nasdaq amzn nasdaq 100 component s & p 5000 component founded july 5 1994 ; 22 years ago 1994 07 05 as cadabra seattle washington u.s. headquarters seattle washington u.s 1 2 3 area served worldwide founder s jeff bezos key people jeff bezos chairman president and ceo werner vogels cto industry internet products appstore aws the book depository comixology game studios video instant video uk instant video german audible kindle fire lab126 studios twitch.tv woot echo myhabit.com closed 4 shopbop 5 askville 6 services online shopping web hosting content distribution revenue us 107 billion 2015 7 operating income us 2.233 billion 2015 7 net income us 596 million 2015 7 total assets us 65.444 billion 2015 7 total equity us 13.384 billion 2015 7 owner jeff bezos 17.1 % 8 9 employees 268 900 july 2016 10 subsidiaries a9.com amazon web services alexa internet audible.com comixology digital photography review goodreads internet movie database junglee.com twitch zappos slogan s work hard have fun make history website amazon.com original u.s. site various national sites written in c and java 11 alexa rank 7 september 2016 update 12 type of site e commerce advertising web banners videos available in english french german spanish italian chinese japanese brazilian portuguese dutch launched july 5 1994 13 amazon.com inc. m z n or m z n often referred to as simply amazon is an american electronic commerce and cloud computing company with headquarters in seattle washington . it is the largest internet based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalization . 14 amazon.com started as an online bookstore later diversifying to sell dvds blu rays cds video downloads streaming mp3 downloads streaming audiobook downloads streaming software video games electronics apparel furniture food toys and jewelry . the company also produces consumer electronics notably amazon kindle e readers fire tablets and fire tv and is the world s largest provider of cloud infrastructure services iaas . 15 amazon also sells certain low end products like usb cables under its in house brand amazonbasics . amazon has separate retail websites for the united states the united kingdom and ireland france canada germany italy spain netherlands australia brazil japan china india and mexico . amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products . 16 in 2011 it professed an intention to launch its websites in poland 17 and sweden . 18 in 2015 amazon surpassed walmart as the most valuable retailer in the united states by market capitalization 19 and is as of 2016 q3 is the fourth most valuable public company . 20 contents 1 history 1.1 mergers and acquisitions 1.2 investment 1.3 subsidiaries 2 board of directors 3 merchant partnerships 4 amazon studios 5 amazon streaming 6 subsidiaries 6.1 audible.com 6.2 brilliance audio 6.3 comixology 6.4 goodreads 6.5 shelfari 6.6 beijing century joyo courier services 7 website 7.1 reviews 7.2 content search 7.3 third party sellers 8 amazon sales rank 9 amazon s technology 10 multi level sales strategy 11 revenue 12 controversies 12.1 sales and use taxes 12.2 poor working conditions 13 lobbying 14 notable businesses founded by former employees 15 see also 16 references 17 further reading 18 external links history edit amazon founder jeff bezos further information timeline of amazon.com the company was founded in 1994 spurred by what amazon founder jeff bezos called his regret minimization framework which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not participating sooner in the internet business boom during that time . 21 in 1994 bezos left his employment as vice president of d. e. shaw & co. a wall street firm and moved to seattle . he began to work on a business plan for what would eventually become amazon.com . jeff bezos incorporated the company as cadabra on july 5 1994 . 13 bezos changed the name to amazon a year later after a lawyer misheard its original name as cadaver . 22 in september 1994 bezos purchased the url relentless.com and briefly considered naming his online store relentless but friends told him the name sounded a bit sinister . the domain is still owned by bezos and still redirects to the retailer . 23 24 the company went online as amazon.com in 1995 . 25 bezos selected the name amazon by looking through the dictionary and settled on amazon because it was a place that was exotic and different just as he planned for his store to be ; the amazon river he noted was by far the biggest river in the world and he planned to make his store the biggest in the world . 25 bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand telling a reporter there s nothing about our model that can t be copied over time . but you know mcdonald s got copied . and it still built a huge multibillion dollar company . a lot of it comes down to the brand name . brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world . 26 additionally a name beginning with a was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized . since june 19 2000 amazon s logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from a to z representing that the company carries every product from a to z with the arrow shaped like a smile . 27 after reading a report about the future of the internet that projected annual web commerce growth at 2 300 % bezos created a list of 20 products that could be marketed online . he narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products which included compact discs computer hardware computer software videos and books . bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books online due to the large worldwide demand for literature the low price points for books along with the huge number of titles available in print . 28 amazon 29 was originally founded in bezos garage in bellevue washington . 30 the company began as an online bookstore an idea spurred off with discussion with john ingram of ingram book now called ingram content group along with keyur patel who still holds a stake in amazon . 31 amazon was able to access books at wholesale from ingram . in the first two months of business amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries . within two months amazon s sales were up to 20 000 week . 32 while the largest brick and mortar bookstores and mail order catalogs might offer 200 000 titles an online bookstore could carry several times more since it would have a practically unlimited virtual not actual warehouse those of the actual product makers suppliers . 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 . 33 in october 1995 the company announced itself to the public . 34 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 a price of us 18.00 per share 1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s . amazon s initial business plan was unusual ; it did not expect to make a profit for four to five years . this slow growth caused stockholders to complain about the company not reaching profitability fast enough to justify investing in or to even survive in the long term . when the dot com bubble burst at the start of the 21st century destroying many e companies in the process amazon survived and grew on past the bubble burst to become a huge player in online sales . it finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001 5 million i.e. 1 per share on revenues of more than 1 billion . this profit margin though extremely modest proved to skeptics that bezos unconventional business model could succeed . 35 in 1999 time magazine named bezos the person of the year recognizing the company s success in popularizing online shopping . barnes & noble sued amazon on may 12 1997 alleging that amazon s claim to be the world s largest bookstore was false . barnes and noble asserted it isn t a bookstore at all . it s a book broker . the suit was later settled out of court and amazon continued to make the same claim . 36 walmart sued amazon on october 16 1998 alleging that amazon had stolen walmart s trade secrets by hiring former walmart executives . although this suit was also settled out of court it caused amazon to implement internal restrictions and the reassignment of the former walmart executives . 36 amazon.com announced on october 11 2016 that they are planning to build convenience stores and develop curbside pickup locations for food . 37 mergers and acquisitions edit main article list of mergers and acquisitions by amazon.com investment edit 2008 engine yard a ruby on rails platform as a service paas company . 38 2010 livingsocial a local deal site . 39 2014 acquired the . buy domain in an auction for 4 588 888 40 41 2014 amazon announces additional us 2 billion investment in india in june 2014 42 2016 amazon announces additional us 3 billion investment in india in june 2016 subsidiaries edit 2003 a9.com a company focused on researching and building innovative technology . 43 2004 lab126 developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the kindle . 2007 endless.com an e commerce brand focusing on shoes . 44 2007 brilliance audio the largest independent audiobook producer in the us . 45 amazon owns over 40 subsidiaries including zappos shopbop diapers.com kiva systems goodreads teachstreet and imdb . 46 board of directors edit as of february 2016 the board of directors is 47 jeff bezos president ceo and chairman tom alberg managing partner madrona venture group john seely brown visiting scholar and advisor to the provost at university of southern california bing gordon partner kleiner perkins caufield & byers jamie gorelick partner wilmer cutler pickering hale and dorr judy mcgrath former ceo mtv networks alain moni ceo ingram micro jon rubinstein former chairman and ceo palm inc. thomas o. ryder former chairman and ceo reader s digest association patty stonesifer president and ceo martha s table wendell p. weeks chairman president and ceo corning inc. merchant partnerships edit until june 30 2006 typing toysrus.com into a browser would bring up amazon.com s toys & games tab ; however this relationship was terminated due to a lawsuit . 48 amazon also hosted and managed the website for borders bookstores but this ceased in 2008 . 49 from 2001 until august 2011 amazon hosted the retail website for target . 50 amazon.com operates retail websites for sears canada bebe stores 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 interact with the retail website standalone in store terminals or phone based customer service agents . amazon web services also powers aol s shop aol . 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 the sandman and watchmen . the partnership has caused well known bookstores like barnes & noble to remove these titles from their shelves . 51 on november 2013 amazon.com announced a partnership with the united states postal service to begin delivering orders on sundays . the service included in amazon s standard shipping rates initiated in metropolitan