Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos and was originally incorporated as Cadabra, Inc.
Bezos established the company in 1994, initially pursuing an online bookstore because books offered a large selection that could not fit easily in a traditional shop. The name Cadabra was soon replaced after a lawyer reportedly misheard it as “cadaver.” Bezos then chose Amazon, evoking the scale of the South American river.
Amazon’s first book sale took place in 1995. The company expanded from books into a broad online marketplace, then into logistics, streaming, devices, advertising, and cloud infrastructure through Amazon Web Services.
This origin story is relevant to Amazon’s later market capitalization because investors came to value the company as a diversified technology and commerce platform rather than only a retailer. Amazon’s public shares trade under AMZN.