amazon is the Lehigh Valley region's third-largest employer.[49][50]

In June 2017, Nike agreed to sell products through Amazon in exchange for better policing of counterfeit goods.[51][52] This proved unsuccessful and Nike withdrew from the partnership in November 2019.[52][53] Companies including IKEA and Birkenstock also stopped selling through Amazon around the same time, citing similar frustrations over business practices and counterfeit goods.[54]

Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market supermarket chain for $13.7 billion in 2017.[55] It had over 300 million active customer accounts as of 2020.[56][57][58][59]

In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which recorded income of US$104.44 million (₹759 crore) in financial year 2017–2018.[60]

As of October 11, 2017, Amazon Fresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.[61]

Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.[62] On November 13, 2018, Amazon announced that it would divide its planned HQ2 between New York City and Northern Virginia.[63] On February 14, 2019, Amazon canceled its plan for the New York City HQ2 site.

In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers were allowed to sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.[64][65]

The Amazon Live e-commerce streaming service launched in 2019.[66]

Amazon experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, hiring more than 100,000 staff in the US and Canada.[67]

2021–

On July 5, 2021 Bezos moved from CEO to executive board chair. Former AWS CEO Andy Jassy replaced him as CEO.[68][69] In January 2023, Amazon cut over 18,000 jobs, primarily in consumer retail and its human resources division in an attempt to cut costs.[70]

In September 2021, Amazon announced the launch of Astro, its first household robot.[71]

On November 8, 2023, a plan was adopted for Jeff Bezos to sell approximately 50 million shares of the company over the next year with a deadline of January 31, 2025. The first step was the sale of 12 million shares for about $2 billion.[72]

In 2023, Amazon invested $1.25B in Anthropic. In return Anthropic designated AWS as a primary cloud partner and began using Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia chips. Anthropic Claude models became available on Amazon Bedrock. In March 2024, Amazon invested a further $2.75B. In November, Amazon invested $4B more. In April 2026, Amazon invested $5B.[73]

In January 2023, Amazon announced the launch of RXPass, a prescription drug delivery service..[74]

In February 2024, Amazon announced its first chatbot, "Rufus", for use in the US; in July it was widely available to all customers in the US.[75] "Rufus" is available in the US, India and the UK to help shoppers get product recommendations, shopping list advice, compare products, and see what other customers have responded to regarding their specific questions.[76]

On February 26, 2024, Amazon became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.[77]

On December 19, 2024, Amazon workers, led by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union, went on strike against Amazon in at least four states.[78][79]

On October 8, 2025, Amazon launched prescription vending machines at One Medical clinics in Los Angeles. The machines are operated by Amazon Pharmacy and are able to prescribe a range of common medications, such as antibiotics, inhalers and blood pressure treatments.[80]

On October 28, 2025, the company announced plans to reduce its corporate workforce by 14,000 positions, reported as Amazon's largest round of job cuts since 2022.[81] In January 2026, Amazon announced a second round of layoffs, affecting approximately 16,000 corporate employees. Company statements described the layoffs as part of a broader effort to streamline operations, reduce bureaucracy, and adapt to changing business conditions, including artificial intelligence technologies. Affected employees were offered severance packages and support for internal job placement.[82][83][84]

In January 2025, Amazon filed an objection to Saks Global’s bankruptcy plan. Amazon invested $475 million into Saks’ acquisition of Neiman Marcus, and worried that Saks' bankruptcy would harm creditors and push the tech company further down the repayment pecking order.[85]

In January 2026, Amazon entered talks with OpenAI to invest up to $50 billion.[86] Amazon had a deep strategic partnership with Anthropic, OpenAI's competitor.[87] In January 2026, Amazon laid off 16,000 employees in its second round of large-scale job reductions in three months due to AI.[88]

In March 2026, Amazon pledged to bear the entire cost of new electricity generation to power its data centers.[89]

In 2020, Amazon Fresh opened several physical stores in the US and the UK.[90] In January 2026, Amazon announced it would close all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores to shift focus to its online same-day delivery service and expand its Whole Foods Market business. The closure affects 57 Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go locations, some of which will be converted into Whole Foods stores.[91]

Amazon launched Amazon Supply Chain Services in May 2026.[92]

Products and services

Amazon.com

Amazon.com sells products in many categories, including media (books, movies, music, and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal care products, industrial and scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items, toys and games, and farm supplies[94] and consulting services.[95] Amazon websites are country-specific (for example, amazon.com for the US and amazon.co.uk for UK) though some offer international shipping.[96]

Visits to amazon.com grew from 615 million annual visitors in 2008,[97] to more than 2 billion per month in 2022.[98] The e-commerce platform is the world's 12th most visited.[22]

Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.[99] The company's localized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated by top-level domain and country code:

Amazon Marketplaces worldwide
  Top-Level Domain
  Served by neighboring Domain
Sales by country (2023)[100]
Country share
US 69.3%
Germany 6.5%
UK 5.8%
Japan 4.8%
Other 13.6%
RegionCountryDomain nameSinceLanguages Notes
Africa Egyptamazon.egSeptember 2021Arabic, English Formerly known as Souq.com Egypt
South Africaamazon.co.zaMay 2024English
Americas Brazilamazon.com.brDecember 2012Portuguese
Canadaamazon.caJune 2002English, French
Mexicoamazon.com.mxAugust 2013Spanish
United Statesamazon.comJuly 1995English, Spanish, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) International customers without a localized Amazon website may purchase eBooks from the Kindle Store on Amazon US.[101]
Asia Chinaamazon.cnSeptember 2004Chinese (Simplified) Formerly known as Joyo.com CHN
Indiaamazon.inJune 2013English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi
Japanamazon.co.jpNovember 2000Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified)
Saudi Arabiaamazon.saJune 2020Arabic, English Formerly known as Souq.com KSA
Singaporeamazon.sgJuly 2017English
Turkeyamazon.com.trSeptember 2018Turkish
United Arab Emiratesamazon.aeMay 2019Arabic, English Formerly known as Souq.com UAE
Europe Belgiumamazon.com.beOctober 2022Dutch, French, English
Franceamazon.frAugust 2000French, English
Germanyamazon.deOctober 1998German, English, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Turkish Also serves Austria,[102] Denmark[103] and Switzerland[104]
Irelandamazon.ieMarch 2025English
Italyamazon.itNovember 2010Italian, English
Netherlandsamazon.nlNovember 2014Dutch, English Initially only books & e-books, full shop opened March 2020[105]
Polandamazon.plMarch 2021Polish
Spainamazon.esSeptember 2011Spanish, Portuguese, English Also serves Portugal[106]
Swedenamazon.seOctober 2020Swedish, English
United Kingdomamazon.co.ukOctober 1998English
OceaniaAustraliaamazon.com.auNovember 2017English Also serves New Zealand[107]

Private-label products

Amazon Basics USB cable

Amazon sells many products under its own brand names, including phone chargers, batteries, and diaper wipes. and features hundreds of product lines. Amazon owned 34 private-label brands as of 2019. These brands account for 0.15% of Amazon's global sales, whereas the average for other large retailers is 18%.[40] Other Amazon retail brands include AmazonBasics, Presto!, Mama Bear, and Amazon Essentials.[108]

Third-party sellers

Amazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.[109] Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling direct. Orders are processed through Amazon.com and end up at individual sellers for processing and order. Some sellers lease space from Amazon. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods.[110]

Affiliate program

Publishers can sign up as affiliates and receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites should the referral result in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon had over 900,000 affiliates (2010).[111] As of mid-2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program was used by 1.2% of all websites and was the second most popular advertising network after Google Ads.[112][needs update] It is frequently used by sellers and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.[113]

Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service. An affiliate service, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within another website, or linked to another website. Amazon Seller Product Suggestions provides transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon.[41]

Product reviews

Amazon allows users to submit reviews of each product. Reviewers rate the product from one to five stars and offer commentary. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers that indicates the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or that indicates that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. Readers can indicate whether the review is helpful or report that it abuses Amazon policies. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the product's page.[114]

When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Amazon.com was "taking a different approach...we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly...to let truth loose".[115]

Some positive reviews were written and posted by public relations companies on behalf of their clients[116] and instances of pseudonyms users leaving negative reviews of their rivals' works.

Amazon sales rank

The Amazon sales rank (ASR) indicates the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products.[117] While the ASR has no direct effect on product sales, it determines which products appear in its bestseller lists.[117] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure and may increase sales. Products that experience large jumps (up or down) in the rankings may appear on Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers".[118] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release sales figures. However, Amazon releases point of sale data via the BookScan service to verified authors.[119] While the ASR was the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon does not release the details of its sales rank algorithm. Some companies analyze Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,[120] though Amazon states:

Amazon Fresh store in Sevenoaks, UK