Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore before becoming a mega-cap corporation.
Bezos incorporated the business in July 1994, originally naming it Cadabra, Inc. The company launched online in 1995 as Amazon.com and sold books because they offered a large catalog that was difficult for a physical store to stock. It later expanded into electronics, household goods, cloud computing, digital media, advertising, and logistics.
Amazon’s market capitalization grew as investors valued both its retail scale and Amazon Web Services, which became a major cloud-computing business. The company reached a market capitalization of roughly US$1 trillion in September 2018, shortly after Apple reached that landmark.
Amazon’s name was inspired by the Amazon River, suggesting scale and breadth. It is distinct from Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group founded by Jack Ma in 1999, although both companies are major global internet businesses.