First Versions: Amazon

Amazon logo 1995

Names:
--- "Cadabra" (reg. July 5, 1994)
--- "Relentless" (reg. Sept. 25, 1994)
--- "Amazon" (reg. Nov. 1, 1994)

Category: Internet

Subcategory: Electronic commerce

Founder: Jeff Bezos

Founded: July 5, 1994 (as "Cadabra")

Place of develop: Bellevue, Washington, USA

Public release: July 16, 1995

Programming languages: C++, Java

Features: Amazon started off as an online bookstore in 1994, and opened to the public in 1995. In 1998 Amazon expanded beyond books: on April 27, it announces the acquisition of three leading Internet companies: Bookpages, Ltd (English online bookstore); Telebook, Inc. (German online bookstore); and Internet Movie Database Ltd. (movie and TV archive); on August 4, it announces the acquisition of PlanetAll (online address book and calendar service), and Junglee Corporation, which operates a service that lets people shop for everything, from clothing to computers. This were just the first of a long series of wide-ranging investments. In late 2015 Amazon reported that it had more than 270 million active customer accounts worldwide, and was shipping to more than 75 countries.

Interesting facts: In 1994, Jeff Bezos left his employment as vice-president of D. E. Shaw & Co., a Wall Street firm, and moved to Seattle. On July 5 he founded "Cadabra", an online bookstore. The company was renamed "Relentless" in September, then went officially online as Amazon.com on July 16, 1995.

Slogan (1995): «Earth's biggest bookstore»

Property: Amazon.com, Inc.

Website: http://amazon.com

Amazon development: Jeff Bezos advertised for the first employees via Usenet (August 21, 1994). «Well-capitalized Seattle start-up seeks Unix developers (...) US mail: Cadabra, Inc.»

The first book purchased on Amazon.com with its packing slip (April 3, 1995). During a beta test for the new service, Amazon.com sold its first book, "Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought" by Douglas Hofstadter, to the first customer John Wainwright, an Australian software engineer based in Sunnyvale, California.

Amazon.com in 1995: one million book titles

Amazon.com officially announces itself to the public (October 4, 1995). «World's Largest Bookseller Opens on the Web - http://www.amazon.com/ - Amazon.com, the business and domain name of the most voluminous new retailer on the Internet, has thrown open its virtual doors to offer the largest collection of books in the world to anyone with World Wide Web access. The Seattle-based company currently offers more than one million different titles, 40 times more than typical mall bookstores, and more than 5 times as many as the country's largest book superstores. The retailer can be found at http://www.amazon.com/».