On July 5, 1994, Princeton graduate and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra—a twist on the magic word “Abracadabra”—which is initially just an online bookstore run out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington. Bezos later changes the name to Amazon, and his site grows to become a global retail behemoth, an online "everything store" earning hundreds of millions in annual sales.
In 1995, Amazon went live on the world wide web, which was still in its early stages. Two years later, Amazon went public with an initial public offering (IPO). In 1999, Amazon moved beyond just selling books and began offering music and videos; then, in 2000, Amazon opened the website to third-party sellers. In 2006, Amazon Web Services—which, as of 2024, provides a majority of Amazon’s operating profits—was launched to provide cloud-computing services.
Other Amazon milestones include the 2005 introduction of Amazon Prime, a subscription service that includes free, fast shipping. In 2007, Amazon released the first Kindle e-reader. Amazon continued a major expansion, and acquired other companies—including grocery chain Whole Foods, which it purchased for $13.7 billion in 2017.
In 2021, Bezos stepped down from his CEO position to become executive chairman of Amazon.
In a 2013 interview, Bezos said this about Amazon’s success: “We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.”
