Amazon was founded in 1994 as an online bookseller before becoming one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994, and the website began operating in 1995. Books were a practical starting category because an online store could offer far more titles than a typical physical shop.
Amazon then expanded into many retail categories and developed major businesses in cloud computing, digital media, devices, advertising, and logistics. Amazon Web Services, launched in 2006, became especially important by renting computing infrastructure and related services to organizations.
The company’s market capitalization reflects this broad business mix rather than online retail alone. Amazon’s history is often simplified as a story about selling books, but its transformation into a technology and infrastructure company is central to its enormous market value.