Although Bezos had limited knowledge of the Internet at the time, he came across a statistic indicating a rapid 2300% growth rate, which convinced him of the immense business opportunity it held.
Seattle was the chosen location for the company due to its abundance of technical talent and its proximity to one of the largest book wholesalers in Roseburg, Oregon. Initially, Bezos had the vision of the company primarily as a bookseller.
The first version of Amazon.com was developed in the garage of a house Bezos rented in Bellevue, Washington, following the tradition of other iconic Silicon Valley startups like Apple and Microsoft.
Originally, Bezos intended to name the site "cadabra," a playful reference to the magician's phrase "abracadabra," but he decided to change it due to the unintentional association with the word "cadaver." Ultimately, he settled on the name "Amazon" as it conveyed a sense of vastness, and having a name that started with the letter "A" was a strategic advantage for appearing at the top of alphabetized website listings. The site's primary focus was on selling books, and it adopted the tagline "Earth's biggest bookstore."
Amazon.com was launched in July 1995, and within a short span of a couple of months, it began generating $20,000 in weekly business.
The company went public in May 1997 and rapidly emerged as a dominant force in e-commerce. With its user-friendly 24/7 accessibility, the site encouraged customers to post their own book reviews and offered discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books.
Experiencing remarkable growth, Amazon's revenues surged from around $150 million in 1997 to an impressive $3.1 billion by 2001.
In 2017, Amazon expanded its influence in the brick-and-mortar grocery business through the acquisition of Whole Foods Market for a staggering $13.7 billion. As a prominent organic food-focused chain, Whole Foods operates over 450 stores across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Amazon has already taken steps to integrate Whole Foods with its Amazon Prime service.
History of Amazon.com, Inc.
