What is Amazon? What services Amazon offers about?

What is Amazon? Amazon.com, Inc is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been often referred to as “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world”, and is often regarded as one of the world’s most valuable brands. It is considered to be one of the Big Five American technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Apple, Meta and Microsoft.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories, a strategy that has earned it the moniker The Everything Store.

It has multiple subsidiaries including Amazon Web Services (cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet), and Amazon Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). Its other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.

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What is Amazon?

Known as the world’s leading digital retailer; an online darling that sells anything you can imagine – from retro coffee tables and velvet suit hangers to the strongest expandable garden hoses.

We’re talking about the great Amazon.com.

Nestled in Seattle, Washington and describing itself as a company that obsesses over its customers, the American e-tailer is deemed one of the biggest business success stories on the globe. It has “the Earth’s Biggest Selection” of products, with categories ranging from electronics, music, and homewares to furniture, personal care, and sporting goods. Amazon has grown to a customer base of more than 30 million people since launching in 1994 and earned a mammoth revenue of US$135.98 billion in 2016, making itself the largest Internet company in the world by revenue.

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Before reaching such astronomical heights, Amazon (like many tech companies) started from very humble beginnings.

From a Bookstore to Nearly Everything

Amazon started out as an online bookstore, constantly making news with its product volume. In the late 1990s, after adding CDs, videos, DVDs and games, Amazon offered more than four million titles. It continued to add new lines of business including toys, consumer electronics, software, power tools, home improvement products, online auctions and cloud computing services, the latter a significant profit center for the company (see Amazon Web Services). See Amazon brands.

In 2000, Amazon opened its e-commerce platform to non-Amazon vendors. Similar to Apple opening up its iPhone platform to third-party developers, Amazon acquired millions of sellers. Today, nearly every legal product that can be shipped is available on Amazon’s site (see Fulfillment by Amazon).

Amazon Prime Membership

In 2005, Amazon Prime was introduced as an annual subscription. Prime offers free one-day and two-day shipping on most products Amazon stocks in its warehouses. Prime membership increasingly offers other benefits, including unlimited video and music streaming, photo storage and e-book lending (Prime Video, Amazon Music, Amazon Photos and Kindle eBooks). See AmazonFresh and Amazon Go.

Origin and evolution of Amazon

Here are the key dates in Amazon’s evolution to the present:

1994: Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.
1995: The company begins selling books online, becoming one of the first major online retailers.
1996: Amazon expands into music, video and other products, launching its first non-English website in Canada.
1999: Amazon goes public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
2000: Amazon expands into new product categories, such as toys and electronics, and launches its website in other languages.
2003: Amazon introduces its Prime affiliate program, which offers unlimited free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus other exclusive benefits.
2006: Amazon continues to expand and launches its Kindle e-reader and opens a physical store in Seattle.
2008: Amazon launches its cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services, and begins offering the Amazon Prime video streaming service to customers around the world.
2011: The company continues to grow its presence in new markets, acquiring online footwear retailer Zappos and launching Amazon prime music streaming. Open Amazon Spain.
2017: Amazon continues to lead in the e-commerce space, introducing Amazon Prime Now same-day delivery and Amazon Go physical stores. As one of the most valuable companies in the world, it continues to invest heavily in new technologies and services for its customers.
2021: The Covid pandemic makes Amazon one of the main beneficiaries at the enterprise level, with sales of 470,000 million.

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What services Amazon offers

Among the services offered by Amazon we can highlight:

Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime is a subscription service that offers unlimited streaming access to movies and TV shows, plus free two-day shipping.
Amazon Prime Video: Amazon Prime Video is a streaming service that offers thousands of movies and TV shows, including originals.
Amazon web services: Amazon web services (or AWS) is a cloud computing platform that offers access to a number of specialized services.
Amazon Fresh: Fresh produce delivery service to customers worldwide.
Amazon Go: Amazon Go is a physical store that uses advanced technology to streamline the buying process and make you find what you need.

How to sell on Amazon

To become a seller on Amazon, you need to follow the following steps:

Create a seller account on Amazon. This can be done through Amazon’s website or mobile app.
Choose between two seller account options: Individual or Professional. The Individual option is suitable for casual sellers who plan to sell fewer than 40 products per month. The Professional option is recommended for sellers who plan to sell more than 40 products per month and are willing to pay a monthly fee.
Provide account information and accept Amazon’s terms and conditions.
Create a seller profile on Amazon. This should include information about the company and the products being offered, as well as a profile picture and logo if one is available.
Add the products to the Amazon platform. This can be done manually or by using an inventory loading tool to upload multiple products at once.
Set up your payment and shipping method. Amazon will provide options to set how you want to receive the profits and how you want to ship the products to customers.
Promote the products. Amazon’s marketing tools, such as sponsored ads and advertising programs, can be used to increase product visibility. Products can also be promoted on social media and other online marketing channels.

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