Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994, byJeff Bezos after he relocated fromNew York City toBellevue, Washington, nearSeattle, to operate an online bookstore. Bezos chose the Seattle area for its abundance of technical talent fromMicrosoft and theUniversity of Washington, as well as its smaller population forsales tax purposes and the proximity to a major book distribution warehouse inRoseburg, Oregon. Bezos also considered several other options, includingPortland, Oregon, andBoulder, Colorado.[23] The company, originally named Cadabra, was founded in the converted garage of Bezos's house for symbolic reasons and was renamed to Amazon in November 1994.[24] The Amazon website launched for public sales on July 16, 1995, and initially sourced its books directly from wholesalers and publishers.[23][25]
Amazon wentpublic in May 1997. It began selling music and videos in 1998, and began international operations by acquiring online sellers of books in the United Kingdom and Germany. In the subsequent year, it initiated the sale of a diverse range of products, including music, video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games, and toys.[26][27]
In 2002, it launchedAmazon Web Services (AWS), which initially focused on providing APIs for web developers to buildweb applications on top of Amazon's ecommerce platform.[28][29] In 2004, AWS was expanded to provide website popularity statistics and web crawler data from the Alexa Web Information Service.[30] AWS later shifted toward providing enterprise services withSimple Storage Service (S3) in 2006,[31] andElastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2008,[32] allowing companies to rent data storage and computing power from Amazon. In 2006, Amazon also launched the Fulfillment by Amazonprogram, which allowed individuals and small companies (called "third-party sellers") to sell products through Amazon's warehouses and fulfillment infrastructure.[33]
2010–present
Amazon purchased theWhole Foods Market supermarket chain in 2017.[34] It is the leading e-retailer in the United States with approximately US$178 billionnet sales in 2017. It has over 300 million active customer accounts globally.[35]
Amazon saw large growth during theCOVID-19 pandemic, hiring more than 100,000 staff in the United States and Canada.[36] Some Amazon workers in the US, France, and Italy protested the company's decision to "run normal shifts" due to COVID-19's ease of spread in warehouses.[37][38] In Spain, the company faced legal complaints over its policies,[39] while a group of US Senators wrote an open letter to Bezos expressing concerns about workplace safety.[40]
On February 2, 2021, Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO to become executive chair of Amazon's board. The transition officially took place on July 5, 2021, with former CEO of AWSAndy Jassy replacing him as CEO.[41][42] In January 2023, Amazon cut over 18,000 jobs, primarily in consumer retail and its human resources division in an attempt to cut costs.[43]
On November 8, 2023, a plan was adopted forJeff Bezos to sell approximately 50 millionshares of the company over the next year (the deadline for the entire sales plan is January 31, 2025). The first step was the sale of 12 million shares for about $2 billion.[44]
On December 19, 2024, Amazon workers, led by theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union, went on strike against Amazon in at least four US states, with workers in other facilities in the United States being welcomed to join the strike as well.[46][47]
Amazon.com is an e-commerce platform that sells many product lines, including media (books, movies, music, and software), apparel, baby products,consumer electronics,beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal care products, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items,jewelry, watches, lawn and garden items, musical instruments,sporting goods, tools, automotive items, toys and games, and farmsupplies[49] andconsulting services.[50] Amazon websites are country-specific (for example, amazon.com for the US and amazon.co.uk for UK) though some offer international shipping.[51]
Visits toamazon.com grew from 615 million annual visitors in 2008,[52] to more than 2 billion per month in 2022.[citation needed] The e-commerce platform is the 12th most visited website in the world.[21]
In February 2024, Amazon announced its first chatbot was first “Rufus” in the US and in July, it was widely available to all customers in the US.[53]
“Rufus” is now available in the US, India and the UK which helps the shoppers get product recommendations, get shopping list advice, compare products and see what other customers have responded to their specific questions.[54]
Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees.[55] The company'slocalized storefronts, which differ in selection and prices, are differentiated bytop-level domain andcountry code:
Amazon Marketplaces worldwide
Top-Level Domain
Served by neighboring Domain
Confirmed launch, currently served by neighboring domain
In 2000, US toy retailerToys "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.[66][67][68]
In 2001, Amazon entered into a similar agreement withBorders, under which Amazon would comanage Borders.com as a co-branded service.[69] Borders pulled out of the arrangement in 2007, with plans to also launch its own online store.[70]
On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership withDC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to many popular comics, includingSuperman,Batman,Green Lantern,Sandman, andWatchmen. The partnership has caused well-known bookstores likeBarnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.[71]
In November 2013, Amazon announced a partnership with theUnited States Postal Service to begin delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in metropolitan areas ofGreater Los Angeles andNew York because of the high-volume and inability to deliver in a timely way, with plans to expand intoDallas,Houston,New Orleans andPhoenix by 2014.[72]
In June 2017,Nike agreed to sell products through Amazon in exchange for better policing of counterfeit goods.[73][74] This proved unsuccessful and Nike withdrew from the partnership in November 2019.[74][75] Companies includingIKEA andBirkenstock also stopped selling through Amazon around the same time, citing similar frustrations over business practices and counterfeit goods.[76]
In September 2017, Amazon ventured with one of its sellers JV Appario Retail owned by Patni Group which has recorded a total income of US$104.44 million (₹759crore) in financial year 2017–2018.[77]
As of October 11, 2017[update],Amazon Fresh sold a range ofBooths branded products for home delivery in selected areas.[78]
In November 2018, Amazon reached an agreement withApple 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 may sell Apple products on Amazon effective January 4, 2019.[79][80]
On November 7, 2024, Amazon is reportedly discussing a second multi-billion dollar investment in AI startupAnthropic, following its initial $4 billion investment.[81]
Amazon sells many products under itsown brand names, including phone chargers, batteries, and diaper wipes. The AmazonBasics brand was introduced in 2009, and now features hundreds of product lines, including smartphone cases, computer mice, batteries, dumbbells, and dog crates. 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%.[82] Other Amazon retail brands include Presto!, Mama Bear, and Amazon Essentials.[83]
Amazon Basics stapler
Amazon Basics USB cable
Amazon Basics battery
Amazon Basics disinfecting wipes
Third-party sellers
Amazon derives many of its sales (around 40% in 2008) from third-party sellers who sell products on Amazon.[84] Some other large e-commerce sellers use Amazon to sell their products in addition to selling them through their websites. The sales are processed through Amazon.com and end up at individual sellers for processing and order fulfillment and Amazon leases space for these retailers. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace to offer goods at a fixed price.[85]
Affiliate program
Publishers can sign up as affiliates and receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links to Amazon on their websites if the referral results in a sale. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.[86] In the middle of 2014, the Amazon Affiliate Program is used by 1.2% of all websites and it is the second most popular advertising network afterGoogle Ads.[87] It is frequently used by websites and non-profits to provide a way for supporters to earn them a commission.[88]
Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using theAmazon Web Services (AWS)XML service. A new affiliate product, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within another website, or linked to another website. In June 2010, Amazon Seller Product Suggestions was launched to provide more transparency to sellers by recommending specific products to third-party sellers to sell on Amazon. Products suggested are based on customers' browsing history.[89]
Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on arating scale from one to five stars. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers which indicates the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or which indicates that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. As of December 16, 2020, Amazon removed the ability of sellers and customers to comment on product reviews and purged their websites of all posted product review comments. In an email to sellers, Amazon gave its rationale for removing this feature: "...the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used." The remaining review response options are to indicate whether the reader finds the review helpful or to report that it violates Amazon policies (abuse). If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.[90]
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".[91]
There have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted bypublic relations companies on behalf of their clients[92] and instances of writers using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' works.
Amazon sales rank
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 stocked by Amazon.[93] While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its bestsellers lists.[93] Products that appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this may lead to an increase in sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers"; such a listing provides additional exposure that might lead to an increase in sales.[94] For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public. However, Amazon has now begun to releasepoint of sale data via theBookScan service to verified authors.[95] While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers, and marketers, Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. Some companies have analyzed Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR,[96] 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
In November 2015, Amazon opened a physicalAmazon Books store inUniversity Village inSeattle. The store was 5,500 square feet and prices for all products matched those on its website.[98] Amazon opened its tenth physical bookstore in 2017;[99] media speculation at the time suggested that Amazon planned to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[98] All of its locations were closed in 2022 along with other retail locations under the "Amazon 4-Star" brand.[100]
In July 2016, the company announced that it was opening a 1,100,000 ft (335,280.0 m) square foot facility inPalmer Township in theLehigh Valley region of easternPennsylvania. As of 2024, Amazon is Lehigh Valley region's third-largest employer.[101][102]
In August 2019, Amazon applied to have a liquor store inSan Francisco, as a means to ship beer and alcohol within the city.[103]
In September 2021, Amazon announced the launch ofAstro, its first household robot, powered by its Alexa smart home technology. This can be remote-controlled when not at home, to check on pets, people, or home security. It will send owners a notification if it detects something unusual.[105]
In January 2023, Amazon announced the launch of RXPass, a prescription drug delivery service. It allows U.S.Amazon Prime members to pay a $5 monthly fee for access to 60 medications. The service was launched immediately after the announcement except in states with specific prescription delivery requirements. Beneficiaries of government healthcare programs such asMedicare andMedicaid will not be able to sign up for RXPass.[106]
Amazon Live is an American videoe-commerce live-streaming service created by Amazon Inc. to compete with live-streaming services. The service allows users to stream live videos promoting or sponsoring products.[108] Users (mainly celebrities orInternet influencers) have the option to livestream on Amazon and add tags to additionally add context to the products they're selling or promoting. Other users can join in and type in messages to send to a global chat on the livestream.[108]
In 2019 Amazon launched an integrated platform into the Amazon website andapplication. In 2023 roughly a billion total viewers watch Amazon Live across the United States and India. The platform has also been integrated intoAmazon Freevee andAmazon Prime Video.[109]
Audible is a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming on the Internet. Audible sells digitalaudiobooks,radio andtelevision programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm, Audible Studios, Audible has also become the world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced it would buy Audible for about $300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible became a subsidiary of Amazon.[111]
Goodreads is a "social cataloging" website founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Khuri. The website allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. They can also create their groups of book suggestions and discussions. In December 2007, the site had over 650,000 members, and over a million books had been added. Amazon bought the company in March 2013.[112]
Ring is ahome automation company founded by Jamie Siminoff in 2013. It is primarily known for itsWi-Fi poweredsmart doorbells, but manufactures other devices such as security cameras. Amazon bought Ring for US$1 billion in 2018.[113]
Twitch is alive streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. Twitch was acquired by Amazon in August 2014 for $970 million.[114] The site's rapid growth had been boosted primarily by the prominence of majoresports competitions on the service, leadingGameSpot senior esports editor Rod Breslau to have described the service as "theESPN of esports".[115] As of 2015[update], the service had over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million monthly viewers.[116]
Whole Foods Market is an Americansupermarketchain exclusively featuring foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.[117] Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in August 2017.[118][119][8]
Since acquiring Whole Foods, the company has launched its own chain ofFresh supermarkets and taken steps to integrate its online and physical grocery operations.
Other
Other Amazon subsidiaries include:
A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology; it has been a subsidiary since 2003.[120]
Amazon Academy, formerly JEE Ready, is an online learning platform for engineering students to prepare for competitive exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), launched by Amazon India on 13 January 2021
Amazon Pharmacy is an online delivery service dedicated to prescription drugs, launched in November 2020. The service provides discounts up to 80% for generic drugs and up to 40% for branded drugs for Prime subscribe users. The products can be purchased on the company's website or at over 50,000 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in the United States.[122]
Brilliance Audio, an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass inGrand Haven, Michigan.[128] The company produced its first eight audio titles in 1985.[128] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[129][130] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[130] It operates as an independent company within Amazon. In 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique for recording twice as much on the same cassette.[131] The technique involved recording on each of the two channels of each stereo track.[131] It has been credited with revolutionizing the burgeoning audiobook market in the mid-1980s since it made unabridged books affordable.[131]
ComiXology, acloud-based digital comics platform with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013[update]. It offers a selection of more than 40,000 comic books and graphic novels across Android, iOS, Fire OS and Windows 8 devices and over a web browser. Amazon bought the company in April 2014.[132]
CreateSpace, which offers self-publishing services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios, and music labels, became a subsidiary in 2009.[133][134]
Eero, an electronics company specializing in mesh-networking Wifi devices founded as a startup in 2014 by Nick Weaver, Amos Schallich, and Nate Hardison to simplify and innovate the smart home.[135] Eero was acquired by Amazon in 2019 for US$97 million.[136] Eero has continued to operate under its banner and advertises its commitment to privacy despite early concerns from the company's acquisition.[137]
Health Navigator is a startup developingAPIs for online health services acquired in October 2019. The startup will form part of Amazon Care, which is the company's employee healthcare service. This follows the 2018 purchase ofPillPack for under $1 billion, which has also been included into Amazon Care.[138]
Junglee, a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that enabled customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started as a virtual database that was used to extract information from the Internet and deliver it to enterprise applications. As it progressed, Junglee started to use its database technology to create a single window marketplace on the Internet by making every item from every supplier available for purchase. Web shoppers could locate, compare and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping mall through one window.[139] Amazon acquired Junglee in 1998, and the website Junglee.com was launched in India in February 2012[140] as a comparison-shopping website. It curated and enabled searching for a diverse variety of products such as clothing, electronics, toys, jewelry, and video games, among others, across thousands of online and offline sellers. Millions of products are browsable, the client selects a price, and then they are directed to a seller. In November 2017, Amazon closed down Junglee.com and the former domain currently redirects to Amazon India.[141]
Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as theKindle, became a subsidiary in 2004.[145]
Shelfari, a formersocial cataloging website for books. Shelfari users built virtual bookshelves of the titles which they owned or had read and they could rate, review,tag and discuss their books. Users could also create groups that other members could join, create discussions and talk about books, or other topics. Recommendations could be sent to friends on the site for what books to read. Amazon bought the company in August 2008.[112] Shelfari continued to function as an independent book social network within the Amazon until January 2016, when Amazon announced that it would be merging Shelfari withGoodreads and closing down Shelfari.[146][147]
Souq, the former largeste-commerce platform in theArab world. The company launched in 2005 inDubai,United Arab Emirates and served multiple areas across the Middle East.[148] On March 28, 2017, Amazon acquired Souq.com for $580 million.[149] The company was re-branded as Amazon and its infrastructure was used to expand Amazon's online platform in the Middle East.[150]
Amazon also has investments in renewable energy, including plans to fund foursmall nuclear reactors at theXe-100 reactor site in EasternWashington, and plans to expand its position into the Canadian market through an investment in a new plant inAlberta.[151]
Amazon Transportation Services truck at an Amazon Logistics delivery stationAmazon Logistics Delivery Service Partner company vehicles inFlorida
Amazon uses many different transportation services to deliver packages. Amazon-branded services include:
Amazon Air, a cargo airline for bulk transport, with last-mile delivery handled either by Amazon Flex, Amazon Logistics, or the U.S. Postal Service.
Amazon Flex, asmartphone app that enables individuals to act as independent contractors, delivering packages to customers from personal vehicles without uniforms. Deliveries include one or two hoursPrime Now, same or next dayAmazon Fresh groceries, and standard Amazon.com orders, in addition to orders from local stores that contract with Amazon.[152]
Amazon Logistics, in which Amazon contracts with small businesses (which it calls "Delivery Service Partners") to perform deliveries to customers. Each business has a fleet of approximately 20–40 Amazon-branded vans, and employees of the contractors wear Amazon uniforms. As of December 2020, it operates in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[153]
Amazon Prime Air is an experimental drone delivery service that delivers packages via drones to Amazon Prime subscribers in select cities.
Amazon directly employs people to work at its warehouses, bulk distribution centers, staffed "Amazon Hub Locker+" locations, and delivery stations where drivers pick up packages. As of December 2020, it is not hiring delivery drivers as employees.[154]
Rakuten Intelligence estimated that in 2020 in the United States, the proportion of last-mile deliveries was 56% by Amazon's directly contracted services (mostly in urban areas), 30% by theUnited States Postal Service (mostly in rural areas), and 14% byUPS.[155] In April 2021, Amazon reported to investors it had increased its in-house delivery capacity by 50% in the last 12 months (which included the first year of theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United States).[156]
Supply chain
Amazon first launched its distribution network in 1997 with two fulfillment centers in Seattle andNew Castle, Delaware. Amazon has several types of distribution facilities consisting of cross-dock centers, fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery stations, Prime now hubs, and Prime air hubs. There are 75 fulfillment centers and 25 sortation centers with over 125,000 employees.[157][158] Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. Some warehouses are partially automated with systems built byAmazon Robotics.[159]
In September 2006, Amazon launched a program called FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) whereby it could handle storage, packing and distribution of products and services for small sellers.[33]
Amazon.com is primarily a retail site with a sales revenue model; Amazon takes a small percentage of the sale price of each item that is sold through its website while also allowing companies to advertise their products by paying to be listed as featured products.[161] As of 2018[update], Amazon.com is ranked eighth on theFortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[162] InForbes Global 2000 2023 Amazon ranked 36th.[163]
For the fiscal year 2021, Amazon reported earnings of US$33.36 billion, with an annual revenue of US$469.82 billion, an increase of 21.7% over the previous fiscal cycle. Since 2007 sales increased from 14.835 billion to 469.822 billion, due to continued business expansion.[citation needed]
Amazon's market capitalization went over US$1 trillion again in early February 2020 after the announcement of the fourth quarter 2019 results.[164]
During his tenure, Jeff Bezos had become renowned for his annual shareholder letters, which have gained similar notability to those ofWarren Buffett.[184] These annual letters gave an "invaluable window" into the famously "secretive" company, and revealed Bezos's perspectives and strategic focus.[184][185] A common theme of these letters is Bezos's 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 short time at Amazon call centers. He also read many emails addressed by customers to his public email address.[186] 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 aservice-oriented architecture (SOA), resulted in mandatorydogfooding of services that would later be commercialized as part of AWS.[citation needed]
Lobbying
Amazon lobbies the United States federal government and state governments on multiple issues such as the enforcement of sales taxes on online sales, transportation safety, privacy anddata protection and intellectual property. According to regulatory filings, Amazon.com focuses its lobbying on theUnited States Congress, theFederal Communications Commission and theFederal Reserve. Amazon.com spent roughly $3.5 million, $5 million and $9.5 million on lobbying, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.[187] In 2019, it spent $16.8 million and had a team of 104 lobbyists.[188]
Amazon.com was a corporate member of theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until it dropped membership following protests at its shareholders' meeting on May 24, 2012.[189]
In 2014, Amazon expanded its lobbying practices as it prepared to lobby theFederal Aviation Administration to approve its drone delivery program, hiring theAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld lobbying firm in June.[190] 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.[191] In September 2020 this moved one step closer with the granting of a critical certificate by theFAA.[192]
A sticker expressing an anti-Amazon message is pictured on the back of a street sign in Seattle
Amazon has attracted criticism for its actions, including: supplying law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools;[193] forming cloud computing partnerships with theCIA;[194] leading customers away from bookshops;[195] adversely impacting the environment;[196] placing a low priority on warehouse conditions for workers;[197][198] actively opposing unionization efforts;[199] remotely deleting content purchased by Amazon Kindle users; taking public subsidies; seeking to patent its1-Click technology; engaging in anti-competitive actions andprice discrimination;[200][201] and reclassifyingLGBTQ books as adult content.[202][203] Criticism has also concerned various decisions over whether to censor or publish content such as theWikiLeaks website, works containinglibel, anti-LGBT merchandise, and material facilitatingdog fighting,cockfighting, orpedophile activities. An article published byTime in the wake of social media websiteParler's termination of service by Amazon Web Service highlights the power companies like Amazon now have over the internet.[204] 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.[205] Companies likeGroupon,eBay and Taap have countered Amazon's promotion by offering $10 off from their products.[206][207]
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 toBrad Stone, "that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."[55] In July 2014, theFederal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against the company alleging it was promoting in-app purchases to children, which were being transacted without parental consent.[208] In 2019, Amazon banned sellingskin-lightening products after pushback fromMinnesota health andenvironmental activists.[209] In 2022, a lawsuit filed by state attorney-generalLetitia James was dismissed by the New York state court of appeals.[210] After theCOVID-19 pandemic, Amazon faced criticism for complying, under pressure from theBiden Administration, to "reduce the visibility” of books critical of theCOVID-19 vaccine,[211][212] which was revealed after Rep.Jim Jordan (acting on behalf of theHouse Judiciary Committee) subpoenaed emails between the company and the Biden Administration.[213]
An Amazon Prime truck blocking a bike lane in Washington, D.C.
Amazon Prime has been criticized for its vehicles systemicallydouble parking, blockingbike lanes, and otherwise violating traffic laws while dropping off packages, contributing totraffic congestion and endangering other road users.[214][215][216][217]
Jane Friedman[218] discovered six listings of books fraudulently using her name, on Amazon andGoodreads. 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)."[219][220][221][222]
In 2024, following years of criticism for providing law enforcement footage in the custody ofRing (a home security company owned by Amazon) without a warrant, Ring has halted this practice.[223] It received cautious praise from privacy-focused organizations such as theElectronic Frontier Foundation for this change.[223]
In February 2025,Sky accused Amazon of not doing enough to prevent the piracy of its sports rights via “jailbroken” Fire Sticks.[224]
^"Amazon Web Services Launches" (Press release). Amazon.com Press Center. March 14, 2006.Archived from the original on November 15, 2018. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2022.
^"Amazon Web Services Launches Amazon EC2 for Windows" (Press release). Amazon.com Press Center. October 23, 2008.Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2022.Additionally, AWS today announced that Amazon EC2 is now Generally Available, having successfully exited its beta period and now offers a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
^"(Dutch) Amazon.nl officieel van start".Ecommerce News Netherlands. March 10, 2020.Archived from the original on November 29, 2021. RetrievedNovember 29, 2021.(Translated) Amazon has officially launched their Dutch (Netherlands) store front Amazon.nl. Instead of only books, e-books and e-readers, the e-commerce-giant now sells numerous products.
^abcVirgil L. P. Blake (1990). "Something New Has Been Added: Aural Literacy and Libraries".Information Literacies for the Twenty-First Century. G. K. Hall & Co. pp. 203–218.
^Brodkin, Jon (July 8, 2019)."Amazon plans nationwide broadband—with both home and mobile service".ars Technica.Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. RetrievedJuly 9, 2019.Kuiper is wholly owned by Amazon, and its president is Rajeev Badyal, a former SpaceX vice president who was reportedly fired because SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was unsatisfied with his company's satellite-broadband progress.
^Khan, Lina (January 2017)."Amazon's Antitrust Paradox".Yale Law Journal.126 (3):564–907.Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. RetrievedFebruary 9, 2020.
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