Amazon was originally founded as an online bookstore selling books.
Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in 1994, and the website began operating in July 1995 under the name Amazon.com. Books were a practical starting category because millions of titles existed, while no physical shop could stock all of them. Online ordering allowed Amazon to offer a much wider selection than a traditional bookstore.
The company later expanded into music, video, electronics, clothing, groceries, cloud computing, advertising, and many other services. That transformation helped turn Amazon from a niche internet retailer into a diversified global technology and commerce company. Its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, became especially important to the company’s business mix.
Amazon’s name was inspired by the Amazon River, which Bezos associated with scale and breadth. A frequent misconception is that Amazon began as a general online marketplace. It initially focused on books, then broadened its catalog as its logistics, customer base, and technology developed.