Amazon was founded in 1994 as an online bookstore and became a global e-commerce and cloud-computing giant.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and the company began selling books online after launching its website in 1995. It later expanded into many product categories, marketplace services, logistics, digital entertainment, devices, and cloud computing.
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, became a major part of the company’s business after its commercial launch in 2006. AWS provides computing, storage, databases, and other services to organizations worldwide. Its growth helped transform Amazon from an online retailer into a diversified technology company frequently ranked among the world’s largest by market capitalization.
Amazon’s original name was Cadabra, but Bezos changed it after concerns that the name could be misheard. The company was named Amazon after the South American river, suggesting scale and breadth.