What is Amazon? History and timeline of Amazon Amazon Web Services From the 2010s to present Valuable Amazon products and services Consumer Technology Amazon AI services Amazon privately owned brands Valuable Amazon subsidiaries and acquisitions Amazon controversies and criticisms Amazon finances List of subscription services
What is amazon?
Amazon (www.Amazon.com) is the world’s largest online superstore, daily necessities retailer, and leading cloud service provider.
Originally started as an online bookseller, Amazon has grown into an Internet-driven giant focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence (AI). Focused on providing services.
Following the approach of selling customers from Amazon, the company offers an impressive product range and inventory, providing customers with a variety of products for clothing, beauty, fresh and delicate food, jewelry, books, movies, electronics, and pets. Almost everything, including pets, and furniture, is made available for purchase. Toys, garden equipment, and household goods are also included in this long list.
Headquartered in Seattle (USA), Amazon has individual websites, software development centers, customer service centers, data centers, and fulfillment centers around the world.
History and timeline of Amazon
Amazon has come on a long and arduous journey since it was founded by Jeff Bezos on Wednesday, July 5, 1994, in his garage in Bellevue, Washington.
The following is a brief history and timeline of events that transformed Amazon from its humble and hard-working beginnings to a multinational business empire.
In the 1990s
Amazon officially opened for business as an online bookseller on Sunday, July 16, 1995. Originally, Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra (Computer Program) but later changed the name to Amazon. Bezos is said to have browsed a dictionary for a word starting with A for alphabetical placement value. He chose the name Amazon because it was exotic and different and reflected the Amazon River, one of the largest rivers in the world, as a reference to his plan for the size of the company. Since its inception, the company’s motto has always been “Grow Big Fast”.
In the 2000s
In the United States in 2005, Amazon Prime was a subscription-based service for Amazon customers offering free two-day shipping in the contiguous United States, as well as streaming, shopping, and reading benefits. According to Amazon’s website, current Amazon Prime memberships cost $14.99 a month or $139 annually.
Amazon Web Services
This fully integrated and emerging cloud computing platform also emerged in the 2000s. The first Amazon Web Services (AWS) offerings were launched in 2006 to provide online services for websites and client-side applications. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) are the backbones of the company’s growing collection of web services. In the same year 2006, Amazon also launched a cloud computing and video-on-demand service then known as Unbox.
By turning into a new and innovative way for people to buy books, Amazon changed the way people read them with the launch of its first Kindle e-reader in 2007. This device greatly helps users to browse, buy and read e-books, magazines, and newspapers from the Kindle Store.
2010 to 2022
Amazon launched its first and most advanced tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, in 2011, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick, part of Amazon’s flagship streaming media device line, in 2014.
Amazon also launched an online Amazon Art Marketplace for fine arts in 2013, featuring original works by famous artists of the era such as Mr. Claude Monet and Mr. Norman Rockwell.
The popular in-home virtual assistant Amazon Alexa was introduced to consumers in 2015, followed by the Alexa-equipped Echo Dot in 2016.
Amazon acquired organic grocery store Whole Foods in 2017 and also launched Amazon Go, a chain of cashier-less grocery stores, in 2018.
The increase in domestic shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other environmental diseases has forced consumers to rely more on Amazon, and this trend is likely to increase.