Amazon’s original online bookstore launched in July 1995. Jeff Bezos founded the company as an internet bookseller because books offered a large catalog that could be displayed more easily online than in a physical shop.
The business was initially called Cadabra, Inc., but Bezos changed the name to Amazon before the website launched. The Amazon name suggested scale and was associated with the vast Amazon River.
The company soon expanded beyond books into music, electronics, household goods, and many other categories. Amazon Web Services later became a major cloud-computing business, while advertising, logistics, and subscriptions added further revenue streams.
Amazon’s rise from an online bookstore to a global technology and retail group helped drive its enormous market capitalization. Its original product category is still an important part of its history, even though books now represent only one small portion of the wider business.