 American multinational technology conglomerate | |
| Trade name | Amazon |
|---|---|
| Formerly | Cadabra, Inc. (1994–1995) |
| Type | Public |
| Traded as | Nasdaq: AMZN Nasdaq-100 component DJIA component S&P 100 component S&P 500 component |
| ISIN | US0231351067 |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Founded | July 5, 1994 (1994-07-05), in Bellevue, Washington, U.S. |
| Founder | |
| Jeff Bezos |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, and Arlington County, Virginia , U.S. |
|---|
| Area served | Worldwide |
|---|
| Key people | Jeff Bezos (executive chairman) Andy Jassy (president and CEO) |
|---|
| Products | Echo Fire Tablet Fire TV Fire OS Kindle |
|---|
| Services | Amazon.com Amazon Alexa Amazon Luna Amazon Music Amazon Pay Amazon Prime Amazon Prime Video Amazon MGM Studios Amazon Robotics Amazon Web Services MGM+ One Medical Ring Twitch |
|---|
| Revenue | US$716.9 billion (2025) |
|---|
| Operating income | US$79.98 billion (2025) |
|---|
| Net income | US$77.67 billion (2025) |
|---|
Amazon.com, Inc.1 (doing business as Amazon)a is an American multinational conglomerate engaged in e-commerce, retail, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, entertainment, and artificial intelligence.5 Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington,6 the company started as an online book marketplace that gradually expanded to include virtually all consumer products as well as many other categories, positioned as "The Everything Store".7
For other uses, see Amazon.
As of 2026 it was the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon sells books, electronics, pharmaceuticals, car parts, video games, dining products, jewelry, food, music, and sports equipment.8
The company has multiple subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud computing; Zoox, a self-driving car division; satellite Internet provider Kuiper Systems; and Amazon Lab126, a computer hardware R&D provider. Other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and grocer Whole Foods Market. Amazon distributes downloadable and streaming content through its Amazon Prime Video, MGM+, Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible, and Wondery9 units through its Entertainment division. It publishes books through its publishing arm, Amazon Publishing; produces and distributes film and television content through Amazon MGM Studios, including the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio; and owns Brilliance Audio and Audible, which produce and distribute , respectively. Amazon produces consumer electronics, most notably e-readers, devices, tablets, and TVs.
Amazon has a reputation as an industry disruptor through innovation and aggressive reinvestment of profits.10111213 As of 2023, it was the largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service provider through AWS,14 live-streaming service provider through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share.15 In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China, supported by its subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which had 200 million subscribers worldwide.1617 It is the second-largest private employer in the US,18 second-largest company in the US by revenue as of 2024 (after Walmart),19 and the largest company in the world by revenue as of 2026.20 As of October 2024, Amazon was the world's . 84% of its traffic comes from the US.
Amazon has been criticized for its alleged business practices, including surveillance partnerships, poor working conditions, anti-union efforts, environmental harm, anticompetitive behavior, censorship controversies, and exploitative treatment of small businesses and suppliers.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Where Amazon (company) leads. Every connection below has a source: a link in this article, a shared Wikipedia category, or CirrusSearch text similarity. Articles already on your trail are left out.
Wikipedia did not return the list of recent edits.
The articles this one links to most, weighted towards the introduction.
7,328 words · 327 references · revision 1384379996 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Related articles are unavailable right now.
Main article: History of Amazon
On July 5, 1994, Amazon was founded as "Cadabra" by Jeff Bezos, after he relocated from New York City to Bellevue, Washington, to operate an online bookstore. Bezos chose Seattle for its abundance of technical talent from Microsoft and the University of Washington, as well as its smaller population and the proximity to a major book distribution warehouse in Roseburg, Oregon. Seattle beat out Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado.23
In November 1994, Bezos renamed the company Amazon to reflect his ambitions for his company. (Amazon is the world's largest river.)24
On July 16, 1995, the Amazon website launched, initially sourcing its books directly from wholesalers and publishers.2325
In May 1997, Amazon went public.2627
In 1998, Amazon began selling music and videos. It began international operations by acquiring online booksellers in the UK and Germany. In 1999, it expanded to sell more products, including music, video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and toys.2627
In 2000, US toy retailer Toys "R" Us entered into a 10-year agreement with Amazon, valued at $50 million per year plus a cut of sales, under which Toys "R" Us would be the exclusive supplier of toys and baby products on the service, and the chain's website would redirect to Amazon's Toys & Games category. In 2004, Toys "R" Us sued Amazon, claiming that because of a perceived lack of variety in Toys "R" Us stock, Amazon had knowingly allowed third-party sellers to offer items on the service in categories that Toys "R" Us had been granted exclusivity. In 2006, a court ruled in favor of Toys "R" Us, giving it the right to unwind its agreement with Amazon and establish its independent e-commerce website. The company was later awarded $51 million in damages.282930
In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement with Borders, under which Amazon would comanage Borders.com as a co-branded service.31 Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007.32
In 2002, the company launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which initially focused on providing APIs for web developers to build web applications on top of Amazon's e-commerce platform.3334 In 2004, AWS expanded to provide website popularity statistics and web crawler data from its Alexa Web Information Service.35 AWS later shifted toward providing enterprise services with Simple Storage Service (S3) in 2006,36 and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2008, allowing companies to rent data storage and computing power.37
In 2006, Amazon launched the Fulfillment by Amazon program, which allowed individuals and small companies (called "third-party sellers") to sell products through Amazon's warehouses and fulfillment infrastructure.38
In March 2008, Amazon bought Audible for about $300 million.39
The AmazonBasics brand was introduced in 2009, offering a range of Amazon-branded products.40
In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched.41
On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Sandman, and Watchmen. The partnership caused booksellers such as Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from its shelves.42
Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, a warehouse automation company, in 2012.
Amazon bought Goodreads in March 2013.43
In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with the US Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas of Greater Los Angeles and New York, with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.44
Amazon acquired Twitch in August 2014 for $970 million.45
In November 2015, Amazon opened a physical Amazon Books store in University Village in Seattle. The store was 5,500 square feet and prices for all products matched those on its website.46 Amazon opened its tenth physical bookstore in 2017.47 All locations were closed in 2022 along with other retail locations under the "Amazon 4-Star" brand.48
In July 2016, the company announced that it was opening a 1,100,000 ft (335,280.0 m) square foot facility in Palmer Township in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. As of 2024, Amazon is the Lehigh Valley region's third-largest employer.4950
In June 2017, Nike agreed to sell products through Amazon in exchange for better policing of counterfeit goods.5152 This proved unsuccessful and Nike withdrew from the partnership in November 2019.5253 Companies including IKEA and Birkenstock also stopped selling through Amazon around the same time, citing similar frustrations over business practices and counterfeit goods.54
Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market supermarket chain for $13.7 billion in 2017.55 It had over 300 million active customer accounts as of 2020.56575859
In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which recorded income of US$104.44 million (₹759 crore) in financial year 2017–2018.60
As of October 11, 2017, Amazon Fresh sold a range of Booths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.61
Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.62 On November 13, 2018, Amazon announced that it would divide its planned HQ2 between New York City and Northern Virginia.63 On February 14, 2019, Amazon canceled its plan for the New York City HQ2 site.
In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell selected products through the service, via the company and selected Apple Authorized Resellers. As a result of this partnership, only Apple Authorized Resellers were allowed to sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.6465
The Amazon Live e-commerce streaming service launched in 2019.66
Amazon experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, hiring more than 100,000 staff in the US and Canada.67
On July 5, 2021, Bezos moved from CEO to executive board chair. Former AWS CEO Andy Jassy replaced him as CEO.6869 In January 2023, Amazon cut over 18,000 jobs, primarily in consumer retail and its human resources division in an attempt to cut costs.70
In September 2021, Amazon announced the launch of Astro, its first household robot.71
On November 8, 2023, a plan was adopted for Jeff Bezos to sell approximately 50 million shares of the company over the next year with a deadline of January 31, 2025. The first step was the sale of 12 million shares for about $2 billion.72
In 2023, Amazon invested $1.25B in Anthropic. In return Anthropic designated AWS as a primary cloud partner and began using Amazon's Trainium and Inferentia chips. Anthropic Claude models became available on Amazon Bedrock. In March 2024, Amazon invested a further $2.75B. In November, Amazon invested $4B more. In April 2026, Amazon invested $5B.73
In January 2023, Amazon announced the launch of RXPass, a prescription drug delivery service.74
In February 2024, Amazon announced its first chatbot, "Rufus", for use in the US; in July it was widely available to all customers in the US.75 "Rufus" is available in the US, India and the UK to help shoppers get product recommendations, shopping list advice, compare products, and see what other customers have responded to regarding their specific questions.76
On February 26, 2024, Amazon became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.77
On December 19, 2024, Amazon workers, led by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union, went on strike against Amazon in at least four states.7879
On October 8, 2025, Amazon launched prescription vending machines at One Medical clinics in Los Angeles. The machines are operated by Amazon Pharmacy and are able to prescribe a range of common medications, such as antibiotics, inhalers and blood pressure treatments.80
On October 28, 2025, the company announced plans to reduce its corporate workforce by 14,000 positions, reported as Amazon's largest round of job cuts since 2022.81 In January 2026, Amazon announced a second round of layoffs, affecting approximately 16,000 corporate employees. Company statements described the layoffs as part of a broader effort to streamline operations, reduce bureaucracy, and adapt to changing business conditions, including artificial intelligence technologies. Affected employees were offered severance packages and support for internal job placement.828384
In January 2025, Amazon filed an objection to Saks Global's bankruptcy plan. Amazon invested $475 million into Saks' acquisition of Neiman Marcus, and worried that Saks' bankruptcy would harm creditors and push the tech company further down the repayment pecking order.85
In January 2026, Amazon entered talks with OpenAI to invest up to $50 billion.86 Amazon had a deep strategic partnership with Anthropic, OpenAI's competitor.87 In January 2026, Amazon laid off 16,000 employees in its second round of large-scale job reductions in three months due to AI.88
In March 2026, Amazon pledged to bear the entire cost of new electricity generation to power its data centers.89
In 2020, Amazon Fresh opened several physical stores in the US and the UK.90 In January 2026, Amazon announced it would close all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores to shift focus to its online same-day delivery service and expand its Whole Foods Market business. The closure affects 57 Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go locations, some of which will be converted into Whole Foods stores.91
Amazon launched Amazon Supply Chain Services in May 2026.92
Launched in 2005, Mechanical Turk provided a crowdsourcing platform through which businesses and researchers could outsource human-completed tasks. The service was also used for human data annotation and review in machine-learning applications, including through Amazon SageMaker. In August 2026, Amazon announced that AWS Mechanical Turk would be discontinued on September 30, 2026, ending the service after more than 21 years.93
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Amazon products and services.
Amazon.com sells products in many categories, including media (books, movies, music, and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal care products, industrial and scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items, toys and games, and farm supplies95 and consulting services.96 Amazon websites are country-specific (for example, amazon.com for the US and amazon.co.uk for UK) though some offer international shipping.97
Visits to amazon.com grew from 615 million annual visitors in 2008,98 to more than 2 billion per month in 2022.99 The e-commerce platform is the world's 12th most visited.22
Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.100 The company's localized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated by and :
Amazon's global headquarters occupy more than 40 buildings spread across Seattle's adjacent South Lake Union, Denny Triangle, and Downtown neighborhoods. The first 14 buildings Amazon occupied in South Lake Union were purchased for $1.16 billion in 2016.200201 The company was previously headquartered in rented space within the Pacific Medical Center, from 1998 to 2011.202203
Amazon built a four tower, four low-rise, complex in Seattle's Denny Triangle neighborhood to serve as primary headquarters, though it retained many other buildings to house its more than 45,000 corporate employees.204 The new campus was designed by NBBJ and named "Rufus 2.0" after a dog, once a fixture of the company. Construction began in 2013. The first tower, nicknamed , opened on December 14, 2015.
As of August 2025, Amazon's board of directors were:238
This section is an excerpt from Criticism of Amazon.[edit]
Amazon has been criticized on many issues, including anti-competitive business practices, its treatment of workers, offering counterfeit or plagiarized products, objectionable content of its books, tax and subsidy deals with governments285 supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools;286 forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA; leading customers away from bookshops; adversely impacting the environment; placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers; actively opposing unionization efforts; remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions and ; and reclassifying books as adult content. Criticism has also concerned various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as the website, works containing , anti-LGBT merchandise, and material facilitating , , or activities.
| Country | share |
|---|---|
| US | 69.3% |
| Germany | 6.5% |
| UK | 5.8% |
| Japan | 4.8% |
| Other | 13.6% |
| Region | Country | Domain name | Since | Languages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | Egypt | amazon.eg | September 2021 | Arabic, English | Formerly known as Souq.com Egypt |
| South Africa | amazon.co.za | May 2024 | English | ||
| Americas | Brazil | amazon.com.br | December 2012 | Portuguese | |
| Canada | amazon.ca | June 2002 | English, French | ||
| Mexico | amazon.com.mx | August 2013 | Spanish | ||
| United States | amazon.com | July 1995 | English, Spanish, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) | International customers without a localized Amazon website may purchase eBooks from the Kindle Store on Amazon US.102 | |
| Asia | China | amazon.cn | September 2004 | Chinese (Simplified) | Formerly known as Joyo.com CHN |
| India | amazon.in | June 2013 | English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi | ||
| Japan | amazon.co.jp | November 2000 | Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified) | ||
| Saudi Arabia | amazon.sa | June 2020 | Arabic, English | Formerly known as Souq.com KSA | |
| Singapore | amazon.sg | July 2017 | English | ||
| Turkey | amazon.com.tr | September 2018 | Turkish | ||
| United Arab Emirates | amazon.ae | May 2019 | Arabic, English | Formerly known as Souq.com UAE | |
| Europe | Belgium | amazon.com.be | October 2022 | Dutch, French, English | |
| France | amazon.fr | August 2000 | French, English | ||
| Germany | amazon.de | October 1998 | German, English, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Turkish | Also serves Austria,103 Denmark104 and Switzerland105 | |
| Ireland | amazon.ie | March 2025 | English | ||
| Italy | amazon.it | November 2010 | Italian, English | ||
| Netherlands | amazon.nl | November 2014 | Dutch, English | Initially only books & e-books, full shop opened March 2020106 | |
| Poland | amazon.pl | March 2021 | Polish | ||
| Spain | amazon.es | September 2011 | Spanish, Portuguese, English | Also serves Portugal107 | |
| Sweden | amazon.se | October 2020 | Swedish, English | ||
| United Kingdom | amazon.co.uk | October 1998 | English | ||
| Oceania | Australia | amazon.com.au | November 2017 | English | Also serves New Zealand108 |
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Amazon brands.
Amazon sells many products under its own brand names, including phone chargers, batteries, and diaper wipes. and features hundreds of product lines. Amazon owned 34 private-label brands as of 2019. These brands account for 0.15% of Amazon's global sales, whereas the average for other large retailers is 18%.40 Other Amazon retail brands include AmazonBasics, Presto!, Mama Bear, and Amazon Essentials.109
Amazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.110 Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling direct. Orders are processed through Amazon.com and end up at individual sellers for processing and order. Some sellers lease space from Amazon. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods.111
Publishers can sign up as affiliates and receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites should the referral result in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon had over 900,000 affiliates (2010).112 As of mid-2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program was used by 1.2% of all websites and was the second most popular advertising network after Google Ads.113 It is frequently used by sellers and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.114
Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service. An affiliate service, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within another website, or linked to another website. Amazon Seller Product Suggestions provides transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon.41
See also: Criticism of Amazon § Amazon reviews
Amazon allows users to submit reviews of each product. Reviewers rate the product from one to five stars and offer commentary. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers that indicates the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or that indicates that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. Readers can indicate whether the review is helpful or report that it abuses Amazon policies. If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the product's page.115
When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Amazon.com was "taking a different approach...we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly...to let truth loose".116
Some positive reviews were written and posted by public relations companies on behalf of their clients117 and instances of pseudonyms users leaving negative reviews of their rivals' works.
The Amazon sales rank (ASR) indicates the popularity of a product sold on any Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers list" for the millions of products.118 While the ASR has no direct effect on product sales, it determines which products appear in its bestseller lists.118 Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure and may increase sales. Products that experience large jumps (up or down) in the rankings may appear on Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers".119 For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release sales figures. However, Amazon releases point of sale data via the BookScan service to verified authors.120 While the ASR was the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon does not release the details of its sales rank algorithm. Some companies analyze Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,121 though Amazon states:
Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the customer and not definitive sales information for publishers—we assume you have this information regularly from your distribution sources
— Amazon.com Help122
Amazon services include its digital assistant Alexa, Amazon Music, and Prime Video for music and videos respectively, the Amazon Appstore for Android apps. Audible provides audiobooks for purchase and listening.
RXPass is a US prescription drug delivery service. US Amazon Prime members can pay a $5 monthly fee for access to 60 medications. Beneficiaries of government healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are not eligible.74
Amazon Live is an e-commerce live-streaming service. The service allows promoters to stream live videos promoting or sponsoring products.66 Promoters (mainly celebrities or Internet influencers) can add tags to add context. Other users can watch and send messages to a global chat for any stream.66 In 2023 roughly a billion total viewers watched streams in the US and India. The platform is integrated into Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video.123
Amazon offers the Kindle line of electronic paper e-readers, Fire and Fire HD color LCD tablets.
Astro is a household robot, powered by Alexa. It can be remote-controlled, to check on pets, people, or home security. It notifies owners of unusual events.71
Amazon owns over 100 subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services, Audible, Diapers.com, Goodreads, IMDb, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), One Medical, Shopbop, Teachstreet, Twitch, Zappos, and Zoox.124
This section is an excerpt from Amazon Web Services.[edit]
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered, pay-as-you-go basis.
Clients often use this in combination with autoscaling (a process that allows a client to use more computing in times of high application usage, and then scale down to reduce costs when there is less traffic). These cloud computing web services provide various services related to networking, compute, storage, middleware, IoT and other processing capacity, as well as software tools via AWS server farms. This frees clients from managing, scaling, and patching hardware and operating systems.
One of the foundational services is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which allows users to have at their disposal a virtual cluster of computers, with extremely high availability, which can be interacted with over the Internet via REST APIs, a CLI or the AWS console. AWS's virtual computers emulate most of the attributes of a real computer, including hardware central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) for processing; local/RAM memory; hard-disk (HDD)/SSD storage; a choice of operating systems; networking; and pre-loaded application software such as web servers, databases, and customer relationship management (CRM).
AWS services are delivered to customers via a network of AWS server farms located throughout the world. Fees are based on a combination of usage (known as a "Pay-as-you-go" model), hardware, operating system, software, and networking features chosen by the subscriber requiring various degrees of availability, redundancy, security, and service options. Subscribers can pay for a single virtual AWS computer, a dedicated physical computer, or clusters of either.125 Amazon provides select portions of security for subscribers (e.g. physical security of the data centers) while other aspects of security are the responsibility of the subscriber (e.g. account management, vulnerability scanning, patching). AWS operates from many global geographical regions, including nine in North America.126
Amazon markets AWS to subscribers as a way of obtaining large-scale computing capacity more quickly and cheaply than building an actual physical server farm.127 All services are billed based on usage, but each service measures usage in varying ways. As of 2023 Q1, AWS has 31% market share for cloud infrastructure while the next two competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have 25%, and 11% respectively, according to Synergy Research Group.128129 AWS was the first cloud provider to build infrastructure specifically for U.S. government with respect to security and compliance requirements (2011; launched AWS GovCloud), accredited to support classified workloads (2014; launched AWS Top Secret), and achieve accreditation across all U.S. government data classifications (2017; launched AWS Secret).130131
This section is an excerpt from Audible (service).[edit]
Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken-word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model in which the user receives "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to a curated on-demand library of content. Audible is the United States' largest audiobook producer and retailer.132133 The service is owned by Audible, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon Entertainment, a division of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.134135
This section is an excerpt from Goodreads.[edit]
Goodreads is an American social cataloging website operated by Goodreads, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.136 Users can search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews and expand the database by registering books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their own groups of book suggestions, surveys, polls, blogs, and discussions. The website's offices are located in San Francisco.137
Goodreads was founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler.138139 In December 2007, the site had 650,000 members140 and 10 million books had been added.141 By July 2012, the site reported 10 million members, 20 million monthly visits, and 30 employees.142 On March 28, 2013, Amazon announced its acquisition of Goodreads,143 and by July 23, 2013, Goodreads announced its user base had grown to 20 million members.144
By September 2023, the site had more than 150 million members.145
This section is an excerpt from Ring (company).[edit]
Ring LLC is a manufacturer of home security and smart home devices owned by Amazon. It manufactures a line of Ring smart doorbells, home security cameras, and alarm systems. It also operates Neighbors, a social network that allows users to discuss local safety and security issues, and share footage captured with Ring products. Via Neighbors, Ring provides footage and data to law enforcement agencies to assist in investigations.
The company was founded in autumn 2013 by Jamie Siminoff as the crowdfunded startup Doorbot; it was renamed Ring in autumn 2014, after which it began to receive equity investments. It was acquired by Amazon in 2018 for approximately $1.15 billion.146147
Ring's product lines have faced scrutiny over privacy issues. The Neighbors service has been criticized by civil rights advocacy groups as building a private surveillance network backed by law enforcement agencies until the 'Request for Assistance (RFA)' option was discontinued in 2024. Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million in 2023 to settle a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission for alleged privacy violations. Various security vulnerabilities have also been discovered in Ring products.
This section is an excerpt from Twitch (service).[edit]
Twitch is an American video live-streaming service popular in video games, including broadcasts of esports competitions. It also offers music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon Entertainment, a division of Amazon.148 It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv.149
Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games, fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.150
The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of Justin.tv. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers,151 and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus when Justin.tv was getting shut down in August 2014.152 The same month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million,153154 which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime.
By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month.155 In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live-streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019.156157158 As of February 2020, it had three million broadcasters monthly and 15 million active users daily, with 1.4 million average concurrent users.159160 As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels.159161 As of January 2025, Twitch was the 30th-most-visited website in the world with 23.46% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by Russia with 8.87%, Germany with 7.08% and France with 6.26%.162163 In late 2023, Twitch announced that it would stop operating in South Korea in 2024 because of its network fee policy, citing prohibitive costs.
This section is an excerpt from Whole Foods Market.[edit]
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which generally sells whole food products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.164 A USDA Certified Organic grocer in the United States, the chain is popularly known for its organic selections.165
John Mackey, the last remaining co-founder of Whole Foods Market, sold the company to Amazon for $13.7 billion on August 28, 2017.166 As of March 4, 2019, Whole Foods has more than 500 stores in North America and six in the United Kingdom.167168
Other Amazon subsidiaries include:
Amazon also has investments in renewable energy, including plans to fund four small nuclear reactors at the Xe-100 reactor site in Eastern Washington, and plans to expand its position into the Canadian market through an investment in a new plant in Alberta.199
Amazon's European headquarters are in Luxembourg's capital, Luxembourg.211 Its UK headquarters are at Principal Place, Shoreditch, London.212
Amazon is also in the process of building a retail hub of operations center in Nashville, Tennessee.
On August 21, 2019, Amazon opened its largest campus in the world at Nanakramguda in Hyderabad, India. It is the first Amazon-owned campus located outside the US and features the single largest Amazon-owned building in the world. The 9.5-acre campus houses over 15,000 employees.213214
In December 2023 Amazon opened its 14-acre Amazon Africa headquarters. in Riverlands in Cape Town, South Africa.215
Amazon built a major campus in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, to host 15,000 employees. The company opened its first Bellevue office in 2017.216217 Amazon's largest building in the city is Sonic, a 42-story building, with 1 million square feet (93,000 m2) of office space. It opened in 2024.218 The Bellevue campus included the 43-story Bellevue 600 tower, the tallest building in the city and the tallest developed by Amazon.219
While much of Amazon's software development occurs in Seattle, the company employs software developers in centers across the globe. Some of these sites are run by subsidiary A2Z Development.220
Amazon once operated various retail store brands, but later closed all save for Whole Foods. Most of the stores are located inside of the US, but Whole Foods also operates stores in Canada and the UK, while Amazon Go has six locations in London under the Amazon Fresh name.221222
Amazon uses many transportation services to move packages. Amazon-branded services include:
Amazon directly employs workers at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed Amazon Hub Locker+ locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of December 2020, it was not hiring delivery drivers as employees.227
Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the US, the proportion of last-mile deliveries by Amazon's directly contracted services was 56% (mostly in urban areas), 30% by USPS (mostly in rural areas), and 14% by UPS.228 In April 2021, Amazon reported it had increased its in-house delivery capacity by 50% in the last 12 months (which included the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US).229
In addition to Amazon Lockers, Amazon staffed around 30 pickup points in the US and over 800 independent points in India. US locations had large sets of Amazon Lockers and an area for customers to make returns.230 The India locations were in existing retailers where customers wait for a store employee to retrieve their package.231
Amazon launched its distribution network in 1997 with fulfillment centers in Seattle and New Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of distribution facilities including cross-dock centers, fulfillment centers, sorting centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. As of 2018 the US had 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sorting centers with over 125,000 employees.232233 Employees are responsible for:
A picker may walk 10 or more miles a day. Employees carry hand-held computers that monitor their progress. Some warehouses are partially automated with systems built by Amazon Robotics.234 Amazon fulfillment centers host hundreds or thousands of employees.
The Fulfillment By Amazon program handles storage, packing and distribution of products and services for small sellers.38235 Third-party sellers can use FBA to ship for other platforms, such as eBay.236
In some fulfillment centers, items are stored on pods and are brought to pickers by four-wheeled robots. The robot slides under and lifts a pod slightly off the ground, before carrying it to a picker station.
In the US, many workers are hired as Amazon employees and granted shares of stock or sign-on bonuses, while others are offered seasonal positions.237
The 10 largest shareholders of Amazon at the end of October 2025:101
| Shareholder name | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Jeff Bezos | 9.04% |
| The Vanguard Group | 7.96% |
| BlackRock | 4.93% |
| State Street Corporation | 3.5% |
| Fidelity Investments | 3.22% |
| Geode Capital Management | 2.03% |
| JP Morgan Investment Management | 1.81% |
| Eaton Vance | 1.5% |
| T. Rowe Price | 1.48% |
| BlackRock Life Ltd. | 1.45% |
| Others | 63.04% |
| Business | share |
|---|---|
| Online Stores | 40.3% |
| Third-party Seller Services | 24.4% |
| Amazon Web Services | 15.8% |
| Advertising | 8.2% |
| Subscription Services | 7.0% |
| Physical Stores | 3.5% |
| Other | 0.9% |
Amazon.com started as a retail site. Amazon takes a percentage of the price of each item that it sells. It also allows companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.239 In Forbes Global 2000 Amazon ranked 36th (2023).240
For fiscal year 2025, Amazon reported net income of US$77.7 billion and net sales of US$716.9 billion, an increase of 12% in net sales from the previous year.241
| Year | Revenue242 | Net income | Total Assets | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in million US$ | ||||
| 1995243 | 0.5 | −0.3 | 1.1 | |
| 1996243 | 16 | −6 | 8 | |
| 1997243 | 148 | −28 | 149 | 614 |
| 1998244 | 610 | −124 | 648 | 2,100 |
| 1999244 | 1,639 | −720 | 2,466 | 7,600 |
| 2000244 | 2,761 | −1,411 | 2,135 | 9,000 |
| 2001244 | 3,122 | −567 | 1,638 | 7,800 |
| 2002244 | 3,932 | −149 | 1,990 | 7,500 |
| 2003245 | 5,263 | 35 | 2,162 | 7,800 |
| 2004245 | 6,921 | 588 | 3,248 | 9,000 |
| 2005245 | 8,490 | 359 | 3,696 | 12,000 |
| in billion US$ | ||||
| 2006245 | 10.7 | 190 | 4,363 | 13,900 |
| 2007245 | 14.8 | 476 | 6,485 | 17,000 |
| 2008246 | 19.1 | 645 | 8,314 | 20,700 |
| 2009247 | 24.5 | 902 | 13,813 | 24,300 |
| 2010248 | 34.2 | 1,152 | 18,797 | 33,700 |
| 2011249 | 48.0 | 631 | 25,278 | 56,200 |
| 2012250 | 61.0 | −39 | 32,555 | 88,400 |
| 2013251 | 74.4 | 274 | 40,159 | 117,300 |
| 2014252 | 88.9 | −241 | 54,505 | 154,100 |
| 2015253 | 107.0 | 0.59 | 64.7 | 230,800 |
| 2016254 | 135.9 | 2.3 | 83.4 | 341,400 |
| 2017255 | 177.8 | 3.0 | 131.3 | 566,000 |
| 2018256 | 232.8 | 10.0 | 162.6 | 647,500 |
| 2019257 | 280.5 | 11.5 | 225.2 | 798,000 |
| 2020258 | 386.0 | 21.3 | 321.1 | 1,298,000 |
| 2021259 | 469.8 | 33.3 | 420.5 | 1,608,000 |
| 2022259 | 513.9 | −2.7 | 462.6 | 1,541,000 |
| 2023260 | 574.7 | 30.4 | 527.8 | 1,525,000 |
| 20241 | 637.9 | 59.2 | 624.8 | 1,556,000 |
| 2025261 | 716.9 | 77.7 | 818.0 | 1,576,000 |
Jeff Bezos became renowned for his annual shareholder letters.262 These letters expressed Bezos's perspectives and strategic focus.262263 A common theme was his desire to instill customer-centricity (in his words, "customer obsession") at all levels of Amazon, notably by making all senior executives field customer support queries for a time at Amazon call centers. He read many emails addressed by customers to his public email address.264 One of Bezos's most well-known internal memos was his mandate for all teams to "expose their data and functionality" through service interfaces "designed from the ground up to be externalizable". This process, commonly known as a service-oriented architecture (SOA), resulted in mandatory dogfooding of services that later became commercialized via AWS.265
Amazon used internal recognition programs such as the Just Do It Award to encourage employee initiative.266267268
Amazon's meeting culture is document-driven. It is designed to encourage deep thinking, shared context, and efficient decision-making, avoiding polished presentations and large gatherings. Practices:269
Amazon lobbies governments on issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy and data protection, and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Amazon.com focuses its US lobbying on the US Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve. In 2019, it spent $16.8 million and had a team of 104 lobbyists.270
Amazon.com was a corporate member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.271
In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to approve its drone delivery program, hiring the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June.272 Amazon and its lobbyists have visited with Federal Aviation Administration officials and aviation committees in Washington, D.C. to explain its plans to deliver packages.273 In September 2020 this moved one step closer with the granting of a critical certificate by the FAA.274
During the second Trump Administration, Amazon donated several times to various events and aspects of his presidency. Along with several other major companies, Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.275 In April 2025, Amazon was a corporate sponsor of the White House Easter Egg Roll, after Donald Trump solicited corporate sponsors for the event for the first time.276277 In October 2025, Amazon was listed among the donors funding the construction of the White House State Ballroom.278
Amazon lobbies on climate policy internationally. In the US, following Trump's 2025 inauguration, Amazon began frequent engagements with the executive branch to advocate for permitting reform and energy development to support data center growth. In July 2025, Amazon joined policymakers at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where it supported the development of nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand, and lobbied for permitting reform to support grid development nationwide.279280 Amazon sponsored the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions' (C3) Energy Summit in Washington D.C. in December 2025, which brought together administration officials and industry representatives to discuss meeting the country's growing electricity demand through modernization of the permitting process, investment in energy infrastructure, and scaling new technologies.281 A December 2025 DeSmog article reported that the company's sponsorship came alongside several organizations that had supported climate change denial, and a continued role for fossil fuels to meet growing energy demand.282283 In 2026, Amazon spent $5 million lobbying against the Delivery Protection Act, a New York City bill introduced by Tiffany Cabán that would require companies like Amazon to directly employ last mile delivery drivers and warehouse workers, as well as set licensing, safety, and training requirements for last mile facilities.284
An article published by Time in the wake of social media website Parler's termination of service by Amazon Web Service highlights the power companies like Amazon now have over the internet.297 In December 2011, Amazon faced a backlash from small businesses for running a one-day deal to promote its new Price Check app. Shoppers who used the app to check prices in a brick-and-mortar store were offered a 5% discount to purchase the same item from Amazon.298 Companies like Groupon, eBay and Taap have countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from its products.299300
The company has also faced accusations of putting undue pressure on suppliers to maintain and extend its profitability. One effort to squeeze the most vulnerable book publishers was known within the company as the Gazelle Project, after Bezos suggested, according to Brad Stone, "that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle." In July 2014, the Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company alleging it was promoting in-app purchases to children, which were being transacted without parental consent.301 In 2019, Amazon banned selling skin-lightening products after pushback from Minnesota health and environmental activists.302 In 2022, a lawsuit filed by state attorney-general Letitia James was dismissed by the New York state court of appeals.303 After the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon faced criticism for complying, under pressure from the Biden Administration, to "reduce the visibility" of books critical of the COVID-19 vaccine,304305 which was revealed after Rep. Jim Jordan (acting on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee) subpoenaed emails between the company and the Biden Administration.306
Amazon Prime has been criticized for its vehicles systemically double parking, blocking bike lanes, and otherwise violating traffic laws while dropping off packages, contributing to traffic congestion and endangering other road users.307308309310
Jane Friedman311 discovered six listings of books fraudulently using her name, on Amazon and Goodreads. Amazon and Goodreads resisted removing the fraudulent titles until the author's complaints went viral on social media, in a blog post titled "I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)."312313314315
In 2024, following years of criticism for providing law enforcement footage in the custody of Ring (a home security company owned by Amazon) without a warrant, Ring has halted this practice.316 It received cautious praise from privacy-focused organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation for this change.316
In February 2025, Sky accused Amazon of not doing enough to prevent the piracy of its sports rights via "jailbroken" Fire Sticks.317
Project Nimbus is a contract by which Amazon and Google provide Israel and its military with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other cloud-computing services.318319 The contract has been criticized by shareholders and employees concerned that the project may lead to abuses of Palestinian human rights in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.320 In October 2025, Amazon suspended an employee who posted messages to the company's Slack and wrote a letter to Andy Jassy criticizing Nimbus.321322
On July 22, 2025, Amazon announced its plan to acquire San Francisco-based startup Bee AI. Bee produces a wristband, similar to most modern smartwatches, equipped with AI and microphones. The wristband is capable of providing summaries of conversations and reminders of tasks, effectively serving as a 24/7 note taker. News outlets criticize the fact that the devices saves transcripts, potentially utilizing it to train generative AI models which require vast quantities of data.323
In January 2026, Amazon sent a notice out to cloud staffers in an apparent error acknowledging “organizational changes” at the company. The note also mentioned a "Project Dawn" which was cancelled, although it is unclear what the project is about.324
Main articles: Amazon vs. Reliance Group; Amazon.com Inc v Canada (Commissioner of Patents); Amazon.com, Inc. v. Barnesandnoble.com, Inc.; FTC v. Amazon; Hain Celestial Group, Inc. v. Palmquist; Hoang v. Amazon.com, Inc.; and Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.
In 2025, Federal Trade Commission alleged that Amazon used deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions and made it exceedingly difficult to cancel. The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington decided Amazon will be required to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and also provide $1.5 billion in refunds back to consumers.325 In 2026, Federal Trade Commission and 22 states claimed Amazon Tripled Ad Prices for Black Friday, Prime Day.326
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)