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INTRODUCTION

In a world where anyone can purchase just about anything online, it can be difficult to start and maintain a business selling goods online. Media such as CDs, books, and movies is a common ware being sold on the . Over the last decade, online stores have come and gone so often, many people scoff at their inception. But .com is not such a company. It is one of the largest Internet sellers of media in the world today, and has expanded its selections to include clothing, beauty products, house wares, and thousands of other items. founded Amazon.com in 1994. Originally the business was based out of his garage in his Bellevue, home. A businessman by the name of Nick Hanauer believed in Bezos’ idea and decided to invest $40,000 in the venture. When Amazon first decided to go online, its layout was not as flashy as it is today. In fact, the site looked very plain and unattractive to most visitors, causing the business to start out on shaky ground. A man by the name of Tom Alburg decided to invest $100,000 in Amazon in 1995, which helped the company fund a better looking website and hosting capabilities. When people began purchasing books from Amazon, Bezos was in awe that he had customers from all over the country, not just Washington State, purchasing books. Bezos decided that he had to create more than just a bookstore if he wanted people to come back as customers. He added the option of buyers to write their own book reviews, which is a huge credit to Amazon.com’s success. People began to look at Amazon as more of an online community and not just a place to purchase things. By 1997, Amazon.com had generated $15.7 million in revenue. Once the company went public the same year, they decided to add CDs and movies to the website. In 1998, Amazon added some new items to the roster: software, electronics, video games, toys, and home improvement items. Once the company began showing signs of success, people became skeptic and claimed that Amazon was getting too large in too short an amount of time. At the end of 1999, Amazon had raked in over a billion dollars in sales. It seemed as though the profit would never cease. However, in 2001, Amazon reported a fiscal loss of $1.4 billion, and had laid off over 200 workers in the last year. The beginning of 2001 found Amazon laying off even more workers, totaling over 1000. Instead of giving up, Bezos had an idea: recruit other companies to sell their products online through Amazon as well. The idea worked. Companies such as Target, Toys R Us, Old Navy, and many others have agreed to sell their items through Amazon. Although Amazon is not directly responsible for inventory through these companies, they do get part of the sales, creating a profit for all involved. Since the inception of the idea, Amazon is now back on its feet and remains one of the most popular online vendors in the world today.

AMAZON.Inc is an American-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in , Washington, it is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and launched it online in 1995. It started as an on-line bookstore but soon diversified to product lines of VHS, DVD, music CDs and MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, etc. Amazon has established separate websites in , the , Germany, France, Japan, and . It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. On January 15, 2009, a survey published by Verdict Research found that Amazon was the UK's favorite music and video retailer, and came third in overall rankings.

Amazon's initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years; the strategy was effective. Amazon grew steadily in the late 1990s while other Internet companies grew blindingly fast. Amazon's "slow" growth provoked stockholder complaints: that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and, finally, turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million, just 1¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the profit was symbolically important. The company remains profitable: net income was $35.3 million in 2003, $588.50 million in 2004, $359 million in 2005, and $190 million in 2006 (including a $662 million charge for R&D in 2006), nevertheless, the firm's cumulative profits remain negative. As of September 2007, the accumulated deficit stood at $1.58 billion. Revenues increased thanks to product diversification and an international presence: $3.9 billion in 2002, $5.3 billion in 2003, $6.9 billion in 2004, $8.5 billion in 2005, and $10.7 billion in 2006. On November 21, 2005, Amazon entered the S&P 500 index, replacing AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications. On December 31, 2008, Amazon entered the S&P 100 index, replacing Merrill Lynch after it was taken over by Bank of America. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing on-line shopping. Merchant partnerships The Web site CDNOW (.com) is powered and hosted by Amazon. Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would similarly bring up Amazon.com's Toys & Games tab; however, this relationship was terminated as the result of a lawsuit.[10] Amazon.com powers and operates retail web sites for Target, Sears Canada, Benefit Cosmetics, bebe Stores, Timex Corporation, Marks & Spencer, Mother care, and Lacoste. For a growing number of enterprise clients, currently including the UK merchants Marks & Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' UK entity and Mother care, Amazon provides a unified multichannel platform whereby a customer can interchangeably interact with the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, and phone-based customer service agents. also powers AOL's Shop@AOL. Locations Amazon.com has offices, fulfillment centers, customer service centers and software development centers across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Headquarters Amazon.com's headquarters in the PacMed building in Beacon Hill, Seattle. The company's global headquarters is located on Seattle's Beacon Hill. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle including Union Station and The Columbia Center. Amazon has announced plans to move its headquarters to the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle beginning in mid-2010, with full occupancy by 2011. This move will consolidate all Seattle employees onto the new 11- building campus. Product lin es Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more. The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, its own Web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay's juggernaut growth. Amazon Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed- price marketplace business called zShops in September 1999, and a failed Sotheby's/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November. Amazon no longer mentions either Auctions or zShops on its main pages and the help page for sellers now only mentions the Marketplace. Old links to zShops now simply redirect to the Amazon home page, while old links to Auctions take users to a transactions history page. New product listings are no longer possible for either service. Although zShops failed to live up to its expectations, it laid the groundwork for the hugely successful service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplace's main rival is eBay's Half.com service. Beginning August 2005, Amazon began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon"; the initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods. In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a larger and more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the "word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the "one o'clock" position." The list of products registered for coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry. On September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. While the USPTO has finished its review of the application, Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name. On May 16, 2007 Amazon announced its intention to launch Amazon MP3, its own online music store. The store launched in the US in public beta September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management. This is especially notable as it was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies. In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several ZIP codes in Seattle proper. AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008. In 2008 Amazon expanded into film production and is currently funding the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox. Review and recommendation feature Amazon.com's customer reviews are monitored for all negative or indecent comments that are directed at anything, or anyone, but the product itself. In regards to the reviews lacking relative restrictions, Robert Spector, who is the author of the book Amazon.com, describes how "when publishers and authors asked Bezos why Amazon.com 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’" (Spector 132). Reviews for different media of the same product are grouped together (e.g., the review page for a particular film, whether on VHS, Blu-Ray, or DVD, will feature reviews from all three products). Currently, there is no way to only look at reviews for one version of a product. Website The domain amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey. This was twice the numbers of .com. Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. As part of their review, users must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. In 2004 a software error accidentally showed the names behind reviews that were submitted anonymously, and some authors were shown to have written glowing reviews of their own books. Amazon created a feature in recent years that allowed users to comment on reviews. Amazon provides an optional badging option for reviewers, e.g., to indicate the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or to indicate that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. The U.S. site generally has the most reviews. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site. "Search inside the Book" is a feature which allows customers to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the catalog. The feature started with 120,000 titles (or 33 million pages of text) on October 23, 2003. There are currently about 250,000 books in the program. Amazon has cooperated with around 130 publishers to allow users to perform these searches. To avoid copyright violations, Amazon.com does not return the computer- readable text of the book but rather a picture of the matching page, disables printing, and puts limits on the number of pages in a book a single user can access. One author observed that his entire book could be read online by searching a few words. Additionally, customers can purchase online access to the some books via the "Amazon Upgrade" program, although the selection is currently quite limited. According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums,[citation needed] Amazon derives about 40 percent of its sales from affiliates whom they call Associates, and third party sellers who list and sell products on the Amazon websites. Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs. Associates can access the Amazon catalog directly on their websites by using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) XML service. A new affiliate product, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website. Amazon reported over 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's World Wide Web sites in 2007. Selling on Amazon has become more popular as Amazon expanded into a variety of categories beyond media and built a variety of features to support volume selling. Unlike eBay, Amazon sellers do not have to maintain separate payment accounts; all payments and payment security are handled by Amazon itself. According to the Internet audience measurement website Compete.com, Amazon attracts approximately 50 million U.S. consumers to its website on a monthly basis. Acquisitions and spinoffs • In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). • In August 1998, Amazon bought Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll for 800,000 shares of Amazon . PlanetAll operated a web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. In the same deal, Amazon acquired Sunnyvale-based Junglee.com, an XML-based startup for 1.6 million shares of Amazon stock. The two deals together were valued at about $280 million at the time. • In June 1999, Amazon bought , Accept.com, and Exchange.com in a set of stock deals worth approximately $645 million. • In 2003, Amazon purchased the rival online music retailer CD Now. • In 2004, Amazon purchased Joyo.com, a Chinese e-commerce website. It also debuted A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology. • In March 2005, Amazon acquired BookSurge, a print on demand company, and .com, an software company. • In July 2005, Amazon purchased CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix), a Scotts Valley, California-based distributor of on-demand DVDs. Since the acquisition, Create Space has expanded its on-line services to include on-demand books and CDs, as well as video downloads. On July 30, 2007, the National Archives announced that it would make thousands of historic films available for purchase through Create Space. • In February 2006, Amazon acquired , a Madison, Wisconsin- based retailer of designer clothing and accessories for women. • In May 2007, Amazon acquired dpreview.com, a London-based digital photography review website created by Phil Askey as his personal hobby website and Brilliance Audio, the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the . • In January 2007 created Endless.com, a separate e-commerce brand focusing on shoes. • In January 2008, Amazon announced that it would acquire audiobook provider .com for $300 million in cash. • In June 2008, Amazon announced that it had acquired Fabric.com, an online fabric store. • In July 2008, Amazon's IMDb subsidiary purchased Office Mojo, a site that tracks movie sales in theatres. • In August 2008, Amazon announced it had an agreement to purchase Victoria, B.C. based Abe Books, seller of new, used, out of print and rare books.[46] Later that month Amazon announced that it would acquire Seattle-based , a book-based social network site, for an undisclosed sum.[47] As part of its acquisition of Abe books Amazon also got an additional stake in Shelfari's competitor Library Thing, which Abe Books had previously purchased a 40 percent stake in, and whole ownership of Bookfinder.com, Gojaba.com, and listing- management service FillZ, all owned by Abe Books at the time of acquisition. • In October 2008 acquired , a casual video game development company. • In July 2009 Amazon agreed to acquire , an online shoe and apparel retailer. The deal is expected to close in fall 2009.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Amazon.com has incorporated a number of products and services into its shopping model, either through development or acquisition. 2001 Honor System and donations: The Honor System was originally launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting 2.9 percent of the payment plus a flat fee of 30¢. The service was discontinued on December 11, 2008. It has been succeeded by Amazon Payments. 2002 Web Services: Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The service provides programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its website. 2004 Amazon also created "channels" to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon's "Presidential Candidates" allowed customers to donate $5–200 to the campaigns of 2004 U.S. presidential hopefuls. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after such tragedies as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. After the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Amazon set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross, waiving its processing fee. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 individuals had donated over $15.7 million in the US alone. 2005 Prime: offers customers unlimited expedited shipping with no minimum purchase amount for a flat annual fee. The service also offers discounted priority shipping rates. Amazon launched the program in the continental United States in 2005, in Japan in June 2007, in the United Kingdom and Germany in November 2007, and in France (as "Amazon Premium") in October 2008. Shorts: Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offers exclusive short form content, including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors, all available for immediate download at 49¢. As of June 2007, the program has over 1,700 pieces and is adding about 50 new pieces per week. Mechanical Turk: In November 2005, Amazon.com began testing , an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. 2006 S3: In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or Bit Torrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and for data transferred. SQS: In April 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service. Discussion boards: In August 2006, Amazon launched product wikis (later folded into ) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. EC2: In August 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances and Elastic IP addresses, static IP addresses designed for dynamic . 2007 Amapedia: In January 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a collaborative wiki for user-generated content to replace Product Wiki. Unbox: In March 2007, Amazon launched an online video on demand service, Amazon Unbox. MP3 downloads: In September 2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in beta) called Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable tracks, all in the MP3 format and most recorded at 256 kilobits per second variable bitrate (VBR).[52] Amazon's terms of use agreements legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms. Amazon MP3 sells music from the Big 4 record labels: EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and BMG, as well as many independents. Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in , a similar music store with a variable pricing model based on demand. Vine: In August 2007 Amazon launched , which allows top product reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors participating in the program. Reviewers may either return the used product to Amazon, or post a review and keep the product, within a few months of receipt. FPS: In August 2007 Amazon launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers called Flexible Payment Service FPS. Amazon FPS has facilities for developing many different charging models including micro-payments. The service also gives developers easy access to Amazon customers. Kindle: In November 2007, Amazon launched , an e- book reader which downloads content over "Whispernet", a free EV-DO wireless service on the Sprint Nextel network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption. In 2008 Amazon claimed its library had grown to 200,000 titles. SimpleDB: In December 2007, Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system. AmazonFresh: In August 2007, Amazon launched an invitation-only beta-test for online grocery delivery. It has since rolled out in several Seattle, Washington suburbs. 2008 Amazon MP3: In January 2008 Amazon announced they would be rolling out their MP3 service to their subsidiary websites worldwide throughout the year. On December 1, 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. Sound Unwound: At the beginning of September, IMDB and Amazon.com launched a Music browsing site with wiki-like user contribution.[56] Frustration-Free Packaging: In November, Amazon partnered with manufacturers including Fisher-Price, Mattel, and electronics manufacturer Transcend to offer products in minimal packaging. This reduces environmental impact of the packaging and frustration with opening "clamshell" type security packaging. EC2 Windows Client: In Amazon Web Services launched a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Undated Connect: Amazon Connect enables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers who have bought their books. WebStore: WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create e- commerce websites using Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding. Sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month for an unlimited number of webstores and listing.

CONTROVERSIES Trademark infringement In 1999, the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative of Minneapolis, Minnesota sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. The cooperative had been using the name "Amazon" since 1970, but reached an out-of-court agreement to share the name with the on-line retailer. Patent use The company has been controversial for its alleged use of patents as a competitive hindrance. The "1-click patent" is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor Barnes and Noble's website led the Free Software Foundation to announce a boycott on Amazon in December 1999. The boycott was discontinued in September 2002. On February 22, 2000, the company was granted a patent covering an Internet-based customer referral system, or what is commonly called an "affiliate program". Reaction was swift and negative. Industry leaders Tim O'Reilly and Charlie Jackson spoke out against the patent, and O'Reilly published an open letter to Bezos protesting the 1-click patent and the affiliate program patent, and petitioning him to "avoid any attempts to limit the further development of Internet commerce". O'Reilly collected 10,000 signatures with this petition. Bezos responded with his own open letter.[66] The protest ended with O'Reilly and Bezos visiting Washington, D.C. to lobby for patent reform. On February 25, 2003, the company was granted a patent titled "Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item on Internet discussion boards". On May 12, 2006, the USPTO ordered a re-examination of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley, who cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.

Labor relations Amazon has opposed efforts by trade unions to organize in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2001, 850 employees in Seattle were laid off by Amazon.com after a unionization drive. The Washington Alliance of Technological Workers (WashTech) accused the company of violating union laws, and claimed Amazon managers subjected them to intimidation and heavy propaganda. Amazon denies any link between the unionization effort and the lay-offs. Also in 2001, Amazon.co.uk hired a US management consultancy organization, The Burke Group, to assist in defeating a campaign by the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU, now part of Amicus) to achieve recognition in the Milton Keynes distribution depot. It was alleged that the company victimized or sacked four union members during the 2001 recognition drive and held a series of captive meetings with employees.

The Humane Society of the United States v. Amazon.com, Inc., et al. Amazon at one time carried two cockfighting magazines and two dog fighting videos although the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) contends that the sale of these materials is a violation of U.S. Federal law. The Humane Society of the United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon. A campaign to boycott Amazon purchases gained momentum in August 2007 after the much publicized dog fighting case involving NFL quarterback Michael Vick. On May 21, 2008, Marburger Publishing agreed to settle with the Humane Society by requesting that Amazon stop offering their magazine The Game Cock for subscription. The second magazine named in the Humane Society lawsuit, The Feathered Warrior, remains available. BookSurge In March 2008, sales representatives of Amazon's BookSurge division started contacting publishers of print on demand titles to inform them that for Amazon to continue selling their POD-produced books, they would need to sign agreements with Amazon's own BookSurge POD company. Publishers were told that eventually, the only POD titles that Amazon would be selling would be those printed by their own company, BookSurge. Some publishers felt that this ultimatum amounted to monopoly abuse, and questioned the ethics of the move and its legality under anti-trust law.

Lawsuits with the State of New York In 2008 New York passed a law that would force online retailers to collect sales taxes on shipments to New York State residents. Shortly after the law was signed, Amazon.com filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court objecting to the law. The complaint wasn't based on whether in-State customers should pay tax, but was based on the long standing practice of it being the responsibility of the customer to report the sales tax (known as use tax in this case) and not that of the out of State businesses. The lawsuit was tossed out of court in January 2009 when New York State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten stated that "there is no basis upon which Amazon can prevail." Taxes paid In April 2009, Business Week magazine reported that Amazon.com was one of 25 US companies that paid the least US taxes. Amazon.com paid a 4.1 percent annual tax rate, far less than the standard 35 percent corporate rate, based on an analysis of the company's financial figures for 2005-2008. According to SEC filings, this rate was caused in part by lower tax rates for Amazon.com's international subsidiaries.

False child sex abuse allegations In September 2009 it emerged that Amazon was selling defamatory mp3 music downloads falsely suggesting a well known Premier League football manager was a child sex offender. Despite a campaign urging the retailer to withdraw the item, they refused to do so citing freedom of speech. The company was finally forced to withdraw the item when legal action was threatened. However, they continued to sell the item on their American, German and French websites.

Entrepreneurship by former employees A number of companies have been started and funded by former Amazon.com employees.[96] This is despite a non-compete agreement Amazon employees must sign that prohibits starting a company with another Amazon employee. • BankBazaar.com was founded by Arjun Shetty, a former Senior product manager at Amazon.com • Hulu is led by Jason Kilar, a former SVP at Amazon.com. • Jambool/Social Gold was co-founded by former Amazon engineers Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein. • Teach Street was founded by Dave Schappell, an early Amazon.com product manager. • Trusera was founded by Keith Schorsch, an early Amazonian. • Whrrl was founded by Jeff Holden, a former SVP at Amazon.com. • Wikinvest was founded by Michael Sha. IN OF AMAZON.COM Amazon.com Company Culture

Amazon.com considers itself a completely customer centric company, which is reflected in their company values statement:

• Customer Obsession: We start with the customer and work backwards. • Innovation: If you don't listen to your customers you will fail. But if you only listen to your customers you will also fail. • Bias for Action: We live in a time of unheralded revolution and insurmountable opportunity--provided we make every minute count. • Ownership: Ownership matters when you're building a great company. Owners think long-term, plead passionately for their projects and ideas, and are empowered to respectfully challenge decisions. • High Hiring Bar: When making a hiring decision we ask ourselves: "Will I admire this person? Will I learn from this person? Is this person a superstar?" • Frugality: We spend money on things that really matter and believe that frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention! Jobs at Amazon.com There are currently over 14,000 Amazon.com employees worldwide. Since Amazon.com is known for its technical innovations, here is some information from their careers website that mentions the scope of their engineers:

”Our engineers tackle some of the most complex challenges in large-scale computing. Software development engineers, technical program managers, test engineers, and user-interface experts work in small teams company- wide to contribute to the e-commerce platform that's used by:

• Tens of millions of Amazon.com customers • Hundreds of thousands of sellers and merchants • Tens of thousands of external developers”

The IT Department at Amazon.com also has a massive responsibility, as they oversee an enormous system that is extremely reliable. Amazon.com describes their IT group as “system, database, and networking experts (that) build and operate highly reliable, scalable distributed systems with terabyte- sized databases and infrastructure that can handle a massive number of transactions.”

Technology at Amazon.com is definitely on the cutting edge! Some of the technical positions that Amazon.com routinely recruits for include:

• Software Engineer • Web Developers • Technical Project/Program Managers • QA Engineer • Network Engineer • System Administrators • Database Administrators Amazon.com Compensation and Benefits The compensation at Amzaon.com is known as being competitive. Their benefits include the following components:

• Medical, dental and vision insurance with domestic partner coverage • Company-paid basic life and accident coverage with optional additional coverage • Company-paid short- and long-term disability plan • Employee assistance program including dependent-care referral services and financial/legal services • Health-care and dependent-care flexible spending accounts • Time Off benefits for salaried employees are equal to two weeks of vacation time in the first year, three weeks of vacation in the second and six personal days every year (in addition to six company holidays) • Savings and retirement benefits include Amazon.com Restricted Stock Units, 401(k) savings plan with a company match and various employee discount programs • Many positions are eligible for relocation assistance through a relocation services provider. Some of the relocation benefits listed are very extensive but are very dependent on the position being considered. COMPETITION- How Amazon.com survived, thrived and turned a profit

Unfettered by the rules of the old economy -- that profits drive stock value -- Amazon.com Inc. was the poster child for the new Internet economy with its dynamic, young chief executive and highly valued stock. But when the technology bubble burst, the company quickly morphed from poster child into punching bag, an example of Internet economics and excess. Unlike many of its e-commerce counterparts, however, Amazon survived. And yesterday the company posted its first annual profit, a milestone that many analysts and observers never thought it would reach.

Now the company is more than just surviving, it's made itself the undisputed leader of Internet commerce. Taking its cue from old and new ways of doing business, its model today has helped the company to grow into a multibillion-dollar business -- more important, one that can turn a profit.

Nearly a decade after Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in a Bellevue garage; analysts again are predicting good things from Seattle's biggest Internet venture, from new online stores to international expansion, even further strengthening its dominating presence on the Web.

Seattle businessman Nick Hanauer, an early investor who is credited with persuading Bezos to move to Seattle in the summer of 1994, knew the company would one day turn a profit.

"What few people understood was that the reason that they didn't make money was that for the previous five years every time there was a trade-off between making more money or growing faster, we grew faster," said Hanauer, whose $40,000 investment in Amazon once was valued at $250 million. "It wasn't that there weren't lots of opportunities to make money. It was just that we had consciously foregone those opportunities to reach scale and make it impossible to duplicate what we had done. And voila!"

Yesterday's earnings report isn't the only upbeat news. Its stock has more than doubled in the past year. And some analysts expect the company to be continuously profitable from now on.

A few years ago that wasn't the case.

The dark ages of e-commerce After Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, he launched the Web site the following July with the idea of selling books to a mass audience through the Internet.

The Web site -- text heavy and gray -- wasn't pretty.

But that didn't concern Madrona Venture Group's Tom Alberg, who invested $100,000 in Amazon in 1995.

"Even though it was the dark ages in terms of what everybody was doing, it worked and it worked pretty well," said Alberg, who recalls the site not listing book publication dates and other key information.

By the fourth month in business, the company was selling more than 100 books a day. That impressed Alberg -- who introduced Bezos to venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "I remember Jeff would call and say they got sales from New Hampshire and Florida," recalls Alberg, who continues to sit on the board. "It sounded pretty good, you know. Somebody from New Hampshire bought a book."

But Bezos created more than a bookstore; he created an online community. The site was revolutionary early on for allowing average consumers to create online product reviews. It not only drew people who wanted to buy books, but also those who wanted to research them before buying.

"Amazon was probably the first truly worldwide community that was built online," said Scott Lipsky, a former Amazon executive who now runs Seattle start-up RGB Labs. "They happened to sell books. But the simple fact that everyone was sharing their thoughts and book reviews made it a community unto itself, very much like eBay." Today, Lipsky -- who left Amazon in 1997 -- thinks the community of more than 39 million customers will help the company retain its lead over Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble and others. 'Get big fast' In 1996, its first full fiscal year in business, Amazon generated $15.7 million sales -- a figure that would increase by 800 percent the following year.

A year after going public in 1997, Amazon added music CDs and movie videos to the Web site, what many considered to be a wise move designed to complement the company's expansive book collection. Then the company, which touted itself as "Earth's biggest bookstore," demonstrated it had much bigger plans.

Amazon added five more product categories -- toys, electronics, software, video games and home improvement -- just a year later in time for the Christmas holiday.

It was an era of hyper growth -- one later ridiculed by onlookers who believed Amazon's "Get Big Fast" strategy was doomed. But early investors and executives point to the rapid growth as a key to its success.

Hanauer to this day keeps a remnant of that period, an old T-shirt from an Amazon summer picnic that says: "Eat another hot dog, get big fast." "That relentless focus on doing whatever it took to get to scale, understanding that turning profitable would not be easy but would have to follow that, was a brilliant insight," said Hanauer.

As a venture capitalist, Alberg has taken some heat for helping to create an atmosphere that led to the skyrocketing valuations of companies such as Amazon. But he, too, said Bezos -- who originally forecast profitability in the second or third year of existence -- seized an opportunity.

"The revolution in thinking was everybody saying you have a great opportunity to grow quickly here, money is available, so let's take advantage of it and use that money to grow quickly even if we lose money," said Alberg.

By the end of 1999, sales for the year surpassed the billion-dollar mark to $1.6 billion. Investors had driven the company's stock to close at an all-time high of $106.69 on Dec. 10. And that same month, Time magazine named Bezos "Person of the Year," calling him the "king of cyber commerce."

In just a few months, the king's crown would become tarnished. Amazon.toast A month following Bezos' crowning in Time, the company fired 150 workers, mostly employees at its Seattle headquarters, as part of an internal reorganization. Just five days later, Amazon reported a loss of $323 million for the holiday fourth quarter and promised that future losses would be lower. (The company, however, would later exceed that amount by more than $200 million the following fourth quarter.)

By the summer of 2000, Amazon's stock price had dropped by more than two-thirds and analysts began to criticize the retailer for venturing into too many product categories and spreading itself too thin. One much publicized report by Lehman Brothers warned investors that the company might run out of cash and advised them to avoid its stock. Some on Wall Street speculated that Amazon would file for bankruptcy or that another company would buy it. Naysayers nicknamed the company everything from Amazon. Bomb to Amazon.toast as they predicted the collapse of the world's largest e-tailer.

In early 2001 -- when Amazon reported a whopping fiscal loss of $1.4 billion, which remains the company's worst annual performance -- Bezos finally had an answer. Changing focus The chief executive told analysts in January 2001 that Amazon would report a profit by year's end. But to do so the company had to cut expenses and restructure its .

Amazon started the New Year by laying off 1,300 workers (about 15 percent of its work force), closing two warehouses and shutting down a Seattle customer-service center.

Bezos followed with a memo calling for the company to "get the crap out" and stop selling products that weren't profitable.

At the same time, Amazon concentrated on better managing the merchandise it would carry, from delivering packages presorted by geography to postal hubs to developing complex algorithms that analyze relationships between items that people buy so they could be grouped in the same warehouse.

The company also looked to bolster its offering online -- not by expanding its own warehouse inventory but by selling products in other companies' warehouses.

Amazon transformed itself from a specialty retailer into an portal, taking a cue from auctioneer eBay, which set itself up as a mediator between buyer and seller. It started selling products from companies such as Toys "R" Us and Target on its Web site. It added merchandise from smaller retailers in its zShops. And it competed directly with eBay through its Amazon Auctions.

Most recently, Amazon launched product categories with merchandise from other retailers. Its apparel store, for instance, debuted in the fall of 2002 stocked with underwear, sweaters and jeans from companies such as Nordstrom and Gap.

Although Amazon lists the merchandise on its Web site, it does not actually take control of the inventory; the individual vendors are responsible for fulfilling their orders. Amazon, however, receives a cut from the sales. Amazon's sales from third-party vendors are still a small percentage of its total revenue, but the margins are higher.

"The more things they can sell to (customers) and not do the dirty work, the better the business grows," said Kate Delhagen, a retail analyst with Forrester Research.

And by the end of 2001, Bezos came through on his word -- in fact, he did even better. The company reported its first profit -- based on generally accepted accounting principles and not on a pro forma basis as expected -- with fourth-quarter earnings of $5 million. New technology and partners But the company knew that one quarter of profits -- especially one that eked out earnings of just 1 cent a share -- wouldn't be enough.

Amazon has since posted quarterly profits in the fourth quarter of 2002 and in the third quarter of 2003, the first non-holiday quarter to post earnings. And yesterday's fourth-quarter profit report is the first time that Amazon has reported two quarters of earnings back to back.

But to do so, it has had to continually drive sales and refine its changing business. The company launched a free shipping promotion that eliminated the fee for orders of more than $99. After several tests, the company settled on a $25 price point last year. And it continues to offer discounts on merchandise, offering consumers personalized daily deals on everything from kitchenware to computer hardware.

In the past few months, Amazon has rapidly expanded the number of product categories on its site. It added four new stores, currently in beta, just before the holiday season: sporting goods, gourmet foods, jewelry, and health and beauty. Customers can now buy everything from soccer balls to Alaska smoked salmon to three-stone sapphire rings.

The company will also likely unveil new technology developments. One of its most recent, which debuted in November, lets customers search for words that appear in books and view the text. Amazon has been reported to be working on its own search engine that would possibly compete with .

The company might also look overseas to grow its business, opening new stores on its international Web sites or launch Amazon in other Asia-Pacific and European countries where it does not currently exist.

"I think what's key here, the company is always thinking about changes in the marketplace dynamics, consumers' behavior and how they can best be relevant and address consumers," said Jeetil Patel, senior analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities, which has an investment in Amazon. 'An alien life form' Nearly 10 years after Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in Seattle, his name remains synonymous with the company. The 40-year-old, known for his trademark laugh, has been the face of the company since its inception.

Hanauer doesn't get the sense that his longtime friend -- who he describes as "the smartest man in the world" -- is getting ready to turn over the reins anytime soon.

"He is absolutely as single-mindedly focused now on Amazon as he ever was. He works just as hard today as he did on the first day. He has lost none of his enthusiasm," said Hanauer. "He is an alien life form. I am serious, honestly. He is wired different than any other human I know."

At a lunch two months ago, Lipsky -- the former Amazon executive -- asked Bezos whether he would consider doing another start-up. The answer was a resounding no.

"He really doesn't miss being the small company entrepreneur," said Lipsky. "He seems very comfortable being the king of a very successful and growing empire." That may be the case. But some believe Amazon needs to do more to build executive management bench strength. For now, though, Bezos is still firmly in control.

And he has not lost his passion for making the online consumer's experience better. That's the mantra he used to build Amazon over the past decade. And it's something that he still preaches to this day.

"The better you can make your customer experience ... the more customers you'll attract, the larger share of that household's purchases you will attract," Bezos said during a conference call after yesterday's earnings announcement. "You can become a bigger part of a customer's life by just simply doing a better job for them. It's a very, very simple-minded approach." MARKETING STRATEGY Founding 1. Amazon.com was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994. At the time, his company was run completely from his garage in Bellevue, Washington. He was able to secure funding from Nick Hanauer. This first investment of $40,000 was joined by a larger, $100,000 investment from Tom Alburg that helped make the new website more user-friendly.

During the first month of business, Bezos fulfilled and shipped orders to all 50 states, and to 48 countries. Books were the only product available at that time.

Bezos wanted Amazon.com to be more than just a retail website; he wanted to create an online community. Early on, he added a feature that enabled readers to add their own book reviews for all customers to view. Going Public 2. On May 15, 1997, the company went public. The (IPO) was targeted at $18, but by the end of the day, public demand had pushed the share price to more than $24 per share. The company had raised $54 million. Amazon.com is listed on Nasdaq as AMZN. Expansion and Popularity 3. In 1997, Amazon.com added movies and music to its offerings.

In 1998, Amazon opened its first international sites in the United Kingdom and Germany, where it quickly enjoyed success.

In 1999 the company opened four order fulfillment centers in Fernley, Nevada; Coffeyville, Kansas; and Campbellsville and Lexington, Kentucky to handle the large mass of orders. Time Magazine featured Jeffrey Preston Bezos as Person of the Year in 1999, calling him "king of cyber commerce." Features and Upgrades 4. The "Look Inside the Book" feature, added in 2001, was immediately popular as a tool for consumers to see if the book they were looking at would fit their needs. Later, the "Search Inside the Book" feature, added in 2003, made it possible for consumers to search key words in the text of the book.

Amazon added Marketplace, where sellers of used books could offer products for sale with a small commission collected by Amazon.

Amazon also teamed up with many companies to offer their products through the website. Growth and Success Sustained 5. In January 2009, Amazon reported $6.7 billion in fourth quarter 2008 sales. The company now has fulfillment centers in 12 U.S. states and eight countries. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, and the company employs more than 21,000 people worldwide. CONCLUSION

Hits

• Online reviews: Amazon lets customers submit feedback on books and other products sold on the site. It becomes a popular online feature as consumers flock to share their thoughts with millions. • ZShops: Amazon charges other merchants a monthly fee to sell their wares on the Web site. ZShops have higher profit margins than the company's own direct sales. Merchants who sell their products through zShops pay Amazon a monthly fee of $39.99 and a closing fee of 5 percent on items sold for $25 or less. • Wish Lists: Customers can create lists of the products that they want from Amazon.com and save the list for online viewing by others. • Free shipping: After testing several price points, Amazon eliminates shipping fees for orders of more than $25, its lowest price point yet. Although it costs the company in additional shipping expenses, the move boosts sales and Amazon decides to maintain the offer indefinitely.

Misses

• Charging for book recommendations: Amazon charges publishers for placement of books on the Web site. After media reports disclose the practice, Amazon says it will tell customers when publishers have paid for its recommendation. • Pets.com: Amazon agrees to buy 50 percent of the online pet supply store. Less than two years later, Pets.com says it will close after failing to raise additional financing. Its stock is worth 22 cents a share after it announces its closure. • Kozmo.com: Amazon invests $60 million in the company, which home delivers videos and snacks ordered on the Internet. (Fellow Seattle Company Starbucks Corp. is also an investor.) Kozmo.com announces it will close less than a year-and-a-half later after it cannot obtain additional funding. • Living.com: Amazon invests in the online home furnishing store and agreed to add a Living.com tab on its Web site in return for $145 million over five years. Just six months later, Living.com announces that it would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Living.com is now the Web site for the Fine Living television channel. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my heart felt gratitude towards Ms. Supriya Pathak for her guidance, help and encouragement in completing my project.

Then, I would like to thank my parents who helped me to collect subsequent matter and relevant items useful for making my project.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank my friends who have been an helping hand throughout.

CERTIFICATE

It is certified that SHUBHI SRIVASTAVA of National P.G. College, Lucknow has been alloted the topic .COM for project towards partial fulfillment of BBA V semester course.

SUBJECT: E-COMMERCE SUPERVISOR’S SIGNATURE

DATE:

E-E- COMMERCECOMMERCE HISTORY OF AMAZON.COM

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY: Ms. SUPRIYA SHUBHI SRI. PATHAK BBA V SEM ROLL NO. 46 NATIONAL P.G. COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

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