On July 16, 1995, Amazon officially opens for business as an online bookseller. Within a month, the fledgling retailer had shipped books to all 50 U.S. states and to 45 countries. Founder Jeff Bezos’s motto was “get big fast,” and Seattle-based Amazon eventually morphed into an e-commerce colossus, selling everything from groceries to furniture to live ladybugs, and helping to revolutionize the way people shop.
Bezos earned an undergraduate degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1986 then worked in the financial services industry in New York City. In 1994, after realizing the commercial potential of the Internet and determining that books might sell well online, he moved to Washington state and founded Amazon.
He initially dubbed the business Cadabra (as in abracadabra) but after someone misheard the name as “cadaver,” Bezos decided to call his startup Amazon, after the enormous river in South America, a moniker he believed wouldn’t box him into offering just one type of product or service.
In the spring of 1995, Bezos invited a small group of friends and former colleagues to check out a beta version of Amazon’s website, and the first-ever order was placed on April 3 of that year, for a science book titled Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. When Amazon.com went live to the general public in July 1995, the company boldly billed itself as “Earth’s biggest bookstore,” although sales initially were drummed up solely by word of mouth and Bezos assisted with assembling orders and driving the packages to the post office.
By the end of 1996 Amazon had racked up $15.7 million in revenues, and in 1997 Bezos took the company public with an initial public offering that raised $54 million. That same year, Bezos personally delivered his company’s one-millionth order, to a customer in Japan who had purchased a Windows NT manual and a Princess Diana biography. In 1998, Amazon extended beyond books and started selling music CDs, and by the following year it had added more product categories, such as toys, electronics and tools.
By December 1999, Amazon had shipped 20 million items to 150 countries around the globe. That same month, Bezos was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In 2000, the company introduced a service allowing individual sellers and other outside merchants to peddle their products alongside Amazon’s own items. Meanwhile, Amazon continued to spend heavily on expansion and didn’t post its first full-year profit until 2003.
In 2007, Amazon debuted its Kindle e-reader; four years later, the company announced it was selling more e-books than print books. Also in 2011, Amazon’s tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, was released. Among a variety of other ventures, Amazon launched a cloud computing and video on demand services in 2006; a studio that develops movies and TV series, in 2010; and an online marketplace for fine art, in 2013, which has featured original works by artists including Claude Monet and Norman Rockwell.
Additionally, Amazon has acquired a number of companies, including Zappos and Whole Foods. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the world’s most valuable retailer. Two decades after its founding and with Bezos still at the helm, Amazon’s market value was $250 billion. In 2017, Bezos was named the richest man in the world. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon to focus on his aerospace company Blue Origin. In recent years, the company has come under intense scrutiny for poor working conditions and exploitive practices at its fulfillment centers and warehouses.
FAQs
Online bookstore and IPO
Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos' rented home in Bellevue, Washington. Bezos' parents invested almost $246,000 in the start-up. On July 16, 1995, Amazon opened as an online bookseller, selling the world's largest collection of books to anyone with World Wide Web access.
Who launched Amazon in 1995? ›
Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington. The company originally started as an online marketplace for books but gradually expanded its offerings to include a wide range of product categories. This diversification led to it being referred to as "The Everything Store".
Was Amazon founded in July 1994? ›
On July 5, 1994, Amazon was officially founded under the name “Cadabra” (as in abracadabra) by young Princeton graduate Jeff Bezos within a garage space in his rental home in Bellevue, Washington.
When was Amazon open to the public? ›
When did Amazon go public and at what price? Amazon went public on May 15, 1997, and the IPO price was $18.00, or $0.075 adjusted for the stocks splits that occurred on June 2, 1998 (2-for-1 split), January 5, 1999 (3-for-1 split), and September 1, 1999 (2-for-1 split), and June 3, 2022 (20-for-1 split).
What are 5 facts about Amazon? ›
But there are also many under-the-radar fun facts about Amazon's current ventures—such as its cashier-less stores and drone delivery.
- Amazon Held Its Meetings at Barnes and Noble. ...
- Amazon Launched as an Auction Site. ...
- It Was Also an Early Competitor of Yahoo! ...
- Amazon Users Can Donate to Charities When they Buy.
It started with Jeff Bezos' original basic plan to sell books more efficiently and quickly led to the recognition that by gaining information about its customers, his company could learn to sell them anything and everything. Amazon has now become a titan of retail that has branched out into many other areas as well.
What was Amazon's 1995 mission statement? ›
At first Amazon wanted to be, “to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”, (Amazon's global career site).
How did Amazon first start? ›
But like many successful companies, Amazon had modest beginnings—in this case, the garage of founder Jeff Bezos. In July 1995, Amazon.com opened as an online bookseller out of Bezos' Bellevue, Washington home. And while our operations and inventory look quite different now, we didn't want to forget our roots.
What is the summary of Amazon? ›
Originally started as an online bookselling company, Amazon has morphed into an internet-based business enterprise that is largely focused on providing e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming and artificial intelligence (AI) services.
At what age did Amazon start? ›
Jeff Bezos started Amazon at age 30. His reason? "I came across this startling statistic that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year. So I decided to find a business that made sense in the context of that growth.”
It is known for its high-quality products and its excellent customer service. Amazon has a reputation for being reliable and for delivering on its promises. When customers order from Amazon, they know that they will receive their order on time and that they will be satisfied with the product.
How did Amazon get its name? ›
While looking through the "A" section of the dictionary, Bezos discovered the word "Amazon," which seemed fitting because it was earth's largest river and he was building the world's largest bookstore. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Who owns Amazon now? ›
Jeffrey Bezos owns the most shares of Amazon (AMZN). The ownership structure can impact the company's decision making, as large institutional investors may exert influence on the company's management and can also affect the company's stock price with their buying and selling patterns.
What if I invested $10 000 dollars in Amazon in 1997? ›
If you had invested $10,000 in Amazon at its IPO price in 1997, you would have purchased 555 shares, not including commission expenses or fractional shares. Taking into account Amazon's four stock splits, these 555 shares would have multiplied into 133,200 shares, as of today.
What challenges did Amazon face in the beginning? ›
In the early days of Amazon's growth, the company faced a dilemma of whether to show products from third-party sellers that competed with their products. Conventional wisdom would guide to not show competitor products along with your products. But Jeff decided to show the competitor products along with Amazon's.
What did Amazon first start selling? ›
After compiling a list of products to sell – which included compact discs, computer hardware, and computer software – Bezos finally settled on books to be the first product that he would sell online.
What items did Amazon originally start as a website to sell? ›
Amazon began as an online book seller, but the company went on to become a major disruptor across sectors and industries.
When did Amazon start selling everything? ›
1999. By 1999, Amazon had already expanded into selling video games, home-improvement items, consumer electronics software, games, and much more. Bezos wanted to catch up with his motto of “get big fast”. By the end of the year, Amazon had shipped to around 150 countries around the globe.
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