Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com-Logo.svg
Type Public
Traded as NASDAQ: AMZN
NASDAQ-100 Component
S&P 500 Component
Founded 1994
Founder Jeffrey P. Bezos
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Area served Worldwide
Key people Jeffrey P. Bezos
(Chairman, President & CEO)
Industry Online shopping
Cloud computing
Products Amazon.com
Zappos
Amazon Studios
Amazon Web Services
A2Z Development
A9.com
Alexa Internet
Audible.com
Endless.com
IMDb
Kindle
Lovefilm
Woot
Revenue increase US$ 34.204 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income increase US$ 1.406 billion (2010)[1]
Net income increase US$ 1.152 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets increase US$ 18.797 billion (2010)[1]
Total equity increase US$ 6.864 billion (2010)[1]
Employees 33,700 (2010)[1]
Website Amazon.com
Alexa rank decrease 16 (April 2011)[2]
Type of site E-commerce
Advertising Web banners
Videos
Available in English, Japanese, German, French, Italian & Chinese
Launched 1995
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is a US-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is the largest online retailer in the United States, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and the site went online in 1995. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard the name as "Cadaver". The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is one of the largest rivers in the world and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with "A" and therefore would show up near the beginning of alphabetical lists. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. Amazon has established