Amazon became the first publicly traded company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization while its core business was online retail.
Amazon crossed the milestone in September 2018, following Apple’s earlier achievement. Its rise was notable because the company began as an internet bookstore and expanded into a global marketplace, logistics network, streaming provider, advertising platform, and cloud-computing leader.
Amazon Web Services helped change how investors viewed the company. Although Amazon’s retail operations generated enormous sales, AWS became a major source of operating income and demonstrated the value of selling computing infrastructure to businesses worldwide.
Alibaba is another major online-commerce company, but it did not become the first e-commerce-focused company to cross the $1 trillion market-capitalization mark. Walmart is primarily a traditional retailer, while Amazon’s identity is rooted in internet commerce and digital services.