Amazon Founded

In 1995, Jeff Bezos launched an online bookstore that would grow into one of the most influential companies in the world. Amazon began as a way to sell books over the internet, but it went on to reshape retail, publishing, logistics and, through its cloud division, the basic infrastructure of the modern web.

Bezos had been working at a New York hedge fund, D. E. Shaw, when he became interested in the rapid growth of the early internet. He left his job in 1994, moved to the Seattle area, and began building a company, reportedly in his garage. He originally called it Cadabra before settling on Amazon, a name evoking the world's largest river and signaling ambitions of scale. Books were a practical first product: they were standardized, widely popular, and far too numerous for any physical store to stock in full. An online seller could offer a vastly larger catalog than a shop on any high street.

The site opened to the public in 1995, and the company shipped orders from a small operation that relied on book wholesalers. It grew quickly, expanding to sell music and videos, and then a wide range of other goods. Amazon went public in 1997, and it spent heavily on growth rather than profit, a strategy that drew skepticism during the dot-com bubble. The company survived the crash of the early 2000s, and its emphasis on low prices, convenience and customer reviews helped it win a large and loyal base of shoppers.

Over the following years Amazon built enormous warehouse and delivery networks and introduced services such as the Prime membership program, the Kindle e-reader and a marketplace where third-party sellers could reach its customers. Its self-publishing tools changed how many authors reached readers, while its power over book pricing and sales prompted disputes with publishers and concern among independent booksellers.

Perhaps its most significant move was Amazon Web Services, launched in the mid-2000s, which rented computing power and storage to other businesses. It made it far cheaper for start-ups to launch and helped establish cloud computing as an industry standard, eventually becoming a major source of Amazon's profits.

Amazon's legacy is debated. Supporters point to lower prices, wider choice and technological innovation. Critics raise concerns about market dominance, pressure on small retailers, and working conditions in its warehouses. Either way, a small online bookshop from 1995 became a central player in the global economy.