Amazon operates a major online retail marketplace and Amazon Web Services, known as AWS.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore, and the company began selling books in 1995. It expanded into many product categories, allowing third-party merchants to list goods alongside items sold directly by Amazon. That marketplace model became one of the company’s defining businesses.
Amazon Web Services launched in 2006 and provides cloud infrastructure and platform services to organizations worldwide. AWS is separate from Amazon’s retail website, although both belong to the same company. Revenue and profit from cloud computing have been important factors in how investors value Amazon.
Amazon is often described simply as an online retailer, but its activities also include logistics, advertising, streaming entertainment, devices, groceries, and cloud computing. Its market capitalization reflects expectations for all of these businesses, not just the value of products shipped from its warehouses.