Amazon, or Amazon.com, is an international e-commerce company that is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer and even though it began as an online bookstore in 1995, it soon expanded its product base and started selling DVDs, VHSs, CDs, video and MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry.
In addition to selling consumer electronics, Amazon also produces consumer electronics – most notably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire tablet computer. Amazon.com is also a major provider of cloud computing services.
Started by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon.com is considered to be the fourth most successful start-up company of all time. The first being Apple followed by Goggle, Microsoft, and then Amazon.
The name of the company is named after the Amazon River, which is one of the largest rivers in the world and named after the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors in Greek Mythology. So, from its name alone, the creators of Amazon.com envisioned that the company would become something big.
The company issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997 under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN at a price of US $18.00 per share. The company turned its first profit in 2001: $5 million on revenues over $1 billion.
In 1999, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, was named person of the Year in Time magazine.
Most recently, Amazon has announced their plans for Prime Air. Amazon Prime Air is a new delivery system that will be for the next generation and it will use unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to deliver purchases to customers in 30 minutes or less. The project will take a number of years to complete and Amazon will need to wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations.