Amazon began as an online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 before becoming a market-cap giant.
Bezos established the company in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994, and it began selling books online in 1995. Books were a practical starting category because a website could offer far more titles than a typical physical shop.
The company later expanded into many retail categories, logistics, digital media, devices, and cloud computing. Amazon Web Services, launched in the mid-2000s, became an especially important part of Amazon’s business and helped reshape the commercial cloud industry.
Amazon was originally called Cadabra, Inc., before being renamed Amazon. The company’s market-cap ranking is not permanent because it depends on stock prices, but Amazon has repeatedly ranked among the world’s most valuable public companies.