Amazon, one of the world's largest companies by market cap, was founded in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994.
Jeff Bezos established the company as an online bookstore while working from the Seattle area. Amazon initially operated under the name Cadabra, but Bezos soon changed it to Amazon, evoking the scale of the Amazon River. The company began selling books online in July 1995.
Amazon later expanded into music, video, electronics, cloud computing, advertising, and logistics. Bellevue is often confused with Seattle because both cities are part of the same metropolitan area and Amazon's corporate presence became strongly associated with Seattle. Amazon announced plans for a major second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, decades after its founding.