Amazon, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, began as an online bookstore and later became a global technology giant.
Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state in July 1994, initially under the name Cadabra, Inc. It launched as an online bookstore in 1995 because books offered a huge selection that a physical shop could not easily stock. The company soon expanded beyond books into many categories.
Amazon's growth has rested on several connected businesses: online retail, third-party marketplace services, logistics, subscriptions, devices, and Amazon Web Services. AWS became a particularly important cloud-computing business, supplying infrastructure and software services to organizations worldwide.
Amazon's market capitalization reflects the combined value investors assign to these activities, not merely its retail operation. The company is therefore often misunderstood as only an e-commerce retailer, even though cloud computing and advertising have become major parts of its business.